#Chapter 39: Damage Control

DEREK I straightened my tie in the mirrored window, adjusting the knot for the third time even though it hadn’t moved. The glass reflected a version of myself I recognized—groomed, composed, steady. But on the inside? I was coiled wire. Elena stood nearby, quiet, trying to keep her breathing steady. She was dressed simply—classy but unpretentious, like always. Her hair was down, loose around her shoulders. She stood tall, chin up, eyes forward, her expression fixed in the kind of stoic calm you had to learn young if you were born into power. But I could still feel the tension rolling off of her. Since returning to Moonstone—since the Alpha Ball—Elena had always worn confidence like a second skin—elegant, untouchable, a force in her own right. But now…there was a tightness in her jaw. A flicker of something brittle behind her eyes. She was holding herself together with sheer will. I’d seen it before, in soldiers right before battle. Or a funeral where the casket was st