Chapter 105
Violet's POV:
"No, Violet, I never wanted you dead!" The words dripped from Lucian's phone speaker.
"I think I might fall for Mr. Blackwood!"
"Please don't tell him, okay?"
"You have no right to judge me! You're the one who showed me that life!"
The conversation between Celeste and me unfolded chronologically, captured during her hospital visit after my kidnapping. Her own voice confessed to deliberately ignoring my cries for help, to strategically misdirecting Daemon and the others when they'd been searching for me. Every word landed like a physical blow in the suffocating silence of the lounge.
Celeste's footsteps faltered mid-stride. The color drained from her face in an instant, her baby-blue eyes flooding with panic as she lunged toward Lucian, desperate hands reaching for his phone. "Stop it! Turn it off!"
I moved to intercept her, positioning myself between Celeste and Lucian with deliberate calm. "Don't be in such a hurry," I said, my voice carrying across the space. "It's not finished yet."
Daemon's expression had transformed during the playback. What had been cold indifference moments ago darkened into something far more dangerous, his features settling into lines of barely contained fury. His jaw clenched tight enough that I could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin, and his hands curled into fists at his sides, knuckles white with pressure. The veins stood out stark against the backs of his hands, testament to the rage coursing through him. He'd genuinely been worried about me during that kidnapping. But he'd never imagined the girl he was protecting could have so coldly orchestrated my potential death while maintaining that innocent facade.
"Let him continue," Daemon said, his voice dropping to a register I'd rarely heard—cold and edged with lethal promise. The command cut through Celeste's protests like a blade, and I watched his attitude shift dramatically in real time, the last vestiges of protectiveness evaporating.
Ruby and Mason finally processed what was happening, their faces cycling through shock and calculation as they realized I still possessed backup copies despite their theft. They surged forward to reach Lucian, but Evan moved to block them.
The recording played on, moving to the second incident—the hospital in Silver Ridge, when I'd been fighting to preserve my pregnancy and Celeste had pushed me from the bed.
"Violet, Daemon loves me, not you... I won't let you destroy my happiness... You're trying to keep that baby, aren't you?"
"I guess your dream of using that baby as leverage is over now."
The words themselves were damning enough, but it was the tone that made them truly monstrous. Even the most talented actress couldn't have manufactured that particular quality—the bright, chirping delight, the musical lilt that suggested she was discussing something wonderful rather than the destruction of an innocent life. The crystalline clarity of her voice made each syllable strike with renewed force, and I felt phantom pain bloom in my chest despite the weeks that had passed.
Sienna had known I possessed recordings of Celeste's crimes, but she'd never heard them in such brutal detail. She was trembling with suppressed rage now, her hands clenched so tightly her nails bit into her palms. "I'm going to kill her," she seethed, straining forward. "I'm actually going to rip her throat out—"
"Honey, don't," Lucian caught her arm, his grip gentle but implacable as he pulled her against his chest. His face was ashen, shock and disgust warring in his expression. "Think of the baby. Please." Under any other circumstances, I suspected he wouldn't have stopped her at all.
"How dare you keep pretending?!" Lily's voice cracked with emotion, tears streaming down her face as she pointed an accusing finger at Celeste. "You wanted Violet dead! You murdered her child!"
"Daemon, this is your precious saint?" Jade rounded on him with vicious satisfaction, her words dripping venom. "The girl you've been protecting all this time? Are you fucking blind?!"
Daemon didn't respond to the attack. His gaze remained fixed on me instead, something unreadable moving behind his dark eyes—regret, perhaps, or recognition. The shift in his attention felt significant, though I couldn't begin to parse what it meant.
Felix stood frozen, his normally composed features slack with shock. He looked between the phone still playing Celeste's recorded confessions and the girl herself, as though trying to reconcile two completely incompatible images. "Celeste," he finally managed, his voice hoarse. "Did you really... did you actually do those things?"
