Chapter 10
CLAIRE
My sister slides closer, watching them go. “Well, this should be fun. And I thought the wedding was going to be a snorefest. Yet this is the most interesting thing that has happened at a wedding in a long time.”
The three of them follow my father to a standing table away from us, where there are fewer people, and I watch in frozen horror as Dad plants himself opposite them with his hands clasped behind his back.
Brody stands relaxed but attentive. Corey appears as if he’s trying very hard not to enjoy himself.
Jakob is still enough to make the whole exchange feel suddenly formal.
“So. What are your intentions with my daughter?” My father’s words carry faintly to us, and I want to die.
I grab my mother’s champagne and take a large sip.
“Claire,” Mom snaps.
“I need this more than you do.”
With so many people around us, and the guys talking away from me, I can barely make out their answers. I’m shaking my head that my dad’s doing this now instead of just being happy that I’m not a sad, lonely Omega at the wedding.
I take another sip of champagne while my mother drifts away, already targeting a man carrying a tray of drinks. Across the room, my father hasn’t stopped grilling the three Alphas gathered at a standing table.
I can’t hear a single word now over the music and the swell of voices filling the reception hall, which somehow makes it worse.
What could they possibly be discussing for this long?
None of the three men had exactly come prepared with a shared story about how they met me, how long we’d been together, or why my father’s socially anxious daughter had suddenly arrived at a family wedding with a pack.
This could turn into a disaster. A proper, family-legend-level disaster.
When I glance over at Ivy, she’s watching me instead of the men, one eyebrow raised like she’s been waiting for me to rejoin the conversation.
“Did you hear me?” she asks.
I blink at her. “Huh?”
Her mouth curves, but there’s a softness beneath the amusement that makes me more uncomfortable than the teasing.
I’ve always been the sister who disappears before anyone can ask too many questions, while she jumps right in.
We’ve been trying to fix our relationship.
We send birthday texts, compliment each other’s hair, and stand beside each other in family photos and pretend the distance between us isn’t there.
“I asked how in the world you met those men,” she says, lowering her voice as her gaze slides back toward the standing table. “Especially since one of them is Brody from ManBaker. Holy shit, Claire, how did you score him?”
I shift my glass from one hand to the other. “You watch him?”
“Hello, Earth to Claire. Everyone does.”
We both stare at Dad, who’s now pointing at each of the guys, and I’m mortified that he’s lecturing them or something.
“You’ve been hiding since the whole TV debacle,” Ivy says out of the blue, not cruelly, which somehow makes it harder. “Mom and Dad have been worried sick about you. Dad pretends he isn’t, but he is, and Mom was one bad week away from staging an intervention and getting you on a dating app.”
My stomach drops. “Oh God. I would have died.”
“That’s why I talked her out of it.” Ivy gives a tiny shrug. “You’re welcome.”
Despite myself, a laugh slips out. “Thanks for saving me from parental matchmaking.”
“It wasn’t easy. Mom feels she has to tell everyone her Omega daughter is alone.
” Her smile fades a little as she looks at me again.
“But you need to come by sometimes, Claire. Not just appear at a wedding with a new pack like you’re unveiling a lifestyle change.
Pop over and let her know how amazing your life is so she understands. ”
Guilt presses beneath my ribs. “It’s just been a bit hard, and then this wedding, a last-minute thing.”
Ivy studies me. “Why? They sent the invitation out months ago. Is it because they aren’t really your pack?”
The question crashes too close to the truth.
Ivy’s eyes flick toward Brody, who’s listening to my father with his head slightly tilted, one hand in his pocket, looking unfairly calm and gorgeous beneath the fairy lights.
“I mean, Brody? Every girl out there wants him. Even the married ones.” Her eyebrows waggle once, more sisterly than mean.
“So it’s a little hard to believe you just snatched him and his two equally gorgeous friends out of nowhere when no one had a clue you were dating anyone. ”
Heat climbs into my face, but this time it isn’t only embarrassment. This date is fake, the whole night held together with panic and lies and three men being far kinder than they need to be, but I hate hearing my sister say it as if I’m not the sort of woman men like that could want.
“Well, for your information,” I say, lifting my chin, “we are real.”
Ivy’s eyebrows rise.
“And Brody kisses heavenly,” I add before I can stop myself, which is apparently the point where my survival instincts leave the building entirely.
