“I need you to find Violet.”
The grogginess vanishes. “What happened?”
“She knows about the fated mate bond.” The words scrape my throat raw. “She rejected me. Flew out before I could stop her.”
“Fuck.” Ethan exhales sharply. “Where are you?”
“Still in Miami. There’s an emergency Coalition session tomorrow afternoon. I have to be here for the vote on the hybrids.” My free hand clenches. “Can you pick her up from the airport? Make sure she gets home safe?”
“Of course. Which flight?”
“I don’t know the exact one. Check all the flights from Miami until you find her.” I hesitate. “And Ethan, make sure she’s okay. But don’t push her to talk if she doesn’t want to.”
“You sure about that?”
“I need to do this right. Not through you.” My throat tightens. “Just make sure she’s safe.”
“I’ve got you,” Ethan says quietly. “I’ll head to the airport now and check all the arriving flights.”
“Thank you.”
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
I stare at Violet’s abandoned belongings, resolve hardening despite the anguish clawing at my chest. “Handle this vote. Then fly back to Moonvale and talk to my father. Tell him I’m choosing Violet, consequences be damned. If he’s smart, he’ll let me keep the title of alpha heir. If not”—I take a breath—“then I walk away from the pack with her.”
“You mean that?”
“Every word.” And I do. The certainty settles into my bones, immovable. “I’m done letting other people dictate my life.”
“Whatever you need,” Ethan says quietly, “I’m here. Always.”
“I know.” Guilt twists sharply in my gut. I wish I’d given Violet that kind of unwavering support. Instead, I made her question everything.
“She brought up all the stuff you warned me about,” I tell my friend. “Hiding her, choosing the pack over her. All of it.”
He sighs. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t want to be right.”
“You were, though. It’s my own fault for not understanding my heart soon enough.” I rub a hand down my face. “To be with Violet, I would have had to give up everything I knew. That wasn’t easy to accept. I kept making excuses, telling myself I needed more time. And I hurt her in the process.”
“You’ll fix it,” Ethan says. “Get some sleep. You sound like hell.”
I end the call, but sleep doesn’t come. I spend the night pacing the hotel room, trying her number every hour.
Every call goes straight to voicemail.
I need to tell her. Make her understand that I chose her the minute I decided to get involved in her life. The second I decided to protect her from Ryker so publicly and endure the inevitable punishment from my father. The moment I took her to bed. I chose her, and some part of me alwaysknew I would.
I was just too afraid to admit it. Too caught up in trying to have everything, in trying to keep the pack and my father happy while also keeping her.
But when I find her, I’ll tell her. She is everything, and the pack can go to hell if they don’t like it.
By dawn, I’ve left a dozen messages, my voice progressing from desperate to angry to broken and back again.
She doesn’t respond to any of them.
My phone buzzes. I glance down at a text from Ethan.
She wasn’t on any of the late flights. Checked with all the airlines. No Violet Moonvale on the manifests.
