Harold popped me out of Maddy's car like a cork out of a bottle. I had to cling to his mighty arm to find my balance on the paving slabs in the high-heeled pumps. Not all of my unsteadiness was because of Maddy's impractical footwear. I hated to admit it, but Harold's cleaned up persona left me weak at the knees.

"Jules, you look lovely," he said, while I swayed in the wind. If that was so, then why did his lips twitch into an amused quirk?

"Thank you." Since my skirt ballooned like a sail, I set my feet wide like a sailor, ignoring silk's sensual tugs on my ankles. "I'm glad to see you've rediscovered the wonders of shampoo."

It wasn't a lie. The wind ruffled his hair, showing off their softness and luster to such an advantage that he could be the brand's face.

"And the flowers!" Harold kept teasing. "You really shouldn't have for my sake!"

The flowers! I forgot all about the flowers. Maddy furnished me with peach roses, because, she had cheerfully explained, her florist business had just auspiciously received an order for a funeral.

She even stuck a few into my pinned hair, chirping about Celeste's wedding and this spring's bridal styles. Obviously, the wedding fever hadn't gone down yet. Did Harold imagine it gripped me too? Goddess!

I shoved the flowers into his arms. "These were meant for Rowan's celebration of life. It would decorate yours, if you dare criticize my family. The dress-up is for them, not you."

Harold's smirk vanished. "Your family is here? For the ceremony?"

He looked so stomped that guilt stirred in the pit of my stomach. It was supposed to be him, me and our ruling couple. Apologizing to Harold for anything wasn't a part of my plan, but...

"I... I'm sorry about not warning you, but they got organized so fast. And the dress... I simply had no time..." I mumbled.

"That's fine," he said. "Lucky, everybody on my side can't wait to see my back, so they ignored my mate's pledge. Now, let's go inside before the wind blows you to Alaska."

We went through the revolving doors into the crowded lobby with marble floors, crystal chandeliers and floor to ceiling mirrors embedded into gilded plaster. As we passed them, every gleaming surface reflected a handsome sheriff in his crisp uniform and a she-wolf in a too-tight dress. Her windblown hair fell out of a pin-up studded by rose buds. She hobbled on high heels, but the top of her head still barely reached over her dashing companion's shoulder.

No way, no way this desperate woman should have been me, yet it was, and I had damn good reasons to not dash away, leaving the uncomfortable shoes on the floor for no prince to find.

One, my family was waiting.

Two, my revenge for my shattered heart, even though I imagined a proud avenger to look far more wrathful. And sleek.

"You...you wanted to talk about something, Harold?" I asked through trembling lips, to take my mind off how ridiculous my pretensions were.

"Yes. Sorry, it slipped my mind because..." his hand weaved through the air outlining the ultra-feminine shape of my outfit. An infuriating smile flitted on his lips.

Even more infuriating, some part of me rejoiced he was smiling again.

"I think you're going to love it," he said, still smiling.

We stopped in the middle of the milling tourists. His glance slid up and down, and across me, like he wanted to file away every embarrassing detail to tell our grandchildren.

My hand clutched my exposed throat. "Well, don't hold me in suspense too long."

"Jules, my wolf is following me to California this time, so I want us to hike the Pacific Crest Trail instead of driving. This way he would keep up. We'd go werewolf as much as possible, camp...a bit like the good old times. Right?"

The twinkle in his eyes reminded me of that time when we were eleven so much that my heart stopped between two beats. Let's see how far we can run in our werewolf form, Jules. It would be so much fun! Fun wasn't the word that the search party used when it found us outside the pack's territory, but it didn't diminish that impish flicker in his eyes. Nothing could extinguish it, I used to believe, and I was wrong. Scarlett could and Scarlett did. But here it was, back.

So, was I wrong again?

I swallowed, clutching my throat with tightening fingers. "Won't...won't you want to get to California as soon as possible? To start building your support base?" He had six months till the Fall Equinox, the election date set by the Lupine Council of North America. Cutting it down by even two weeks seemed like madness.

"I do, but I want to make it clear from the get go that restoring the wild wolf population of California is not just lip service for me like it was for Beaumonts. And secondly..."

The busy lobby of the Olympian faded into a different dimension for me. I couldn't see anything beyond his face, his eyes, his moving lips. What he was offering me was like a dream come true. The hike and the chance to grow the wolf packs to the South! This had even more of the old Harold in it than some random glimmer on the surface of the irises.

