Chapter 190

Violet’s POV

The ceremony was unremarkable – at least by my standards. It was an ostentatious and gaudy version of a traditional werewolf wedding, a show of money I knew Lucas no longer had. I wondered then if Owen was paying for this.

The way they had announced their wedding so last minute on the news made the whole thing seem spontaneous and frankly suspicious. But as I watched the parade of the wedding party, noting every flower and decoration, the tailored and clearly bespoke dress and suit that Lucas and Nora wore, I realized they had been planning this wedding for a while. The last-minute announcement was simply a marketing technique.

And of course, they couldn’t wait much longer to get married based on how pregnant Nora was. If she gave birth out of wedlock, she would be a candidate for expulsion as a rogue.

An archaic and misogynistic law.

Kincaid and I had had a moment to speak before returning to the crowd. A moment to process together the proof we had just witnessed that Lucas and Owen were in business together even if Owen hadn’t known until today that Eva and Nora were sisters. Only a moment to brainstorm what could be done with the recording of their conversation, which I had already backed up on a secondary device in Kincaid’s possession.

The ceremony droned on, and it felt like I was seeing Lucas for who he truly was for the first time. It was a dissonant experience, trying to reconcile the werewolf I thought I had known when we were married and the conniving fraud I was watching marry someone else.

There was no jealousy though. And the only regret was that I hadn’t seen the truth sooner.

I reached for my connection to Theo to distract myself.

By the way, apparently Olivia used her newfound friendship with Eva to make up a lie about how you are in bed, which is why Eva backed off on physical intimacy with you.

I watched Theo blink a few rows ahead of me as he processed that information.

I still don’t trust her.

I smiled as the ceremony came to a close. Which one?

Either of them.

The bride and groom walked out of the room to thunderous applause, and the guests followed them out, filing into a third room being used for the reception. Kincaid made sure several people heard and saw him pass me another glass of champagne. Everyone sat down for dinner and to watch Lucas and Nora reenter the room for their first dance as married mates.

After dinner, a line formed at the bride and groom’s table for the customary blessings. One by one, each guest approached the newlyweds, wishing them well as they shook their hands. After a while, one of the king’s stewards stopped folks from joining the line, telling them they’d have to wait until the royal blessings had been bestowed. Once Lucas and Nora had their hands shaken by the remaining folks in line, Owen approached them.

All three of them beamed as Owen shook their hands, posing for guests who were taking their pictures.

Then someone else approached. “Lucas of Twining River?”

“Yes…” Lucas hesitated, looking the unknown werewolf over.

“King Owen?” the stranger asked next.

Owen scoffed. “Obviously that’s who I am.” He lifted his hand to summon his stewards, but before he could, the stranger spoke again.

“You’ve both been served.” He handed them each a packet, which they took in silent shock. Then the stranger disappeared among the guests.

Lucas and Owen glanced at each other in confusion, then Lucas tore open the packet. Feigning boredom, the king merely passed his packet to one of his stewards.

Lucas’ eyes flew across the papers in his hands, and the entire room held its breath to find out what was going on. Then Lucas stilled. He slowly raised his head to the crowd before him.

Slowly, he scanned the room until his gaze found its target. He stood, terrifyingly calm.

“You’re suing me?” Lucas asked in disbelief. Every head in the room snapped to follow his line of sight – except for the two belonging to his plaintiffs. “At my own wedding?”

While everyone else waited for an answer, I glanced at Owen, who was raising a questioning eyebrow at his steward. His steward, who was scanning through the king’s packet, nodded in confirmation that the same people were suing him, too.

“It was a surefire way to make sure the process server could find you,” replied Dorian Vainthott, his held just as high as Seraphine’s beside him.

King Owen snatched the papers out of his stewards’ hands, clearly out of patience. He scanned the papers himself before scoffing. “You’re suing us… for crashing your little tea party?”

Dorian stayed seated, and yet he managed to look down on them both as he said, “We must all be held accountable under the law.”

It was a blatant call-out for the way Owen had bailed Lucas out of becoming a rogue after attacking me.

It was also a perfect set-up for everything Theo and I had planned.

No matter how many discussions I had with my pack members, no matter how many trade deals I negotiated or how much public approval I garnered, we wouldn’t find out exactly who was against Owen until someone challenged him.

Dorian and Seraphine had offered in my study earlier this week to do this for me. They had been considering suing Lucas and Owen anyway because they were tired of all the things the king was getting away with. If they challenged him first, before Theo and I did, it would expose who were our true allies and our opponents.

Plus, we assumed that Owen would abuse his power again to get out of the lawsuit, further fueling the fire for those who were tired of his bullshit.

So that by the time Theo and I exposed what he had done to us, firmly breaking a law to do it, and being confronted about it before he had the time to change the law in his favor, the whole country would be behind us. Or at least enough of the country.

We hoped.

“I am your king!” Owen bellowed, shaking the room.

Dorian still didn’t deign to rise. “And the king is not above the law.”

I watched as several heads nodded in agreement throughout the hall.

Owen narrowed his eyes at the Vainthotts, then stomped out of the room like a petulant child, his unbothered wife and fidgety stewards trailing behind him.

That was the moment I chose, completely on a whim, to stand. As I made my way to the bride and groom, I heard Kincaid fumbling to follow me. He reached my side as I got to the table, extending my hand first to Lucas.

His brows furrowed, but he took my offered hand in his free one, the other weighed down by the lawsuit.

“Blessings to both of you,” I said evenly. Then I squeezed his hand firmly until he clenched his teeth, just to remind him which one of us was stronger. I was gentler as I shook Nora’s hand next because she already knew I was the strongest.

I flashed the classiest smile in my arsenal as I said to them, “I hope you get everything you deserve.”