Chapter 35
Violet's POV:
I gestured to the armchair. "Sit down, Lily. Please."
Lily lowered herself slowly. Sienna took a deep breath and nodded to Jade, who pulled out her phone.
"We need to show you something," Jade said quietly. "It's about Connor."
The video began playing.
Lily went completely still. She stared at the screen, her face blank. Then the trembling started. Her eyes began to shift from amber to molten gold.
"That's not..." she whispered. "That can't be Connor."
I leaned forward. "I took this video last Tuesday at 11:47 PM. That's his license plate, Lily. ASH-7743. You can see it clearly."
Her breathing grew ragged. The video looped back. Connor's hand slid higher under the woman's skirt. Something in Lily snapped. She screamed. Her fingers dug into the leather armrests. Her nails elongated into wolf claws that punctured straight through.
"Lily," Sienna said urgently, kneeling beside her. "You need to breathe. Look at me."
But Lily wasn't hearing. Her wolf was surging forward. Gold bled through her eyes until no amber remained. In my consciousness, Ember let out a warning snarl. "Her wolf is attacking her," Ember growled. "She's turning on herself."
Lily doubled over with a cry of pain. Both hands clutched her abdomen. "It hurts," she gasped. "Something's tearing inside."
I caught the sharp scent of blood. A dark stain spread across Lily's pale jeans.
"We need to get her to Evan now," I said sharply. Jade fumbled for her phone. Sienna caught Lily as she slumped sideways. "Call Evan. Tell him we're coming in with an emergency."
I barely remembered the sprint to Sienna's SUV. Jade climbed in back with Lily cradled against her chest. Blood soaked through Sienna's white blouse within seconds. Sienna slid into the passenger seat and called Evan.
When we screeched to a halt outside Evan's clinic twenty-three minutes later, he was already waiting with two nurses and a gurney. He took one look at Lily and barked orders. They had her on the gurney and moving within seconds.
Evan caught my arm. "She's hemorrhaging badly. Her wolf is rejecting the pregnancy. I have to perform an emergency termination to save her life. I need her parents' consent."
I nodded and pulled out my phone. Owen Price answered on the second ring. When I explained his daughter was in critical condition, the sound through the speaker was more animal than human.
"Connor," Owen snarled. "That fucking bastard. I'm going to rip out his throat."
"Uncle Owen," I said firmly. "Right now the only thing that matters is saving Lily. Evan needs your consent for emergency surgery. Revenge can wait."
Twenty minutes later, Owen and Naomi burst through the clinic doors. Naomi's face was streaked with tears. Owen's eyes blazed with fury. He signed the consent forms with a shaking hand. Then the surgical bay doors swung shut.
We waited. Sienna paced endless circles. Jade sat with her arms wrapped around herself. I leaned against the wall while Ember prowled in my consciousness.
Two hours later, Evan emerged. Exhaustion was etched into his face. "The surgery was successful," he said. "She's lost the pregnancy, but she's stable. She'll need at least two weeks of complete bed rest."
Naomi collapsed into Owen's arms with a raw sob.
Deep into the night, I remained in a chair where I could watch Lily through the window. Around three AM, her eyes fluttered open. Tears spilled down her temples.
I moved to her bedside and caught her hand. "Hey. You're okay. You're safe."
"Violet," she whispered. "I lost the baby."
"I know. I'm so sorry."
Fresh tears leaked from her eyes. But when she spoke again, her voice held something hard beneath the grief. "Don't be sorry. If you hadn't shown me that video, I would have mated him. I would have bonded myself to a man who was fucking someone else." She touched her flat stomach. "Maybe my wolf knew. If the baby existed, I would have forgiven him for their sake."
I squeezed her hand. "What do you want to do now?"
Lily's amber eyes met mine with sharp clarity. "I want him to hurt. I want Connor to lose everything that matters to him. Can you help me do that, Violet?"
I felt Ember rise in my consciousness. "Yes. We're going to make him pay."
The next morning, Sienna and Jade waited in the clinic's conference room with documents spread across the table. When I entered, Sienna pushed a manila folder toward me.
"Connor's entire life," she said flatly. "He's from Ashwood Pack. His parents are both Warrior class, pushing sixty. Connor's their only child. He sends them seven hundred dollars every month."
