Chapter 140 Hold that thought
Marcus extended his hand. She took it, steadying herself, and let him guide her forward. He held the door open.
Aria stepped inside.
The room was dark for exactly one second.
Then the lights came on at once, and every person she loved was standing in front of her.
“Surprise.”
Aria froze.
The space in front of her transformed instantly, filled with people, voices, warmth. Decorations lined the room, soft gold and white catching the light. Music played somewhere in the background, low and steady, blending with laughter and movement.
Aria stopped walking. Her hand came up to her mouth. Her eyes moved across the room in quick, disbelieving sweeps. Familiar faces everywhere she looked. Laughter. Raised glasses. The warm blur of people she had not expected to see in one place.
Kane stood at the entrance, a bouquet of flowers in his hand and a proud look on his face.
Pure, uncomplicated happiness.
She walked toward him slowly.
“This…” she started, her voice softer than she intended. “Is this what you didn’t want me to find out?”
Kane’s mouth curved slightly, something warm and almost amused in his expression.
“Guilty,” he said, and held out the flowers.
She took them. Then she turned and looked at Marcus, who was standing just behind Kane with his hands folded and his expression carefully neutral.
He glanced briefly to the side, toward Marcus.
“I know Marcus hates lying,” he said, a note of pride in his voice. “I didn’t want him acting suspiciously and ruining the surprise.”
Marcus gave a small, unapologetic shrug.
Kane continued, “I needed you to think something was wrong without knowing what it was.”
Aria laughed. The sound surprised her. It came out full and unguarded, and the tightness she had been carrying since morning broke apart with it.
She felt bad immediately after.
She looked past Kane’s shoulder and found Maya near the back of the room, standing with a glass of something sparkling and an expression that said she was enjoying this far more than was necessary.
She had spent the entire day convinced that Kane was hiding something that would undo everything they had built. She had sat across from Maya in a coffee shop and said the worst thing she could think of out loud, and Maya had let her, and the whole time Maya had known.
Aria pointed at her.
Maya raised her glass.
“I overheard the call,” Aria said, turning back to Kane. “I thought…” She shook her head. “I thought it was something else.”
Kane studied her face. “How bad was it?”
“Bad enough that Maya took me shopping for six hours.”
He looked over her head at Maya.
“Thank you,” he called.
Maya lifted her glass again.
Aria shook her head slightly, a faint, embarrassed smile tugging at her lips.
“I jumped to the worst conclusion. I feel terrible.”
“I figured.”
A small laugh escaped her, shaky but real.
Maya now stood a few feet behind Kane, arms crossed, watching her with a knowing look.
Aria narrowed her eyes slightly.
“You knew.”
Maya grinned.
“I absolutely knew.”
Aria let out a soft, disbelieving sound, shaking her head.
“I told you everything.”
“And I told you it wasn’t what you thought,” Maya said.
Aria stared at her for a second longer.
Then she laughed.
The tension that had been sitting in her chest all day finally broke apart, replaced with something lighter. Warmer.
She turned back to Kane.
Her vision blurred slightly.
She had not expected this.
Not here.
Not like this.
People started to approach them. Friends. Familiar faces. Pack members. People she had not seen in a while.
She let Kane lead her through the crowd.
Voices overlapped. Greetings. Laughter.
Aria moved through it all slowly at first, still trying to take everything in.
But then she settled.
The night moved the way good evenings do, quickly and warmly, one face giving way to the next. Pack members she had not seen since she changed her identity. Friends who had traveled. People from the outer territories who had known her before she became Luna.
An older woman from the southern border caught her hands and held them, her eyes wet.
“You came to us after the flood,” she said. “You didn’t have to. You stayed three days.”
Aria remembered. A storm that had knocked out half the settlement. She had gone because someone needed to.
“You healed my grandson,” the woman said. “He was seven years old and the fever had him for four days. You sat with him all through the night.”
Aria had forgotten that part.
She had not thought of it since.
A man near the bar, broad-shouldered and quiet, told her she had stood between him and a punishment he deserved during her time as Luna, when she had not yet earned the room’s respect and did it anyway.
“I didn’t deserve it,” he said simply.
“Everyone deserves someone in their corner,” she told him.
He nodded once and stepped back, and she could see the weight behind it.
She stayed close to Kane as the evening moved around them, his hand finding hers between conversations, warm and steady.
At some point she stopped counting the faces.
She just let the night happen.
Old friends pulled her into long embraces. Pack members she had not spoken to since the conflict found her across the room and made their way over. A woman from the northern territory told her she had named her daughter after her. A young wolf who could not have been more than nineteen stood at the edge of the group and waited until everyone else had moved on before approaching.
“You don’t know me,” he said. “But you knew my mother. You were with her when she passed.”
Aria looked at him.
“Elena’s son,” she said quietly.
He nodded.
She had sat with Elena for two hours in a field medic tent during the worst of a disease outbreak, holding her hand all night long. Elena had talked about her son the entire time.
“She talked about you constantly,” Aria told him. “She was so proud of you.”
The boy’s jaw tightened. He nodded once, quickly, and stepped back before the emotion caught up with him.
Aria watched him go.
Kane’s hand found her waist.
She turned to look at him. The room was still full around them, voices and warmth and the low hum of music, but for a moment it felt like none of it was there.
“Good?” he asked quietly.
Aria let out a small breath, then nodded.
“More than good.”
She glanced around the room once more. At the people still laughing, still talking.
Her expression softened.
“This is…” She shook her head slightly, like the words didn’t quite cover it. “It’s perfect.”
Kane didn’t speak. He just watched her.
“I mean it,” she added, a faint smile forming. “I couldn’t think of anything that could make this night better.”
For a brief second, something shifted in his expression.
Kane smiled.
“Hold that thought.”