"No! No, it's not true!" Celeste's denial came out shrill and desperate, her composure cracking under the weight of collective judgment. She shook her head frantically, blonde hair whipping around her face. "The recording is fake! I never said those things, I never did those things! I'm going to report this to the police—I'll prove my innocence!"
"Please do," I replied, allowing the barest edge of satisfaction to color my tone. "I've already published everything online. You're welcome to sue me if you think you can win."
"No!!" The word tore from Celeste's throat, genuine terror flooding her features. She stumbled toward Daemon, her good hand clutching at his sleeve as tears spilled down her cheeks. "Daemon, you still believe me, don't you? Give me time to clear my name—please! You can't let this information spread! You have to help me stop it!"
Daemon looked down at Celeste's fingers wrapped around his arm, watched her face contort with desperate tears. Then, with deliberate precision, he pried her hands away from him, his touch cold and impersonal. Before anyone could react, his hand shot out and closed around her throat, lifting her slightly before hurling her away from him. Celeste hit the polished floor hard, the impact driving the air from her lungs in a choked gasp.
Ruby screamed, throwing herself between Daemon and her daughter while Mason scrambled to help Celeste sit up. The girl was coughing and wheezing, one hand pressed to her abused throat, but her eyes remained locked on Daemon with wounded disbelief. "Daemon... you tried to..."
"Alpha!" Ruby was sobbing now, kneeling with her hands clasped in supplication. "Please, my daughter made mistakes—she was confused, she didn't mean it! You used to care for her so much! Please, have mercy!"
"Ruby," I said quietly, my voice level and almost conversational. "Your daughter tried to kill me. She murdered my unborn child. And instead of disciplining her properly, you're here begging for forgiveness based on Daemon's former affection?" I let out a soft, bitter laugh. "After stealing my phone, did you really think you could sleep soundly? That destroying evidence would make everything disappear?"
Ruby's desperate gaze swung to me, and I watched realization dawn across her features. I was the one she should have been begging all along. She grabbed Celeste's arm roughly, dragging the girl forward until they both knelt before me. Then, in a gesture that made my stomach turn, Ruby seized my hand and forced it to strike Celeste's tear-stained face.
"Miss Goldcrest, please! It's all my daughter's fault! Hit her—punish her however you want! She has a heart condition, we've always been too afraid to upset her!" Ruby's voice climbed toward hysteria. "We've failed her by being too soft! Beat her to death if you want! It's what she deserves!"
"Stop it!" Mason lurched forward to pull his wife away, his face twisted with anguish as he turned on Daemon. "Alpha, wasn't it you who pursued my daughter in the first place? You already had Violet—why did you lead Celeste on?"
Celeste knelt before me with her face ashen and her eyes burning with barely suppressed hatred. The innocent mask had finally shattered completely, and what remained underneath was raw and venomous.
"Enough!" Daemon's patience snapped entirely. His expression had progressed beyond anger into something colder and more frightening, his eyes rimmed with red from the force of his fury. "Celeste, if it weren't for Aurora's heart—if it weren't for that debt—we would have been finished the moment I sent you to Silver Ridge University. You know exactly why I continued helping you, protecting you, maintaining that façade. And you dared to harm my child?"
Of course Celeste had known the truth from the beginning. She'd understood that Daemon's attention stemmed from obligation rather than affection, from his complicated grief over Aurora rather than genuine feelings. But she'd resisted acknowledging it, had worked to bury that knowledge and craft an alternative narrative. The rumors about Daemon's devotion to her would have been devastated by the revelation that she was merely a living memorial to his first love.
Ruby and Mason exchanged confused glances, clearly hearing this information for the first time. "Celeste," Mason said slowly, "who is Aurora?"
"The original owner of that heart beating in your daughter's chest," I supplied, my tone flat and factual. "Daemon's first real love. Aurora Winters. And Celeste has known since the beginning—she even met Aurora's family."
