My First Assignment Is Holding Hands
1520 Words
“You must gaze into the Alpha’s eyes once every seven minutes.”
Mia lowered the publicity schedule. “What happens at minute eight? Does our relationship expire?”
Vera Laurent, Silverclaw’s public relations consultant, did not smile. She stood in the manor ballroom wearing cream silk and the expression of a woman who had never been attacked by a malfunctioning printer.
“The charity reception tomorrow will be your first official appearance together. Every camera in Grayhaven will be watching.”
She tapped the schedule.
It contained twelve pages.
Page three required Kael to touch Mia’s waist at the entrance. Page five scheduled a private smile during the mayor’s speech. Page seven allowed one protective embrace if public approval fell below sixty-two percent.
“There’s a performance review for hugging?” Mia asked.
“Public affection must appear spontaneous.”
“Naturally. Nothing says spontaneous like Form C, subsection four.”
Kael stood beside the ballroom windows while two security officers checked the curtains for listening devices. His black suit was flawless. His face suggested he found the schedule only slightly less dangerous than the assassin.
Vera turned toward a rack of gowns. “We also need to correct your visual imbalance.”
“My left eyebrow has always been difficult.”
Vera selected a silver dress covered in crystals. “Alpha Wolfe represents power and heritage. You must look expensive enough to stand beside him.”
The dress was beautiful. It also had a waist narrow enough for one of Mia’s legs.
“What size is that?”
“The designer calls it aspirational.”
“My lungs call it attempted murder.”
Vera’s assistant held the gown against Mia and frowned at her hips. “A restrictive foundation garment may help.”
“Will it stop poison darts?”
“Excuse me?”
Mia examined the dress. No pockets. A long train. Beading around the shoulders that would catch during a fight.
“The manor was breached today. Someone tried to kill Kael yesterday. I need to move, carry my phone, and reach an alarm without asking a designer for permission.”
Vera looked at Kael. “Alpha, surely you have a preference.”
“Yes.”
Mia waited.
“She should choose her own clothes.”
Vera’s assistant stared at him as if a chandelier had spoken.
Mia found a dark green dress at the end of the rack. It had a soft skirt, flat silver embroidery, and two hidden pockets.
“This one.”
“It costs less,” Vera said.
“I promise not to announce that to the champagne.”
Twenty minutes later, Mia returned wearing the green dress. Ada had pinned up her hair and whispered that the right pocket could hold three cookies or one small knife.
Kael’s gaze moved over Mia once, slowly, then returned to her face.
“You can run in it?” he asked.
“And kick.”
“Good.”
Vera pressed her lips together. “We will begin the entrance sequence.”
Mia and Kael walked from the ballroom doors to a line of taped marks on the floor. Vera stopped them six times.
“Closer.”
They moved an inch.
“More intimate.”
Kael angled his shoulder toward Mia.
“You look like colleagues attending a tax hearing.”
“I enjoy tax hearings,” Mia said.
“I can tell.”
Vera seized Mia’s wrist and pulled her against Kael’s chest. “His hand goes here. Yours goes here. Then lift your chin as if he might kiss you.”
Mia went still.
Kael caught Vera’s hand before she could place his palm on Mia’s waist.
“Release her.”
The room dropped ten degrees.
Vera obeyed at once. “I am trying to prevent a public disaster.”
Mia stepped back and pulled her contract from the pocket Vera had disliked.
“Then begin by not violating the agreement in front of six witnesses.”
She opened to the consent clause.
“No one arranges my body. No one assigns Kael touching privileges based on polling data. And no one schedules a near-kiss between the mayor’s speech and dessert.”
“The public expects proof that his mate claim is real,” Vera said. “If you appear distant, they will call you a fraud.”
“If we perform this script, they’ll call us hostages.”
Mia picked up the schedule and read aloud. “‘At minute twenty-one, female liaison laughs softly at Alpha’s remark.’ What remark?”