Jade picked up the narrative. "He works as Operations Manager at Riverbend Corp. His salary is fifty-eight thousand a year. He drives a seven-year-old sedan he's still making payments on."
I flipped through bank statements. They painted a picture of a man living on the edge of his means.
The door opened. Owen and Naomi entered. Naomi crossed to me and wrapped her arms around me. "Thank you for saving my daughter's life."
Owen gripped the chair backrest hard enough to make it creak. "I want to challenge him. Pack law gives me that right."
I stood and held his gaze. "Uncle Owen, if you challenge Connor to combat, it will be over too quickly. What if instead we made him destroy his own life? What if we gave him exactly what he thinks he wants, and then took it all away?"
Naomi's eyes lit with understanding.
"Exactly. Connor's entire life revolves around that job. If he lost it all at once, he'd be destroyed without anyone laying a finger on him."
Jade leaned forward. "You want to get him fired?"
"Better. I want to make him think he's gotten the opportunity of a lifetime. Something so good he quits his current job voluntarily. And then I want that opportunity to evaporate into nothing."
Owen stared at me for a long moment. Then a grim smile formed. "That's crueler than anything I could do to him in a fight."
Back at Blackwood Manor, I sat on my bed staring at Daemon's contact in my phone. What I needed was a job offer prestigious enough to make Connor abandon his position. There was only one organization that fit: Blackwood Dynamics.
I pressed call. Daemon answered after three rings.
"I need your help. I need someone in your HR department to send a job offer to a wolf named Connor Hayes. Operations Director position, salary twice what he's making now."
"My company isn't your personal toy," Daemon snarled.
I made my voice soft. "That's your final answer? Then I suppose I'll have to call Dominic and Victoria. I'm sure they'd be very interested to hear about how their son has been pursuing a twenty-year-old college student."
The snarl through the phone was pure Alpha fury. "You're threatening me."
"Send the offer letter, or I make one phone call."
Something hit a wall through the connection. "Fine. Wait for me."
Twenty-eight minutes later, Daemon stormed into my bedroom. His eyes blazed red. The scent of cold fury rolled off him in waves.
"Talk," he ordered. "What exactly do you need?"
I met his gaze without flinching. "One email from your HR department. A job offer for Operations Director addressed to Connor Hayes. Salary ninety thousand. Start date in one week. He doesn't actually have to be hired. The offer just has to be convincing."
Daemon's eyes narrowed. "Connor is the one who cheated while his girlfriend was pregnant?"
I nodded. Daemon stared at me for a long moment. Something unreadable flickered in his eyes. "Wolf Rejection Crisis. That's a death sentence if it's not caught early."
"Lily survived. But she lost the baby. Connor doesn't even know yet because he's too busy fucking his side piece."
Daemon straightened. "Fine. I'll have HR send the offer tomorrow morning."
I held his stare. "Deal. The offer letter gets sent, and your secret stays buried." I paused. "I'll report to the company on Monday morning."
Then he was gone. I pulled out my phone and messaged Lily: "It's done. The trap is set. Now we wait."
Her response came immediately: "Let him burn."
Monday morning, I dressed in a tailored black pantsuit and drove to Blackwood Dynamics. The HR director Mara met me at the executive elevators.
She led me to an office with a nameplate reading "V. Goldcrest-Blackwood, Executive Vice President." Through the glass walls, I could see Daemon's office directly opposite.
"Alpha Daemon has requested daily briefings at nine AM sharp," Mara continued. "Is there anything you need?"
"No. I'm ready to start immediately."
My phone buzzed. Lily: "Connor just called me. He got the offer from Blackwood Dynamics. He's ecstatic."
At 2:00 PM, Daemon appeared in my doorway. He walked in and dropped an empty coffee mug on my desk. "Coffee. Black, no sugar."
I looked up. "I'm EVP, not your personal secretary."
His jaw tightened. "Your job is to ensure I have everything I need to function effectively. That includes making sure I'm properly caffeinated."
I stood slowly and took the mug. When I returned with the coffee, I set it on his desk with just enough force to make it slosh.
"Anything else, Alpha?"
Daemon took a sip. "Starting tomorrow, we have daily briefings at nine AM sharp. Don't be late, don't be unprepared."
"Understood, Alpha."
He walked out. I waited until he was gone before checking my phone. Celeste: "Luna, could we meet?"