Chapter 151 Chapter 151
Violet
Lady Aurelia who had been watching it all unfold quietly finally reached for her husband’s shoulder and patted him gently.
“I know things aren’t going as planned. But he is our son. He has always been a bit hotheaded but please be lenient.”
“Aurelia, look at the condition of Nate…”
She gently took Alaric’s hands in her own and said softly. “I know and I will make it right. He will apologize to Nate and attend the wedding without causing any more ruckus. Please, forgive him this time…for me.”
Her eyes shone with unshed tears and I saw her throw a glare at me as if this was all my fault.
“The press and the reporters…”
“Shh, I will take care of it. You just focus on work. It is still under control. Just breathe.”
I was suddenly reminded of the weird drawings I had seen on his table a few weeks ago. Of how this whole wedding was a facade and they were hiding something big.
"But Lady Aurelia…" Elijah began and I was sure he was going to oppose her solution but she cast him a hard, unforgiving glare.
"You will learn to put the life of others over your ego and do exactly as I said if you dont want your pack to suffer."
There was steel underneath the silk of Aurelia's voice. Command wrapped in courtesy.
Elijah wasn’t shouting or arguing with his mother as he did with his father. But the defeat in that gesture made my chest ache.
Alaric's attention swung back to Elijah, dismissing all others. "Well?" he demanded. "Will you do as asked or continue being a pain in my ass for as long as I am alive?"
I couldn't breathe and my chest was too tight, my lungs refusing to work properly.
This was the moment where Elijah would realize I wasn't worth it. Where he'd choose his pack and his family over a girl he'd known for a few weeks.
And maybe it would be better that way. Maybe it would make what I had to do eventually easier. Maybe he'd already resent me enough that breaking his heart wouldn't destroy him completely.
Maybe I could salvage something from this disaster Aurelia had created.
"Elijah, I will apologize instead of you." The words came out as barely a whisper, my voice breaking on his name. I wasn't even sure what I was trying to say. Don't make me matter this much when I'm just going to hurt you anyway.
He turned to look at me then, and the expression on his face made my chest crack wide open.
“No, you won’t…” He began but I looked at his parents.
“I will apologize to Nate, Nicole and everybody publicly. Will that be fine?”
Aurelia looked from her son to me and there was a flicker of recognition that maybe I wasn’t playing the game by her rules.
“Why would you do that?”
I forced the words out even if it felt like I was swallowing blades.
“Because this incident occured because of me. I am not your pack member anyway and I wont be any of your lives after the wedding next week. So, I hope you accept my apology, and Elijah’s as well as my pack wont suffer any punishment.”
Aurelia narrowed her eyes as if wondering what game I was playing but Alaric looked at Nicole.
“Will that be fine by you?”
Her gaze drifted to Elijah as if she wanted him to be doing the apology but realized she wouldn’t get any so nodded.
Aurelia smiled at all of us.
“Great, it's settled then. You patch up and behave until the wedding and we never discuss this again.”
Alaric didn’t seem satisfied but he cast one long look at Elijah and then walked out of the room with his wife in tow.
The next few days at the Ironcrest manor were tense. The word didn't even begin to cover it, really. Elijah argued with me over and over that I didn't need to apologize for anything. We'd had the same conversation at least a dozen times, his voice getting progressively more frustrated each time, his jaw clenching tighter with each repetition.
"You have nothing to be sorry for," he'd say, pacing the length of whatever room we happened to be in. "He assaulted you. He drugged you. He tried to—" He could never finish that sentence, his hands clenching into fists at the thought. "You don't owe him anything. Certainly not an apology."
And every time, I'd give him the same response, keeping my voice calm and measured even when I wanted to scream. "An apology is better than letting several thousand innocent people be thrown to the streets, Elijah. Your father made it clear what would happen to my pack if I didn't make amends. I can handle a little discomfort if it means keeping them safe."
The truth was more complicated than that, of course. The apology wasn't just about my pack's safety, though that was reason enough. It was about damage control and about preventing the situation from escalating further. In reality, I wanted to avoid giving Alaric any more ammunition to use against Elijah.
I was doing my bit in trying to protect Elijah from the consequences of protecting me.
But I couldn't tell him that, couldn't admit that every time I thought about him choosing me over his pack status, over his family, over everything he'd ever known, I felt like I was drowning in guilt.
"Now you know why I don't consider them family," he'd said to me one night, his voice bitter and hollow in a way that made my chest ache.
And I understood. Goddess, I understood completely why he had distanced himself from them for so many years, why there was no news article linking him to the great founding family Deveraux and why there were no smiling family photographs hanging in his small mansion back in my city.
It explained why he'd built an entire life away from this place, from these people.
Alaric and Aurelia were too engrossed in keeping up their image and reputation to worry about their children. In the few weeks I'd been here, I hadn't seen them talk to Elijah even once with genuine compassion, hadn't heard them ask how he was doing or if he was okay. Not before the fight with Nate and certainly not after being threatened with losing his pack.
A stupid rule they had created several decades ago gave Alaric the power to dismantle any pack to nothing just because he was the founding family member.
This was a dysfunctional family at its finest. The kind that looked perfect from the outside, all polish and prestige, while rotting from the inside out.