Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 180

The alcohol made the decision easier. I took Mila’s hand and let her pull me toward the dance floor.

The beat of the music was infectious. Mila immediately started moving, and after a moment of awkward hesitation, I followed her lead. It felt strange at first–I’d never been much of a dancer, too conscious of maintaining my composure as a Luna–but the alcohol and Mila’s encouraging smile gradually loosened me up. “There you go!” Mila laughed, spinning around. “See? This is what normal people do for fun!”

I found myself laughing too, actually laughing for the first time in a very long time. The music was too loud to think, the crowd was too thick to worry about being recognized, and for just a few minutes, I could pretend I was someone else.

Not Natalia. Not even Mira of Ashmoor.

Maybe, for those moments on the dance floor, I was just… nobody. And that was somehow more freeing than any alter ego could ever be.

We danced through three songs, until I was breathless and sweaty and feeling more like myself than I ever had. It was completely innocent, but it felt rebellious anyway. Like I was breaking some rule I’d been following for so long I’d forgotten it existed.

The next morning, I woke up with a pounding hangover but also that satisfied feeling that comes from a night well spent. That feeling lasted exactly until I checked my phone and saw seventeen missed calls from Catherine.

My blood went cold. I called her back immediately.

“Natalia, thank the Goddess,” she said before I could even say hello. “Have you seen the papers?”

“What papers?”

“Check your email. I’m sending you links now.”

I opened my laptop while she talked, my hangover forgotten. The first link she’d sent was to a gossip website with the headline: “Trouble in Paradise? Ashmoor Luna Spotted Getting Wild at Downtown Nightclub.”

Below the headline were several photos of me and Mila dancing. They weren’t particularly scandalous, but they’d been taken from angles that made the dancing look far more suggestive than it had been.

The second link was worse. “Is Natalia’s Marriage a Sham? Sources Claim Ashmoor Luna Living Separate Life from Alpha Husband.”

“Shit,” I muttered.

“The fashion show is tonight,” Catherine said, her usually calm demeanor cracking slightly. “The charity board is already getting calls from concerned donors. Some of them are threatening to pull their support if there’s a scandal. If it’s true that your marriage to Damon is a sham…”

“Catherine, I can explain-

”

“You don’t need to explain anything to me. But you have to promise me that you and your family will walk the runway tonight without a hitch. If you show up hungover, or if there’s any more drama…” She sighed. “This is a

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family show, you know. My intention was to showcase families, not… whatever else might be going on.”

“Of course,” I blurted out. “You don’t have to worry, Catherine. Everything will go perfectly smoothly today,

“Okay. I’m trusting you.”

“Thank you, Catherine. I promise, tonight will be perfect.”

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