CHAPTER 78: Broken Bonds
Violet’s POV
The crowd was still trembling from Alora’s shift, and guests had begun to leave the hall in fear just as she had bolted in her wolf form out the door.
This wasn’t the plan.
She wasn’t supposed to shift.
All this while, I had thought Morgan had lied about her shifting.
She really was a werewolf. And she hadn't just shifted in front of the whole region, she had hypnotized the crowd, even the most powerful being, like the sage, had been hypnotized by her wolf.
A Silver Wolf!
I had never seen a silver wolf before. When I was young, my father told us that silver wolves were even rarer than white wolves.
According to him, they were wolves of prophecy, considered harbingers of chaos and upheaval, so why did the sage and every other person come into her spell? Why did everyone bow to her?
I stood up from the floor, holding my wrist which had been burned by her witchcraft, or whatever she was.
I was still shaken up and the wound from the burn had begun to close up, but not as fast as I would have wanted, not as fast as my Alpha body heals.
I was not expecting the night to turn out this way, but I had created this chaos and I had been burned and scarred by it physically and emotionally.
My carefully laid plans had spiraled out of control, and I was bearing the brunt of it.
Morgan hadn’t even glanced at me once, even when I laid on the floor writhing and bleeding from the burn that witch inflicted on me.
His eyes were fixed on Alora the entire time. And when she ran, he ran after her. Like she was his salvation. Like I was nothing.
I was nothing.
I needed air.
I needed to get out of there with the crowds before he got to me. I didn't know what he would do to me, but I knew he would never hurt his baby.
This baby was my own salvation, the only reason that would keep me alive, the only reason I needed to get back in his good graces.
I wished I hadn't listened to Lucien. I had all the cards in my favor and I screwed them up.
Fck!
I needed to leave, at least until everything was calm.
I stood up from the floor, clutched my burned hand, fingers still red and blistered from touching her blood, and limped out together with the rest of the guests, into the night.
I fled to the gardens.
I could still hear the distant echoes of people shouting inside, footsteps running.
I pulled out my phone from my purse and dialed Lucien. He had promised everything would go smoothly.
Lucien answered in the second ring.
“Violet, I'm in the middle of something right now. Can this wait”? His voice was sharp and inpatient.
“You promised this would work, but the plan backfired terribly,” I snapped, my voice shaking.
“Lucien, she didn’t burn. The silver dagger made her stronger, and she turned into a radiant white wolf. In front of the whole crowd, now everyone thinks she is a moonborn, or a goddess. She fcking glowed Lucien…she glowed!” By this time, I was shaking from rage.
“You stabbed her?” he hissed.
“I didn’t plan to! I just wanted to shake her up, make her doubt herself. But the crowd... the Sage... everyone bowed to her.”
There was a pause.
“You’ve just confirmed the prophecy,” Lucien said darkly. “You’ve made her untouchable.”
I gritted my teeth. “This was your plan too. You gave me the blade.”
“You failed the moment you let your emotions get in the way.”
His voice dropped lower. “I warned you this would happen, didn't I”?
“But you asked me to…”
He cut me off. “I didn't ask you to do anything, Violet, I asked you to wait.”
“But he was about to announce her Luna”
“It wouldn't have mattered because Alora isn't your normal Luna, she is an alpha, and she wouldn't have accepted until she was ready. You got sloppy and ruined everything.”
Something snapped softly behind me, and I whirled around to investigate, but nobody was close.
“I didn’t fail…I don't fail. If this plan backfired, the next one wont!” I snarled into the phone.
“I'm sorry to break this to you, but you've failed Violet. You need to count your losses and move on”.
“Now that everybody knows what she is, you will never stand a chance. You never did, because Morgan’s fate is sealed. And so is yours, because he will never look at you the same way again.”
I heard a growl in the background, and then he hung up.
I threw my phone on the wall surrounding the garden, and it shattered to pieces.
I knelt on the floor and growled.
This night could not get any worse now, could it?
“I knew it,” a voice said behind me.
I froze.
My heart stuttered.
Slowly, I turned.
Harry leaned against the door leading from the corridor to the garden path.
He looked furious and wild, a side of him I'd never seen before.
He walked towards me with clenched fists, his brown eyes blazing with anger.
“Who were you talking to?” he asked, towering over me and dwarfing me with his height, his brown eyes burning a hole through me.
