The Banned Daughter

The Alpha’s office

For a second, I stand perfectly still.

The silver curve is gone from the mirror.

The house is quiet again.

But I heard Rowan.

And I heard Jace growl.

Every instinct in my body tells me to stay upstairs. To shut my door, eat the breakfast Elias brought me, and let Rowan deal with his beta the way an Alpha is supposed to.

Instead, I pull on jeans and a sweatshirt with shaking hands.

By the time I make it downstairs, the house feels different.

Tense.

Like every wolf beneath this roof has noticed something wrong but no one is brave enough to ask what it is.

Two women I met at dinner yesterday stand near the kitchen island, whispering over coffee. They stop the second they see me. One gives me a careful smile. The other looks away too quickly.

I don’t blame them.

I’m the Alpha’s daughter who nearly killed her mother.

Now I’m the future Alpha female whose arrival apparently got Rowan’s beta dragged into his office before breakfast.

Great first impression.

Elias sits at the kitchen table with a book open in front of him, though he clearly isn’t reading it. His green eyes lift when I walk in.

“You didn’t eat,” he says quietly.

I glance at the tray beside him. The toast and eggs are untouched.

“I wasn’t hungry.”

His mouth presses into a thin line. He doesn’t lecture me, though. Instead, he reaches for a banana from the fruit bowl, peels it halfway, and sets it beside the mug of tea waiting for me.

“Then don’t eat a whole meal,” he says. “Just this. A few bites, at least.”

Something warm shifts beneath my ribs.

It is such a small thing. A banana. A soft request from someone who barely knows me.

But it feels like being seen.

“I’m okay,” I say automatically.

Elias looks at me for a long moment, gentle but unconvinced.

“I know you’re trying to be,” he says. “That’s not the same thing.”

My throat tightens.

He pushes the mug toward me. Mint and honey rise with the steam.

“Tea first,” he says. “Then banana. You can hate me afterward.”

A small laugh slips out before I can stop it.

His cheeks pink immediately, but a smile flickers across his face.

I sit across from him and wrap both hands around the mug. The warmth seeps into my palms, but it doesn’t stop the shaking.

For several seconds, neither of us says anything.

Then Elias glances toward the hallway.

“Rowan’s upset.”

I let out a humorless laugh. “You noticed?”

His cheeks darken. “I mean…obviously. He doesn’t usually raise his voice.”

“Was he yelling?”

“Not exactly.” Elias lowers his own voice. “It was more like… everyone could feel it.”

Of course they could.

An Alpha’s anger doesn’t stay politely contained inside an office. It leaks through the house. It changes the air. Makes every wolf beneath their protection sit up straighter and wonder whether they should be worried.

I take a sip of tea.

My hands are still shaking.

Elias notices.

“It isn’t your fault,” he says softly.

The words land harder than they should.

I look down at the banana. “You don’t know that.”

“I know Rowan is angry because Jason hid something important from him.” Elias hesitates. “And because he cares about you. But you didn’t make Jason hide who he was.”

No. But I kissed him.

And I let Rowan hold me afterward while I kept that from him. The guilt sits like a stone in my stomach.

“You don’t have to defend me,” I whisper.

“I’m not.” Elias’s voice is so quiet I almost miss it. “I’m just saying you deserve to eat breakfast without carrying everyone else’s choices, too.”

For one second, I can’t breathe. Then I take a bite of the banana.

Elias visibly relaxes. It should be ridiculous how much that affects me. Instead, it makes my chest ache.

The office door slams somewhere down the hall.

I flinch. Elias does, too.

Then Jace’s voice carries through the house. “I didn’t know she was coming.”

Rowan says something too low for me to catch.

Jace answers, louder this time. “I would have told you if I had known.”

The ache in my chest sharpens.

He sounds angry. Not defensive. Not guilty. Angry.

And somehow that makes everything worse.

I set the banana down. “I need to go.”

Elias rises halfway from his chair. “Libbie—”

“I’m not going in there,” I say too quickly. “I just need air.”

He watches me for a second, then nods.

“The back porch is quiet this early,” he says. “No one usually goes out there before patrol changes.”

“Thanks.”

As I turn toward the back door, my fingers brush Elias’s.

Warmth shoots through my hand.

I gasp.

Elias jerks back so quickly the mug rattles against the table. His green eyes widen behind the steam rising from his tea.

I curl my fingers into my palm, trying to ignore the heat still spreading beneath my skin.

Elias glances at the banana on the table. “Please eat the rest when you can.”

“I will.”

He doesn’t look convinced, but he nods anyway.

“And Libbie?”

I pause at the back door.

“It isn’t your fault Rowan’s upset,” he says quietly. “You don’t have to carry everyone else’s choices.”

Guilt presses harder against my ribs. Because if Elias knew what happened in the kitchen, he would not be so sure.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

Then I step outside, leaving Elias in the kitchen with the tea, the banana, and the strange warmth still pulsing through my hand.