"Secondly, Jules, it would give us time to work on our ah...relationship," Harold said.

My heart plummeted. "What's wrong with our relationship? Besides being fake?"

"While some of the constituency might appreciate the bickering between us, it would be far more appealing if we develop a more conventionally aspirational front as a couple for public consumption."

The world rushed back into focus. I was such a fool! How did I let this man make me dream again, even if it was for a mere second? How dared he to groom me for the role he'd assigned to me in his grand designs? "Conventionally aspirational? Harold Almarr, have you rehearsed this little speech?"

"No," he said far too quickly.

Maybe if he didn't lie and would have asked for my cooperation, I would have given him a pass. But he lied, clearly showing his intention to manipulate me again. So, just as quickly, just as insincere as he had responded, I graced him with the most dazzling smile I was capable of.

"I support your notion with all my heart, darling." I even batted my eyelashes, though it was more to keep the tears of frustration from welling up. "Let's not keep Alpha Blake and Luna Celeste waiting."

Despite the high heels and the long skirt, I strode to the bank of the elevators with confidence. The wobble in my knees was gone. The scent of Harold's aftershave didn't stir my inner she-wolf. Our conversation was the last shot I needed to fully immunize me against Harold.

I could finally separate the fond memories of our past and bury them so deep, they couldn't seep into the present and muddy things up.

Never again would I care for Harold in defiance of common sense, the way I did when they brought him to my hospital after his botched attack on Luna Celeste. My stupid heart found the excuse for him so fast—Scarlett had drugged him. It also ignored the inconvenient fact that Scarlett had also drugged Alpha Blake, and Alpha Blake did the right thing even when his mind was spinning out of control.

Harold Almarr was always doing the wrong thing, at least where I was concerned. I would never turn away from this painful truth. I couldn't unsee it. I didn't want to. It was payback time, baby!

Strangely, seething against the tall man next to me transformed me into someone who fit better with a fake mate of his dreams. All the self-worth I withheld from myself for years because of my confused affection for Harold, flooded in. I was no longer rejected; I was doing the rejection. Living it. Owning it.

I entered the boardroom with a composed face, straight back and smiled at Luna Celeste and Alpha Blake.

When Celeste's blue gaze met mine, my heart fluttered with a sudden realization that she was assessing me as a future peer. Since Harold made me his offer, the storm of emotions left little time to worry about my Mark. Celeste weighing me made it real. And unpleasant, because a small crease deepened between our Luna's brows.

Fortunately, Mom and my sisters rushed over to offer their congratulations, straighten my hair and make me kiss half-a-dozen children who grew with frightful speed. Maddy joined us faster than I expected after parking her car, fishing for compliments on the roses matching the dress.

Alpha Blake cleared his throat. The sound was quiet, it ought to have been swallowed by the hubbub my relations made, but it froze everyone in their places. Even my infant nephew gulped and stopped his howling. If Blake had this much influence over colicky pups, Celeste was a lucky girl.

The multicolored knot around me fell apart, and I was left with Harold.

Until this point, I barely sensed his presence in the room. Apparently, he was standing so close, I could have leaned on his wide shoulder if I wanted. For some unfathomable reason, I wanted to, but didn't. I didn't even dare to look at his face, focusing straight ahead, on our Alpha.

"We gathered here to hear a mating pledge," Alpha Blake said, "of the Provisional Alpha of Californian Pack Harold Almarr and Luna Julia."

Harold's hand found mine. "I pledge to take Beta Julia as my mate and ask you to allow us to move to the Californian Pack, if they would have us."

"You have my leave," Blake said, "and an assurance that the home pack will always welcome you back."

If it doesn't pan out, he meant.

"What of you, Julia?"

I was ready to say basically the same thing Harold did, but suddenly all the faces, the windows and chairs swirled around me. If things didn't pan out, Harold and I would be back here, but things wouldn't be the same at all. Everything would change.

"Julia? Do you want us to reschedule the ceremony for another day? It was hardly enough time for anyone to make such an important choice." Luna Celeste's blue eyes shone beacon-bright at me, pointing the way out.

Make an excuse, delay the ceremony, then forget it as a bad dream and return to my comfortable existence in Grauberg where I knew everyone, and everyone liked me. Perhaps they didn't like me, but they knew me. They also loved to gossip, so they would say I rushed to seize my last chance, but came back to my senses.

