Page 136 of The Rust in Her Hair

"And who the hell are all of you?"

His gaze snags on Owen and holds. Something clicks behind those cold eyes. "I know you." He points one long finger at my beta. "You work at the Vullium Museum."

Owen doesn't correct the asshole. He doesn't tell him it's the university library three miles from here that has his damn name on it. "Yes, sir."

"They're Adrian's family," Lyra says smoothly, stepping in. "This is Owen, and his husband, Nico. And his cousin, Mack."

I tip my hat.

Aldric doesn't even look at me. His eyes are already back on his daughter, then on Adrian, and he's plainly decided the rest of us aren't worth the breath it'd take to acknowledge.

"I'd like to speak with my daughter alone," he says. "I have a right⁠—"

"That's not going to happen." Adrian says it before the old man's finished, flat and final. "Lyra is my mate. My property, by the law you love so much." His voice never rises, but there's steel running all the way through it now. "You'll have to kill me before you get one second alone with her."

For a long moment, Aldric stares at him.

Then something shifts, and he gives a thin, tight smile. "Fine," he says. "The two of you, then. My office."

He turns and walks, expecting them to follow, and Lyra pulls in a breath and goes, Adrian's hand settling at the small of her back as they move after him into the crowd.

Beside me, Nico's whole big body jerks forward, half a step, before he catches himself. Every muscle in him is straining to follow. But he can't. He's supposed to be a relative through marriage. He's got no reason on God's earth to trail after Aldric Van Houten's daughter, and showing his hand now would blow the whole thing wide open.

Owen's hand finds Nico's and holds on. The beta's eyes have gone tight and distant, and I know he's feeling something come down that bond, some spike off Nico that the rest of us can't touch.

"I'm following them," Nico whispers, not looking at either of us. "I don't care how it looks. I'm not letting her out of my sight in this house. Stay here," Nico commands me and Owen, then he moves, peeling off through the crowd after his mate, keeping enough distance to look like a man wandering the party.

Every part of me wants to go after him. My feet are already itching to move, to fall in behind Nico and get my own eyes on our girl. But Nico said stay. And I don't question my pack alpha.

"Wait." Owen moves to follow Nico, but then someone yells his name.

"Dr. Cruz, is that you?"

The beta stops cold as an older she-alpha is bearing down on him from the side, silver-haired and beaming with a martini in hand.

Owen's eyes cut back to the crowd, to where Nico vanished into all those black tuxedos, and for a second I watch him get torn clean down the middle.

Then he pulls his manners on and turns to meet her. "Mrs. Tordelle."

"It is you." The woman lets out a breathy laugh. "I saw your exhibit at the fundraiser last month, the collection on alpha literary achievements. It was marvelous." She touches Owen’s forearm. "Now, I do have questions about the provenance on some of those detailed vases."

"Of course." Owen's smile is easy, but his eyes flicker to me over her shoulder, quick and helpless.

I give him the smallest shrug, then pull out my phone and pull up Nico’s number.

Text me if you need anything. I’ll be out here causing chaos.

Then I roll my shoulders and take one more look around the ballroom, at all that crystal and gold and old money.

"Well," I say to nobody. "Guess I'll go see what's worth eating. Or stealin’."

Then I set off to case the fanciest house I've ever stood in, because if I've got to be here, I might as well see what kind of trouble I can kick up.

Busted Seams

Lyra

My heart slams against my ribs the whole way to my father’s office.