Finish What You Started

LENA POV

I read the appointment recommendation twice before closing the folder.

Six months in the northern territories.

On paper, Ethan would see everything he had been chasing since he became Shadowfang's heir: council access, direct work with powerful Alphas and a position close enough to Julian's administration to make other packs take him seriously.

What he wouldn't see until it was too late was the rest of it. The northern districts were difficult, politically divided and still recovering from years of rogue attacks. Whoever accepted the assignment would spend more time travelling between hostile territories than sitting in council meetings.

It was a promotion designed to feel like a reward.

I looked at Julian. "You really don't like him."

He stood beside the fireplace, watching me with the same calm expression he wore when people were trying to impress him.

"I don't know him well enough to dislike him."

"That's worse."

"It should concern him more than it concerns you."

I almost smiled. "You know he'll accept."

"Of course." He smirked.

"Even if he realizes what the assignment involves?"

"He won't."

I frowned, and Julian came closer before tapping one finger against the folder in my hand.

"Ethan wants people to believe he's important. Give a man like that a title impressive enough to repeat at dinner, and he'll ignore every warning underneath it."

The accuracy of that annoyed me.

"You're very sure of yourself." I said.

"I'm usually right." He affirmed with a small smirk playing on his lips.

I snorted. "There it is."

"What?"

"The arrogance."

This time, Julian actually smiled, and the change in his face distracted me long enough to forget what I had been about to say.

Sera noticed immediately. 'Careful.'

'I know.'

I placed the folder on the table and turned toward the unfinished portrait. "If Ethan leaves for six months, Luma will hate it."

He shurgged. "That sounds like Ethan's problem."

"She'll make it mine." I muttered.

"Then make sure she regrets it."

I looked at him over my shoulder. "Is that your answer to everything?"

"No. Sometimes, I remove the problem entirely."

The way he said it made me believe him.

I picked up my brush again, but Julian remained where he was instead of returning to his chair.

His eyes darted to my stomach. "You haven't eaten."

"I ate at the banquet."

His eyes moved briefly over my face, and I sighed.

"Fine. I had cake."

"That isn't dinner." He pointed out, and I also rolled my eyes by how correct he was worried that.

"I was busy."

"So was I."

He walked to a small panel beside the wall and pressed a button. Less than a minute later, one of his guards appeared.

"Have the kitchen prepare something."

The guard looked at me. "What would Luna Lena like?"

The question caught me off guard. At Shadowfang Pack House, meals were always arranged to suit Ethan and Madam Wynne's preferences, while celebrations in Silvercrest territory meant eating whatever the elders of my bloodline had already chosen.

I couldn't remember the last time someone had asked what I wanted without expecting me to simply accept their decision.

"Something simple," I said. "Pasta and chicken. Whatever is easiest."

Julian looked mildly disappointed.

"What?" I asked.

He pointed out. "You were offered anything."

"And I asked for food."

"Unambitious."

"I save my ambition for more useful things."

The guard hid a smile before leaving.

I went back to my easel, and for the next twenty minutes, we worked in comfortable silence. Julian sat exactly where I had asked him to while I painted, but whenever I looked up, I often caught him watching me instead of looking elsewhere.

Eventually, I gave up pretending not to notice. "Do you always stare at people who paint you?"

"I've never let anyone get this far."

I lowered the brush. "You rejected every other painter that quickly?"

"Most of them talked too much."

I laughed softly. "Then I'm definitely losing this job."

"You talk when you're nervous."

"I talk when you're irritating."

"That too."

The food arrived before I could answer.

Two plates of creamy pasta with grilled chicken were placed on the small table near the windows, along with bread, fruit and sparkling water. I expected Julian to leave me to eat alone, but instead, he sat opposite me.

"You ordered food for yourself too?" I asked, totally confused why he is seated opposite me.

"No." He answered.

I looked at the second plate. "They assumed."

Something about that made me smile, and Julian noticed again, so I picked up my fork before he could comment.

For several minutes, we ate in comfortable silence. Sitting across from the Supreme Lycan in his private residence after secretly slipping away from my mate and my grandmother's birthday celebration should have felt strange. Instead, it felt dangerously normal.

That frightened me more than the secrecy.

"When will Ethan hear about the appointment?" I asked.

"Tomorrow morning," Julian replied, sounding so certain that I paused with my brush in my hand.

"And what if Ethan asks how it happened?" I asked, turning slightly to face him.

Julian leaned back in his chair. "He'll be told that someone recommended him after today's gathering. Nothing more."

I thought about that for a moment before shaking my head. "You do realize he'll take that as proof that you were impressed with him today, don't you?"

A faint smile appeared on Julian's face. "Lena, he already believes that."

I couldn't argue with him. After the way Ethan had behaved at the celebration, I knew Julian was right.

