My parents' den had changed little since the nineteen-nineties, except there were more pictures of my siblings on the walls, looking a lot older than they were fixed in my memories. Their children joined the collection, also looking older than I thought they ought to be. How the time flies!

Yet, Dad still wore that ridiculous mustache he grew out when he started going bald, and he chewed it in an eternally exasperating manner.

"Why in the Goddess name do you want to drop everything and scuttle off to Goddess-know-where with this mangy cur?" he grunted, and teacups jingled together on the tray of snacks Mom was bringing out of the kitchen.

I let a breath filter slowly through my teeth, but come on! Since when was California a Goddess-know-where? "This is an FYI, not a discussion," I said as calmly as I could manage. "I just didn't want you to hear about the ceremony and everything from other people."

"A ceremony?" Mom finally set her damn tray on the coffee table. It landed smoother than it should have judging from how badly her hands shook. "But of course! You'll have to go before the Alpha and the Luna to request a formal recognition of your mating before you move. When is it?"

I fingered the phone in my pocket, seized by the urge to check my messages and make sure I wasn't dreaming. But I checked it at least three times before I pushed my parents' doorbell button.

Harold: 1 pm with B&C, Council's boardroom. Talk there.

"Today at one." In four hours, basically.

"Fools rush in," my dad commented with a grim satisfaction.

"At least she found a mate, Byron," my mom put in with a shaky smile.

"A mate? You call Almarr's hound a mate? This imbecile, this clown, this sleazebag, one step from a rogue, and that in a wrong direction—"

Funny, I hated Harold, but the more my Dad ranted about him, the more my cheeks burned. "May I remind you Harold was everyone's golden boy, giving Blake a run for his money," I said. Until the catastrophe with Scarlett, but, but, but... "But for the grace of the Goddess, he isn't our Alpha."

"And thank Goddess for watching over us," Dad grumbled. "Besides, if this sleazebag became our Alpha, he would have mated his Epsilon cousin, not you."

I gasped in outrage instead of a comeback. What was I supposed to say?

That, sure, Scarlett was horrid. The couple attacked our pack, lied constantly and nearly killed our Luna, all true. But one thing Harold wasn't guilty of was being Scarlett's cousin? Lloyd Almarr had exaggerated his degree of relation to the Beaumonts of California for his own vanity, and the stigma bit Harold in the ass unfairly in this very specific instant?

This sounded like a crappy defense, so I sulked. "First, you don't want me to mate Harold, then you're pissed he wouldn't mate me. What do you really want, Dad? I'm not asking your permission, mind you, but I'm getting mixed signals."

"If you did what I wanted, you would have been mated and happy years ago," he said moodily. "Then we won't even be discussing this renegade of yours."

"Oh, be quiet, both of you." Mom turned to me, her eyes bright with excitement. "What are you wearing to the ceremony?"

"Mom!" This was the important thing? Really?

She ignored my outburst. "That dress Maddy wore last Solstice would fit you well. Do you want me to mention it when I call her?"

The last thing I wanted was to wear whatever my gorgeous younger sister was wearing to a ball. "Thanks, Mom, but I'll just go with the suit I wore for my graduation—"

"But it's black, my dear, you really can't! Hang on, I'm calling Maddy at once." Mom whipped out her cell over my squawk of protest, and Dad charged into the tiny pause. "If you only have told the pack about Kieran lies—"

I nearly got a whiplash from the turns in our conversation, but Mom navigated it with ease. She tilted her chin down to look at Dad above her glasses, while her finger froze on the phone screen. "Byron, there would have been so much bad blood with the Thrushes if she went against Kieran, the mating would have never worked out."

Dad harrumphed. "Not this wretched boy, for Goddess' sake! I meant she would have mated another decent wolf, if the pack knew the truth and didn't treat her like a thornback. I shouldn't have let you bamboozle me into keeping my mouth shut back then, but you know what? At least it's not too late." He gave me a baleful glance. "I'll stop this impending disaster. Mating Harold Almarr, for crescent's sake."

Crap. The last thing I needed was an extra challenge, if Dad decided to protect me at the cost of another humiliation. Goddess, why did I come here? I should have let my parents find out once the deed was done, along with the rest of the pack. "Dad, please, no. Don't tell anyone anything!"

Dad glared at me, his expression clearly reading, I'm saving you from yourself whether or not you want it.

"Darling," Mom inserted into a stretching pause. Her phone was on the speaker and produced the first quivering dial tone. "Darling, I wish you'd stop bringing Kieran into it. We made an obvious mistake when we matched the kids."

A sense of gratitude flooded me, but also a surprise, so much so, I forgot to protest this phone call to Maddy. "Mom, do you mean it?"

She nodded imperceptibly.

So, Mom had realized that a match made based on simply throwing together two shy youths wasn't ideal. Even if Kieran and I both descended from Betas' families, with siblings that conformed to Grauberg's expectations of robust, outgoing personalities. "I..."

I didn't know what to say, and Maddy picked up her phone. "Hi, Mom! What's up?"

Mom switched off the speaker. "Maddy, I have fantastic news! Julia needs your dress—"

"Mom, I don't need Maddy's dress. It's really a formality, not even a ceremony. Blake and Celeste already know and approve."

Mom waved her hand in the air at me, like I was a mosquito. "Yes, that adorable peach one," Mom said into the phone before I protested louder.

Dad scoffed. Unfortunately, it wasn't about the daunting possibility of me wearing pastel silks for no good reason. "Kieran had two matings and no pups to show for it. The Goddess punished him for lying, so why should we keep all the wrongs he'd done you quiet?"