Vera hesitated. “He will say something charming.”
Everyone looked at Kael.
He considered this burden. “No.”
Noah coughed into his fist.
Mia placed the schedule on the table. “People online already think I’m pregnant with imaginary twins. They inspect every blink. If we repeat actions at fixed intervals, someone will make a time chart before the soup arrives.”
She crossed out the intimacy targets.
“We answer questions honestly where possible. We stand close enough to speak without shouting. If either of us wants contact, we ask. If the answer is no, we keep smiling and move on.”
Vera folded her arms. “And if the cameras capture nothing romantic?”
“Then give them something real instead of twelve pages of badly organized fiction.”
Kael came to the table. He took the red pen from Mia and signed beneath her changes.
“Use her version.”
Vera looked from his signature to Mia. Irritation fought professional instinct across her face.
“Again,” she said at last. “No marks on the floor.”
This time, Mia and Kael entered without counting steps. He slowed when she did. She adjusted when reporters were supposed to call from the left. At the center of the ballroom, they stopped beside each other instead of posing.
“Better,” Vera admitted.
“Was that praise?” Mia asked.
“Do not become emotional.”
The rehearsal moved to the greeting line. Kael offered Mia his arm, but waited.
“May I?” he asked.
The simple question did strange things to her heartbeat.
She rested her fingers on his sleeve. “For professional reasons.”
“Of course.”
His mouth almost curved.
The moon bell warmed in her pocket.
Mia should have left it alone. She had already survived one round of public honesty that day. But Kael’s pulse was steady beneath her fingertips, while something restless moved behind his golden eyes.
“Open,” she whispered.
The first message appeared at once.
【SHE TOUCHED US. DO NOT MOVE. MOVING MAY END TOUCHING.】
Kael became remarkably still.
Mia looked down to hide her smile.
【HAND. WANT WHOLE HAND. ASK NICELY. HUMAN LIKES ASKING.】
Kael’s arm shifted. His fingers hovered beside hers, close enough for warmth but not contact.
“May I hold your hand?” he asked quietly.
Every person in the ballroom pretended not to listen.
Vera failed most visibly.
Mia could have blamed the contract. She could have called it rehearsal.
Instead, she turned her palm upward.
Kael laced his fingers through hers.
The contact was warm, firm, and surprisingly careful. A burst of golden words filled her vision.
【YES. KEEP. OUR HUMAN. HAPPY. NO ONE BREATHE TOO CLOSE.】
Mia bit back a laugh.
“That,” Vera said, staring at their joined hands, “will work.”
They completed the greeting line without another instruction. Kael never tightened his grip. Whenever Mia changed direction, he followed instead of pulling her.
For the first time since entering his world, she did not feel like an item being positioned beside someone important.
She felt like a partner.
Vera circled them once, studying the photographer’s test images on a tablet. In the first set, Mia’s smile looked borrowed and Kael appeared ready to arrest the furniture. In the latest image, they were looking at each other instead of the camera.
“Why is this one better?” Vera asked, almost to herself.
“Because neither of us is waiting for you to shout a number,” Mia said.
Vera enlarged the image. “The press will ask whether you live together.”
“We do.”
“Whether you sleep together.”
“They can continue wondering.”
“Whether you intend to complete a mate bond.”
Mia felt Kael’s thumb pause against hers.
“We’ll say any bond is private and mutual,” she replied. “That answers the legal issue without feeding strangers our bedroom schedule.”
Kael nodded. “Agreed.”
Vera deleted three scripted answers. “I dislike how often your version makes sense.”
“You’ll recover.”
A manor waiter entered carrying a tray of champagne for the final toast rehearsal. The glasses chimed softly as he approached.
Noah checked the waiter’s badge, then stepped aside.
Kael released Mia’s hand and reached for the nearest glass.
The moon bell burned against her hip.
Thunder’s happy messages vanished.
One word crashed across her vision.
【POISON.】
Kael’s fingers touched the stem.
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