Chapter 5

Violet

That news should have made me glad. I was nursing a very recent heartache and just erased everything connecting me to the man I’d been dreaming of marrying.

But the way my mother said that line told me our pack’s situation was grave.

Dad immediately fussed over me. “Ignore your mother, you have come home after such a long time.”

He pulled me into a hug and said to mom. “She must be hungry. Get her something to eat.”

Mom hurried inside the kitchen while servants brought my bags inside. I had mixed feelings about returning to the place I had grown up in.

I recalled how I had left happily from this home, telling my parents proudly that I was creating my own pack, my own little nest with Nate.

But I had burned everything down, stripped it bare with my hands before coming here. A lump rose in my throat that I quickly swallowed to quash down the painful memories.

“Is everything alright?” I asked my father whose tense smile didn’t escape my eyes.

“Nothing you need to worry about” He smiled but I shook my head. “Please dad, I am not a little girl anymore that you need to protect. What is going on?”

Dad sighed and I could see the defeat in his eyes. It absolutely crushed me to see him helpless like this.

“I am not sure what went wrong between you and Nate but it seems all the alphas are siding with him after the video went viral.”

I didn’t need to ask what video. Apparently, it had been widely circulated on social media and turned me into a meme.

At least, my parents already knew and I wouldn’t have to cook up an elaborate story on the reason of my breakup with Nate.

“I didn’t…I wouldn’t” I began but dad placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “I know he spun a web of lies with that girl. But they have everybody convinced you were the culprit… and now nobody wants to do business with us.”

I hated the way my father was struggling for words, like he was trying to save me from the brutal online bullying and not disclose the harsh slangs people must have hurled at me.

While I was busy deleting myself from Nate’s life he and Nicole spread all the negativity and lies about me in the entire community. I had still accepted my fate somehow, but they had gone ahead and dragged my family in this??

I grew furious and instantly headed outside the door, ignoring the hot plate of food mom brought for me.

“Violet, wait, where are you going? There is no use trying to talk to Nate.”

I took a deep breath, grabbed my keys and answered.

“I won’t”

I didn’t really have a destination in mind but I was absolutely not going to sit and do nothing. Somehow a location popped up in my head and twenty minutes later, I was walking in the same restaurant where everything began-Salt & Smoke.

Luckily, the waitress who had attended me was heading outside and I knowingly bumped into her.

“Hey, I am looking for someone. The customer you served today. Did he give you a name or number?”

I didn’t waste time in idle chitchat though her eyes widened in surprise.

“You…I attended you. And then there was the attack.I’m Lucy by the way…” She began but I was in a hurry.

“Yes, then a man fought all the rogues. Do you know his name?” I asked and she blinked in surprise.

“Everybody knows his name. He is the infamous Elijah Lockwood. He returned to the city last weekend.”

She looked at me as if I had grown another head, as if I was oblivious to the existence of the sun itself.

“Thanks. Do you have his number?”

The waitress shook her head. “Not his personal number but the one he made the reservation with should be in the computer that got destroyed in the attack.”

Shit. Now how was I supposed to find him?

I pulled up my mobile and typed his name in the search bar but nothing popped up. Didn’t she say the entire city knew his name?

I was almost at my wits end when she suddenly blurted out. “I heard him talking to someone on the phone about meeting at the Players Den tonight.”

Oh thank heavens! I immediately pulled out a few notes and handed them to her without counting. “Thanks for the help.”

Players Den was relatively easy to find. It popped up on the search immediately and I was once again driving through the city in the dead of the night.

I was just going on a random hunt but I prayed to the Moon Goddess to let him be there when I reached.

An hour later, I parked outside a huge, half-broken sign that read ‘Players Den’ and stood in front of the tall dark building that looked less of a pub and more of a mafia secret lair.

A sleek black car was parked in the corner and I felt hopeful though the place was a bit creepy.

“This is for mom and dad,” I repeated in my head.

I then put on my coat, grabbed my purse and climbed the small flight of stairs that brought me in front of a huge door that had seen better days. There were no guards to stop me as I stepped in and no loud music blaring through the windows.

And a second later, I realized why.

It was an abandoned building with broken furniture, scraps of metal and discarded items lying around amid a large pool of water.

My eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness and my body was on alert mode. I only wished I had a knife or some kind of weapon.

If I was lucky there wouldn’t be rogues lurking around.

I crouched low and surveyed the place, wondering if I should shout Elijah’s name out loud.

But then my eyes fell on the only source of light down the passageway to my left.

A single bulb was flickering in the dark space and below it I saw someone tied to a chair. The person’s head was hanging down and blood was trickling down his body and mixing into the water below.

A man was leaning over him, tall, dark and wearing black. Undoubtedly Elijah Lockwood.

“Who sent you?” Elijah asked while twirling a sharp blade in his hands.

Forget answering, his prisoner didn't even move but a second later, a shrill scream ripped out of his throat, echoing through the large space as I saw Elijah press the blade into his captive’s cheek, a trail of blood oozing out of the cut.

I immediately crouched behind a pillar and peeked outside, heart thundering wildly.

When the scream died down, I gulped and wondered how to run towards the exit without making a sound but then Elijah’s voice echoed again.

“I was talking to you,” he said, slow and unhurried.

My blood turned to ice.

“Little girl.”

Shit!