Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 337

Chapter 337

Chapter 337

ARIA

“Sera,” I said. Just her name. I kept my voice even through the effort of keeping it even, which was significant. “What are you doing here.”

“Using the open door policy,” she said pleasantly. “Shadowmere’s famous for it. Your healer – Ivory, is it? – the policy

her services. It’s a formal commitment. Coalition-acknowledged.” A pause that was

her services. It’s a formists specifically to allow anyone seeking medical attention access to

constructed. “Did you not know about it? I’d have thought, as Luna, that would be something you’d-”

“Of course I kout it.” I said.

I didn’t know about it. I had not known about it until approximately four seconds ago. But I was not going to let Sera Quinn know I hadn’t known about it because she would use that gap like a crowbar and I could feel exactly where she’d insert it.

She had the expression of someone who didn’t believe me and was choosing not to say so directly. Which was its own kind of weapon the suggestion without the statement, leaving

—

the implication hanging without giving me anything solid to address.

“Wonderful,” she said. “Then you understand that I’m here entirely within my rights. And that your pack’s rather noisy response to my arrival is-” she looked around with the specific quality of someone noting something to report later, “-a little concerning, honestly. I would have thought a Luna would have more control over her pack’s reactions to legitimate visitors.”

There it was. The actual move, dropped in early, testing what I’d do with it.

–

Something in me went very still. The particular stillness of someone who can feel something building inside them and is making a decision about it — the lunar power, responding to my emotional state, that warmth that lived in my chest that was increasingly hard to ignore when my feelings ran high. My eyes were probably doing the thing. I could feel them doing the thing.

I controlled my expression. Did not give her the visible reaction she was looking for.

“Shadowmere’s responses to things that happen in Shadowmere,” I said carefully, “are Shadowmere’s business. Not visitors.”

“Of course,” Sera said, still pleasant. “I’m just making an observation. As someone with

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–

experience running a pack – supporting an Alpha, managing diplomatic relationships – I’m sure you understand how important it is for a Luna to have the confidence of her people. To have earned their trust.” She tilted her head. “You’ve been here what, several months now? Have you found that to be difficult? I’ve heard the transition hasn’t been entirely smooth.”

Several months. The phrasing was precise in the specific way of things chosen to sting.

“Transitions take time,” I said. “Every pack is different.”

“Of course,” she said again. “And I’m sure it must be especially challenging, given – well.” She made a small gesture that was supposed to read as sympathetic and didn’t. “Given everything. The circumstances of how you came to be here. The

shall we say – complicated feelings

your pack has about the situation. About what they feel they lost when you arrived.” She met my eyes with the direct attention of someone who wanted to see what that landed on. “About Ivory.”

The name in her mouth was a different thing than the name in anyone else’s mouth. It was a weapon and she was holding it with the practiced ease of someone who knew exactly which end to grip.

I felt the lunar

energy flare.

Not outward – not yet, not visible, not the silver-white that made people step back. But inside, the compressed heat of it, the pressure of something that was listening to my emotional state and responding accordingly.

I thought about what I’d read in the restricted texts. About what Ivory had told me this morning about direction and intent. About the difference between feeling something and doing something with it.

One breath.

P

“I’m familiar with Ivory,” I said. My voice came out steadier than it had any right to be. “She’s an extraordinary healer and an extraordinary person. This pack is lucky to have her, and so is Shadowmere. Whatever complexity exists in any situation involving her is a complexity I take seriously and navigate with the care it deserves.” I held Sera’s gaze. “Is there something specific you needed, or did you come here to discuss my pack’s interpersonal dynamics.”

Something moved through Sera’s expression. A recalibration – the look of someone who’d expected a different response and was adjusting to the one they’d gotten. She was good at recovering though. I had to give her that.

“I came here for the healer,” she said. “As I said.”

“Then you’ll be directed to the appropriate intake process,” I said. “Which is how the open door

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policy works. Someone will-”

“How touching.”

The shift in her tone was small but complete. The pleasant surface dropped away from the word like a layer of paint revealing what was underneath, and what was underneath was significantly colder.

“The Luna,” Sera said, “defending her position. Her pack. Her healer.” She stepped closer – just slightly, just enough to be deliberate about the reduction of space. “Tell me, Aria. How does it feel? Knowing that every person in this pack is here because of what they feel for someone else? Knowing that the Alpha you’re bonded to-” she watched my face when she said it, looking for something specific, “-that he’s faithful to you because he’s a man of principle, not because you’re what he wants? That the people around you tolerate you because you broke a curse that needed breaking, not because any of them would have chosen you if they’d had the option?”

The lunar power was fully awake now. I could feel it in my hands, in the light behind my eyes, in the warmth that was no longer subtle but was contained – just barely, just through the specific internal effort that Ivory had described this morning as *knowing where to put the pressure so it doesn’t go

where you don’t mean it to go. *

I was two seconds from an international incident.

I was absolutely aware of this.

And then a bucket of water hit Sera Quinn directly from above.

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