Chapter Thirteen

“I NEED YOU to keep your head.” Mikel’s voice was steady.

Violet could barely hear it over the noise in her head. Her knee jumped constantly, and her fingers were already around the door handle, eager to be there, to be out of the truck and then to Lila. It had already taken too long. He’d insisted they stop and pick up Red and Dani on the way to town for reasons she didn’t understand but hadn’t gotten far in arguing with.

“Do you hear me, Violet?” The intensity in his voice made her want to snap and insist he didn’t get it, none of them could, because it was Lila.

She’d been protecting her for years, raising her between the cracks of their dead mother and their cold, pious father. Now, her little sister was here and at the mercy of this fucked-up society that they were suddenly no closer to dismantling with the hope of Magnus’s information gone.

The truck swerved abruptly off the road. She heard one of their friends gasp in the back seat. They jerked to a rough stop. Irritation boiled her blood.

“Yes, Mikel, for fuck’s sake, yes. Just go!”

“Hey!” His voice was louder than hers, deeper, and it shocked her just enough to drag her back from the thoughts churning over and over, consuming her, and the hot crack of her temper that demanded they get there, now.

“I’ll help her, Violet, but I need to know you’ll keep your damned head.”

She’d barely taken a breath to tell him to drive when his hand was on her shoulder, pushing back against the seat.

“Control it,” he demanded, and something in his voice forced her mind to settle down and take notice. Her confusion must have shown on her face.

“Your eyes, baby,” he explained, softer.

Shock spilled hot through her. Paying attention, she became aware her vision had the slightly amber tint it took on when her eyes changed to gold.

“We’ll work this out, but this is no place for your wolf. I won’t let anything happen to her, but I have to be able to trust you can handle yourself.” His hand stayed tight on her shoulder, keeping her against the back of her seat until she responded.

Violet wrestled with her temper that was howling, insisting they were wasting time. It took three long breaths before she could convince her eyes to change back. “I’m okay.” She forced her voice to be steady. “I just want to get there so we can figure this out.”

The fact she was lying pinged somewhere deep inside her, but she held his gaze. She didn’t just need to get there, she needed Lila safe, and she’d do whatever it took to make that happen, like she always had.

He studied her for a long, maddening moment while the truck idled on, then his eyes flicked to the rearview.

“If I end up…occupied—” The pause made Violet’s stomach roll. “—catch her before she gets out of hand?” he asked Dani.

“I’m not some child who needs babysitting—”

“Done,” they replied over each other.

The truck pulled back onto the road, and Violet seethed.

“This doesn’t have to be a fight,” Dani spoke up, always the damned diplomat. “Let’s go in easy, see what they plan to do with her. She’s just a kid, right?”

“She’s eighteen in—” It took Violet a second to search out the date in her head. “Like a week.”

“Okay,” Dani said, in her usual cool and carefully neutral way, “so let’s see how this plays out. As it stands, we have nothing on Kane, and our word won’t count for shit with the rest of the town. Right now, he has all the cards. We have a better chance of a good outcome if we play by the rules until something changes.”

“Do you think they know you visited her?” Red asked, fear audible in her voice. Violet’s already hollow stomach churned with the knowledge that she’d dragged her friends into this.

“Doubt it.” That Dani sounded so unrattled eased her guilt some. “Nobody followed me. I was careful. I never told her my name.”

“I’ll take the blame if it comes to it.” Mikel’s hands tightened on the wheel. “I’ll say I asked you to drop off a letter for me, and you didn’t know what was in it.”

They swung onto Main Street, as Dani said, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves until we know more.”

Cars lined both sides of the road. Violet didn’t remember it being that busy when she’d been dragged into the square as an outsider, but the memory felt faded now, smudged, and blurred by the other times she’d walked this street, like at the bonfire. How normal life in the Bluff had become to her. Mikel weaved through the narrowed space with his huge beast of a vehicle. He parked on a corner in a way that wasn’t strictly legal. Violet couldn’t care.

She was quick out of the truck, eyes on the packed square. People poured out of the space and into the street, some pressed in close like they were trying to be nearer to the center, while others hung back in groups and pairs, talking and laughing, relaxing and waiting for whatever would come.

“What the fuck?” Red said from behind her.

“This isn’t any old ceremony,” Dani declared as she joined them. “Something’s going on.”

A flash of familiar dark hair in the crowd caught Violet’s attention. She ran before she thought, before she drew another breath. Her feet pounded the pavement until she reached the edge of the square and faltered momentarily. Breaching the wall of people wasn’t easy.

