Chapter 66

Chapter 66
Violet's POV:

Celeste went silent on the other end of the phone, processing what I'd told her about the forced dissolution being impossible without Daemon's consent.

"That doesn't make sense," she finally said, her voice climbing with confusion. "If the bond is purely political, if he never loved you, why wouldn't he just agree to end it?"

I stayed quiet, letting her work through it herself.

"Unless..." She paused. "Unless he's worried about the financial settlement? I mean, your families' assets must be deeply intertwined after all these years, right? Maybe he's concerned about how complicated the dissolution would be, about losing property or business interests or—"

"Maybe," I said neutrally, though I knew better. In my previous life, Daemon had been willing to sign over half his pack's territory and a controlling share of Blackwood Dynamics just to be free of me, just to make room for her in his life officially and completely.

Celeste seemed to latch onto her own explanation with visible relief.

"Listen, Celeste," I said, softening my tone slightly. "Once I withdrew that forced dissolution petition, I can't file another one for three months. The Council has that rule to prevent harassment through repeated filings." I paused, letting that sink in. "So right now, I'm stuck. But there might be another way forward for you. If you could somehow get Daemon to agree to the rejection ceremony voluntarily, then the whole process would be much simpler and faster."

I ended the call and stared at my phone for a long moment, an idea forming in my mind.

I scrolled to Evan's contact and hit call before I could second-guess myself.

He picked up on the third ring. "Violet."

"Evan, I just got off the phone with Celeste Morrison," I said without preamble. "She's pretty upset right now, her mother has her under house arrest and she's feeling trapped and desperate. I thought maybe you might want to reach out, check on her, maybe offer some support during—"

"Stop." His voice cut through my words. "Whatever Celeste is going through, it has nothing to do with me."

I blinked, caught off guard by his matter-of-fact tone. "But I thought you—"

"Call me again when you're in a bad mood and need someone to listen," Evan interrupted smoothly.

The line went dead before I could respond.

Here I'd handed him the perfect opportunity on a silver platter—a vulnerable, heartbroken girl in need of comfort, locked away from her supposed love interest—and he couldn't have been less interested.

"No wonder you've been losing to Daemon your whole life," I muttered to my empty apartment, a sardonic smile twisting my lips. "Can't even recognize a chance when it's gift-wrapped for you."

A week passed in intensive training sessions, Ember gradually growing stronger as I pushed to remember what my body had been capable of before five years under an Alpha bond had weakened me.

I was finishing a workout when Daemon called. "I'm downstairs. We need to talk."

"About what?"

"About going home. To Frost Pack territory. My parents want to see you."

I looked out the window and saw his SUV at the curb, felt that familiar twist in my chest. "You should take Celeste."

"Violet." Something new edged his voice, rough and almost desperate. "We're not going to dissolve the mate bond. Celeste's situation, I'll handle it, but you and I, that's not changing."

My breath caught. "Daemon, don't joke about this. Don't make promises you can't keep."

I turned to leave, but his hand caught my arm. "Let me try."

The words came out so quietly I almost didn't hear them, and they hit like a physical blow because this was the first time in ten years that Daemon Blackwood had asked me for anything in a tone that resembled vulnerability.

My mind raced. Was he trying to use me because of family pressure? Had he failed with Celeste and decided to fall back on the sure thing? This had to be temporary, a way to stabilize his parents while he figured out how to have both.

"You're just trying to use me to pacify your parents," I said, pulling free.

Before he could respond, my father's car pulled in. Marcus emerged, his expression shifting to cold fury when he saw us together.

"You need to leave," I said quickly to Daemon. "Go before this turns into a confrontation."

Daemon's jaw clenched, but he finally nodded.

He pulled away just as my father approached. "What did he want?"

"Mom's looking for you," I said, not answering. "You should go inside."

My phone buzzed with a text from Victoria: Please come to dinner. There are things you need to know, things that might help you understand these past five years.

I stared at the message. What could Victoria possibly tell me that would change anything?

But I knew I was going to go. Some part of me still needed to understand why Daemon had hated me from the very beginning.

I looked up from my phone to find Daemon still standing there in my apartment doorway, watching me with that unreadable expression he'd worn since arriving.

"Fine," I said quietly, slipping my phone into my pocket. "Let me get my coat."

The drive to Frost Pack territory was tense and mostly silent. The predicted snow had started falling, heavy flakes that made the roads treacherous and turned the two-hour drive into something much longer.

"Are you cold?" Daemon asked. "I can turn up the heat."

"I'm fine."

More silence, broken only by tires on snow and windshield wipers.

By the time we reached the Blackwood estate, we were nearly two hours late, the snow still falling in thick curtains.

Victoria opened the door, relief flooding her face. "Thank god you're safe. Come in, both of you must be frozen."

She positioned herself between Daemon and me like a buffer. Dominic appeared from the dining room, his expression stern. "You're late."

"The roads were bad," Daemon said.

Dominic's grunt was followed by a softer look at me. "Violet, come sit down. Victoria kept dinner warm."

Victoria immediately began loading my plate, her hands moving with nervous energy as she served me generous portions of everything. Daemon took his seat across from me, but when he reached for the serving spoon, Victoria's hand shot out and grasped his wrist.

"Go upstairs," she said quietly, but there was steel beneath the gentleness. "Your father needs you in his study."

Daemon's jaw tightened. "Mother—"

"Now, Daemon." Victoria's eyes flashed with an authority.

For a moment, father and son stared at each other across the table, some wordless communication passing between them. Then Daemon pushed back his chair and followed his father upstairs, their footsteps fading into the upper floor, leaving Victoria and me alone in the suddenly too-quiet room.

