Chapter 141 Where he gets it right
“Hold that thought.”
Aria blinked, her brows drawing together slightly.
“What…”
Kane’s hand slipped from hers before she could finish. The warmth of his touch lingered for a second longer than it should have, and then he was already stepping away.
Not far.
Just enough.
Aria watched him, a small, confused smile still on her lips.
There was something in his expression she couldn’t quite place.
Controlled.
Intentional.
Different.
“What are you doing?” she asked, half amused, half curious.
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he moved toward the front of the room.
The shift was subtle at first.
A few people turned.
Conversations softened.
Someone near the bar straightened slightly, like they had been expecting this.
Aria’s smile faded into something quieter.
More focused.
By the time Kane stepped onto the small raised platform, the room had already begun to settle around him.
A glass tapped lightly somewhere to her left.
Once.
Twice.
The sound carried just enough to draw the remaining attention.
Voices lowered.
Movement slowed.
All eyes turned forward.
Including hers.
Aria stood where he had left her, her heart beginning to pick up for reasons she didn’t fully understand yet.
This wasn’t part of the surprise.
At least, she didn’t think it was.
Kane looked at her first, then at the room.
“I don’t think anyone here needs an introduction to Aria,” he said. “But I do think she deserves to hear a few things.”
Aria blinked, caught off guard.
One of the older pack members stepped forward, a smile already on his face.
“I knew her before most of you did. Before the titles. Before everything changed.”
He glanced at her briefly.
“She was kind then. She’s still kind now. That hasn’t changed.”
Another voice picked up from across the room.
“She gave up her time, her energy, without expecting anything back. I’ve seen it more times than I can count.”
Someone else laughed softly.
“She still does.”
Aria shook her head slightly, overwhelmed.
“I’m standing right here,” she murmured.
“That’s the point,” Maya called out.
More voices joined in.
Stories.
Small moments she barely remembered.
Things she had done without thinking twice.
Some spoke of her as Luna.
Others spoke of her simply as Aria.
But the thread between all of it was the same.
Selfless.
Steady.
Present.
Aria pressed her lips together, blinking quickly as her eyes filled.
She had never seen herself the way they did.
Not like this.
Not all at once.
Eventually, the attention shifted.
Kane stepped forward again.
The room quieted more fully this time.
His presence alone was enough for that.
He looked at her first.
Then at everyone else.
“We were very young when we met,” he said. “Which is probably the only excuse I have for most of what happened next.”
Quiet laughter moved through the crowd.
“She was everything I didn’t know I needed.”
He didn’t look away from her.
“She still is.”
Aria swallowed.
“She stood by me when she didn’t have to. Fought beside me when things got worse than either of us expected.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“And when everything fell apart, she stayed.”
The room was completely silent.
“She is one of the finest people I have ever known. Generous in ways that cost her. Stubborn in ways that saved us.”
He paused.
“We would not have defeated Alexander without her. That is not sentiment. That is a fact.”
Aria’s vision blurred.
Kane took a slow breath.
“I chose this place on purpose,” he said. “Some of you know why. Some of you don’t.”
He found her eyes.
“It was at this exact building, years ago, that I made a decision that changed both our lives. We were at a charity gala. She was standing across the room. And I told her she was not what I wanted.”
The silence shifted.
“We both lived with that decision for three years,” he continued.
“Three years that did not have to happen. That was on me. It has always been on me.”
He exhaled.
“So when I started planning tonight, I kept coming back to this place.”
“Because it felt wrong to let it stay what it was.”
“It felt wrong to let the worst moment I ever gave her be the thing she thought of when she heard the name.”
He stepped down from the platform.
The crowd parted.
Aria did not move.
She could not.
Her vision had blurred somewhere around the third sentence and had not cleared since.
He stopped in front of her.
“I love you,” he said.
Quiet now.
Just for her.
“I have loved you longer than I knew what to call it.”
“You made me a better Alpha. A better man.”
He reached up and wiped her cheek with his thumb.
“And Leo and Lily. Aria. The time I have had with them, with you, with all of it.”
He shook his head slightly.
“It’s been the most rewarding part of my life.”
She pressed her lips together.
She was not going to cry.
She was absolutely not going to cry.
Her hand found his.
Held on.
“And I want more of it,” he said.
“All of it. With you.”
He stepped back slightly.
Then, slowly, he dropped to one knee.
The room went completely silent.
Kane reached into his jacket and pulled out a small box.
He opened it.
The ring caught the light as he opened the box, a single clean flash of it, and he looked up at her with an expression she had never seen on him before.
Open.
Unguarded.
Nothing held back.
He looked up at her, completely unguarded.
He held the ring up.
“Aria. Will you marry me?”