“Violet!” Mikel’s voice rang at her back as she pushed through the outer row, dipping under an arm and squeezing sideways between a gap. The closer she got, the less she cared to be polite, shoving her way between bodies, commotion erupting around her, until the dark-haired girl was in sight again. She turned at the disturbance in the crowd, and Violet came face to face with a stranger. Her heart fell.

“Attention, please,” a voice at the center of the square demanded.

Adrenaline surged; then she was pushing again, darting in and out, bulldozing her way through bodies while they as a collective turned inward to the center where she knew her sister must be.

Lila. She stumbled out onto the bare cobblestones, just a step in front of the innermost row of spectators. Pale skin, long, dark hair, and familiar hazel eyes greeted Violet.

“Violet!” Lila screamed. An unknown man held her arm in his grip, her skin white around his tight fingers. The minute their eyes locked, Lila started to tug, struggle, and lean toward her, using her body weight to try to pull away. “Violet, he killed Mom! He killed Mom!”

She was frozen. The words doused her like ice water. Something hot and thick built in her blood. She’d suspected it, told herself she knew it, but hearing it confirmed was a punch to the gut.

The man holding her sister fought to wrestle her under control. Kane stepped up beside them. Violet’s eyes snapped to his, then he was bathed in the amber glow of her wolf’s eyes.

“Violet!” Lila screamed.

She lunged.

“Violet.” Mikel’s breath was hot on her neck, his arm like a vice around her middle as he caught her. “Enough.” It was a growl.

She thrashed against him, reason lost to adrenaline and the hot bay of vengeance in her blood.

“Enough,” he insisted again. Another arm came around her and she was lifted back against him, up off her feet while he dragged her back into the crowd.

Kane smiled.

Mikel’s hand covered her mouth before she could shout and held tight.

“Control it,” he demanded in her ear, and she railed against him, pushing and pushing and struggling in his hold. She needed Lila, free and safe; she needed blood, hot and sticky, falling on her face like rain. Kane, Magnus—they had to pay.

“Enough,” Mikel demanded again, the pads of his fingers pressing into the sides of her jaw. “Enough.”

The command struck something in her, and she was still, shaking in his hold, dazed, and no longer struggling.

“State your name, young lady,” Kane said to her sister. When she didn’t react, Mikel’s hand fell away from her mouth.

“Lila—Lila Page. Violet—”

A clap rang out. It took Violet’s brain three long seconds to realize her sister had been backhanded. Mikel’s hand was back over her mouth, and she was held in a vise-like grip against his chest, breathing hard while everything in her demanded she destroy the man who had hit her sister.

“Wait,” he breathed into her ear, and she wanted to punch him.

“As most of you have realized judging by the turnout today, this isn’t a typical claiming ceremony. In fact, this outsider wasn’t brought here by one of us. She came to the Bluff of her own accord with knowledge beyond what is permitted outside these walls.”

A concerned murmur rippled through the crowd.

Lila found her gaze again between the bodies in front of her. Their eyes met, and Violet watched Lila’s face twist from fear to confusion.

“Your eyes,” Mikel whispered in explanation while Lila stared at her with a look Violet could only decipher as horror, maybe disbelief.

The warm, safe feeling allowing her to change her irises back was so far out of her reach that Violet didn’t even try. She did try to convey with just a look that it would be all right, to tell Lila to just hold on, that she’d fix this like she’d fixed every scraped knee, every bad day, for the last twelve years.

“The council has determined this human too dangerous to be permitted to leave the Bluff. Her knowledge is a threat to the preservation of our nature and the success of our pack. Her connection with Mikel Davis’s mate, Violet Page, is apparent. They are sisters.” Kane let the sentiment hang, and Violet felt the space that formed around her and Mikel. Where they’d once been two bodies in the crush, they were alone now, in their own bubble while the energy around them became distrustful, hostile.

“Quiet,” Mikel demanded into her ear, then he dropped his hand from her mouth. He held there, stoic behind her while dozens of eyes settled on them.

“A full investigation will be launched to determine who among us has compromised the safety of our community and violated our most sacred laws. At the vote of the elder council, it has been determined that this outsider came here through unendorsed channels and poses a threat to our way of life.”

Kane’s gaze found her, and Violet felt the words before he said them. She knew what was coming. He was daring her, taunting and tormenting her. “As such she will be destroyed.”

Mikel’s grip tightened on her.

“She’s just a child.”

Violet whirled in his grasp to see Daniella walking forward through the bodies that seemed to part easily for her. “How old can she be? Sixteen? Seventeen?” She oozed a smooth and calculating charisma most of the career politicians Violet had grown up with could only aspire to. “Surely, she can be rehabilitated. After all, we need new blood, do we not?”

