LOGINLUCIAN“Alright, so what have we got?”Zayn spread out every single one of the document he had in hand, and began reading them out.“We’ve got about three lesser packs that have pledged allegiance to our cause, one of them being Farlorn.”“Farlorn is good,” I nodded, eyes skimming over my copy of the documents. “They have the seaside advantage, something we can utilize to our cause.”Zayn nodded. “Exact. And then there’s this letter that came in from MoonBay today.”“MoonBay?” I froze, my mind wandering back to the summit.The twins had approached us with an air of formality. Things had long since escalated since the summit and word had gotten out of Tristan’s declaration of war. So it was safe to say, everywhere had been thrown into a set of preluded chaos.“This letter came in from MoonBay?” I repeated.“Yes,” Zayn nodded, eyes pouring through the paper. “The Alpha himself has chosen to ally with us and says he’s ready for a one-on-one meeting with you both.”I nodded, my expression
VIOLETMe?He wanted me? My head was suddenly heavier, different thoughts spinning through my mind faster than I could make sense of.Why did he want me? There was no plausible reason as to why that would be the case. He had no reason whatsoever to want me.For crying out loud, he had his own mate now. One which he obviously doesn’t fancy as much, but regardless. It made no sense as to why he was demanding for me.Reese’s eyes narrowed, right before she ripped the paper out of her mate’s hand. After some seconds of skimming through it, she tore the paper into shreds and tossed it to the ground.“He’s gone fucking mad.” She growled.Zayn looked just as pissed. “Who does he think he is? And to declare war just because he wants Violet?”Lucian had been quiet this whole time, his gaze calculating but never once leaving me. I knew there were so many things on his mind, a lot he wanted to say. It had been just as he feared.A week ago when he’d had that outburst, this had been his fear. Tha
VIOLET“Any update on those tabloids?”Zayn was focused on the phone in his hand, furiously typing away at it. “We’ve gotten a good number of them down. Some annoying blogs don’t want to let go of it though.”Lucian fixed up his tie. “I trust you can handle that.”“Leave it to me,” Zayn checked his watch. “Soon as we’re done with this meeting, I’ll get right on it.”Lucian nodded, fixing up his look one more time. Behind the doors before us was a conference hosted to address all the concerns that had sprouted after the summit. Of course it wouldn’t clear as quickly as I’d thought it would.That would be wishful thinking to assume it would. I guessed Lucian knew that much. He understood it, knew just how much things would blow up. And we were just as ready to get things straightened out.He turned to me, reaching for my hand. “Are you ready?”I sucked in a breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”“We’ll be at the front in case anything happens.” Reese said, reaching for Zayn’s hand. The beta s
VIOLET“How long do you think Lucian’s going to keep him for?”Reese was quiet, far more so than I’d have liked her to be. I wasn’t completely surprised about her certain unresponsiveness. Rodriguez was a touchy subject, both for Lucian and her. but it didn’t make it any easier to decipher what exactly was going through her mind.I’d told her everything that happened that afternoon, from Rodriguez’s outburst to Lucian ordering that he be thrown in the slammers. But I hadn’t imagined I would get this kind of reaction from her.So…detached.We finished up with the last of the supply checks just as the sun dipped into the horizon. I exchanged some more pleasantries with the workers before we left the warehouse.“Reese?”She finally blinked, then let out a breath. “Sorry, spaced out a little bit.”“So,” I tried again. “How long do you think Lucian’s going to keep him there for? A week? Or, a month?”“The question is, how long is he going to survive for?”That made me freeze. How long he w
LUCIANShit. Shit.I’d imagined a hundred and one things when Violet had stormed into my office like that. None like what she’d actually said.She was hot on my trail too, her footsteps echoing in sync behind me. I was too focused to pay much heed to it.“Lucian.” She triedI simply grunted, hurrying over to the border gates. Standing there was none other than Rodriguez. He seemed to have been in some sort of exchange with the guards but as soon as he sighted me, a smug grin found its way to his lips.“The Alpha finally graces us with his presence.”My eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d long since known your place by now, at the north border where I stationed you.”“Oh, bullshit.” He pushed past the lanky guard before coming to stand toe-to-toe with me. No one should have such gall on any other day, certainly not him. But he seemed oddly ballsy for some reason.“You think you can just throw some wad of cash at me and keep me at that shithole? Oh spare me that. Yo
LUCIAN“Fucking bastard.”That was the seventh tabloid I was coming across in the span of ten minutes. Since the events at the summit, Tristan had gone straight to work at making sure all the blogs carried talk of what had happened.DarkMoon Alpha’s violent reaction stuns guest at Summit.Are Lucian’s abusive tendencies finally coming to light?What goes on in the mind of a narcissist?I tossed the tablet aside and sank back into my seat, trying to hold back the anger threatening to spill out of me. Zayn was all but quiet as he watched me. He must be pissed by the tabloids as well but he was doing a better job at holding back his anger.“The PR team’s already working on it, but not like that’s going to do much good,” Zayn let out a sigh. “He’s done a pretty good job of making sure this spreads like wild fire.”“And the media’s eating it up too.” I growled.Zayn clicked his tongue. “The main issue is with the Alliance. We need to make sure this doesn’t shake their standing in any way.”
Violet’s POVIt had been days since I’d had that odd conversation with Lucian. I didn’t peg him as one who would indulge me in such talk but I wasn’t particularly complaining either.So long as things went my way, who cared if he was messing with me?Hearing that Tristan had gone ahead to make Sien
LUCIANThere wasn’t any reason for doing that—deciding to help Violet with her training. Deep down, I couldn’t quite explain it to myself either.It was just something I did without thinking. I let out a breath before putting off the shower. The days were going by faster than I could keep track of.
VIOLET“So what it is?”I didn’t bother wasting time as I went straight to the point. Being in the confines of Lucian’s office wasn’t something I found comfortable.Coupled with the fact that he hadn’t said anything about seeing me that way last night, I didn’t know what to make of anything.“Sit d
Violet's POVOne thing I would always pride myself on was my profound ability to act, put a smile on my face and go about as the unfeeling bad ass I thought myself to be.Forget traumatic pasts and borderline bullying.I was it!Well, that was what I liked to tell myself. It helped sometimes, kept







