Chapter 95

Going back to classes would have been great if I'd made it to my first one before the whispers started.

“She’s the one suing Brightclaw, right?”

“Did you see all the testimonies from those guys?"

"Sounds like Vivian is a total snake.”

“You think she'll get off?"

"Can we ask her?"

“I heard they used to be friends. Who needs enemies, right?"

Everywhere I went, people turned their heads to stare. Some out of curiosity, some out of sympathy, and some, just waiting for me to crack and everything to go back to normal.

I got through classes, shoulders straight, head up, like Arielle taught me. I wasn't alone. Not anymore, at least, and now that I was Ms. Mountainhowl, no one was going to come after me, no matter their ties. Knowing that my bodyguard was nearby, made me feel a lot better, but I felt eyes drilling into me with every step.

Neil had offered to walk with me between classes today, but I’d turned him down.

I needed to prove to myself more than anyone that I could still function like a normal student. That I wasn’t going to hide because people finally saw how messy things really were. That I wasn’t going to fold just because the world now knew I’d been collateral damage in other people’s hunger games.

It helped knowing that Vivian should be in custody.

Should being the operative word since as soon as I walked into the hallway outside my next class I saw Vivian waiting for me like something out of a bad teen drama. She was dressed too nicely. Tailored jacket, her hair twisted into some impossibly clean knot. Her posture screamed entitlement, but the shadows under her eyes betrayed something raw and unhinged.

And then there was the thick as hell ankle bracelet on her leg.

“Renee,” she said, stepping in front of the door before I could get around her.

I sighed. “Move.”

“Just hear me out.”

“No,” I said flatly. “We’re in the middle of litigation, Vivian. You’re not supposed to even—”

“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes, all faux charm and thinly veiled desperation. “We both know that if you drop the charges, the entire thing dies.”

“And we should also both know I’m not going to do that.”

She leaned in, lowering her voice. “I’m offering you something here. Walk away from this, and I’ll make sure you still get your certification. Hell, I’ll even sign off on a glowing recommendation from the company. We’ll both save face.”

I blinked at her. “Are you trying to bribe me?”

“Would you rather I threaten you?” she snapped, her smile disappearing like fog burned off by sunlight.

"Don't you have to have something to threaten me with, let alone bribe?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Daddy will---"

“This is pathetic." I scoffed. "And I’m pretty sure Dominic has made his stance clear on all of this. You think after everything, I’d be scared of you?”

Vivian’s mouth opened, then closed.

“Tyler was supposed to be a distraction,” she finally hissed. “That’s all. You misunderstand me. And you know you can't trust witch spells…"

"Can't trust your words either."

She narrowed her eyes. "I never thought you’d… drag us through this circus. But maybe I misjudged how desperate you are for attention. Makes sense given your father, and all.”

I didn’t flinch. I let her dig her own grave because my bodyguard was more than near enough to record what she was saying.

“Just admit it, Renee,” she went on, voice lowering again, “you’re not doing this because you care about justice. You’re doing this because you want Tyler to see you. You want him to pick you, and you're upset. We were both fooled. Shouldn't we be on the same side?”

I gave her a long, hard look. “I couldn't care less about Tyler. I’m not the one who’s afraid of being irrelevant.” I smirked. "And you are that is. Irrelevant."

That hit something. Her mask cracked, and for a second, I saw just how scared she was. How angry. Something vicious and primed to attack flickered in her eyes.

“Tyler used me,” she said, and for once, it sounded almost like the truth. “He has a girlfriend. Some… outsider. I didn’t know. I didn’t think—”

I cut her off. “Why would I care about Tyler hiding his girlfriend from you when you hid your relationship with Tyler from me?"

I scoffed. "You only care now because you're suddenly in an even worse position than you put me in.”

"Worse?"

"Thinking you were the mastermind, when you were just a pawn has to hurt more." I chuckled. "Losing control of your obedient servant… That girlfriend of his has to be quite the woman."

