Beside the Alpha

The invitation to the autumn gathering arrived on thick cream paper.

I turned it over twice before asking Ronan what people were expecting of me.

“Your presence, if you want to come.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He looked up from his desk.

I had begun bringing my notebook there after Maisie went to bed. He worked while I sorted old questions about the estate. Sometimes we spoke. Sometimes I simply liked hearing another person turn a page.

“Do they know who I am?”

“They know Maisie’s mother has returned. They know we’re seeing each other. They don’t know anything you haven’t agreed to share.”

“They will ask.”

“Probably.”

I appreciated that he did not pretend otherwise.

The gathering was held in the old hall beside the woods. Families arrived carrying covered dishes; visiting delegates came in dark cars with territorial flags. Children darted between tables until an elder threatened to assign them washing-up duties.

I wore the green dress again, this time with my mother’s pendant visible at my throat.

Before leaving my room, I took it off and put it back on twice.

Maisie watched from the bed.

“Does it hurt?”

“No.”

“Then why?”

I looked at the pale stone in the mirror.

“I used to hide it because I didn’t want people knowing who I was.”

“But they know now.”

“Some of them.”

She slid off the bed and came to inspect it.

“Did Grandma give it to you?”

“She did.”

Maisie touched it with one careful finger. The stone warmed faintly between us.

Her eyes widened.

“It likes me.”

I smiled despite the tightness in my throat.

“I think it recognizes you.”

She seemed to find this completely reasonable. She kissed the stone, then went to find her shoes.

I left the pendant outside my dress.

Maisie carried a tiny bag containing three stones, a biscuit, and an emergency ribbon. She refused to explain the emergency.

At the entrance Ronan offered his arm.

“Too formal?”

“I’m deciding.”

“Take your time. We can block the doorway all evening.”

I slipped my hand through his arm.

Inside, conversations shifted toward us. I felt the attention in my skin before I heard any words.

Ronan introduced me as Nora Ellis, Maisie’s mother. When he added, “And the woman I’m very glad has agreed to put up with me,” several people laughed, and my grip on his sleeve eased.

An elderly woman named Beatrice hugged me without warning, then apologized when I stiffened.

“My grandson was at the nursery where you worked. You taught him to stop being ashamed of his paws.”

I remembered a solemn boy who hid his hands beneath the table.

“Toby?”

She nodded, pleased.

Across the room, a child waved both perfectly human hands at me.

For a few minutes I stood there remembering that my missing years had contained more than loss. I had helped people. Some of them remembered.

Later, while Ronan spoke with a border delegate, a woman in a pearl-gray dress approached.

“It must have been difficult,” she said. “Working here without telling anyone who you were.”

The sympathy in her voice was too polished.

“There were things I needed to understand first.”

“And the false name?”

I felt the old impulse to apologize. Then I looked down at Maisie, who had begun gripping my skirt.

“Kept me alive long enough to find my daughter,” I answered.

The woman blinked.

“I’m sure everyone is pleased it has worked out.”

“I am,” I said. “Thank you.”

Ronan appeared at my shoulder a moment later.

“Everything all right?”

“Yes.” I looked at him. “I think so.”

He believed me and did not turn my small victory into a public confrontation.

Maisie’s ears appeared during the first speech. She was tired, overstimulated, and trying very hard to behave.

I gathered her into my lap. Someone nearby smiled at the sight, but Maisie covered her head.

“They’re looking.”

“Because you’re lovely. But you can tuck your face here if you want.”

She hid beneath my chin while I stroked her hair around the soft ears.

Ronan passed me a glass of water without being asked. He also slipped Maisie’s discarded shoes under my chair, where she could not lose them.

Those small acts steadied me more than any declaration could have.

After supper there was music. Maisie demanded the first dance with her father, then brought him back to me by the hand.

“Now Mama.”

“Very generous,” he told her.

“I need my biscuit.”

He drew me into the space between tables. I knew formal steps from childhood lessons, but my body remembered being watched with a critical eye.

“You’re counting,” he murmured.

“It’s an old habit.”

“I can make mistakes if it helps.”

“Maisie says your towers are already a concern.”

“My reputation is suffering.”

I looked up at him and forgot the next count.

His hand settled more securely at my waist. The room continued around us, but I stopped measuring every face.

On the way out, a visiting man paused beside the coat stand.

His gaze fixed on my pendant.

“An Ellis crescent,” he said. “I knew Evelyn.”

I turned so quickly that Ronan’s hand tightened around mine.

“Where?”

“Years ago. A council session.” His eyes moved over my face. “You have her eyes.”

He gave his name as Owen Harrow, a minor envoy from an eastern territory. I answered politely, but unease followed me into the car.

At home Ronan told Gareth about the encounter.

“Routine review,” he said when he saw my expression. “You haven’t done anything wrong by wearing your mother’s necklace.”

I looked down at the pale stone.

For years I had hidden it beneath my clothes. That night I left it visible until I undressed for bed.