Chapter 106

Chapter 106
Violet's POV:

The massive black wolf Onyx slammed into Celeste's smaller silver-white form with bone-crushing force, sending her body hurtling across the VIP lounge like a discarded ragdoll. She hit the wall with a sickening thud that echoed through the stunned silence, then crumpled to the polished floor in a graceless heap. Her left foreleg twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly fractured, and crimson blood seeped from her muzzle as pitiful whimpers escaped her throat.

But Daemon's wolf didn't stop. Onyx advanced with deliberate, predatory steps that made the floor vibrate beneath his considerable weight, each movement radiating barely contained violence. His blood-red eyes blazed with a fury I'd never witnessed before. Low, rumbling growls rolled from deep within his chest, the sound of an Alpha completely unhinged by rage. The heart that beat within Celeste's broken body, Aurora's heart, no longer represented something sacred to be protected. Now it was merely a vessel containing a toxic soul, and Daemon's wolf saw it as such—despicable, disposable, deserving of extermination.

Ruby's screams pierced the air as she tried to rush forward to shield her daughter, but Felix caught her arm and hauled her back with surprising strength. Mason had collapsed against the wall, clutching his chest with both hands, his face ashen as another cardiac episode threatened to overwhelm him. Linda stood frozen nearby, her expression caught between horror and disbelief, clearly recognizing that intervening would be suicide. Lucian had already pulled Sienna behind him.

I remained where I was, watching Daemon's wolf stalk toward Celeste's trembling form with cold, clinical detachment. Deep within my consciousness, Ember was howling with savage delight, desperate to join the carnage, to exact vengeance for our murdered child. But I kept her locked down, suppressed her violent urges through sheer force of will, because I understood something my wolf didn't—Daemon needed to do this himself. He needed to be the one to end what he'd once protected, to destroy the illusion he'd maintained for so long.

Onyx's jaws parted slowly, revealing rows of wickedly sharp fangs that gleamed under the harsh fluorescent lighting. He lowered his massive head toward Celeste's exposed throat, where her pulse fluttered visibly beneath silver-white fur. She couldn't even muster the strength to flee, could only lie there whimpering as death approached on four massive paws, her baby-blue eyes wide with terror and desperate understanding.

Just as those deadly fangs were about to close around her jugular—

"Daemon, stop!"

The sharp command cut through the tension. Everyone's heads snapped toward the source.

Evan had somehow moved behind me without my noticing. His right hand emerged from his jacket pocket gripping a surgical scalpel, pressing it against my throat with terrifying precision. One quick movement and my carotid artery would open.

My entire body went rigid as disbelief flooded through me.

Daemon's wolf whipped around with a roar that rattled the windows, his blood-red eyes locking onto the blade against my skin. The transformation in his posture was instantaneous—from predator about to kill to something far more desperate. Every hair along his spine stood erect, his lips peeled back from his fangs, and the growl that emerged from his chest was unlike anything I'd ever heard from him before.

"Evan, what the fuck are you doing?!" Sienna screamed. "Let her go!"

Lily and Jade shifted instantly, their wolf forms circling Evan and me with fangs bared in warning growls. But Evan simply took one measured step backward, pressing the scalpel deeper until I felt the sting of breaking flesh and warm blood trickling down my neck.

"Nobody moves," Evan said, his voice carrying an icy calm completely alien to the warm doctor I thought I knew. "Daemon, shift back to human form. Now. Because I can't guarantee my hand won't slip otherwise."

Onyx's roar of defiance shook the room, his entire body coiled to launch, but when more blood beaded along the blade's edge, he had no choice. The shift rippled through his massive frame in reverse, black fur receding to reveal bronzed skin stretched over powerful muscles still trembling with rage. Within seconds, Daemon stood before us in human form, naked from the waist up, every line of his body radiating violence barely held in check. His eyes remained blood-red, fixed on the scalpel.

"You'd better have a damn good explanation for this, Evan Thorne," Daemon's voice emerged as barely more than a lethal whisper, each word dripping with promised retribution.

The corner of Evan's mouth lifted. "Explanation? It's quite simple, really—I need you to calm down, Daemon. Don't kill Celeste."