She was trembling now, her fists clenched.

“Don’t pretend you’re a victim,” I said, my voice low and calm. “You did this. You started this, and I'm going to end it. Stay away from me Vivian. I don't have time for your bullshit."

I stepped past her and pushed the door open, walking into class without a backward glance.

I got home to find Arielle still hard at work, but taking a break long enough to update me. Dominic was apparently unraveling the rest of Vivian's mess from the inside, leveraging Tyler's new cooperation and willingness to go under truth spell to close some gaps in his own investigation. What that would mean for Tyler when he was released from custody, I had no idea.

Arielle told me that he'd started with a trail of unusual billing requests and ended with a pulled security feed from a side office where Vivian had been siphoning client payments into a “discretionary” budget no one had authorized using her position in the pack to bully someone with actual power within it to get access to more money. I knew she’d abused her power. I just didn’t know how deeply that abuse went.

And what could she have even been buying? Dominic had given her a huge personal budget.

I could only imagine what Dominic was feeling. I could imagine him in his office before dawn, his chest tight with something worse than stress. Regret. Betrayal. Fury. Jaw clenched, sleeves rolled up, documents spread across his massive desk, the scent of coffee long gone cold.

Per Arielle, who was apparently in contact with Dominic on a friendly basis now, Vivian’s name appeared over and over in the internal reports, alongside two other senior associates and an admin whose loyalty clearly extended only as far as Vivian’s influence. He'd pulled every piece of footage from the last six months. Had the lawyers draft a response to every claim in my case, careful to only deny what was categorically untrue, nothing else. No spin. No damage control. Just the facts.

The fact that she didn't have professional embezzlement charge to deal with as well was probably only because she just started working there.

"She's fired, too." Arielle looked gleeful. "No ceremony. I'm loving reading the legal briefs and filed charges for it. The man is thorough." She wiggled her eyebrows. "And the way a man does anything is the way he does everything, you know?"

I scoffed, but when she turned her laptop screen to me, I didn't hesitate to read.

Vivian's labor law case had indeed come through as an “irreparable breach of trust and code of conduct.” Security had likely removed her from the building.

“About time,” I muttered, staring at the screen.

Arielle hummed, looking down at her phone.

"What's wrong?"

"Tyler's father is a snake, but an opportunistic snake for sure. He's trying to add himself to the Mountainhowl client list on Tyler's behalf for coercion.”

“What?” I almost choked. “You’re telling me Tyler’s dad is suing Dominic for Vivian coercing Tyler?”

“You’ve got it.”

She scrolled. "I'll probably have them refuse it since Tyler has already signed on with his own version of these charges and it's not like he's a minor." She laughed. "I guess he wants to save face since it's going to come out his hand in all of this."

I frowned. "Do I want to know?"

"You'll be called as a witness," she said, shrugging. "But you'll know the extent of the issue before then."

I nodded and we sat down to eat. Apparently, Dev had filled the fridge and was responsible for 95% of the food I ate. I'd have to thank him, though I was pretty sure that Zeke, who I hadn't seen since that day, and Arielle thanked him plenty.

I frowned down at the incredibly decadent brownie in front of me.

"No frowning at Dev's brownies," she said finishing what seemed like the fifth one.

"How… do you manage to eat so much?"

She blinked. "I'd starve otherwise."

"What?"

She took a deep breath and gestured to me. "You are skinny."

"Hey!"

"You need to eat more so your awakening, magical and shifter, goes smoother… though I'm sure Neil is doing a great job plying you with food."

"I don't want to get fat."

She blinked. "… I'm going to have Philip turned into a bitch for the rest of his life."

My jaw dropped. "Arielle!"

"Grandfather will agree." She served my three more. "And you're not leaving the table without eating these three too."

I was on a sugar high when I got ready for bed and flopped down. I was reading through some school texts when I got the message.

Dominic: What are your plans for tonight?