Agatha
The night should have been perfect. It was my night.
The music swelled around us as Josiah and I spun across the hall, his hand firm on my waist, mine on his shoulder. A hundred eyes followed us, the newly proclaimed Alpha and Luna, and though the smiles and applause were polite, I could still taste the thick awkwardness left behind by Elder Ryker’s words. He had cut through the ceremony like a dagger, and though no one dared speak of it now, I could hear it in their silence. A question hanging in the air: why wasn’t the Beta here for his daughter’s engagement ceremony?
But I smiled anyway. I smiled because power demanded it.
“Thank you, Joshy,” I said, my voice trembling with carefully measured emotion. “I really wasn’t expecting you to do all this for me. And… thank you for st
