Chapter 75
Violet's POV:
The bathroom door swung open behind me, and I caught Lily's reflection in the mirror, her expression tight with concern as she took in my pallor and the tremor in my hands as I gripped the sink's edge. I forced myself to straighten, to school my features into something resembling normalcy even though my stomach still churned with residual nausea.
"Vi?" Lily's voice was soft, careful. "What's wrong? You've been looking off all evening."
I turned on the cold water, letting it run over my wrists as I drew in careful breaths. "Must be something I ate earlier. Or maybe I'm coming down with a stomach bug."
Lily's hand came to rest on my shoulder, warm and grounding. "You should go home and rest. I'll tell everyone you're not feeling well."
I wanted to protest, but exhaustion pulled at me with crushing weight. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I need to go."
After reapplying lipstick with shaking hands, I followed Lily back to the private dining room. The moment we entered, concern rippled through the group, and I forced warmth into my smile as Lily explained I wasn't feeling well.
"Oh no," Sienna said immediately, starting to rise. "Do you need me to come with you?"
"No, stay and celebrate," I said firmly, giving her a quick hug. "This is your night. I just need to sleep this off." I made my rounds quickly, offering congratulations and goodbyes.
---
Three days later, I stood in my bathroom at two in the morning, staring at the three pregnancy tests I'd finally worked up the courage to buy. I'd driven to a pharmacy across town where no one would recognize me, had hidden the boxes at the bottom of my shopping bag like contraband.
Now the evidence lined my bathroom counter, all three displaying unmistakable double pink lines.
My legs gave out and I sank to the cold tile floor, my back against the bathtub as reality crashed over me in waves. Pregnant. I was carrying Daemon's child, conceived in what I'd thought was our final encounter before the rejection ceremony had severed our bond permanently.
"Oh Moon Goddess," I whispered, my voice breaking in the empty bathroom. "I'm actually pregnant."
My hand moved to rest on my still-flat stomach, and a thousand fears spiraled through my mind. We'd completed the rejection ritual less than a month ago. What would the Blackwoods think? Would they assume I was using the baby as leverage, trying to trap Daemon back into a bond we'd both wanted to end?
The thought made nausea rise again. I pressed my palm harder against my abdomen, as if I could protect the tiny life inside from the complications its existence would create.
"But this is my baby," I said aloud, my voice gaining strength. "Mine. Not a tool for the Blackwood legacy, not a replacement for Aurora... mine."
The decision crystallized with sudden, fierce clarity. I wouldn't tell anyone. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I would keep this secret, figure out how to handle it on my own terms, without the weight of Blackwood expectations or Daemon's sense of obligation crushing me again.
I gathered the pregnancy tests and buried them deep in the trash, then scrubbed my hands and face with cold water until my skin felt raw. My phone buzzed with a text from Sienna: "How are you feeling? Better?"
I typed back quickly: "Much better. Must have been a 24-hour thing."
The lie came easily, smoothed by years of hiding my true feelings behind acceptable explanations. Another text came through in the group chat with Sienna, Lily, and Jade: "THREE WEEKS until the official bonding ceremony at Frost territory! You're all required to attend. No excuses!"
My stomach dropped. Three weeks until I'd have to face Daemon and his family while maintaining this deception, surrounded by werewolves whose enhanced senses might pick up on changes I couldn't fully control.
---
Two weeks passed in a blur of careful deception and exhausting vigilance. The nausea came and went in unpredictable waves, forcing me to keep crackers and ginger tea at my desk, to make excuses about skipping lunch meetings when certain smells became unbearable. At work, my supervisor Patricia assigned me to travel to Moonstone Pack for an important partnership negotiation—a trip that would unfortunately overlap with Sienna's ceremony by two days.
I'd negotiated to compress the Moonstone meetings into a brutal three-day sprint so I could return in time. It meant I'd arrive at Frost territory exhausted and running on fumes, but there was no other option.
The physical changes were still subtle enough to hide. My breasts were tender and slightly fuller, but nothing a well-fitted bra couldn't conceal. The biggest challenge was the scent—pregnancy altered a wolf's natural pheromones in ways that could be detected by others, especially those with strong bonds or medical training.
I'd solved that problem with an arsenal of high-end perfumes. Tom Ford. Jo Malone. Layers of expensive fragrance that I applied obsessively to my pulse points, my clothes, even my hair. The scents were strong enough to be slightly off-putting, but when Lily had wrinkled her nose during our video call, I'd laughed it off as "trying out new samples from work events."
The fatigue was harder to explain away. Pregnancy exhaustion was bone-deep, pulling me under at random moments throughout the day. I'd started taking iron supplements and forcing myself through brutal morning workouts, hoping the exercise would give me enough energy to maintain appearances.
On the plane to Frost territory, I'd barely been able to keep my eyes open despite the coffee I'd downed before boarding. I'd arrived at the ceremonial grounds two days before the bonding and was immediately swept up in the chaos of final preparations.
The venue was breathtaking—an old estate on the outskirts of Frost territory, all stone and timber and soaring glass windows. Sienna had chosen deep blue as her color scheme, and everywhere I looked there were flowers and silk and tiny lights that would transform the space into something magical.
"Vi!" Sienna practically tackled me in the main hall, her happiness so bright it was almost blinding. "Thank God you're here. Lucian's mother keeps trying to add traditions I've never heard of, and I need you to help me figure out which ones are actually required versus which ones she's making up to torture me."
