The resentment of the way she left Mander’s is slipping away the more I get to know her and learn about her life.
She didn’t want to leave me. She hid me away in a mental box, not because she wanted to, but because she felt like she had to. We would have been something. We could still be something.
Even with all these revelations I still realize that I’m the only one winning in this situation. I get everything, keeping my pack, peace with the witches, and my mate.
Violet could possibly lose everything she’s known in her adult life. That… that is precisely why I had to stop that kiss, no matter how good it felt. As much as I meant what I said, I can’t go through the torment of losing her again. I also can’t let her choices be based on me, this hex, or the tug she may possibly feel from this unmet mating bond.
Maybe since she’s only half, she doesn’t feel it as strongly as a full-blooded shifter would. Her wolf, however, would undoubtedly have been able to feel it.
“She did. She’s beautiful, my mate,”Thorin says as five loud bangs jolt me out of the bed as I rush down the hall to the top of the stairs.
Violet looks at me, blinking away her sleep, it appears I’m not the only one who didn’t get much sleep last night.
“Violet Delvaux, open this fucking door right now before I blow the hinges off,” the voice says and Violet rolls her eyes, flicking her wand, which effortlessly smoothes and ties her hair into a bun.
“I’m coming,” Violet yells as she descends down the stairs.
When she swings open the door, there are two women on the other side. One I recognize, but haven’t actually met. Violet just used her face when she was hiding from the other witches. Her hair is a long blondish-red, and she wears heart-shaped sunglasses and a pink sundress. The other witch is taller than the other two, with long braids that hit her mid back, she’s wearing a simple black t-shirt and jeans.
Both of their gazes look up the stairs and they just stare.
“Go put a shirt on,” Violet says waving a hand at me.
“Oh my god, did you two sleep together?” the redhead asks.
“No, Ember. Jesus. What’s with the wake up call and the inquisition?”
“I don’t know, maybe because a few days ago you spilled all your secrets to me, which I physically can not tell Ember, and I haven’t heard from you since, which then made me take matters into my own hands. This isn’t like you, Vi,” her other coven member says.
“I’m sorry for not getting in touch, Iris,” Violet says, feeling properly scolded. I grab a shirt, tug it over my head, and go to meet my wife’s best friends.
It only takes me a few minutes to join them in the kitchen, all three of the witches turning their gaze on me. The redhead I know now as Ember’s mouth is wide open. It seems Violet was able to get the basics of our situation out while I was upstairs.
“You’re married. Like, full blown husband and wife?”
“Yes,” I reply.
“For now,” Violet says.
Iris watches both Violet and me extremely closely, like she’s fitting all the puzzle pieces together, though there’s no way she can know the complete truth about everything.
“And the hex is forcing you to live together?” Iris asks.
Among many other things.
“Yes, and we’re working on breaking it. There’s no reason to tell the High Priestess,” Violet says, while pretending to be busy in the kitchen.
Iris stands, her fingertips balancing on the table.
“When you’re ready to be honest and tell us the truth about everything, let us know. Ember, let’s go,” she says and Violet’s eyes widen.
“Wait,” she stops her coven members, and they sit back down on their seats. As she leans against the wooden counters that still look like the original ones built in the home, I perch my own ass against the counter and wonder if she’s going to make her decision right now.
“I found my mother,” she says instead, clearly not going the route of complete honesty.
“Shit, you did?” Ember asks, her deep green eyes full of pity and sadness for her friend.
“She didn’t recognize me. She has no magical signature.”
