Chapter 43
Violet's POV:
The phone call came just as I finished getting dressed. I'd barely zipped up my jeans when Sienna's voice exploded through the speaker, not even waiting for me to say hello.
"Vi! My father has completely lost his mind! He set me up on a blind date! With a thirty-five-year-old balding finance manager! I swear to God, that man's hairline is more barren than the Ironridge mining fields!"
I blinked at Shadow, who was perched near the window watching me with those intelligent amber eyes. "Sienna—"
"The Crescent Diner. Two o'clock. I need emergency intervention before I murder my own father." She hung up before I could respond.
---
When I pushed through the diner door, Sienna wasn't alone. Lily and Jade had already claimed a corner booth, and between them sat a portable hot pot setup sending up fragrant clouds of steam. Sienna was brandishing her phone like a weapon.
"Look at this! Just look at it!" She thrust the phone at me as I slid into the booth. "My father said he's 'mature and stable.' I say his follicles took early retirement!"
The photo showed a man in an expensive suit with a receding hairline. I studied it with exaggerated seriousness.
"Well," I said slowly, "at least he won't have to worry about bad hair days. And think of the money he'll save on shampoo. Plus, his head will reflect light really well—you could use him as a emergency flashlight in a power outage."
Lily snorted so hard she almost inhaled her tea. Jade dissolved into giggles, and even Sienna's indignant expression cracked.
"You're terrible," Sienna said, grinning now. "But you're not wrong. I could probably see my reflection in that shine."
"Anyway," Jade said, leaning forward, "Lily, what's happening with Connor?"
Lily's expression didn't change, but something shifted in her eyes. She picked up her chopsticks carefully. "Connor's gone. Completely disappeared from the social scene. After he got fired, his parents made such a scene that his name is basically mud in the entire werewolf community now. Even Frost Pack won't touch him."
"Good," Sienna said fiercely. "He deserves worse."
"He's been telling people it's Violet's fault," Lily continued, looking at me steadily. "Apparently, you 'exposed the truth' and ruined his career."
My hand tightened around my coffee cup. Connor, stripped of everything, desperate and angry, with a specific target for his rage.
"Let him try something," Sienna snapped. "If he even thinks about touching Vi, I'll hire hunters to skin him alive!"
"Sienna," I said quietly, touching her arm. "It's fine. Connor's all bark."
But even as I said it, I wasn't entirely sure I believed it.
"Still," Jade said seriously, "maybe don't go anywhere alone for a while?"
I nodded, though the irony wasn't lost on me. They were worried about Connor when the real threat to my wellbeing was currently several states away, probably staring into Celeste's eyes.
"Enough about my trash ex," Lily said firmly. "Let's talk about something more fun."
The conversation shifted to lighter territory, and I let their voices wash over me, contributing when expected, laughing at the right moments. This was what normal looked like—friends complaining about parents and work and bad dates. When had my life diverged so completely from this?
"Earth to Violet," Sienna said, waving her hand. "We asked if you wanted to go to Lunar Eclipse Bar after this."
"The bar? It's only four in the afternoon."
"Close enough to evening," Jade said cheerfully.
---
Lunar Eclipse Bar occupied the basement level of a converted warehouse. The afternoon crowd was sparse. Sienna immediately ordered a round of shots, and before I could protest, four glasses of amber liquor were placed in front of us.
"To bad dates, worse exes, and the friends who help us survive both," Sienna announced.
We drank, and the liquor burned going down. By the third round I was starting to feel pleasantly detached from reality. The conversation had devolved into increasingly absurd hypotheticals when Lily suddenly leaned forward.
"So Vi, that night at the club when you were dancing... Daemon showed up and took you home, right? What happened after that?"
The question landed like a stone in still water. Jade and Sienna both turned to look at me.
I took another sip of my drink. "Nothing happened. He drove me home. End of story."
"Bullshit," Sienna said cheerfully. "What did he say?"
"He was pissed," I said flatly. "Lectured me about appropriate behavior for a Luna."
"What a hypocrite," Jade muttered. "He can parade his mistresses around, but you dance at a club and suddenly it's a scandal?"
"Speaking of Daemon," Jade said, "that girl he brought to the club that night, she was pretty cute. Very much the 'pure temptation' type."