Her mouth falls open.
I take a sip of champagne because there is no graceful way to recover. “Trust me, it took me by surprise too, but we just… fit. We get along so amazingly.”
My gaze drifts back to Brody, where he laughs at something Corey says, then glances over as if he feels me looking. His smile finds me across the room, and he blows me a kiss.
For a second, I let myself remember his hand at my jaw, the way he kissed me. But underneath it all, the truth gnaws quietly.
This is fake.
But I shove that thought down deep, where it can’t reach my face.
Ivy follows my gaze. “Well,” she says after a moment, “if you’re going to shock the family, at least you did it properly, right?”
I snort into my glass. “That’s your supportive-sister response?”
“Yep.” She grins. “So how in the world did you meet them?”
“At a farmers’ market,” Brody blurts out from behind me, stealing my answer. “Plus, we’re now neighbors, as we moved in next door to her.”
His hands settle at my waist before I can turn, and my thoughts immediately scatter in several unhelpful directions. He draws me back against his chest just enough to sell the intimacy, his chin dipping near my temple as if this is a story we have told together a hundred times.
Then he launches into the wild avocado-and-sourdough-starter story he told me he’d use. Corey and Jakob nod along, which tells me this is almost certainly the version they gave my father too.
By the time Brody finishes, Ivy’s laughing. “That is the most ridiculous first encounter I’ve ever heard of, but I love it so much.”
Brody grins. “We survived.”
Mom suddenly calls Ivy over to meet someone near the bar. Dad follows a moment later, leaving me alone with the three Alphas, so I turn to them.
“What took so long? What did you say to my dad?” I gasp.
“Your father’s thorough.” Corey’s eyes brighten, but he has the decency to keep his voice low.
“That’s not an answer.”
Jakob leans one elbow against the tall table we’re standing around, close enough that his arm brushes mine. “He wanted to know whether you were comfortable with us here.”
The tightness in my chest shifts. “He asked that?”
“He did,” Jakob says, and I’m glued to the spot, staring at him. I don’t really know the guy, yet here I am drooling over him. “Several different ways.”
I blink at him. “And?”
“I told him we’re here to make sure you enjoy tonight,” Jakob says, his gaze steady on mine. “Not to make it harder.”
The answer should calm me, but for one dangerous second, I forget there are people everywhere, that this is supposed to be pretend, and that I’m standing at a wedding reception whispering with three Alphas I barely know and somehow want much too badly.
Brody’s mouth curves as if he can see every single thought I’m trying to murder. “I told him you’re the most interesting woman I’ve met in a long time.”
My face heats. “You did not.”
“Meant every word.” His voice drops, private beneath the music.
Corey shifts closer on my other side, not crowding me, but near enough that the warmth of him catches at my nerves. “I told him you’re bossy under pressure, which I respect, and that I’m grateful your eyesight failed in my direction.”
I stare at him.
He smiles unapologetically. “He appreciated the honesty.”
“He probably thinks I’ve lost my mind.”
“No,” Jakob adds. “He knows you were hurt, and he doesn’t want to watch it happen again. The man really cares for you, Claire.”
That steals whatever sharp little retort I had ready. I glance across the room, where Dad’s nodding at something my mom says, and I remember my sister’s comment about visiting them more often. I make a mental note to make it happen.
Suddenly, the music changes. The softer background jazz fades into something louder and more romantic, and a ripple moves through the room. Conversations quiet, heads turn, and the doors at the far end open.
The bridal party comes in first to cheers and applause. I clap with everyone else, trying to smile, when Louis walks in with the beautiful woman on his arm, his Omega.
Her hand is wrapped tightly around his arm, her body angled toward him as if she’s making sure everyone sees exactly where she belongs.
It’s his new Omega, gripping his arm as if he means the world to her. Of course he brought her. He’s close friends with Betty’s husband, so why wouldn’t he arrive with proof that he moved on cleanly, publicly, easily, and me pretending I didn’t notice the empty spaces he left behind?
I want to gag, or accidentally stab a canapé with too much force.
Corey’s fingers brush mine on the table. A silent, steady pressure that tells me he has noticed everything—the way my smile has gone too tight, how Louis steals glances my way as if I’m something he misplaced.
“The jealousy is working up a storm,” Brody murmurs.