Chapter 44: The Royal Dance

Roxanne woke up still replaying the previous night’s dance in her head, staring at the ceiling for several long seconds, remembering the way Kai had caught her, the way he’d looked at her afterward, the way he’d told her she was beautiful. Then she groaned and pulled the blanket over her face.

Isla noticed immediately. "You’re thinking about him."

"I’m thinking about the banquet."

"You were thinking about Kai before I even said his name."

"I hate you."

Isla laughed, reminding her that since they’d won the Royal Dance Competition, they were opening the royal dance again tonight. Roxanne sat up abruptly.

"Right. That."

"You sound terrified."

"I’m not terrified."

"Then why did you just look like you wanted to jump out the window?"

Roxanne threw a pillow at her instead of answering, because she wasn’t afraid of the dance itself anymore. She was nervous about what dancing with Kai kept making her feel.

The Founders’ Banquet demanded something more formal than the festival had, with representatives from powerful packs arriving for the evening, and Isla helped her sort through outfits, rejecting one after another until she held up something with too much detail for Roxanne’s comfort.

"This."

"It’s too much."

"It’s a banquet."

"It’s still school."

"It’s a royal school."

Roxanne relented, and while getting ready, Isla asked, out of nowhere, if she liked him.

"No," Roxanne said, far too fast.

"I didn’t even say who."

Roxanne froze completely, and Isla burst out laughing at how thoroughly she’d just given herself away. "You’re terrible at this."

"I don’t like him."

"Fine."

"I don’t."

"Okay."

"Stop smiling."

Downstairs, the four brothers were already waiting, and Liam spotted her first, letting out a low whistle. "Well, well, well."

"Behave," Lucien said flatly.

"I’m just saying she looks good."

Roshan offered his own version, simpler and sincere. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you."

Lucien gave her a calm nod. "You’re ready?"

"I think so."

Then she looked toward Kai, who had gone quiet, his eyes fixed on her in a way that made her shift on her feet. "What?"

"Nothing."

"You’re staring."

"I know."

She had no idea what to do with that answer, and Liam grinned wide enough to make it worse. "Someone’s getting brave."

Kai ignored him completely, and Roxanne tried and failed to hide her own smile.

The banquet hall glowed with elegant lights, long tables, live music drifting through the space, banners hanging alongside enormous dessert displays, everything grand but still recognizably academy. Roxanne settled in beside Isla and the brothers, and the usual chaos returned instantly, Liam stealing something off her plate.

"That’s mine."

"Finders keepers."

"You literally took it from my plate."

"Exactly. Found it."

Roshan quietly replaced it with another piece without a word, prompting Liam to accuse him of encouraging her, and Lucien sighed at both of them. Kai watched Roxanne laugh through the whole exchange, and this time when she caught him looking, she didn’t glance away first. Their eyes held for a moment, she smiled, and he smiled back, small but unmistakable.

Joanna approached not long after, offering a congratulations that clearly carried something underneath it. "You’ve gotten comfortable around the Moonstones."

"I’m sitting at a table."

"You know what I mean."

"Actually, I don’t."

Before Joanna could push further, Kai spoke. "She earned her place here."

"I wasn’t talking to you."

"You were talking about her."

Lucien added, calm and final, "And that’s enough."

Joanna, realizing she wasn’t getting the reaction she wanted, walked away. Roxanne looked at Kai.

"I could’ve handled that."

"I know."

"Then why did you say something?"

"Because I wanted to," he said, and the answer stayed with her longer than she expected, since it wasn’t about thinking she needed rescuing at all. He’d simply chosen to stand beside her.

She stepped outside for air a little later and found Dorian waiting, and she already knew she didn’t want this conversation before it started.

"Congratulations," he said.

"Thank you."

"You seem different."

"People change."

He glanced toward the hall. "You’re really going to dance with Kai again?"

"Yes."

"You two seem—"

"Happy?" she finished for him.

His jaw tightened. She studied him for a moment. "You don’t get to ask me questions like that anymore."

"I was just—"

"You made your choice." She said it plainly, without any anger behind it, and that lack of edge landed harder than shouting would have. "You chose Arabella. I accepted it."

"I didn’t think you’d move on this quickly," he said quietly.

"You don’t get to decide how long I was supposed to wait."

She walked away without another word, no dramatics, no tears, just a quiet sense of finality.

Back inside, the announcer called everyone in for the first dance of the royal banquet, performed by the winners of the festival competition. Kai and Roxanne. The crowd applauded, and her stomach flipped as Kai approached and held out his hand.

"Ready?"

"Not really."

"Good."

"Good?"

"You don’t have to pretend you’re not nervous."

She looked at his hand, then took it. "What if I mess up?"

His eyes stayed on hers. "Look at me. Then you won’t."

The music started, and at first she focused entirely on her feet, until Kai turned her and she followed without thinking about it, one step, another, a spin. His hand rested against her waist, hers settled against his shoulder, and unlike the competition, this dance moved slower, more intimate, with nothing left to prove. No judges. No score. Just the two of them.

She glanced around briefly and saw hundreds of people watching, and Kai gently turned her back to face him. "Look at me." She did, and the rest of the room disappeared. They moved together through the final sequence, and when he pulled her closer, she didn’t hesitate at all. He caught her during the final turn, and they ended pressed close, faces only inches apart.

The music ended. Neither moved.

For one long heartbeat, she thought he might kiss her. His gaze dropped briefly to her mouth before returning to her eyes, and her heart pounded loud enough that she wondered if he could feel it. Then the applause broke the moment, and they stepped apart.

Backstage afterward, still trying to steady her breathing, Kai found her again.

"You were beautiful."

"You said that yesterday."

"I meant it yesterday too."

"You were beautiful too," she said, and immediately heard how it sounded.

"Beautiful?" he asked, eyebrow lifting.

"Don’t."

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face did."

He laughed quietly, and for once she didn’t feel embarrassed by the attention at all. She actually liked it.

Liam burst in a second later, looking between them. "Why do you both look guilty?"

She grabbed a napkin and threw it at him. "Get out."

"I knew something happened!"

"Nothing happened!"

He looked at Kai, who said nothing, which prompted a dramatic gasp. "Something definitely happened."

Much later, back in her quiet dorm room, Roxanne sat on the edge of her bed and pulled off her shoes, thinking about Dorian for the first time all evening. For months she’d measured everything against him, what he’d done, who he’d chosen, how badly he’d hurt her. Tonight, she’d barely thought about him at all.

Instead she remembered Kai’s hand at her waist, his voice telling her to look at him, the ease with which she’d trusted him without a second thought. That scared her more than anything else, because she finally had to admit what she’d been avoiding.

She liked him. Not because of fate. Not because he was a royal Lycan. Not because anyone had told her they belonged together.

She liked Kai.

"This is a terrible idea," she whispered to the empty room, though there was no real conviction behind it. She thought back to the moment after the dance, their faces inches apart, and her heart picked up speed all over again. She touched her fingers to her lips, then pulled them away quickly.

She’d

promised herself she would never fall for someone again.

But maybe falling wasn’t the dangerous part.

Maybe the dangerous part was that, for the first time since Dorian broke her heart, she actually wanted to.