“Daniella Hawthorne.” Kane rubbed his hands together as he took stock of his unexpected opponent. “Valid points. But the council has already decided. Under usual circumstances we would, of course, strive to add her to the bloodline, but we take exposing our community very seriously. The elder council feels a precedent should be set. A human life lost for the continued safety of the countless descendants who live here.”

Violet was tense, coiled tight, and unable to think beyond “destroyed” and Lila in the same sentence.

“She didn’t ask to be told,” another voice spoke up.

She was surprised to see Tim step forward from the crowd, brow furrowed, gaze darting between his father and Lila. She hadn’t thought about him since the explosion.

Kane seemed just as surprised when he turned to appraise his son.

“All the good hearts in this community are admirable, but as it is, the council has already decided,” he declared, voice devoid of any real feeling.

The words felt like they should have carried a weight of finality, but Violet could only see him as a pretender. Yet her dread still kept her cold, on edge.

“Mikel…” It was a whisper, and as she said it, her brain still wasn’t sure what would come after: a plea, a question, or an apology.

It didn’t matter. The verdict hung pregnant in the air. Violet was aware of Dani closing in beside them, and his words from earlier came back to her. Fear—for Lila, for him, and for how this would all end came to call. Kane nodded, and the fear was swallowed in a blaze of indignation.

In a blink, Lila was shoved. She landed hard on her knees on the cobblestones while the man who’d held her whipped the bow from behind his back and nocked an arrow. Violet twisted, pushed off her feet, and surged forward. Mikel staggered but kept hold of her.

The man drew the quiver back. Dani crashed into Violet and Mikel, and Violet was swallowed by the smell of her perfume while her arms came around her, and Mikel shoved her into Dani’s hold as he let her go.

The arrow flew. She felt his muscles tense, ready to leap.

“Wait!” Time moved fast and slow.

Mikel’s breath left him in a pained oof. She screamed.

One second the arrow was heading straight for Lila’s chest, then she was two feet to the side, still crouched, shoulders rising and falling fast while the arrow clattered uselessly to the cobblestones where she’d been a split second before.

“Wait!” Violet heard Dani demand again. Mikel was still beside her, half stooped, holding his stomach where she realized Dani had socked him to stop him.

Lila raised her head, dark hair stuck to her wet cheeks, eyes big and scared and ringed in gold.

The gasp that left Violet echoed in the crowd, then their mutual surprise gave way to uproar. The minute the stupor broke, Violet tried again to get to her sister.

“Wait,” Dani demanded, struggling to stop her. “This changes things. Just wait…” She was winded with the effort of holding Violet.

Mikel grabbed her again, and Violet shoved hard at them both, done with being restrained.

“That’s my little sister, you motherfucking thundercunts, get off me!”

Kane regained his composure, right as Lila found her eyes again.

“Quiet!” he demanded. “Quiet, please!”

The crowd was slow to comply.

“It’s okay,” Violet promised her sister, hoping she could read her lips though she probably couldn’t hear her. “It’s okay.”

Struggling was forgotten. Panic bloomed on Lila’s face. She was pale and wide eyed, looking between Violet and the trees outside the square.

“No,” Violet warned her, “no, don’t. It’s okay, just—”

Lila bolted. Fear curled in Violet’s gut. The archer raised his bow again.

Tim stepped out of the crowd and into her sister’s path in one inhumanly quick move, bodily blocking her and snatching her against his chest. His eyes stayed on the bow until it was lowered.

Violet’s heart pounded while Tim held Lila against him, one hand up like it was enough to stay the arrow. When the bowman faltered and lowered the weapon, Tim said something quiet and close to her sister’s ear that they were too far away to hear. Lila considered, nodded, and let him lead her back to the middle of the square. He stayed with a hand around her arm, keeping himself between her and the man with the arrows.

“It’s okay,” Violet told her again, when their eyes met, and held up her hands. “Wait, just wait.”

“Enough!” Kane roared. Silence finally settled over the square. “Due to this new development, action will be delayed until the council can meet, and the circumstances surrounding this girl can be investigated. Until such a time, she will be isolated at the Town Hall to await a verdict.”

“Let it go for now,” Dani said beside them.

Her voice seemed to come from a long way off. Whether she was talking to her or Mikel, Violet had no idea. Her eyes were riveted to Lila’s, desperate longing clawing her insides as she watched Tim hand her back to the bowman with a long, dark look. He said one last thing to Lila and disappeared into the crowd. More men stepped forward, and Violet recognized Jared among them.

“Violet!” Lila screamed for her as they surrounded her, blocking her from view as a car pushed through the crowd on the opposite side of the square.

“Let her go,” Dani insisted again, like she had any fucking choice. Violet seethed.

