Chapter 147

Violet’s POV

I didn’t dare glance behind me. I didn’t want to draw attention to the flowers I knew I was leaving in my wake. Every time I clenched my fists to try to stop them, it only left me with handfuls of more flowers.

I didn’t know what to do other than drop them like a flower girl and pray to the Goddess that no one noticed.

“Alpha?” Kincaid glanced at my feet. “What the…?”

“Eyes up!” I hissed at him. I led him out of the grand room, looking around desperately for a private room. He caught on quickly, finding an open door to lead me through.

We entered what appeared to be a library that was thankfully empty. Kincaid locked the door behind us. I fell to my knees and released my clenched fists.

The same wildflowers from the cabin sprang from my open palms in an unrelenting torrent, piling higher and higher on the floor in front of me.

“Alpha?” Kincaid kneeled before me, watching in shock.

My mind spiraled as I realized what I had revealed to Kincaid, wondering if even his loyalty to me would keep his mouth shut about the magic we had all been taught to fear. But I couldn’t stop the flowers. They just kept pouring out of me, falling on top of each other, each more delicately beautiful and damning than the last, a multicolored pile of evidence to get me expelled across the border.

It was only a matter of time before someone found us. Darkmoon would be taken from me, again, and the territory would fall. I would never get to open up Darkmoon University, never get to see the Shelter Project initiated, never get to see Theo again.

“Alpha,” Kincaid’s eyes sharpened as if he was snapping out of his shock. “Alpha, stop this. You have to stop this right now.”

The flowers kept pouring out, and a sob broke from my chest. I tried to imagine my palms free from flowers, calm and still, but it changed nothing. I had no idea what I was doing.

Someone pounded on the door.

Kincaid grabbed me by the wrists. “Alpha, I will stand by your side, but I cannot help you unless you stop this!”

“I can’t,” I cried. “I don’t know how!”

The pounding resumed. Two harsh knocks.

Damn it, Violet. Let me in!

I swung my head to the door. “Open the door,” I commanded my Beta as I held my hands out in front of me, still expelling flowers at a dizzying rate.

“You have to hide.” The concern on Kincaid’s face made my panic steepen.

“Just let him in!” I yelled.

Completely terrified, Kincaid stalked over to the door and unlocked it. In a half-second, Theo burst through with a handful of flowers in his hands.

He had picked up all the ones I’d left out there. Or at least a majority of them.

Kincaid quickly locked the door again, eyeing the flowers in Theo’s arms. Theo watched the flowers spewing out of my palms.

“I can’t stop it,” I cried.

He watched me another moment, then took a knee in front of me. “Violet, my love, my mate, my alari,” the calm and gentleness in his tone made me cry harder, “everything will be okay. Watch.”

Then he dropped his arms, but not a single flower fell. Instead, they vanished into nothing.

That caught my attention, the surprise slowing my panicked breaths. I blinked away tears to make sure I hadn’t missed something.

“By the Goddess…” Kincaid muttered in disbelief to our side, confirming what I thought I had seen.

“Did you think I wouldn’t read all the books you gave me?” Theo smiled, and my breathing slowed, but the flowers didn’t stop. They piled up, spilling over each other.

“I’ve been practicing,” my mate told me. “Things born of magic like these flowers are the easiest to make disappear. You can make as many as you’d like, and I’ll be able to get rid of all of them.”

My shoulders relaxed a fraction at the idea that there was a way out of this.

“Even if you can’t stop them, I’ll walk out with you, making them vanish the second they spring from your hands. You’ll walk with your hands behind your back, and no one will notice. Everything is going to be okay.”

My tears slowed to a stop, and I tried to wipe them on my shoulder since my hands were still spitting wildflowers, but it was a very awkward angle. Theo reached up to gently wipe away the tears for me instead.

By the Goddess, how I missed his touch.

“See?” He took my hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss my knuckles. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

And then I realized it had stopped. He was able to hold my hand because it no longer had flowers falling out of it.

With a flick of his wrist, the piles and piles of flowers between us disappeared.

I slumped forward in terrified relief, and Theo sat down to pull me into his lap. He held me in his arms while I took in his scent, reminding myself that we would have more time tomorrow.

“Alpha?” Kincaid’s voice was mixed with terror, confusion, and warning.

Theo and I turned to look at him, then at each other. “How long do you have?” I asked my husband.

He shook his head. “I offered to get us drinks.”

“You have to go.” I turned to Kincaid. “Do you trust me enough to let him go and get through the rest of the night without speaking a word of this if I promise to answer all your questions when we get home?”

Kincaid looked like his mind was whirling, and I wondered if he was putting together all the silent looks from me and Dahlia. He addressed Theo first.

“Dahlia knows?”

Theo thought for a moment as he stood, picking me up with him. “More than you did this morning. Less than you do now.”

Kincaid stared at the ground. I really hated putting him in this position.

“The information we’ve kept from you both could put you in danger. It’s our job to look out for you both.”

“No!” His gaze snapped to mine. “It’s our job to look out for you.”

I swallowed. Kincaid had never spoken to me with such anger.

“And we can’t do that,” he added, “if you don’t tell us what the fuck is going on.”

We stared at each other for a long moment before I finally nodded. Maybe he was right.

“I will let you,” Kincaid pointed at Theo, “get back to whoever the hell Eva is, we” he motioned between himself and me, “will finish out the night, and I won’t say anything as long as Dahlia and I find out everything before you two disappear out of town tomorrow morning for coincidentally the same amount of time.”

His tone suggested he didn’t believe it was a coincidence at all.

“Deal,” Theo and I answered in unison.

Kincaid took a breath then pinned Theo with a glare I rarely saw him dole out. “I swear to the Goddess, if you turn out to be just as bad as Lucas…”

“You’ll hold me down while she castrates me?” Theo finished.

Kincaid smiled, satisfied with Theo’s response, but his eyes were still full of threats. Then he unlocked the door and held it open while Theo went through.

My mate’s voice filled my mind as Kincaid closed the door behind him. Our Betas need significant raises.

I smiled as I sighed in relief. I couldn’t agree more.