THE REJECTED FOURFOLD LUNA: FATED TO TWO ALPHA TWINS

Chapter 22—Past History

Celeste's POV

Calista looked at me. Her expression took about two seconds to settle into something that said she was deciding exactly how to handle this.

"I didn't say anything," she said.

"You said pathetic." I kept my voice even. "I heard you clearly."

Something flickered across her face. Not guilt exactly. More like recalculation.

Khalan stepped forward before Calista could say another word.

"I am sorry," she said quietly, and she looked like she genuinely meant it. "That was completely out of line and it will not happen again."

Calista opened her mouth. The look Khalan gave her stopped her before a single word came out.

Nyra said nothing. She looked somewhere else entirely, which was probably the wisest choice she made all evening.

The three of them turned and walked off.

I watched them go, keeping everything on my face completely neutral until they disappeared into the crowd completely.

Then I let out one slow quiet breath.

"Okay." Vaelina crossed her arms. "What was that."

Vaelina appeared at my elbow. She looked in the direction the girls went and then back at me with the specific focused energy she carried when she needed full information immediately.

"Three girls decided my ceremony was the right venue to try their luck with me," I said.

"Did they." Not a question. The tone she used when she was filing something away for later consideration.

"I handled it."

"Obviously you did," she said, with complete unsurprised confidence in me. She looked me over with a quick critical eye. "Are you okay?"

"I am fine. Genuinely." I straightened my shoulders. "I am not going to let three girls with bad manners ruin tonight of all nights."

"Good." She nodded once, sharp and entirely decisive. "Because tonight is exceptional, you look incredible, and those two facts are what we are focusing on for the rest of the evening."

I smiled. "Thank you for checking on me."

"Always," she said without hesitation. "That is literally what I am here for." She reached over and squeezed my arm once, firm and brief.

"Now go back to your mates and be the Luna this pack deserves. I will be over here attending to my own personal agenda for the rest of the evening."

The rest of the evening moved well. The earlier irritation faded the way things do when you refuse to give them energy, and by the time the formalities wound down and guests began drifting toward the exits I was fully settled and genuinely glad to be standing exactly where I was and who I was standing as.

I was saying a final goodbye to one of the noble families, exchanging a warm goodbye and promising to visit properly at their estate soon, when I caught Vaelina across the room.

She was facing the doorway with her hand raised, and on the other side of it a very large, very broad man waved back at her with a slow easy smile that said he knew exactly who he was dealing with and was entirely fine with it.

I watched her turn toward me with an expression I knew immediately for what it was.

She looked at me, pointed at the door with one finger, and raised her eyebrows.

I pressed my lips together. "Go," I mouthed.

She grinned wide enough to be visible from across a large hall and mouthed something back that I was at least eighty percent certain was "I came here for this," blew me a quick kiss and slipped through the door after him before I could say anything.

I laughed to myself and then turned back to the room.

Vaelina always, without exception, got exactly what she came for. It was genuinely one of the things I admired most about her.

***

The drive home was quiet.

Not a bad quiet. The particular stillness that settles after a long evening when everything went the way it was supposed to and everyone is tired in the satisfying way.

Mason drove with the easy quiet he always carried behind a wheel. Jason sat in the passenger seat with his phone face down on his knee, which meant he was not looking at it at all.

I was in the back with my heels off, feet tucked under me, head against the cool glass of the window.

I was trying not to think about Calista and the look on her face when she said what she said.

It was not working at all if I was being honest about it.

"You've gone quiet," Mason said. His eyes found me briefly in the rear view mirror before going back to the road.

"I'm tired," I said.

A pause.

"Celeste." Jason turned slightly in his seat, not fully around but enough to make the point he was making. "That is about the fourth very quiet thing you have said since we got in this car. What is wrong?"

"Nothing," I said.

"We are your mates," he said. His voice was patient in a way that was considerably harder to push back against than urgency ever was. "I am not going to press you on it tonight. But I want you to talk to me. Whenever you are ready to do that."

I looked out the window. The pack grounds moved past in the dark, familiar and dark and quiet.

"There were three girls at the ceremony," I said. "They were rude. I handled it. But it got to me a little more than it should have."

"Names," Mason said. Something in his voice went very still.

"Khalan." I paused a beat. "Nyra." Another pause. "Calista."

The car went completely quiet.

"Calista?" Mason said.

"Calista," Jason said at almost exactly the same moment, but in a register that was entirely different in a way that made something tighten slightly in my chest.

I sat up properly and looked between the backs of their heads.

"You both know her?" I asked.

"She is past history," Mason said. Short, final, no detail offered.

"Past history," Jason said, and his voice carried the same finality.

I looked at the back of Mason's head first, then Jason's.

Neither of them turned around, the car was silent for a long moment.

"What exactly do you mean by past history"