Chapter 51

They had seen the hall where the main event would be held when Noah essentially blackmailed Asher into his ‘generous’ apology tour. In the morning, the preparations had still been underway then but right now, it was filling up with formally dressed guests.

Right at the entrance, standing beside Noah, were two individuals that Celine hoped never to bump into again, Noah’s parents. Alpha Whitlock and Luna Evelyn stood at the main entrance to the hall, welcoming the guests personally.

Her fight-or-flight reflexes kicked and she held tighter to Asher’s arm to stop herself from giving in to turning around and leaving the entire hotel at a dead run. She tried to pep-talk herself, if Noah, whom she had basically shared a room with for years didn’t recognize her, there was no chance his completely absent parents would.

Evelyn’s blonde hair was graying gracefully, she was dressed in a perfunctory black dinner dress and standing arm in arm with her mate who wore a suit. Noah stood proudly beside them, his black eyes immediately focusing on her, while his parents said their goodbyes to the couple who came before them.

“And this is the illustrious Mafia King, Asher Knight, and his partner.” Noah introduced grandly to his parents and Celine realized for the first time that Noah had never learned her name. “These are my parents…"

Evelyn’s dark eyes widened as she met Celine’s blue-eyed stare, “And does this partner have a name?” She interrupted her, staring a little too intently at Celine.

“A pleasure to be here,” Asher interjected lazily, rescuing her from having to introduce herself.

This caused an awkward silence to stretch on, Noah quickly rushing to undo the damage. “We’re honored to have you attend the event,” He forged right on, gesturing them forward so that there wasn’t a hold-up at the entrance.

Evelyn frowned as the Mafia King and his ‘partner’ strode forward, her mate was spaced out right beside her, uninterested in the proceedings but forced by Evelyn to be there.

“Noah, do you not know that lady’s name?” She pressed on, never taking her eyes off them.

“Why does it matter?” He asked flippantly, he had said nothing about the dark bruise on his jaw although his mother had asked many times, he didn’t want her attention on the cause of it.

“Because that’s Celine.” Evelyn said in such a confident tone that even her mate focused on the conversation.

“What?” Both of the Alphas in her life chorused.

Evelyn rolled her eyes in frustration, of course, these two wouldn’t recognize her, but it would take more than a wardrobe change and makeup to fool her. “That is your Luna.” She emphasized, striding forward before either her mate or son could recover.

Celine had just been relieved to have gotten through that without anything going wrong, she had felt like she was choking on her own heart when Luna Evelyn asked for her name but Asher had saved her. She glanced to the side at him, she would give a lot to know what was going up in his head, *how much did he know? Why wouldn’t he say a thing about it?*

They had barely gotten a few feet away from the entrance when she felt someone grab her wrist and pull her, Celine turned around to face a livid Luna Evelyn, her face visibly red even through her makeup.

“You ungrateful twat! After all that we did for you! You dare run off with a criminal?”

Celine leaned back like she had been hit, she was used to being treated badly but she wouldn’t stand for Asher to be treated the same. She pulled her hand away from Evelyn’s hold, “Watch your mouth, Evelyn.” She warned coldly, her eyes flashing in anger. “Besides, anything is better than a serial cheater.” She lashed out without holding back.

It was Evelyn’s turn to do a double take, she had never heard Celine raise her voice above a soft pitch. At that point, her mate and son had caught up so she turned on him instead with nothing else to say to Celine.

“You said she ran off without warning,” She glared at Noah, “So what is going on?”

Celine had no intention of waiting while they had their family squabble so she ignored Noah staring blankly at her and turned to Asher, there was no way her confession could wait till they got back to Reef City now.

“Asher, I think-”

“Celine?” Noah called in disbelief, staring at her like she was a ghost.

“You said she left less than a month ago,” Evelyn went right on, refusing to be ignored. “How is she already bearing another Alpha’s mark, Noah?” She added, her tone loud and angry.

Celine really, really wanted to just walk off but unfortunately, she couldn’t because she was very much the topic of discussion.

Noah was tongue-tied at his mother’s accusations, leaving her to turn to the only person who gave her a response. “And what do you have to say for yourself, Celine?”

Celine smiled but the expression was empty, “Why don’t you ask your son where his mark is?” She turned the tables on Evelyn, unsettled at how quiet Asher was being, she really needed to leave this conversation and talk to him.

“I’m no longer a member of the Moonstone Pack.” She announced loudly, “Neither am I mated to someone who couldn’t even recognize me after a month apart.” The words fell past her lips before she could stop them, her heart shriveling at the fact that Asher had to learn all this about her from an argument with Noah and his parents.

“So, if you’ll excuse me, I have something important to attend to.” She ended curtly, looking nervously at Asher who simply looked amused by the entire situation, she couldn’t decide if that put her at ease or not.

“Asher, can we-”

Noah stepped forward as she tried to lead Asher away, “Do you realize what’s going on?” He finally found his voice, addressing Asher. “You marked a mated Omega.”

Celine was too stunned to react right away, *was the mated Omega in the room with them?*