Husbands Swapped, But I Am Still the Superior Luna

CHAPTER FOUR

DAPHNE

I sink onto the edge of my vanity stool, heels dangling from one hand, and replay the evening.

Arden.

I set the heels down slowly, turning the thought over. I knew the rumors about him weren't true— the Playboy act, the carelessness, but defending me against Sophia? That I didn't see coming. That wasn't in any version of this story I carried with me.

I stand and begin to pace, the soft carpet cool beneath my bare feet. Maybe that's what rebirth does. Maybe some things follow the original script and others don't, nudged off course by small decisions made differently this time around. I'm still learning the edges of it.

I stop in front of the full-length mirror. My reflection stares back—the midnight blue dress still on, hair still pinned, smudged mascara the only evidence that the evening caught up with me. I stare at my waist. I can still feel where his hand settled there, warm and unhesitating, as he spoke to Sophia over my shoulder. Like I was already his. Like it was already decided.

I'd be lying if I said that didn't move me.

I move back to the vanity and reach behind me for the zipper. I've almost caught it when the door bangs open hard enough to rattle the frame. My fingers slip and catch the metal wrong, and I hiss through my teeth.

Fuck! Who the hell is that?

I spin around. Of course, it's Sophia.

It takes everything in me not to sigh for what feels like the hundredth time tonight.

"Get out." I don't ask why she's here. I don't care.

She walks past me and sits on my bed like she was invited, legs crossed, completely unbothered.

"I know you're upset, sister," she says, in the tone she uses when she's performing patience, "but you don't have to hate me just because I got the better Alpha out of this arrangement." She tilts her head. "You're an Alpha's daughter too. Surely you understand that sometimes we sacrifice for the greater good."

I stare at her.

She smiles back.

"I know the twins won't give you anything like what Crux is giving me. But that's no reason to be so bitter." She rises from the bed and drifts toward me. "You said it yourself, didn't you? Pack comes first. So if they haven't made any preparations for tomorrow, you should be able to understand that."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh." She arranges her expression into something resembling surprise—wide eyes, parted lips, the whole performance. "You don't know?"

I say nothing.

She makes a soft tsk sound. "One of the guests was talking about it at the party. Apparently, the Nightfall Pack hasn't made any arrangements for the wedding tomorrow. None at all." She pouts. "I'm so sorry."

If I didn't know her, I might almost believe she meant it.

"I'm fine with whatever they do," I say evenly. "It isn't a love match. I'm not expecting anything."

"Even so, Daphne." Her voice dips into something almost warm. "You're going to be mated to them for life. At least you could have had something to hold onto before the real difficulties begin."

"Difficulties?"

"In the pack." She reaches out and takes hold of my arm, and the unexpectedness of it catches me off guard enough that I let her—let her steer me to the edge of the bed and pull me down to sit beside her, her manner suddenly conspiratorial, like a sister who actually means well. "I don't think you understand what you're walking into."

I wait.

"The Beta's daughter," she says. "From the Nightfall Pack. Tina." She shakes her head slowly, as though saddened by what she's about to tell me. "She's extremely close to the older twin. Krue. Which might not matter on its own, but it does matter—and do you know why?"

I shake my head.

"Because you're going to be competing for his favor," she says, "and he deeply cares for her. Has for years." Her hand settles over mine, a gentle, pitying weight. "And to make things harder, Daphne—she's everything you aren't. Skilled, poised, beloved by the whole pack." She sighs. "Someone like Tina is simply no match for you, I'm afraid. I can't imagine how you feel."

I stare at her.

I have never, in either of my lives, watched someone insult another person so thoroughly while wearing the face of genuine concern. Sophia is a masterpiece of something.

She pulls me into a hug before I can think to stop her, wrapping her arms around me and patting my hair like I'm a child who's just scraped her knee.

I don't hug her back.

My mind is already elsewhere, sifting through what I actually remember about Tina. Sophia isn't entirely wrong—she's skilled, yes. She has that warm, effortless charm that makes people trust her on sight. Everyone adored her. In my past life, I adored her for a while.

And then she schemed against me. Not once. Multiple times, quietly and precisely, each move designed to look like nothing at all. A suggestion here, a misunderstanding there, until the damage was already done. By the time I understood what she was, it was too late to undo it.

A wolf in sheep's clothing doesn't stop being a wolf just because this life is different.

I pat Sophia's arm once and pull back.

"Thank you for the warning," I say pleasantly.

She searches my face, looking for the c***k. I don't give her one.