Chapter 84

Violet

I watched them leave, then I looked up at Theodore who was glaring after the man, looking just as furious as before. If this was broadcast live, plenty of people saw it, and with any luck they'd start thinking.

But more than that, I felt a bit hot under the collar. There was something incredibly attractive, sexy even, about the tension in his voice, the righteous anger of it. The confidence.

I nudged him. He looked down at me, and his eyes widened. It must have shown on my face how I felt. I smiled at him and lifted up to kiss his cheek.

“You were brilliant,” I said, my voice low enough not to carry to the lingering audience. "And you've more than earned it."

He grinned, sweeping me into his arms. "Yeah? That's what gets you going, hm?"

"You caught me," I said, drawing a hand down his chest. "Something to be said of a righteousness."

He nodded. "I'll keep that in mind during this shopping trip. Shall we?"

"Gladly." We turned, when a flash of a camera struck me blind for a moment and someone called out.

“Alpha Nightshade! Just one more question before you go!"

Theodore almost pouted. I had to laugh, but he turned back with an expectant question.

"One. I'm on a date with my wife and public statements weren't on the agenda."

Someone laughed, but several others seemed stunned.

The one who had elbowed her way to the front of the crowd, thrust her microphone out.

"What are your thoughts on the current voting situation regarding the Shelter project? Specifically on how the vote is limited to alphas.”

"Alpha Donovan was gracious enough to lend me Darkmoon's infrastructure to set up a public opinion vote," he said. I smiled, charmed at his acknowledgement of my help. Maybe five pieces wasn't enough of a reward. "It won't be counted as important by the king, but I hoped it would influence the alphas' thoughts on how they vote."

"You opened a public vote… to pressure them?"

"I did," Theodore said. "A little transparency between constituents and alphas is good. Necessary even. It's unfair that the only people getting to vote are the ones who will be least impacted by Shelter and the way we can anticipate laws changing because of it."

I caught the flicker of surprise on some of their faces. I don't remember a single alpha ever saying that they wanted to hear from their constituents.

“But isn’t this how the system has always worked?” another reporter asked. "An alpha makes decisions for his territory."

“It has,” Theodore agreed. “And it’s long overdue for change, or rather, we could benefit to looking back to our history. Council, pack meetings-- hell, simple court audiences would shed light on a lot of issues that are invisible to alphas because they are unknown to their people and vis versa. I recognize that several noble territories like Darkmoon and Silverbrush still continue this practice, but the vast majority of territories are led by alphas who are either hated by their constituents or are virtually unknown to them. It's part of how we ended up having this conversation in the first place."

The reporter nodded, but no one came up with another question. We turned to leave, heading back to the lingerie shop together. I felt another surge of pride through me when my phone chimed alerting me that the entire encounter was already being talked about in public channels. I'd love to see Owen try to suppress it.

I leaned in close, just enough for only him to hear. “I think you just made half the country love you and the other half hate you.”

He smirked. "I'm sure it's more like three-fourths. Give me some credit."

Owen

The moment the broadcast had started, I had hoped that Victor would be of use to me. I'd had no idea that Theodore, usually one to just avoid being seen on a camera, would have the gall to actually interrupt and debate with Victor on camera.

By the time Violet had left his side, I was already fuming and trying to get the footage retratcted, deleted, and Victor, the idiot, didn't even think to leave before the conversation grew out of his depths. Now the whole country had at least a glimpse of one of my allies being made a complete fool of, and by extension, I had been made a complete fool of.

I slammed my hand against the desk, the sharp crack of impact echoed in the room. Theodore. Always Theodore.

I set my jaw, glaring at the screen, seeing the paparazzi following Theodore and Violet walking down the street. Smiling at one another, seemingly overly happy, and blissful. The faint glow of the bands on their heads were clearly visible, just as visible as they had been since they were married.

"It seems the newlywed couple are going to be great forces for change…"

I snarled and paced the length of my office, my mind racing, my phone vibrating non-stop on the desk with incoming calls. Theodore had gone too far this time, but all the blame couldn't be placed on him.

If I had just let him have his stupid pet project, then he wouldn't have gone looking for a luna. He wouldn't have found Violet. I could have had Violet at my side, keeping the nobles at bay and none of this would have been happening.

I glared at her image on the screen. I should have known that Theodore had gotten more than just his stupid fucking face from our father. I should have put a sanction against him getting married. If I'd known he had magic years ago, I would have tossed him into the temple, not put him in charge of the remnants of the standing army.

I had to get rid of Violet somehow before Theodore's statements about not being interested in the throne started to change.

Our father had moved mountains to get my mother and dried up proverbial seas to get and maintain control over Theodore's mother. Theodore had Violet by her own volition. They were mates in the most irrefutable way.

He'd do anything for her.

Why did she have to be a fucking noble? I could have had her killed, sent him into insanity, and been done with it. At this rate, the two of them would turn the few allies I had against me and the rest of the country would join in.

Never mind in the International Werewolf Convention got involved. Wasn't her mother from beyond the border?

The office phone rang again, shrieking at me.

I snatched it up, my voice sharp. “What is it?”

“Sir, we’ve got dozens of calls coming in from other Alphas. They’re demanding a statement,” my secretary said, her voice tight with urgency.

“Tell them to wait,” I snapped. “Get the broadcast pulled.”

I pulled out my cellphone, already dialing another number.

“I want that speech banned from television immediately. Every station. Every affiliate. Every channel. I don’t care what strings you have to pull—make it disappear.”

“Yes, Alpha,” he stammered, and I ended the call without another word.

I turned to my computer, opening social media to see Theodore’s face plastered across every platform. Clips of his speech were already spreading like wildfire, racking up views and comments faster than I could process.

The bastard didn't even have a social media presence the last time I'd checked, but Midnight as a territory all of a sudden did. I scrolled through the main feed and hissed. Violet was working fast to make Theodore more unstoppable than he had been before.

All he had to do was secure a personal allegiance with the nobles, and I'd be fucking screwed.

“Unbelievable,” I muttered, my fury boiling over. I called in my PR team's interns. I'd replaced them and their superiors at least three times since Violet and Theodore had the nerves show up at the Alpha Gathering together. “I want this wiped from the internet. Flag it for copyright, misinformation, anything. Shut it down before it spreads any further.”

“It’s already trending, sir,” one of them said hesitantly. "And some of these posts are from Midnight's feed--"

“I don’t care if it’s trending in the moon’s orbit,” I snapped. “Fix it, or you should start wondering if I'm going to allow Shelter to exist. Now send your fucking supervisors in her to do some damn work!”

The three of them paled and scurried out of the room like rats. Good. Let them feel the pressure—they weren’t the only ones.

I poured a drink, the burn of the liquor doing little to dull my rage. Theodore’s words would have already stirred up a lot of talk, even outside of the media. People who happened to be in the area, the reporters, and who knew who else. Word of mouth was harder to shut down, what was even harder was people's personal devices. More than that, he was right.

"You called, Your Majesty?"