Chapter 7

I ’m trying to focus and speak to the remaining supernaturals who have stayed for the meeting, but Thorin won’t stop fucking berating me in my mind.

“Our mate. Our fucking mate was right there, and you let her walk away. You were mean to our mate. We need to chase after her and show her why we are deserving of her. We could kill her grandmother and put her in charge of the coven.”

I try to shake him, but he keeps bitching about it.

“She’s so beautiful. It’s the girl from your memories. We could have had her as our mate all this time if she wouldn’t have left,” Thorin says. An immense feeling of sadness fills me as I try to get my shit together.

I can’t think about Violet right now.

She’s only gotten more beautiful over the years. I can’t attest to her temperament, seeing as her grandmother stole the show. But it’s clear her loyalty to her coven is the same as my loyalties to my pack. Neither of us are going to be easily swayed on who we support.

The irony of it all is laughable. The girl I pined over for years who ran away without ever looking back is my mate. She’s not even a fucking wolf. A witch is my goddamn mate and I want nothing to do with her.

“Speak for yourself.”

“Fuck off, Thorin.”

My wolf mocks me in my head as I try to listen to everyone else in the room. The werewolves and packs are willing to work together. The vampires are indifferent as long as they can drink their fill of unsuspecting travelers.

“Then we agree to stay out of each other’s affairs and hold a united front with the witches?” I ask and get agreements around the table.

The vampire, Warin, stands up. “Next time, pick a family friendly establishment,” he says as he passes the crawfish statue, popping a rich black umbrella open indoors before leaving the restaurant.

The rest of the pack leaders and werewolves leave while Jonas and I stay behind to absorb everything that just happened.

“Well, that was interesting.”

“Which part?” I ask, rubbing my temples.

“Probably the part about finally finding Violet, only to find out she’s now your enemy.”

I rest my elbows on the table and place my palms on my forehead.

“She’s my mate.”

“Thorin confirmed it?”

I nod and groan as my friend smacks my back.

“Well, that’s some shitty fucking luck, but hey at least she’s still hot.”

I pull my hands off my face and point at him. “You will not talk about her like that.”

Jonas just smiles. “Yup, definitely your mate. Looks like you have another thing to add on to your very long to-do list.”

“Don’t fucking remind me.”

“But that’s in fact my job as the Beta to remind you of your duties.”

I sigh and wave him off, remembering her voice. It’s still sweet and soft, like I remember, but now there’s a slight edge to it. ‘ You’re right, it is where I belong,’ plays over and over in my head.

What if, after everything I’ve been through, everything I’ve done, I don’t get my mate?

Thorin whines at the possibility, and I push him further back into the recesses of my mind. He can sulk and whine while not forcing me to have to hear it, too.

Instead, I go back to my small cabin that needs to be renovated and think about the things I can do to make sure this pack doesn’t fail. To make sure I’m nothing like the grandfather who abandoned his daughter, leading me to be an orphan.

He might be the reason I’m here with this pack, the reason I was meant to be an Alpha, but he wasn’t a good man or wolf.

The moment I destroyed Mander and his school, I made myself a promise that I wasn’t going to waste this gift. I was a wolf for a reason, and it had to be for good, especially after everything I’d given up.

I pour myself a brandy and sit in the worn out leather chair and think about Violet.

She didn’t smile the entire meeting and I try to search my memories and remember what it looked like when she smiled. I can’t picture it and it sends a deep feeling of sadness through me.

I never forgot about her, but it wasn’t without trying.

Mr. Mander told us her family was found, and she was taken in the middle of the night back to her home. At first I was happy for her, that she knew where she belonged, but that happiness quickly shifted to hurt when I never received a letter or any kind of messages from her.

Despite every file I read at that fucked-up academy, there was never a record of where Violet went. It was almost like she vanished.

Fourteen years later, I find her, and she’s the progeny of the witch who wants to destroy my pack.

Mate or not, the pack comes first. The Moon Walker Pack needs true leadership and, if that means sacrificing Violet, then that’s what I’ll have to do.