Chapter 34

T he tension in the room is thick as we all sit at the large dining table. Violet’s father, Oberyn, glances at me now and then and I can feel the edge of him being an Alpha as well.

It’s hidden deep within him, but it’s there.

Violet’s mother keeps touching her, like she isn’t sure this is all real. I suppose even being supernatural, this all seems far-fetched.

I’ve kept quiet, letting Violet take the lead, which is hard. I can tell she doesn’t know where to start. Honestly, no one sitting around the table does.

“The necklace. I gave him the necklace,” she says, glancing over at me. “Is he truly your husband?” she asks and Violet nods, and eyes her two best friends before swallowing.

She’s going to do it. She’s going to tell them everything.

“Yes, he’s my husband. Yes, I still have the necklace.”

“I’m sorry I hid that piece of you. I had too,” Lavender says. Her husband places a hand on his wife’s neck as he looks at his daughter. The man hasn’t said much and I wonder if he’s quiet or this is all just too much.

“What necklace?” Iris asks, and Violet licks her lips.

Lavender cups Violet’s cheek as tears fall from her eyes. “We never meant to leave you. Everything we did was to protect you, but at what cost?” she asks.

Violet wipes a tear from her eye and tells them everything. How she spent sixteen years in a fucked-up orphanage, how Aster picked her up on her birthday and she had a happy life with the coven, then her hex with me and the spirit that visited us in the mansion.

“I didn’t realize at the time that Collins was my ancestor,” Violet says looking at her father.

“My father thought you would solve everything. Aster thought differently,” Oberyn says, and Violet’s brows furrow.

“His spirit led us here. We visited the jewelry shop, and we brought the necklace back home.”

“Did it preserve your wolf?” Lavender asks. Both of the other witches’ heads quickly turn to Violet, who looks shy and scared.

“It did,” she says, glancing over at her friends.

“You’re both?” Iris asks, her voice soft. “You can shift?”

“Only with the necklace on,” Violet says, searching her friend’s reactions. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

Iris nods, and Ember smiles. “This changes nothing,” Ember reassures her with a smile.

“My mother, does she suspect anything?” Lavender asks, chewing on her nail.

“I’m not sure what she knows, but she suspects something. What is the last thing you remember?” Violet asks.

Lavender grabs her husband’s hand and squeezes.

“We ran away. I wanted to raise you in that big purple house. We both did. Thought we could unite the shifters and the witches with both of the successors marrying and welcoming a child. Atticus was on board, but my mother wasn’t. We knew we had to run. We were young, only eighteen, and neither of us were a match for my mother, not to mention we didn’t have much money to run away. We both love New Orleans and thought maybe we could join the coven and pack here. They don’t have the same feuds.”

“I heard of my father’s death, and we packed up, ready to go north or west, wherever we could. It wasn’t ever determined how he died, but I knew Aster did it,” Oberyn says. “We had to keep you safe,” he tells Violet, his hard exterior slowly crumbling as he looks at his thirty-year-old daughter. “Lavender gave birth to you on the side of Route 61. We could feel Aster getting close, like a noose tied around our neck,” he says, shaking his head.

“I used every ounce of magic I had in me to tether your wolf to the necklace, I bought it just in case something bad happened,” Lavender says through tears. “I didn’t know what she would do. But I thought if she couldn’t sense what you were, if no one knew, it would keep you safe. I just wanted you to be safe. I’m so sorry, Violet,” she says with tears streaming down her face.

I can’t help myself as I stand behind Violet, gently touching her shoulder. She surprises me as she squeezes my hand for comfort, not pushing me away.

“The last thirty years, we’ve been normal people, going to jobs everyday and never knowing you were out there or who we were in our previous lives,” Lavender says.

“Your magic?” Violet whispers.

“I don’t feel anything. I have to assume she did the same I did for you, tethering my magic, and Oberyn’s wolf to an item. It can’t be destroyed like that. She erased you, she took you from me,” Lavender says.

Violet squeezes my hand tighter, as she takes a big sniff.

“That means…grand-mère is the one who surrendered me to Mander’s,” she says with the shocking reality.

Iris and Ember both gasp as Lavender looks away, the pain evident all over her features.

