Dinner was awkward after the guests saw me passionately kissing Zylon. He told me that they couldn't be informed about the proposal being rejected, so now what? I'm sitting on Zylon's right, glancing at him, and he looks at ease, pleased, even. He's been wearing that secret smile throughout dinner. Does he not care about losing alpha alliances? I turn my head to look at Hayes, who is staring at me intently, my head resting against his, glass in hand. 

The two girls, the alphas' daughters whose ...