Chapter 200

Violet’s POV

My car slowly crawled up the hill toward the gates to Mel Rimanea. I had been so touched to see the noble people ahead of me offering rides to the residents from the settlement walking beside them. By the time I pulled up, there was only one resident left, the last one who had waited to make sure everyone else got a ride first.

I asked my driver to stop, and I rolled down my window to the familiar face. “Good morning, Ben.”

The large man I’d been afraid would hurt someone the first time I’d visited the camp turned at the sound of his name. When he saw it was me, he smiled. “Alpha Donovan!”

“Please,” I said, opening the car door and scooting to the other side as I beckoned him to join me, “call me Violet.”

He hesitated only briefly, looking around him to make sure no one was left behind, before accepting my offer. I wondered how I could have ever assumed ill intent from him.

Once he was seated and the car door was closed, I instructed the driver to carry on. As the driver inched forward in the traffic, Ben’s smile faded.

“Something wrong?” I inquired.

He twisted his mouth as if he were contemplating whether or not to share his thoughts. I wouldn’t have pried had he decided not to, but I was honored when he did.

“I’m a little worried about my people.” He shook his head. “It’s probably nothing.”

“I’d be happy to listen if you want to share.” I didn’t mention that I planned to be able to help with Midnight again very soon.

Ben sighed, as we jerked forward in the stop-and-go traffic to Mel Rimanea.

“We met our new Luna.” He eyed me like he wasn’t sure if it was bad form to bring up my ex’s new mate. I nodded him on to let him know it was okay.

Especially since she wasn’t really his mate, but I couldn’t tell him that. Not yet. Not for another several hours.

“When you and I first met…” he trailed off, and I was too embarrassed to keep his eye contact.

“I made terrible assumptions about you. My behavior from that day still haunts me,” I admitted, staring through the windshield ahead.

“You? I’m the one who let my temper get away from me.”

I smiled, turning to look at him again, feeling a kinship in our shared guilt. “Maybe not the proudest moment for either of us?” I offered.

“Guess not,” Ben chuckled. “But look at us now. That’s the thing: you came around.”

I was betting based on how this story was going so far that he did not have the same experience with Eva.

“Our new Luna,” he continued, “didn’t even stick around long enough to see more than what the media paints. I wasn’t there, but I heard firsthand from the kids she made cry. Then Alpha Nightshade promised not to bring her back to the camp.”

My shoulders fell in sympathy though my insides churned with rage. She made kids cry?

“Now we’ll probably see her at this wedding,” he continued, “and probably a bunch of other noble people who feel the same as she does.”

I nodded slowly in understanding. He was worried about how the people he cared for and felt responsible for were going to be treated today. And I suddenly felt like an idiot.

When Theo had shared Dahlia’s suggestion to invite all the werewolves from the settlement, we had all been excited about the prospect of changing noble minds with the mingling of folks from different places. It had never occurred to me that we might be putting the newest members of Midnight, who were already vulnerable after being exiled from their previous packs, in an uncomfortable situation – or even in danger.

Suddenly, I worried about all those women and children entering cars and carriages with werewolves they didn’t know. What if some of them had only pretended to offer help?

I cut off my spiraling thoughts and reached for my mate. The rogue refugees. They need protection.

Hello to you, too, alari. I pushed past the way his voice soothed me. This was serious.

Not everyone will arrive with an open mind. There could be noble people intent on hurting them.

A sigh. He actually put forth the effort of sending a sigh through our magical connection.

We share your concerns, alari, and we put systems in place to protect everyone at the wedding.

Oh. Really?

His chuckle reverberated in my mind. You’re not the only strategist in our family. Now tell me, are you almost here?

My ribcage expanded at his mention of our family, and suddenly I felt a little less annoyed at my changing body.

The car stopped then and the driver let us know we had arrived, so I let my mate know that I was exiting the vehicle. I waited for Ben, taking his offered arm, and Sinclair followed close behind in Kincaid’s stead.

I had taken Ben’s offered arm as his friend, but as the noble people standing in line in front of us glanced back, I didn’t hate the symbolism of it: an Alpha linking arms with an ex-rogue.

“Your people are Theo’s people, too,” I whispered to Ben. “He will see that they are protected, today and every day.” Then I made eye contact with Ben as I said, “As will I.”

He nodded gratefully, swallowing his emotion.

It didn’t take long before we were in front of Theo and Eva, the four spies invading my mate’s home standing guard behind them. Thankfully, Eva’s gaze was pinned in a scathing glare at my shattered forehead band, so she missed the way Theo zeroed in on my cleavage, just as Lily had predicted. His lips parted in obvious want, but he quickly gathered himself, blinking and straightening his shoulders as he offered his hand to Ben.

“Ben, I’m so happy you made it! And don’t you two make a handsome couple,” he smiled at us politely, finally making eye contact with me. His love for me bled into our lingering look, expressing a million promises and wants we couldn’t say in words.

“Oh, no, Alpha!” Ben quickly relinquished my arm, going so far as to take a step back from me. “We’re not here together,” he sputtered.

“Though I was more than happy to offer him a ride on his way up the hill,” I added with a smile, knowing Theo needed no explanation.

My mate stood, laughing and gathering Ben into an embrace. “I didn’t mean anything by it, Ben. Besides,” Theo looked at me then, “I have no say in who Alpha Donovan chooses to be with.”

I understood in his words what he meant: no matter how much he loved me, no matter how intensely our mate bond drew him to me, he would have always respected my choice to be with someone else if that’s what I had chosen.

I still choose you, I said into his mind.

He smiled at my words that only he heard. Before our gazes lingered too long, I turned to Eva. “And this, Luna of Midnight, is for you from my garden.”

Her eyes lit up at the gesture, at the show of respect, accepting the wildflower that I handed her without knowing that it was a wildflower from the garden she thought belonged to her. And without knowing that I had magically manifested it without anyone noticing.

But it wouldn’t be long before I made it clear to her and everyone at this wedding who exactly Midnight belonged to.