“I’m guessing she couldn’t bear to actually hurt us. She probably wanted to make sure you manifested as a witch. Perhaps she tied it with your coming of age. I…I…fuck. I just need a minute,” she says and Violet nods as her parents excuse themselves from the room.

Iris looks over at Violet, and grabs Ember’s arm.

“We’re going to clean up the living room and get the car packed,” she says and I give her a gentle look, letting her know I have Violet covered, as I round the chair, getting down on my knees and gripping Violet’s waist.

Her eyes are nearly crystalline from the tears she attempts to hold back.

“Vi?”

“She sent me there,” she says, her face crinkling with emotion as she looks down at me. “She sent me there and then she acted like she was my savior. She took me away from my parents. She made them forget me. She took you away from me,” she says, some rogue tears finally falling down her cheeks.

I wipe them away with my thumbs and hold her face tightly in my hands.

“What do you need, baby?” I ask her and she sniffs.

“She needs us to go back home and free Azure from the confines of that necklace before I rip her grandmother’s throat out,” Thorin snarls, ready for bloodshed.

“I want my parents back, I want my lost time with you back, I want this to not hurt so fucking much,” she says, as I pick her up from the chair and press her against my chest, holding her tight.

I stroke her hair. The color making far more sense now, looking at her two parents. While her face takes after her mother, the split in her hair that she’s never able to change is now clear as day. Her mother seems softer and gentler, and it’s clear she gets her ferocity from her father.

Violet holds on to me like I’m the only thing keeping her tied to her sanity, and I shouldn’t like it as much as I do. I want to wash away the pain, and frankly the truth, so that it doesn’t hurt her anymore. But knowing that my mate, my wife, finds solace in my arms is a heady moment for me. I squeeze her even tighter, hoping that she knows I’ll always keep her safe.

“We have to find where she’s hiding their gifts. We have to band the coven and your pack around this. Taking Aster down isn’t going to be easy,” she says, and I pull her away to look at her face.

The tears have dried up and all I can see in her gaze is the need for vengeance.

“This is what you want?” I ask her, not wanting to vocalize how I feel about it, not until I know how she truly feels.

I cradle the back of her head with my hand as she looks up at me. “The coven deserves better. My mother deserves more. I deserve more,” she whispers.

“You deserve everything,” I whisper back.

“It’s not going to be easy,” she says. We both know this is true.

I knew Aster was a strong witch, but everything that’s been laid out on the table here tonight goes beyond what I even imagined.

“You’re not alone, far from it. We’ll all take this on together,” I tell her.

“For better or for worse, huh?” she jokes and my grip on her head tightens, making her lips part.

“For better or for worse,” I repeat.

When I said my vows originally, they meant nothing to me, but as I look down at my wife, there’s nothing that can stand between us.

She lifts on her toes and we share a sweet soft kiss, before the door behind us opens and her parents walk back in.

Lavender seems more put together, and Oberyn looks pissed.

“I take it you’re the Alpha of Moon Walker Pack?” he says to me and I nod.

He takes a deep inhale and slightly bows.

“I have a list of shifters who can help,” he says.

“And witches I know don’t care for my mother,” Lavender says.

“You’re not coming back with us?” Violet says, her face falling slightly as her mother approaches her and grabs her hand.

“There’s nothing I want more than to come home and get to know you better. But I can’t do that, not without my magic, not without my mother finding out you know the truth. The moment she knows she’s been found out I worry what she’ll do. It’s of the utmost importance that you do not let her even get a whiff that we’re conspiring against her. Assuming that’s what you want,” Lavender says.

Violet’s lip tilts upwards. Even after everything her mother’s been through, she’s giving her daughter the choice. Even after all these years of not knowing she was out there or who she was, she loves Violet beyond anything. She’s letting her decide.

“I’m getting your gifts back and I’m righting the wrongs of our coven,” Violet says proudly, a sharp confidence slipping out of her that’s refreshing and has me falling for her even more.

Lavender smiles, and Oberyn looks proud.

“Then we have some planning to do before your trip home,” Lavender says.

So we make a plan. One that I fucking hate, but it will keep us safe.