Chapter 149 Chapter 149
Violet
I was both surprised and a little sad that Elijah was standing up to Alpha Alaric for me.
"Elijah" I tried to intervene but he wouldn't even look my way.
His words however only angered his father.
"He will be when he marries Nicole. And that is going to happen real soon. That is the reason you all are here in the first place." Alaric's voice was hard as stone. "He is a member of this pack, under my protection as Alpha, and you nearly murdered him." He paused, his gaze flicking to me with barely disguised contempt. "Over some girl."
The casual cruelty of it hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath from my lungs. Some girl. Like I was disposable and like what Nate had tried to do to me was inconsequential because I didn't matter enough to warrant protection.
My chest tightened painfully, and I felt hot tears prick at the corners of my eyes. I blinked them back furiously, refusing to cry in front of these people.
"Nate assaulted her," Elijah repeated, and his voice was shaking now with the effort of controlling himself. "He drugged her. He cornered her in a public place and tried to force himself on her. What was I supposed to do? Stand by and watch?"
"Allegedly," Alaric cut him off, the word sharp and dismissive. "We only have your word for what happened. And given your obvious relationship with this girl, your judgement is hardly unbiased.”
“It is not!” Elijah replied and Alaric’s voice rose again.
“Did anybody see him spike her drink? Did you see him do it? As a matter of fact, did she see him do it?”
He looked at me at the last question and I shook my head.
“So nobody saw him do that and yet you beat the living shit out of a family member whose wedding preparations we graciously let you attend only because your mother has this crazy notion that her son needs to know what a family is?”
The accusation hung in the air, ugly and poisonous.
My hands clenched in the hospital sheets, anger cutting through the fog in my head. He wasn't going to believe us. He didn't care what Nate had done, and likely wouldn’t care about the evidence even if I somehow found it. All that mattered was the scandal and the damage to the pack's precious reputation.
And I didn’t care if he didn’t think of me as important.
But I absolutely wouldn’t let Elijah take the blame all for himself.
"It's not alleged," I said, my voice coming out rougher and shakier than I intended but getting stronger with each word. "It happened. He cornered me against the wall. He put his hands on me."
Alpha Alaric’s eyes narrowed and he asked. “Do you have proof or witnesses for that or again we just have to believe what you say?”
I didn’t have any proof so I shook my head.
“Then you will stay silent because you may have fooled Elijah with your innocent looks but not me.”
Alaric's voice cut across mine like a blade, sharp and absolute. He didn't even turn to look at me, didn't acknowledge me as anything more than an irritating background noise.
The dismissal stung worse than any physical blow could have. I tried to sit up, needing to make him look at me, needing to make him see me as a person rather than just an inconvenience. But the moment I moved, the room spun violently. My stomach lurched, and I had to grab the bed rails to keep from falling.
"I have every right to speak about what happened to me," I managed to get out, fighting against the nausea. "He assaulted me…"
“What if he gets up and gives me a different story? Of how you were trying to get close to him? Who do I believe then?”
The questions left me stunned.
"You are an outsider." Alaric finally turned to look at me, and his eyes were ice cold. "You do not speak in pack business. You do not have standing in this family to make accusations against its members. Whatever Elijah’s temporary infatuation with you, it does not grant you authority here. It does not give you the right to cause division in this pack or to drag our name through the mud with your accusations."
Temporary infatuation. Is that what he thought this was? Is that what everyone thought?
I opened my mouth to respond, to defend myself, to scream that I had every right to speak about my own assault. But before I could get the words out, Elijah spoke.
"She's not an outsider."
His voice was calm but it made everyone freeze.
Alaric turned slowly to face his son, hands on hips. "What did you just say?"
"I said she's not an outsider." Elijah met his father's gaze without flinching, without backing down even an inch. "She's not temporary. And she has every right to speak about what happened to her because what happened to her matters."
My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat, hear it rushing in my ears. What was he doing? Why was he making this worse? Why was he throwing himself on the sword for me?
Alaric's expression darkened further, storm clouds gathering. "Explain yourself. Now!"
Elijah took a breath, and I saw his hands unclench slowly. When he spoke, his voice was steady. Certain. "Violet is important to me, like family. That makes her pack business. That gives her standing. That means when someone hurts her, they hurt the pack. And when someone hurts the pack, there are consequences."
The room went so quiet I could hear my own breathing.
He'd called me family.
I looked past Elijah to Aurelia, and my stomach dropped to my feet.
She was smiling, a small, knowing curve of her lips as she looked between Elijah and me. Her eyes met mine for just a moment, and in that look, I saw satisfaction. She was looking at me like she'd just won a game I didn't even know we were playing.
Oh Goddess. She thought I'd done it. She thought I'd successfully manipulated her son into falling for me, into declaring me as family, into choosing me over his pack standing.
The realization made bile rise in my throat. This was exactly what she'd wanted. What she'd ordered me to do.
And Elijah was playing right into it, thinking he was protecting me when really he was just sealing his own doom.
"Family." Alaric repeated the word slowly, letting it roll around in his mouth like he was tasting something foul. "You've known this girl for what, a few weeks? A month at most? And you think that makes her family? You think that gives her the right to cause chaos in this pack?"
"Yes."
He said just one word without any further clarification. And I could see the divide between his family amd him growing even bigger. Because of me.