He glanced down at me briefly, his pale green eyes devoid of the warmth and concern they'd always held before, then back to Daemon. "It seems you truly do care about Violet after all. So using her as leverage to stop you works remarkably well, doesn't it?"

Lucian took a careful step forward, his hands raised in a placating gesture even as his expression darkened with understanding. "Evan, what are you doing? Let Violet go, and we can talk about this rationally—"

"Shut up, Lucian." The razor edge in Evan's tone could have drawn blood on its own. "This doesn't concern you."

On the floor, Celeste had shifted back to human form with obvious difficulty, her left arm hanging useless, blood trickling from her split lip. But despite her injuries, her expression held something that made my stomach turn—a gleam of manic triumph. She was smiling through the blood and tears.

The dynamics had shifted violently. What began as Daemon's fury directed at Celeste had transformed into a hostage situation with me at the center, forcing everyone to recalculate loyalties in real time.

Evan had chosen to hold me at knifepoint rather than confront Daemon directly because he understood he couldn't match an Alpha in direct combat. But exploiting Daemon's feelings for me, using my life as currency—that gave him power he could never achieve through strength alone.

And Daemon had been forced to shift back, to stand vulnerable because he couldn't risk my safety, which revealed the truth he'd tried so hard to hide—he cared.

Celeste struggled to her feet using the wall for support, her useless arm cradled against her chest, her face a mask of blood and vindictive satisfaction as her gaze moved between Evan and Daemon. Then her eyes settled on Evan's face, and something desperate and pleading entered her expression.

"Evan..." Her voice emerged as a broken rasp. "Why are you hesitating?"

Evan's hand tightened on the scalpel, and I felt the blade sink deeper into my skin.

"Have you forgotten your original purpose?" Celeste continued, her tone shifting to something coaxing despite her battered state. "This is the perfect opportunity! The woman Daemon cares about most is in your hands. All you have to do is press a little harder, and he'll experience exactly what you felt when Aurora jumped into that river—the agony of losing the one person who mattered!"

The entire room seemed to freeze.

"Aurora?" Lucian's voice came out strangled as he stared at Evan. "What does she mean?"

Celeste let out a high, brittle laugh that bordered on hysteria. "Don't any of you know? Evan was the one who truly loved Aurora! Before Daemon ever met her, Evan was already in love with her! But he was too slow to act, so he just stood there and watched while Daemon swept her off her feet!"

"That's enough, Celeste!" Evan's voice cracked.

"Enough of what?" Celeste's voice climbed toward something unhinged. "You came to me, remember? You said we could work together, destroy Daemon from the inside out—I would seduce him, make him fall for me, then reject him; you would get close to Violet, make her trust you, undermine their marriage! Our goal was always the same—to make Daemon lose everything, to make him pay for Aurora's death!"

Ruby's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror as she stared at her daughter. "Celeste, what are you saying? Is this all true?"

But Celeste ignored her mother, her focus lasered onto Evan with manic intensity. "Why are you going soft now?! Kill Violet, then he'll spend the rest of his existence drowning in guilt!"

Daemon's face had gone bloodless, his expression cycling through shock and rage. "Evan... is she telling the truth? You've been working with Celeste this entire time?"

My voice emerged surprisingly steady despite the blade at my throat. "So my child was part of your plan too, wasn't it?"

Celeste's expression twisted before that manic smile returned. "The child was unfortunate collateral damage. But if we wanted to truly destroy your relationship with Daemon, the death of an unborn baby was the most efficient method. I couldn't allow any possibility of reconciliation."

Sienna roared. "You absolute monster!"

Lily and Jade's wolves snarled, bodies coiling to spring, but Evan's knife kept them frozen.

Celeste turned back to Evan, her expression shifting to something pleading. "Evan, do you have any idea what I've sacrificed for this plan? What I've endured?" Her voice cracked. "I do love him like Aurora did, maybe more, but he never looked at me the way he looked at her! My body has been deteriorating because my emotions won't stabilize, because my heart can't handle the stress of loving someone who sees me as nothing more than a living memorial! I've suffered through surgeries, through public humiliation, through knowing I'm just a stand-in—all for this moment! And now you want to give up?!"

Her voice climbed higher, tinged with madness. "If you won't do it, then I will! I'm dying anyway! Without pack protection, without access to the surgery I need in Northern Summit, I'm dead within months! So why shouldn't I drag Daemon straight to hell with me?!"

