Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 376

Chapter 376

Chapter 376

Chapter 376

ARIA

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“The curtsey,” he said. “Was the curtsey before or after.”

I blinked. “How do you know about the curtsey?”

“Martha,” he said simply.

Of course. Martha had been in the corridor when Celine had told Margo. Martha had presumably received the full account, including the curtsey and the document and the ten minutes of silence and the five months and the poly. Martha had access to a kitchen and a communication network that would have made a military intelligence operation envious.

“The curtsey was before,” I said. “And the document.”

“The document,” he said.

“Luna Aria is better than Sera,” I said. “Read aloud. To my satisfaction.”

The sound happened again. More of it this time, less contained – closer to the actual thing, the full version working harder to get out.

I was watching him with the specific attention of someone who’d been braced for anger and was recalibrating rapidly.

“She did it?” he asked.

“She did it,” I said. “Celine was at the window trying to survive.”

Something gave way in Kael’s expression. Not dramatically- not the sudden collapse of everything maintained – but the specific small release of someone who’d stopped containing something because the effort of containing it had exceeded what the situation required.

He laughed.

The real version. Brief, genuine, the laugh of someone who hadn’t planned on laughing and was doing it anyway because the accumulated pressure of the information had reached a point where the laugh was the only available release valve.

It lasted several seconds.

Then it settled back into something more composed, though the composure had the texture of something that had just been through a significant test and was still finding its configuration.

“The five months,” he said.

“The queue is legitimate,” I said. “Nina verified it. The scheduling is real. There are patients ahead of her with documented needs and valid waiting periods.”

“Five months,” he said again, with the tone of someone savoring a specific detail.

“Approximately,” I said. “Could be longer if the November intake comes in high.”

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Chapter 376

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He looked at me with the expression that had finished assembling itself into something clear. Something that I read as – not forgiveness, that was too large a word for the current moment. Not even full warmth, which was also not quite where we were. But recognition. The specific look of someone seeing something they’re glad to see.

“You learned this from Shadowmere,” he said.

“It’s been a significant exposure,” I said.

“The poly was Shadowmere,” he said. “The curtsey notice was Shadowmere. The document was Shadowmere. The ten minutes of silence was-”

“Amber did the bucket,” I said. “I can’t take credit for that one.”

“Amber,” he said, and the name came out with the specific quality of someone who’d been updated on a development in a person’s behavior and was filing it appropriately.

“She winked at me afterward,” I said. “I have the wink documented. In my memory, not on a recording device.”

The expression deepened into something warmer. “The recording device,” he said. “Is in your desk drawer.”

I looked at him.

“Martha,” he said simply.

I closed my eyes briefly. Martha was a force of nature. Martha was going to be the reason everything I’d ever done in my became pack record regardless of any privacy considerations I might have harbored.

“The curtsey is on it,” I said. “And the document. And the five months.”

“And the poly statement,” he said.

“That too,” I said.

office

We sat in the conference room in the quiet of the door being closed, the pack grounds outside doing their ongoing business, the central space where thirty people had cheered now empty of the specific energy it had contained twenty minutes ago.

I thought about what he’d said earlier. About not wanting Sera’s weapons to be the thing that determined how we interacted. About wanting to have the honest conversation rather than the damaging one,

“I should have told you I was going to do something like that,” I said. “Before it became the thing everyone’s discussing. That was– I should have told you.”

“You were in the moment,” he said. “She came in with a weapon and you dealt with the weapon with what you had available.” He looked at me steadily. “The dealing with it was effective. The speed of dissemination was somewhat beyond what any of us planned for.”

“I didn’t plan for any dissemination,” I said honestly, “I was thinking about Celine maintaining professional composure for the duration of the meeting. I didn’t fully account for what happened after.”

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