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    Amber’s POV


    I stood in the entryway of the banquet hall for a long moment as I looked around the room, searching for people I knew – mainly Noah, or some others from the hospital.


    Unfortunately, others saw me first and must have recognized me. Before I knew it, the entire room was pping, apuding for <ol><li> Someone even whistled. </li></ol>


    My cheeks burned and I immediately wanted to make my escape. How would it look though, for me to just about face and walk out? My reputation was flying high right now. A maneuver like that would surely be viewed as a slight by the upper ss, and as


    they were most of my patients, I couldn’t turn my back on my patrons.


    Not until I had enough money to take care of Alice.


    For now, I had to mingle. One loop around the room and then I’d make my mistake.


    Stepping forward into the room, I was immediately embraced by one group after the next. If I had any doubts that there would be


    moments of awkwardness, those fears were quashed.


    Though I was embarrassed, group after group talked with me as if I was an old friend. In fact, I didn’t have to do much talking at all, as most of the other guests were perfectly happy to fill in any long pauses with talk about themselves or their ailments or how


    much they’ve heard about me.


    It was a relief, honestly, to not have to search for my own topics of small talk.


    I wouldn’t say I was having fun, exactly, but I was starting to rx when I made it about halfway through the room. Though, I


    couldn’t help steal longing nces at the door.


    At some point in the evening, an orchestra began to y.


    “Oh!” said someone in the group I was currently mingling with. “They started the music. I wonder who the Alpha will pick to start


    the dancing!”


    “It has to be Olivia, doesn’t it?” said someone else.


    “No, I don’t think so….” said one of the others. She looked at me strangely and I stilled. “Healer Amanda, have you been to this


    pack before? I swear this isn’t the first time I’ve seen you.”


    That my secret wasn’t sshed all over the front page of the tabloids yet had to be a small miracle, but I knew it was only a matter of time. With my face exposed, sooner orter, people would start connecting Healer Amanda to Amber, the Alpha’s secret ex-


    wife.


    With the way this guest was looking at me, maybe they already figured it out….


    “Amber,” Julian said from behind me. I turned, and what I saw made my breath catch in my throat.


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    He was absolutely gorgeous in a ck tuxedo. His dark hair was slicked back, his blue eyes sparkling as his gaze searched my face


    before ncing down at my dress.


    “You look…” He rubbed his hand over his mouth, his fingers cupping his jaw. “I don’t even know how to describe it.”


    “Good?” I offered.


    “That’s not enough,” he said. “Better than good. I don’t think there’s words enough to describe it.”


    He was oozing with so much charm that I should have been turned off. Instead, I was eating up every single word, just like I was a younger version of myself falling for him in a dark club, alcohol on our breath.


    The cheap booze from back then was reced with champagne now. And this wasn’t a dark and dirty bar, but a brightly lit banquet


    room.


    We were older, smarter, not as drunk.


    Nothing right now trulypared to back then.


    Yet my heart still made the connection. My heart still longed for the way things were at the beginning, before the hurt and the lies


    and the distance.


    I was kidding myself, caught up in the magic of this banquet and my dress and the glitter of diamonds hanging from the


    chandeliers.


    But it was like I couldn’t help myself.


    When he held out his hand, I ced mine and his, and let him lead me out onto the dance floor.


    His arm went around my waist. I ced my hand on his shoulder.


    The music continued, a new song, perfect for dancing.


    Following Julian’s lead, I fell into step with him. Slowly, we circled around the dance floor with everyone watching. I was nervous


    at first, but as soon as I caught eyes with Julian, it was as if I was transported to another ce and time.


    It was just the two of us, dancing alone in the seclusion of our kitchen, with big band music ying on the radio.


    Julian would whisper something naughty into my ear, and I wouldugh. The dancing would dissolve into kissing and sometimes other things.


    We were always good at the physical part, even if we were lousy at everything else.


    I remembered his words then, as suddenly and clearly as if he said them to me right in this moment.


    We are only about sex and money….


    Inside, my heart closed up tightly. Whatever softness I had begun to feel for him dried up again like a river in a desert. Only a trickle remained, and only that as a remnant of our mating bond.


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    Julian continued to hold me gently as we danced. His eyes remained on mine, his taking on concern now that I closed myself off.


    In another universe, perhaps we would have danced like this at our wedding, celebrating with the pack.


    But now?


    It just made me think of all that I did have. All that he denied me by forcing our rtionship into the dark.


    Never again.


    Olivia’s POV


    That bitch.


    Julian had chosen Amber as his partner of the first dance of the night. A privilege that in that past had belonged to Olivia. Who did


    this wretch believe she was?


    Olivia didn’t care if this was the world-renowned Healer Amanda. She didn’t care that she was Julian’s ex-wife.


    Amber was a woman of Julian’s past. And that was where she should have stayed.


    Why did she evene here? Maybe she was after his money again? He was too trusting, so gullible to even let things with her get


    this far.


    If she asked for money, would he give it? Couldn’t he see how she was talking advantage of him?


    Worse, Olivia could hear the whispers of the other guests. They too could see the closeness of the pair as they danced, and the


    lovesick way Julian was looking at Amber.


    “Is that…?” someone whispered, as I heard someone else say, “But isn’t she dead?”


    “I think that’s Amber?”


    “Amber? Alpha’s ex-wife? She died in that horrible ne crash, I thought. No one survived.”


    “I’m telling you that is her. I remember her picture in the paper.”


    “She’s back from the dead?”


    “She must have survived.”


    That Amber had be the hot topic of the evening made Olivia extremely irate. She had spent tens of thousands of dors on this designer dress, and barely anyone evenplimented her.


    Now, her man was out there dancing with some other woman.


    She was furious. She needed to find a way to ruin this moment for them, for Amber.


    Something that would humiliate her so bad that she would be run out of the pack.


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    Oliviandet on an idea and had to fight to withhold her smirk. Leaning toward one of the group of gossipers, she stirred the pot.


    spid you know that Amber cheated on Julian during their marriage?”


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