"Pure temptation?" Sienna's voice could have stripped paint. "More like a two-faced homewrecker! She knows damn well Daemon has a Luna, and she still throws herself at him. That's just shameless!"
"Actually," I heard myself say, "she's just an ordinary college student. Against someone like Daemon—an Alpha with that kind of power and presence—it's like a moth to a flame. She probably can't resist his... gravitational pull."
The silence that followed was deafening.
"Are you seriously defending her right now?" Sienna's voice had gone dangerously quiet.
"I'm not defending anyone. I'm just saying that blaming her misses the point."
"The problem is Daemon," Lily finished quietly.
I lifted my glass and drained it. "You know what's funny? I used to think I could fix this. That if I just tried hard enough, was patient enough, perfect enough, he'd eventually see me. But you can't make someone love you. Either they do or they don't."
"Then fuck them," Sienna said fiercely. "Seriously, Vi. You deserve so much better than this."
"Lenient with yourself, harsh with others," Jade said gently. "You'll make excuses for her, but you won't cut yourself the same slack."
She was right. I could extend empathy to Celeste but not to myself.
"Honestly," I said, "I'm done obsessing over 'fate' and 'destiny.' If I keep this up, I'll either get breast cancer from the stress or have a mental breakdown before I hit thirty."
That startled a laugh out of Lily.
"New rule," Sienna announced. "No more talking about Daemon. For the rest of today, we focus on literally anything else."
---
The drinks kept coming, and the conversation steered clear of my marital disasters. I was halfway through what was probably my sixth drink when movement at the bar caught my attention. Lucian Cross had settled onto a barstool, leaning toward a woman in a tight green dress.
"What would you like to drink?" His voice carried. "My treat."
The woman leaned in. "Well, if I get drunk, where should I sleep?"
Lucian's smile widened. He was opening his mouth to respond when Sienna suddenly stood up.
"Lucian Cross!" Her voice rang out across the entire bar. "Didn't the clinic just clear you for that STD last week?! And you're already back out here?! Didn't they tell you to wait at least a month before, you know, engaging?!"
The woman in the green dress recoiled, her expression morphing from sultry interest to revolted horror. Every head in the bar turned.
"What the fuck, Sienna!" Lucian's voice cracked.
The woman grabbed her purse and shoved past him. "Disgusting," she spat, and stormed out.
Lucian spun toward our table, his face flushed with rage. "You're deliberately destroying my reputation!"
Sienna just smiled sweetly. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I was just concerned for your health."
"Bullshit! You know damn well—" He stalked toward our table. "I know what this is about. This is payback for the blind date setup! My dad—"
He stopped mid-sentence, realization dawning on his face as he registered what he'd just admitted. The color drained from his cheeks.
Understanding lit up Sienna's expression, quickly followed by cold fury. "So you did know," she said softly, dangerously. "You were in on it the whole time."
"That wasn't— I didn't mean—" Lucian opened his mouth, then closed it again. Without another word, he turned and practically fled the bar. The moment the door closed behind him, the entire place erupted in laughter and excited chatter.
Sienna sat back down, looking immensely satisfied with herself. "Well," she said brightly, reaching for her drink, "that was fun."
"You're completely unhinged," Jade said, grinning.
"That was quite the performance," a new voice said. Felix Hunt stood beside our table, looking amused and exasperated. "Though maybe next time you could refrain from giving Lucian a complex in public?"
"He deserved it," Sienna shot back.
Felix sighed. "Maybe we could all just agree to a temporary ceasefire? Before someone actually gets hurt?"
"Fine," Sienna said. "But only because you asked nicely."
After he left, we dissolved into giggles. My sides hurt from laughing, and for the first time in weeks, I felt something close to genuinely happy.
"I need to pee," I announced, sliding off my stool. "Don't finish the drinks without me."
Just as I stood up, a man suddenly stepped into my path. I'd never seen him before—probably in his early thirties, with brown hair and gray-green eyes that held an unusual warmth. He was wearing a pale blue cashmere sweater.
"Excuse me, miss," he said, his voice low and pleasant. "Would you like to have a drink with me? I know this might sound forward, but... I've been watching you all evening."
I froze, my slightly alcohol-addled brain trying to process what was happening. Was I being hit on?