Ruby's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes going wide. "No... I didn't... I only knew that the year after her surgery, someone came to our house. They talked for a while, left some photos and things, then went away..."
"That was Aurora's mother," I confirmed. "Bringing mementos of her dead daughter to the girl wearing her heart."
"Stop talking!" Celeste's scream cut through the lounge, raw and anguished as she clapped her hands over her ears. "You want to drive me to suicide, is that it? Fine! I'll do it right now!"
She upended her handbag with shaking hands, items scattering across the floor. Her fingers closed around a small grooming razor, and before anyone could react, she pressed the blade against her wrist. Fresh tears streamed down her face as she stared at Daemon with desperate intensity.
"Daemon, everyone talks about how Violet loved you for ten years, how deep and selfless her devotion was," Celeste said, her voice breaking. "But what about Aurora? You betrayed her first! And what about me?" The blade trembled against her skin. "From the moment I first heard your name, I knew we were meant to meet. I studied so hard, worked myself to exhaustion to get into Lupine Sovereign University, all because I believed in our destiny!"
Celeste would have been fifteen or sixteen when she received Aurora's heart—exactly the age when romantic fantasies take root deepest. In the diary and photo album she'd been given, she would have found Aurora's most private thoughts, her memories, her love for Daemon meticulously documented. That explained how she'd recognized Aurora's elder sister Linda so easily.
Linda stood motionless nearby, her face frozen in shock. She'd genuinely believed Celeste was an innocent victim. The revelation that Celeste had known everything from the start seemed to shake something fundamental in her worldview.
Celeste's breakdown was escalating, but Daemon remained unmoved. He'd built his reputation on his ability to read people, to detect manipulation and deception. Being played for a fool was the thing he hated most, and Celeste had been deceiving him from their very first meeting.
"Daemon, please," Celeste tried again, her voice dropping to a desperate whisper. "Help me one last time. Use your influence to contain what Violet posted online. I'm begging you."
"Get away from me." The words were flat and final, devoid of any emotion that might have softened them. "From this moment forward, I never want to see you again. You and your family are to leave Frost Pack territory immediately. You will not return."
The pronouncement hung in the air like a death sentence. Celeste's lips trembled, her face cycling through disbelief, horror, and finally desperate denial. She staggered backward several steps, looking like the ground had opened beneath her feet.
Daemon's ultimatum meant she'd lost access to everything—her education, her medical care, any financial support. The Morrison family would have to uproot their entire lives, abandon their established community, start over somewhere completely foreign.
Mason lunged forward, snatching the razor from Celeste's hand and flinging it across the room before she could follow through. Celeste stood there looking utterly lost, then turned toward Felix. She stumbled to him on unsteady legs, grabbing his hand with both of hers.
"Felix," she whispered, her voice small and broken. "Please help me. I came from nothing—I worked so hard to get where I am, you know that. You've always encouraged me, always believed in me... Can't you help me now?"
Something flickered across Felix's features—a moment of instinctive sympathy. But reality reasserted itself almost immediately. He pulled his hand free with careful deliberation, shaking his head slowly. "You went too far, Celeste. You lied to all of us. You deceived everyone who tried to help you."
Rejected by the last person she'd thought might stand by her, Celeste's expression collapsed into something hollow and defeated. The bustling energy of the VIP lounge seemed to fade around us, leaving only heavy, suffocating silence.
Then, without warning, her body began to shift. Bones cracked and reformed as she dropped to all fours, blonde hair spreading into silver-white fur. Her wolf form emerged in seconds, those baby-blue eyes now wild with hatred as they locked onto me.
She charged.
I stood frozen as the silver wolf launched herself toward me, jaws parting to reveal sharp teeth. My mind went blank—I hadn't expected this, not here, not in front of everyone.
But Daemon's reflexes were faster. His body blurred into motion, black fur erupting across his frame as he shifted mid-leap, his massive form hurtling toward us.