Chapter 121

Violet’s POV

You knew this would happen.

A remnant of a long-lost fear whispered in my ear, reminding me of the belief I once felt so strongly: that Theodore and I were only together because of a contract, a transaction, a business arrangement and that I would be smart to never become emotionally entangled with a playboy whose mate could walk into our lives at any moment.

Just like this.

I understood the fear. I remembered what it felt like when it was a much bigger part of me. It wanted to protect me, and its reasoning was valid.

Back then.

But much had happened since then. Things that caused the fear to lessen until it was nothing but an echo of what it had once been, buried beneath memories of the real love and mate bond that had blossomed between me and Theodore.

The fear had been dulled with every heady gaze he offered me and every vulnerability he did me the honor of letting me see. It had been eased with the Shelter project that divulged Theo’s goodness he had hidden behind his arrogance. It had been shaken to the core with the glowing bands the Goddess bestowed upon our wedding.

And it had been all but deadened the night he offered me his mother’s necklace, which still hung lovingly at my collarbone.

I did not reject the fear that was swelling once more inside me. No, I comforted it. I thanked it for wanting to protect me, and I promised it that I would keep myself safe, but the situation before us was different than the one in which it had been born.

This new reality required different forms of protection. I was calculating the most effective methods as the farce unraveled during dinner.

I certainly didn’t appreciate the disrespectful claim Eva acted like she had on Theodore, and I hated the idea of my husband with anyone other than me. But I didn’t miss the loving looks Theodore conveyed to me as he continued to flinch away from Eva.

Beyond the very real tendrils of jealousy reaching for control of my actions, I clung to what I knew to be true: Theodore and I were mates, and though illusions could be cast and manipulations could be schemed, no one outwitted the Goddess for long.

There was no way in hell Eva was Theodore’s mate.

My call to my aunt in the hospital had confirmed my early suspicions to that end. We still didn’t know how the ruse had been achieved, and finding those answers would be essential to undoing it and proving Owen’s hand in it.

It pained me to see Theodore’s fear of losing me as he begged to talk to me in private, but I needed to be here, to play along in order to glean as much information as possible from the man I suspected to be the source of this conspiracy.

I turned to him now as Owen pulled the Moonstone out of the box. I recognized the same iridescence that proved it was real last time, too. When Owen used it to prove Theodore and I were mates.

Back when I thought Theodore had used his magic to make the stone glow. Back before I believed we were really fated to be together.

Maybe you’re not fated after all. Maybe you were right to doubt.

I focused on my breathing as that increasing fear whispered once more in my ear. But I would not bow to it, nor would I reject it. I only allowed it to exist, like one of the rogues in Theodore’s refugee camp who provoked out of fear, not malintent.

Like them, my own fears needed safety, love, and comfort.

Owen passed the Moonstone to Eva since she was sitting closest to him. It had not escaped me how Theo had chosen a chair furthest from his brother. Though his sister-in-law was hardly much better.

Eva’s eyes gleamed as if the orb guaranteed a bright future for her. She turned to Theodore, beaming as she reached to hold his hand. He pulled it away, and she fumbled, resting her hand on the table as if she had meant to do that in the first place, as if her touch hadn’t just been rejected.

The jealousy waiting in the wings of my mind waned.

Then Eva turned back to the Moonstone in her other hand and began the same words I had recited all that time ago. “Sacred eye of the Goddess, see into our hearts and illuminate us in your light if we walk the path of your design.”

Interesting that a rogue such as Eva was highly educated enough to know such an obscure incantation. Interesting and suspicious.

“Sacred eye of the night,” she continued, “cut through the darkness of our doubts. See us as we are: one and chosen.”

Unlike the blinding light that had erupted for me and Theodore, the Moonstone began to blink, as if it were thinking. Keeping my gaze pointed at the orb that we all watched, I glanced at the others in my peripherals.

Owen’s brows furrowed, worried at the sputtering light. His wife looked bored. Eva looked arrogantly confident, and Theodore…

His expression was steeled as if he knew I would be watching. But I knew him well enough to recognize the concern lacing his eyes.

For some reason, he was afraid this false mate bond might be real. I needed to find out why as those reasons might provide helpful information as to how the scheme was plotted. And I needed to reassure him it wasn’t true.

But I couldn’t do any of that with an audience.

My full attention was pulled back to the Moonstone as it flickered into a strong glow. It was still not as bright as how it had responded to me and Theodore, but no self-respecting werewolf would argue against his mate bond with Eva after this.

Even I had a part of me whose heart broke – just an inch.

Part of me wanted to snarkily suggest that we use the same Moonstone for me and Theodore again, right here, right now. I wasn’t sure if whatever means had been used to create a false enough bond to trick the Moonstone would also block our bond enough to keep it from glowing though. And more importantly, tonight was not about proving their mate bond wrong.

It was about gathering the information needed to prove it beyond argument and to take Owen down with it.

So as Eva grinned almost as wide as Owen in the waning warmth of the Moonstone’s glow, as the queen yawned, and Theodore’s face fell in horror, I pulled at the thread within me. The faint part of me that had felt heartbroken. I leaned into it, letting it expand and pervade my every muscle, just like it would if I really thought I were losing Theodore.

I imagined that reality down to the most painful detail, tricking my own body into a truth I knew to be false. Then I allowed my face to reveal the wreckage I would be if I truly believed in their mate bond, allowed my body to contort in defeat and my heartbeat to break into an arhythmic tempo for all to hear, because I needed Owen to believe I had been duped.

I needed him lulled into a false sense of control so he wouldn’t see me coming when I gutted him.