Harold's cool fingers squeezed my hand lightly. He whispered my name under his breath. Goddess, if this was real, if Harold Almarr was genuinely mating me, and if this was twelve years ago...but it wasn't.

"Thank you, but there is no need." I took a deep breath in. "I pledge to take the Provisional Alpha Harold as my mate and ask you to allow us to move to the Californian Pack, if they would have us."

Blake repeated what he had said to Harold to acknowledge my pledge, and the ceremony was over. I wiggled my brows at Mom, yearning to ask her if the effort of hustling my entire family here for this was worth it. I was so distracted by it, that I didn't realize that Harold let go of my hand to grab me by the shoulders to turn me toward him.

He was still holding the bunch of roses Maddy gave us, and a single thorn that she had missed when she was cleaning the stems pickled my bare skin. I gasped, finally looking up at him.

Dead inside, he had described himself, and when he tilted his head down to seal our pledge with a kiss, his description was accurate. The sparkle I spotted in his red eyes was gone, and his face was a mask. His lips barely brushed mine, and I let them slip away, too startled to tease him by deepening the kiss. It was the coldest kiss in the history of passionless kisses, but my relations clapped and howled even for this sketched show of affection. If only everyone else was as easily fooled, I would have nothing to worry about.

Celeste rose from the chair at the head of the large round table normally used for the Council of the Betas and glided to my side. Her white guiding wolf who slept through the whole thing climbed from under the table to ease her way between Harold and me. Celeste then drew me to one side of the large room, leaving her Alpha to congratulate Blake and my family.

"Julia, I don't know you as well as I would have liked," she said, "but I am troubled. Are you happy with this arrangement?"

For an uncomfortable second, under her perceptive gaze, my heart squeezed with an absurd suspicion that she, too, had known my deepest secret. But how could she? Even when I attended to Blake's poisoning, I was careful to never reveal the source of my knowledge about the mating drugs Scarlett had used. So, Celeste must believe I was an unmated she-wolf who never went into heat, and all I needed was a response that could convince her I was fine. Also, I had to avoid outright lies. Lunas could sense falsehood, and Luna Celeste was a Stargazer of the World, with the magic insight into her pack.

"I'm not happy, but I am satisfied," I said, selecting my words carefully. "Harold and I go way back as friends, and I want him to have this chance to succeed or fail."

Celeste studied me for a long moment. "I see. But you're also leaving your work at the hospital. It can't be easy."

"I've already started transferring my responsibilities to the human doctors." I was glad to be on the safer ground. "Of course, I still need to move the werewolf-specific medical files for Astrid and Gray to take over once they graduate." Not that it would be necessary, if I returned from California after the Fall Equinox.

If? Not if, when.

This small mental blunder bothered me more than it should have, and more than Celeste's thoughtful, level gaze as if she was trying to peek into my thoughts. She glanced down at her stomach, and I hurried to reassure her. "Don't worry, I'll definitely be here in November for the delivery."

Celeste's gaze swept up. "As much as I would prefer a werewolf doctor, Julia, you would be insanely busy between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice."

Oops, I put my foot in my mouth again. I had to think like the future Luna to Harold's future Alpha, because it was too late to abandon the whole thing.

I could only hope that concern on Celeste's face was because of her thinking I was totally unprepared for the role thrust upon me, not because she saw through my plan to doom Harold to failure.

"It's your first baby, and Blake and you did so much for us! I'll absolutely be here." I promised, then raised my voice from the confidential whisper so the entire room could hear me. "Thank you for coming, everyone. Unfortunately, I really need to get to the hospital right away, because Harold wants to hike the Pacific Crest Trail..."

Harold glanced at me above my sisters' heads. His arms were taken up by my smallest and loudest nephew instead of the flowers. My head swam.

"...and..." I had never seen him hold a baby before, let alone so snugly. He seemed ridiculously content doing it. My throat labored around a sudden obstruction. I had to breathe. Had to say something, or at least finish my stammering sentence. "There are...some files..."

"Pacific Crest?" Blake asked as the words deserted me. He was frowning. Great, I made both my Luna and my Alpha frown in the space of less than an hour. Yay me! "Wouldn't you two want to be in California as soon as possible?"

"He...he can explain!" I pointed at Harold. "I have to work before we set out...ah. I really have to go!"

Since the werewolf politicians used babies for photo ops as often as the human ones, I should get used to the sight of my fake mate around children. But not this afternoon. I had as much politics and Harold as I could handle for one afternoon. I turned my tail and fled the pledge party.