That evening, we gathered for our final fitting. Standing in front of the mirror in the deep blue silk gown Sienna had chosen, I couldn't help noticing how the fabric pulled slightly tighter across my breasts and hips than it had during the initial measurements.
"Ms. Goldcrest," the seamstress said with a small frown, "have you gained a little weight recently? The fit is just a touch snug through here." She gestured at my midsection, and my heart lurched into my throat.
"Probably been eating too much lately," I said with a forced laugh, even as panic clawed at my chest. "Holiday season, you know how it is. Can you let it out a bit?"
"Of course, dear."
Lily was watching me in the mirror, her expression carefully neutral, but I caught the way her gaze lingered on my reflection, the slight flare of her nostrils as if she was trying to parse something her wolf sensed but couldn't quite identify beneath the heavy perfume I'd applied.
"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked quietly as the seamstress worked. "You look exhausted."
"Just jet lag," I said quickly. "The trip to Moonstone Pack was brutal—three days of back-to-back meetings and barely any sleep. I'll be fine after I rest tonight."
By the time the fitting ended, I could barely keep my eyes open. I excused myself early and made my way to the guest room that had been assigned to me. The moment the door closed behind me, I collapsed onto the bed fully clothed, too tired to even remove my shoes.
---
I woke to someone knocking on my door, disoriented and groggy, late afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows. My phone said it was nearly four PM—I'd slept for almost fourteen hours straight.
"Vi? You in there?" Sienna's voice came through the door. "We're doing a dinner run. Want anything?"
"I'm good," I called back, my voice rough with sleep. "Just need a few more minutes."
I dragged myself to the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face. My reflection looked slightly better—the shadows under my eyes had faded somewhat—but I still felt wrung out. I forced myself through a shower and dressed carefully, reapplying my perfume with obsessive precision before heading downstairs. The pre-ceremony dinner was casual, just close friends and immediate family, and I found myself relaxing slightly as I sat between Jade and Lily.
But my reprieve was short-lived. The next day was the ceremony itself, and I woke feeling worse than I had in weeks. The nausea was back with a vengeance, and I'd barely managed to keep down a piece of dry toast before it was time to head to the estate's preparation rooms.
The scent hit me the moment I walked in—several young Frost Pack warriors were celebrating in an adjacent room, and the heavy smell of cigar smoke seeped through the connecting door, thick and cloying and absolutely unbearable. My stomach lurched violently, and I made it to the private bathroom just in time, retching into the toilet as my body rebelled.
"Violet?" A knock on the door, followed by Daemon's voice, low and concerned. "Are you alright?"
My heart stopped. Of all the people to find me like this, it had to be him. "Don't come in!" I managed between heaves. "I'm fine, it's just... the smoke is too strong."
But the door opened anyway, and then he was there, crossing the small space to crouch beside me as I knelt on the cold tile, one hand coming to rest on my back in a gesture so familiar it made my chest ache. "You're sick. I'm taking you to the hospital."
"No need," I forced out, reaching for the sink to pull myself up on shaking legs. I turned on the tap, cupping cold water to rinse my mouth, hyperaware of his presence behind me. "I have an old stomach condition. I'll be fine with some medicine."
Daemon's wolf stirred behind his eyes, but he didn't press. Instead, his hand moved to my elbow, steadying me as I swayed slightly. "At least let me help you to the couch. You can't go out there like this."
I wanted to refuse, but my body had other ideas. The exhaustion was back, heavier than before, and I found myself nodding, letting him guide me to the small sitting area in the preparation room's corner.
"The ceremony doesn't start for another two hours," he said firmly, pressing me down onto the sofa. "Rest."
He shrugged out of his suit jacket and draped it over me, and the familiar scent of him—cold cedar and leather, underneath the expensive cologne—threatened to undo all my careful control. I wanted to push it away, to tell him I didn't need his concern, but the words wouldn't come.
Instead, I felt my eyes drifting closed despite every intention to stay awake. The sofa was comfortable and his jacket was warm and I was just so tired, tired in a way that went beyond physical exhaustion into something cellular and inescapable.
---
I woke to the sound of soft conversation and the feel of something warm covering me. For a confused moment, I couldn't place where I was—the light was all wrong, slanting through windows at a different angle—and then memory crashed back and I jerked upright, my heart hammering.
The preparation room was empty except for Daemon, who sat in the same chair, his tie loosened and his sleeves rolled up as if he'd been sitting there for hours. Which, I realized with growing horror as I checked my phone, he had been. It was nearly seven PM. The ceremony was over. I'd slept through the entire thing.
"The ceremony," I croaked, my voice rough with sleep. "I missed it?!"
"Sienna came to check on you around five," Daemon said calmly. "I told her you were exhausted and needed to rest. She understood. Said to tell you they got plenty of photos and you can celebrate with her later."
Guilt crashed over me in waves. I'd missed my best friend's bonding ceremony because I'd been too weak to stay awake. "I can't believe I—" My voice cracked and I pressed my hands to my face. "She must think I'm the worst friend in the world."
"She doesn't." Daemon's voice was quiet but certain. "She was more worried about you than upset. Kept asking if I thought you needed a doctor."
I lowered my hands to find him watching me with that same unreadable expression, and something in his gaze made my chest tight. This was too much—his presence, his care, the jacket still draped over my shoulders that made my traitorous body want to lean into the comfort he represented even though I knew better.
"Thank you for letting me rest," I managed, my voice carefully controlled as I stood and folded his jacket, holding it out to him. "But I need to go now."