Victoria sat down beside me, and I noticed her hands were trembling as she set down the serving spoon. "Eat just a bit more first," she said gently, though her voice was thick with emotion.

I forced down a few more bites while Victoria sat beside me in silence, her presence both comforting and deeply unsettling. Finally, when I couldn't manage another mouthful, she reached into her cardigan pocket and pulled out an old leather envelope, worn soft with age and repeated handling.

My heart began to pound as she set it on the table between us.

"Before I show you what's in here," Victoria said quietly, her eyes meeting mine with an intensity that made me want to look away, "I need you to understand that what we did five years ago was wrong. We thought we were doing the right thing for the pack, for the alliance, for both families' futures. But we hurt people in ways we can never fully repair."

She opened the envelope and pulled out seven photographs, laying them on the table in front of me.

"Do you recognize anyone in these?" she asked quietly.

I reached for the first photo with trembling fingers. A young woman with honey-blonde hair and bright blue eyes stared back at me, laughing with pure joy. She was with Daemon, both of them younger, and the way he looked at her made something inside me crack because I had never seen him look at me with even a fraction of that warmth.

The next photos showed them at the beach at sunset, on a ferris wheel, on a road trip, by a campfire under stars. In every image, Daemon's expression held a tenderness I'd never witnessed.

Then the photos changed. The final photo showed a body pulled from water, pale and lifeless, wet hair plastered to her skull, lips blue with death.

"Her name was Aurora Nightshade," Victoria said, her voice breaking. "And she was Daemon's true mate."

The words stole the air from my lungs. I stared at this girl who looked so much like Celeste, and suddenly everything clicked into place.

"When did they meet?" I asked hoarsely.

"During your graduation trip. That summer before the mate bond ceremony. Daemon met Aurora, and they fell in love immediately."

"She came from a small, struggling pack," Victoria continued. "Her father was a rogue who'd only recently been accepted, and her family had no status. When Daemon's grandfather found out, he was furious. He'd already promised your family that Daemon would mate with you."

"So you forced him to choose."

"Worse." Victoria's tears fell freely. "We threatened to blacklist Aurora's father as a rogue, to force her entire family out of the Pack if Daemon didn't complete the ceremony with you. He agreed to protect her family."

The room spun. All those years I'd thought Daemon's coldness was just personality. I'd never imagined there was someone he'd actually loved.

"When did she die?" I asked.

Victoria's face crumpled. "The day of your mate bond ceremony. Aurora jumped into Silver River and drowned herself. They found her body three days later."

The nausea hit like a physical blow. The day I'd stood in that ceremony space feeling like the luckiest woman alive, Aurora had walked into a river because she couldn't bear to live in a world where Daemon belonged to someone else.

"I need to leave," I said, my voice sounding distant and hollow even to my own ears as I pushed back from the table with trembling hands.

"Violet, please," Victoria reached for me, her fingers grasping at my sleeve. "Don't blame Daemon too harshly for these years. The mistakes, the cruelty of it all, that was on us, on me and Dominic and that stubborn old Alpha. Daemon was as much a victim as anyone." Her voice broke. "Please, just think about it. Think about what he's been carrying all this time."

"Stop," I cut her off, my voice sharper than I'd intended as I pulled away from her touch. "Just stop talking. I can't, I need to think, I need to—"

But I couldn't finish the sentence because my throat had closed up entirely and my vision was blurring with tears I'd been fighting to hold back since the moment I'd seen that first photograph of Aurora's laughing face.

I ran out the door, the cold air hitting my face like a slap as I stumbled down the front steps of the estate.

Ember emerged in a painful rush, and my howl echoed through the darkness, grief and rage that had been building for five years. I ran through the snow, my vision blurred with tears. All I could think about was Aurora's face, how I'd been the reason she'd given up hope.

I ran until my muscles screamed and my lungs burned, until I finally collapsed near the Goldcrest border, shaking with exhaustion.

Eventually I shifted back and made it home on sheer willpower, my clothes torn and body shivering. I climbed to my childhood bedroom and collapsed.

I lay in the darkness, finally processing what Victoria had told me. Aurora had loved Daemon enough to die. And Celeste looked so much like her that seeing her must have felt like a second chance.

No wonder he'd been so drawn to Celeste. She wasn't just infatuation, she was his ghost made flesh, his second chance.

And I was nothing but the living reminder of what he'd lost, the mate bond that had killed the woman he actually loved. I'd never been his mate. I'd been his prison.

The next morning, I woke with swollen eyes after a restless night of fragmented dreams filled with blonde hair and river water.

When I emerged from my room, both my parents were in the kitchen having breakfast. They took one look at my face and the concern was immediate.

"Violet, what happened?" My mother stood up, her coffee forgotten. "Your eyes are so red. Did something happen at the Blackwoods'?"

"It's nothing serious," I said, managing to keep my voice steady as I poured myself water. "Victoria and Dominic just spent the evening trying to convince me not to go through with the rejection. I got a bit emotional about it, shed a few tears. That's all."

My father's expression darkened immediately. "They have some nerve. Why didn't they teach that bastard some decency years ago?"

"Exactly," my mother agreed, her own anger rising in defense of me. "Now they want to play the reasonable in-laws? After everything?"

I sat down at the table, suddenly exhausted despite having just woken up. "Mom, Dad, don't worry about it anymore. I've decided I'm going to Aunt Sophia's at the end of the month. And then three months after that, I'll submit another forced dissolution petition."

My mother studied my face carefully, as if trying to read what I wasn't saying. "You've really decided then?" she asked softly.

"I've decided." The words came out firmer than I felt inside, but I needed to say them, needed to commit to this path forward. I couldn't keep being the third wheel in my own marriage, couldn't continue in a relationship that had cost someone their life.