Mom's radiant smile didn't waver. "Maddy, yes, that's awesome! Yes, the flowers too. Can you call your brother for me, please? Aww...that's so cute! Tell her Nana loves her too, she just needs to go sort something here? Of course, she can come too. Bye, baby!"

She put her phone next to her teacup with a clink and turned to Dad. The happy glow from the discussion of my dress still colored her cheeks, but her tone was firm. "We have to keep quiet, Byron, because Julia had asked us to. And we'll let her choose her mate this time, go to California with him and make her own mistakes."

Dad's eyes rolled up in their sockets. "When have we ever forbidden her to make all the bloody mistakes she wanted?"

"Maybe this time she isn't screwing up her life," Mom said with an air of extreme optimism. "Harold seems to be genuinely mending his ways. If it all works out, she'll be his Luna. Just think of it. Luna Julia of the Californian Pack!"

From then on, all I could do was to sip my tea, crunch lady-finger cookies and watch Mom work her magic on Dad between phone calls to my other two sisters. An hour in, she won Dad's grudging approval for Harold's match even though I didn't ask for it. She made me give up on protesting the family reunion she was organizing before my very eyes. And she told Dad that if he wanted to offend our Alpha, who was conducting the ceremony after all, he was free to stay behind at home...basically, Dad was coming too.

Finally, Mom pulled the phone away from her ear, saw me, and her brows creased. "Julia, my dear, you have to get going. Maddy's waiting for you!"

"What happened to letting Julia lead her own life?" Dad scoffed, and I couldn't help but think he had a point. It rankled me too, even if it was just a little, so I turned to Mom in the doorway.

"By the way, even if Kieran didn't rebel, all his matings would still be without pups. It's just how it is, and there is no helping it," I said. Breaking the doctor-patient's confidence here just a little, but oh, well. This was Grauberg.

My dad blinked, in the middle of grumbling about having to put on a damn suit, but Mom's mouth and eyes rounded.

"Explain it to him if you wish later, but keep your guesses to yourself. I've earned this much, haven't I?" I told her, since I was delivering all she had hoped for from a daughter: mating a senior Beta, maybe even becoming a pack's Luna. Not to mention making a spectacle of myself by being presented to the Alpha and the Luna in a ball gown like some debutante from the Gilded Age.

"Oh, Julia..." Mom sighed. "Get going, will you? Maddy's on pins and needles already."

I stepped outside feeling like a bit of weight lifted off my chest. It was a risk to destroy a certain assumption my parents had formed about Kieran and me, and it wasn't exactly telling them the truth about that one night, but it was also lying just a little less. Lying never sat well with me, and for twelve years I had to, which, by the way, was also Harold's fault.

***

The Winter Solstice wasn't even four months ago, but I was stewing in resentment over Harold ghosting me during the holidays, plus we had to fight against Scarlett's subjugation attack on our pack in February. All of this whipped clear any recollection of the dress Maddy had worn to the ball from my mind. If I had any idea how puffy the skirt was, or how snug the bodice, or that it had the gauzy straps falling off the shoulder instead of proper sleeves, I might have argued with Mom harder.

"Maddy, I can't wear this in public. No way!" I exclaimed after viewing the outfit strewn on Maddy's and her mate's bed.

My sister sniggered. "If you don't, Mom's gonna chew my ear off, plus it's too large for me now, and it's a pity to only wear something so pretty once."

I rubbed my temples, cursing my obedience and going to Maddy's. If I was to swing by my place to change, I wouldn't make it to the Olympian on time, so my choice lay between jeans and this dress.

"Do you have anything ah...darker?" I begged Maddy. While Mom insisted on calling it a peach dress, my experience with fruit placed it squarely in the apricot category.

"Nothing that would fit you, sorry." Oh, right! Maddy complained all Solstice long about the pregnancy weight not going away as easily as after her first pup while looking fabulous. She was tall and slender like a willow by now, while I was more of a thick hedge. "Man up, Jules. Or should I say, princess up? We still have to do something about your hair."

I instinctively patted my head, and sure enough, the curly strands frizzled out of the neat bun I twisted them in first thing in the morning. Don't know why I blurted out an exclamation of surprise. They always did it by lunch-time. "Gosh, what did I get myself into?"

The full extent of what I got myself into hit me when Maddy stopped her car at the Olympian's front entrance, next to the valet, two uniformed doormen and Harold.

"O-la-la," Maddy whispered, "I forgot how fine he looks under all the grunge."

I did too.

Since I saw Harold last, he had shaved and had his midnight hair cut shorter, exposing his tall forehead and fine features to sunlight. He must have slept better than I did, because the gaunt, death-bed look was almost gone. His sheriff's uniform used to set off his tanned complexion, but it also went very well with his paler, winter self.

The major transformation, however, the one that glued me to my passenger seat after I swung the car door open, was the air of new hope about him. It was so strong, I could feel it from the yards off. His mouth curved with it, no longer pinched in suppressed pain. His eyes were living fire. It was near overwhelming when he crossed the distance between us with a lithe grace to offer me his hand.

We froze, our hands linked, but with me still stuck inside the car. Our gazes locked. Harold's was perplexed. I didn't dare imagine what my gaze reflected at him. Luckily, my peach/apricot skirt billowed between us in the fresh breezes of March like a sail.

In a far less dreamy tone, Maddy squeaked from behind the wheel. "Climb out already, we're blocking the traffic. Young love, sheesh!"

This was rich coming from Maddy. Really rich, since she was three years younger than me and Harold and I were only fake mates who would never consummate their union.