Still, one thing bothered me. "What happens if he refuses the offer?"

"He won't," Julian answered without hesitation.

I raised an eyebrow. "You've said that already. How can you be so sure?"

His smile grew a little wider. "Because you keep asking the same question, hoping your mate might finally surprise you."

My fork stopped halfway to my mouth.

Was I?

Not because I wanted Ethan to stay. Whatever had once existed between us was already dead. Still, some humiliating piece of me wanted him to prove that I hadn't spent years tied to a man as shallow as everyone else seemed to see.

"I don't care what he chooses."

Julian leaned back slightly. "Liar."

My eyes lifted.

Sera growled beneath my skin, although I couldn't tell whether she was angry with him or with the truth.

"You enjoy saying things like that."

"I enjoy watching you decide whether to argue."

"Maybe I should stop giving you the satisfaction."

"You won't."

I set my fork down. "You really are unbearable."

"And you're still here."

The room went quiet.

He was right. I had finished the first sketch, received the appointment papers and eaten. There was no reason left for me to remain, yet I hadn't reached for my bag.

Julian's gaze dropped briefly to my hand resting beside the plate. "Do you want to leave?"

The question was simple, which somehow made answering it harder.

I thought of Ethan probably somewhere between Silvercrest and Shadowfang, still wondering who had given me the necklace. I thought of the ceremonial mate bond beneath my skin and the pain that appeared whenever Julian came too close.

Then I remembered what he had told me earlier. My body wasn't part of the payment.

"No," I said.

The look on Julian's face changed, but he didn't seem pleased with himself as I had expected. That caught me off guard.

He rose and came around the table, stopping beside my chair. "Then stay until you want to."

Sera became very still.

Julian lifted one hand slowly enough to give me time to move before his fingers touched a loose strand of hair near my cheek. He tucked it behind my ear with a gentleness that tightened something in my chest.

There was no kiss and no demand.

Somehow, that made the moment more intimate.

"Why did you really ask about me years ago?" I whispered.

His hand paused before he answered. "You already know."

"No. I know I interested you. That isn't the same thing."

He studied me for a moment before responding. "You crossed a marked Lycan boundary alone, argued with me when I caught you and then walked away without knowing who I was."

I remembered the garden, the warning sign, and how annoyed Julian had looked when I told him the forbidden side was prettier.

"That was enough to make you remember me?" I asked, still finding it hard to believe.

"It was unusual," Julian replied, looking rather pleased with his answer.

I raised an eyebrow. "That's not exactly flattering."

"I wasn't trying to flatter you."

I couldn't help smiling at that. Julian's fingers slowly moved away from my hair, but his next words made my smile fade.

"Rosalind wanted to approach Silvercrest afterward," he said.

I looked at him in surprise. "Approach Silvercrest? What for?"

"She wanted to find out whether you had already been bounded to another wolf."

For a moment, I could only stare at him. My heart began beating faster as I tried to understand what he was telling me.

"And you agreed to let her ask?" I finally managed.

Julian shook his head. "I told her to wait until I returned from the north."

I remembered how quickly everything had changed after that time, and my chest tightened.

"But by the time you returned..." I began, unable to finish.

Julian held my gaze as he completed the sentence for me. "You were already Ethan's mate."

His words left us both silent for a moment.

Sera shifted beneath my skin, not with pain this time but with the same restless pull she had shown around Julian from the beginning.

I swallowed. "So if you'd returned earlier..."

"Don't."

I frowned. "Don't what?"

"Build a life around something that didn't happen."

The answer was unexpectedly harsh, but I understood what he meant. Too much of my life had already been shaped by what other people believed should have happened.

I looked toward the portrait. "Then let's talk about what happens now."

Julian followed my gaze.

"Tomorrow Ethan gets his appointment." I stated.

"Yes."

I swallowed down on nothing and continued. "And if he accepts, I get six months."

"You get six months without him standing over your shoulder."

I turned back to him. "What do you get?"

Julian's eyes held mine, and for the first time that night, he didn't answer immediately. Instead, he reached for the unfinished sketch, studied it briefly and placed it beside me.

"Finish what you started."

Was he talking about the portrait, our agreement, or perhaps something else entirely?

Before I could ask him what he meant, my phone screen lit up on the table.

It was Ethan, he had called me seven times.

Then a message appeared: Where are you, Lena?

I stared at the screen as another one popped again: I know you didn't stay at Silvercrest.

A cold knot formed in my stomach. Ethan had never cared enough to track my movements before, which meant the necklace, Julian's attention at the banquet and my sudden disappearance had finally pushed his suspicion somewhere dangerous.

Julian glanced at the screen, then at me. "Problem?"

I locked the phone and slipped it into my bag. "Not yet."

But for the first time that night, I wasn't sure whether I believed myself.