Page 15

VIOLET

The insistent knocking persisted. It was way too early for this. I hurried to my bedroom door and yanked it open to find Maggie standing on the other side.

“Graham pushed up the mating.”

My stomach dropped so fast and hard. I grabbed onto the door before I turned into a mound on the ground.

“To when?” I struggled to breathe.

“Today. In a few hours. All the preparations for it started last night. He came home in a rage and started ordering everyone around.” She looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened. She pushed past me into the room, shutting it with a bang. “I would have come sooner, but Savannah woke me up out of a dead sleep so I could help her start preparing the food. I told her I needed to go to the bathroom to get away.” She pressed her back against the door, and a small snarl left her lips. “He’s being stupid.”

I shook my head, my lips thinned, and took another step back. My knees gave out and I dropped on my butt. I curled my knees up and hugged them. My heart pounded so hard, like it was trying to escape my chest. I shuddered.

“Vi?” she shouted and knelt beside me, her hand on my back. I closed my eyes, dropping my forehead on my knees. My chest hurt. A sob wracked my body, and my lungs ached.

“I’m fine,” I said through a sob. Her palm rubbing my back didn’t stop.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “If I hadn’t asked you to stay, you’d be long gone.”

I shook my head and sniffled.

“I’m . . . not . . . fine,” I choked out.

Maggie sighed but remained quiet next to me as I let the pressure in my chest out through my eyes.

A painful throb began to infect my temples.

“Here.” Maggie bumped something into my arm. I grabbed at the tissues and cleaned my face off. “I have to go before Savannah sends someone to look for me.”

“Go.” I waved her off.

“Okay,” she mumbled. “I’ll come back to check on you.” In answer, I buried my head in my arms, blocking everything around me. It shouldn’t hurt this much. My chest felt like a crack ran right through it.

Even with what Alpha Graham had told me in his office, I hadn’t fully believed him.

Whitlock was right. I was na?ve. A dry sob wracked my chest. I sniffled and pushed myself to my feet to go wash off. I splashed myself with water and swiped a clean towel across my damp face. The phone I’d left on the nightstand rang with a notification. I tossed the towel to the corner hamper and hurried to check the messages.

Two of them.

Savannah: Violet, dear, come help prep dinner when you wake up, we’re slammed.

Maggie: Ignore Savannah’s text!

I needed to see him be mated. I needed it to hurt and for the image to be so ingrained in my head that all feelings for him no longer existed. Grinding my teeth, I dropped the phone on the nightstand and swiped the tears that escaped with the back of my hand. I zipped up my sweater and stormed out of the room, heading directly to the kitchen. The hall into the living room was bare other than a young girl sitting on the floor with two toddlers. The television boomed some kid’s channel about anthropomorphic shapes. I crossed to the large kitchen.

The door creaked with my entrance.

Maggie immediately whipped around, her eyes widened, and she dropped the potatoes she was peeling. The peeler thudded on the bowl with a clang, and she hurried over to me.

“You didn’t get my text?” she whispered.

I only nodded and walked past her to Savannah.

“What should I help with?”

“Aunt Savannah,” Maggie, groaned.

“Enough. This is your brother’s mating, Moon Goddess willing, his only one. It has to be perfect, especially since he sprang it on us last minute.” Savannah huffed and turned her attention to me. “Why don’t you take over the potatoes dear?”

I nodded, already heading to what Maggie had left on the counter. I grabbed the tool and got to work. With every pass over the shredding peel, my body became tighter and tighter. It felt like it would break my bones.

But I refused to stop. I lost myself in the act, and the shuffling and orders Savannah threw out blended into the background. My mind stopped working as if all brain activity iced over.

The rasp of the blade raking the thin layer off the potato became a rhythm I focused on.

How could I have hoped? He’d led me on just to move up his mating ceremony. How could he?

“Vi!” The shout yanked me from my thoughts.

I blinked as if coming out of a trance. “You’re bleeding.”

Blood welled on the back of my thumb. Focusing on the sting made everything worse. I hissed in a breath and my vision warbled, but I didn’t stop. The peeler caught the side of my pointer finger. I flinched. Maggie put her hand over my wrist and jerked me back. She snarled at me.

My knees gave out.

“Shit,” she shouted, and her arm snaked around my waist to prop me up.

I whimpered.

Maggie rubbed my back.

“Savannah, I’m taking her to the room, she doesn’t feel good.” Understatement of the century. There was a shuffle of movement and Savannah leaned close to my face.

“Get her in a warm shower, poor dear,” she tsked. Maggie pressed her hand into my back and forced me forward. I staggered, leaning on her for support. I kept my head lowered as she took me through the kitchen. The sound of children playing hadn’t disappeared. They must still be in the living room, but I didn’t have the energy to lift my head to look.

Maggie picked up the pace, almost dragging me after her. She shoved my room door open and helped me to the bathroom.

“You should stay in here the rest of the day and night. I’ll have food delivered to you.” She sighed. “Dammit, Graham,” she mumbled under her breath.

She turned the spout on while I watched her movements, focusing on getting myself under control. Why were my knees so weak? I slumped against the wall. She touched the spray and nodded to herself. Steam gathered in the bathroom, fogging up the mirror.

“All ready.” She swiped her hand on her jeans. “I didn’t know you liked him this much. Girl, someone better for you will come along. Guys aren’t worth it.”

I knew that. That’s what was so frustrating about how much it hurt. This was stupid; I hadn’t known him for long. There was no logic to this, and it was starting to piss me off.

Could he be my mate? All the oxygen dragged out of my lungs. My shoulders dropped. That would have been the only explanation to my visceral reaction, except I needed to not be a dormant werewolf for that to be possible.

But at this point, even if I had been his mate, I would want nothing to do with him.

“I’ll be okay,” I said and cleared my throat. She eyed me doubtfully and her phone rang.

“I have to go. I’ll come check on you later.” She scampered away, closing the door behind her. I tugged the zipper of my sweater down and undressed, tossing my clothes onto the sink. I stepped under the spray, holding my breath as I tipped my face up to it.

Holding my hands to the water, the blood on my hand washed off.

I rubbed my face, scrubbing like I could erase the past few hours from my mind.