Celeste tried to take a step forward, but her broken body could barely support its own weight. Her eyes, wild with pain and hatred, swept across the room before landing on me with murderous intent, then shifting to Evan with desperate calculation.

"Do it!" she screamed at him, spittle flying from her bloody lips. "What are you waiting for?! This is the revenge you've been suppressing for years, the justice Aurora deserves! For her memory, for your buried love, for everything you've suffered watching Daemon live the life that should have been yours—kill her!"

Evan's hand began to shake violently, and I felt the scalpel waver against my skin, drawing a longer line of blood that trickled down into the hollow of my throat. His breathing had become ragged, shallow, his pale green eyes unfocused as though he were seeing something—or someone—that wasn't actually present in the room with us.

"Aurora..." he whispered, his voice breaking. "I'm sorry... I couldn't protect you... I stood there and watched you choose Daemon, watched you waste away under the weight of his betrayal..."

Daemon's voice emerged hoarse with emotion I'd rarely heard from him. "Evan, I know I failed Aurora. I know that guilt is mine to carry. But that doesn't justify hurting someone innocent. Violet has done nothing wrong—she didn't even know Aurora existed until—"

"Done nothing wrong?" Evan's head snapped up, his eyes bloodshot and burning with years of suppressed anguish. "She married you! She became your Luna! She got everything Aurora dreamed of having! What gives her the right?!"

My voice cut through his breakdown with deliberate calm despite the blade at my throat making speech painful. "Evan, you're mistaken about something fundamental. I didn't gain anything by marrying Daemon. I lost everything that mattered—my child, my marriage, my ability to trust another person. Everything your revenge plot destroyed."

I paused, letting my words sink in before continuing. "You claim you loved Aurora, but would she approve of what you've become? You orchestrated the death of an innocent child, manipulated an innocent woman as your weapon of revenge, and turned Celeste into a monster while using her as your pawn—is that what you call love?"

Evan's hand trembled more violently, the scalpel wavering against my skin as his conviction cracked.

"Don't listen to her!" Celeste's shriek bordered on feral. "Evan, do it! Now!"

But Evan's eyes had begun to lose focus, his gaze turning inward as though confronting some internal vision. "Aurora... if you were here... what would you want me to do? Would you... could you ever forgive me for this?"

In that fraction of a second, as his grip loosened and his attention wavered, I felt it—the decrease in pressure, the shift in his stance.

My left hand shot upward, fingers closing around Evan's wrist in an iron grip as my body rotated right in a smooth motion. I twisted his arm at an angle that forced his hand away from my throat while causing sharp pain to radiate through his wrist.

"Ah—!" Evan's cry coincided with his fingers reflexively releasing the scalpel, which tumbled through the air.

My right leg swept backward in a precise kick that connected with the falling scalpel, sending it skittering across the floor toward the far corner.

"Violet!" Daemon's voice carried equal parts shock and something that might have been pride as he surged forward, but I'd already created distance between myself and Evan.

Evan staggered backward, clutching his wrist where angry red marks were forming, staring at me with undisguised disbelief. "When did you... how..."

Before anyone could respond, I felt the familiar pull of transformation beginning deep in my bones. The shift had always taken nearly fifteen seconds of screaming pain. But now, after months of dedicated practice, everything happened in a rush of power that felt almost euphoric.

Bones restructured themselves with sharp cracks, my human skin rippling as deep gray fur erupted across my body, catching the light with subtle silver undertones. My amber-gold eyes shifted to a darker, more intense amber as my wolf's consciousness rose to merge with my own, and within three seconds I stood on four legs instead of two.

Ember emerged fully, her consciousness blending seamlessly with mine. She threw her head back and released a howl that was equal parts challenge and declaration—a sound that announced we were no longer prey, no longer weak, no longer anyone's victim.

The room had gone absolutely silent.

"Her shift speed..." Lucian breathed. "That's at least five times faster than before."

Sienna's face split into a fierce grin despite the tension. "I knew it. I knew Vi would never stop fighting to get stronger."

Evan shifted as well, his human form dissolving into that of a gray-brown wolf, smaller than Daemon's Onyx but still formidable. His wolf's eyes locked onto mine with intensity.