“No one,” I replied, taking a step back.
He reached out and cupped my chin. “I heard every word so don’t you dare fcking lie to me” he snarled, his eyes searching mine as if to uncover the truth.
“Who is Lucien, and how long have you been working with him?”
“Harry…” I stepped forward, but he lifted a hand.
“Don’t. Don’t lie to me, Violet.”
I opened my mouth to lie again, but I just couldn't. Instead, my attention was drowned by his eyes, his big brown eyes which had turned a shade darker.
I clenched my fist to stop myself from pushing back his brown wavy hair which had fallen onto his face, to stop myself from tracing his sharp jawline with my fingers.
Where were these thoughts coming from?
My wolf, Kaira, fought to take over as his scent made me a bit light-headed.
I gulped and closed my eyes, fighting the wave of desire threatening to take over, fighting Kaira to have a little self-dignity.
His eyes softened just a little bit. If I wasn't that close, I would have thought I imagined it.
Then his eyes turned a shade darker still. He took a step away from me, as if I had slapped him, as if he couldn't bear to be that close to me.
“You knew about this a long time ago, didn't you”? He asked, pointing to my stomach.
I averted his gaze.
“Look at me when I am talking to you Violet”, his voice bellowed.
I turned sharply to him. Maybe it was because I had never seen him in this mood before, or maybe it was the mate bond at play, but somehow, I couldn't look away.
“Yes, I knew about it”
“How long ago”
“About a month? Where are you going with this?”
A look of horror crossed his face. “That night, the night Xavier escaped, it was you wasn't it”? You let Xavier escape because you had a motive, because you cannot accept the fact that Morgan has a mate. You knew he loved her. And still... you slept with him, you lured him and slept with him. How could you be so shameless?”
His words hurt. I needed a comeback so I went for it.
“There’s no harm in trying to do better in life,” I said with a bitter laugh. At least I aimed higher than being a convenient fallback. "You could have been Alpha, and I would have been your Queen, but you chose to be a doormat for another man like you.”
His face contorted in pain at my words, and he staggered back.
His shoulders stiffened. “So that’s how you’ve seen me this whole time? A doormat”?
“Yes, every day I curse the moon goddess for giving me a weak mate, a door mat… I didn’t ask for a weak mate,” I snapped.
As if that wasn't enough pain, I went on. “You should be grateful to the Alpha for choosing you to be his beta, and elevating your rank. He only did that out of pity for you. You're pathetic!.”
He winced, pain flickering across his features, and then replaced by rage. “I waited. All this time. Hoping you’d see me. Hoping you'll choose me. But this whole time, all you saw was a doormat, a pathetic nobody…”
I scoffed. “And that’s the problem. You’re always hoping, Harry. That’s why you’ll never be Alpha. You wait. You beg. You settle.”
He looked like I’d slapped him.
But then he nodded. Slowly. Like something in him had finally broken loose.
“I’m done,” he said. His voice was low. He took a step closer and looked me straight in the eye. “I, Harry Morgan, reject you, Violet Sinclair, as my mate. I free you from the bond.”
My breath caught, and my heart shattered into a million pieces. I never thought Harry would reject me in this life. I never knew he was capable of rage and fury, not until that very moment.
I opened my mouth to speak, but words failed me. Tears pooled in my eyes and I stumbled back when I gazed into his eyes that looked at me like I was a stranger, the affection I had glimpsed earlier shimmering to hate.
He looked like he was in pain as the mate bond snapped.
“Accept the rejection, it's all you've ever wanted since he came into your life. I am setting you free today, Violet…accept the rejection so we can both be free at last.”
Kaira whimpered in my heart and pulled at me, wanting to come out. I needed to put an end to this torture we were both feeling, so I stared straight at him.
“I Violet Sinclair accept your rejection”
A painful growl tore from his throat as he clutched his chest and bent over.
I sank down on the garden floor as bile rose from my throat. I fell to my knees and puked everything I had eaten that day. I puked until I tasted blood from my throat.
I writhed in agony on the floor, my red dress soaked in blood and puke, but Harry didn't help, he didn't even turn in my direction.
That was when I knew I had gone too far, and it was really over between us.
I tried to stand but I was too weak.
I looked for Kaira in my head to help me, but she was gone.