A car door slammed, audible over the sound of voices, then she watched the black roof as it disappeared back onto Main Street. When it was out of view, she whirled back around. Kane was already gone.

 

“YOUR MOM DIED in the explosion?” Mikel asked an hour later while she was pacing the length of their living room.

Daniella had demanded they wait while she went to talk to her dad. Not knowing what else to do, they’d dropped her and Red off and come back to the house, much to Violet’s dismay. With the adrenaline just starting to leave her, she felt unreal, totally disconnected. She was stuck on a loop and replaying images of Lila from the square, over and over.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were guilty enough,” she explained, only half focused on the conversation. Part of her brain was still split off, still working over the issue of Lila and Kane, searching for a resolution to any of it. Urgency pounded in her veins, yet everyone around her seemed content to wait. She thought about her sister’s scared eyes, ringed in gold.

“You should have hated me,” Mikel muttered darkly, wringing his hands where he perched on the sofa.

“No, I hated Magnus and later Kane. Even if your dad had been to blame, it still wasn’t you.” It was half the explanation she’d wanted to give him when this finally came up, and it lacked any depth, but it was all she was capable of with worry for her sister heavy on her mind.

“Lila’s eyes.” She switched tracks. “How was that possible?” An idea occurred to her that left her sick. “Could someone have bitten her?”

Mikel shook his head. “They’d be golden all the time this early in a change. We know your mother was a descendant.” He paused for a second, and anxiety settled around her as she watched him choose his words. “Both Lila’s mother and her father must have been descendants also.”

Violet couldn’t imagine that to be true.

“If Magnus were a descendant, he’d be in here, trying to run this place, not just the city council in Frankston.”

Mikel shook his head, and that carefulness was there again.

“You were half descendant; she has to be full. There’s no way you have the same father.”

“What?” It wasn’t possible. Lila was her sister. Sure, she had the green and brown eyes of Magnus and her mother, and Lila had hazel, which she’d always assumed was just a mixture of the two. Lila was taller than her, leaner. Violet’s world view trembled on its axis, then she promptly decided it didn’t matter.

“So, she’s a full descendant, then they can’t kill her?” She ignored the shaking of her voice. Mikel did too.

“It’s unlikely,” he confirmed before rubbing a hand across his eyes. “None of this is going to end well. She links directly to you. The fact that she came here will lead back to us sooner or later. Kane’s already tried to kill you.” The words were tight, cold. “If he can convince the council you leaked information about the Bluff, he’ll have their blessing and the rest of the town’s to do it.”

He was right.

“I won’t let that happen,’’ Mikel vowed. “But we have to figure out what comes next.” He straightened up, squared his shoulders. “Even if I face off with Kane and win, the whole pack will be in chaos, and I doubt they’d accept me as a leader.”

It was a subtle shift, but Violet could see the alpha in him now. He spoke more and more about the pack rather than just the town, and he agonized over its future, the greater good.

“So, what’s the alternative?”

He shrugged, shoulders heavy. “We wait for Daniella to get a sense from her dad of what’s coming, how the council feels about Kane—”

“Lila knows something!” Violet cut him off in her excitement at the realization. “She said he killed Mom. She found something out, probably in his files, before she got here. If we could talk to her—”

The crunch of gravel interrupted.

“That’s probably Daniella,” Mikel explained. “Let’s see what she’s got to say and then look at our options, okay?”

Violet nodded.

“Hey,” Dani said when she let herself in, Red on her heels. “The council’s meeting now.” She wasted no time in updating them. “Dad was tight-lipped about it, but they’re definitely not going to kill her. She has to be a full descendant given her eyes. They’ll probably keep her at Town Hall until they finish the investigation, but once that’s done, she’ll almost certainly be integrated.”

Relief swam through Violet.

“So, about the investigation,” Red spoke up, perching on the arm of the recliner that Dani had claimed for herself, picking at the skin beside her nails. The nerves in her voice were evident. “What are we doing about that? Because we know it’s going to lead straight back to Violet, and probably Dani too.”

“I’ll say it was me,” Violet offered again. She owed that to Dani and Red. They’d only tried to help and didn’t deserve to end up in trouble.

“Well, I’m hoping it won’t come to that.” Dani, hands folded primly in her lap, was an almost comical juxtaposition to Red, who looked frantic, harrowed. “The investigation will take time. She was screaming about your mom, Violet; I’m guessing that’s why she came here. Whatever was in that file, she knows something. If we can find out what, I’m hoping it’ll be enough to prove what really happened at the Frankston massacre before the investigation comes to a head.”

“So, we need to talk to Lila,” Mikel declared.

“We need to talk to Lila,” Dani agreed.