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Mikel swallowed audibly.
“If that’s what the people want,” he offered, conciliatory and careful.
“Wrong answer, Davis,” Dani told him coolly. “We create a crack at the top, and there’s going to be a rush to fill it. If you don’t have the balls, we might as well drop Violet off on Kane’s doorstep tonight.”
A growl rumbled from beside her, the sound thick and oppressive. When Violet turned, Mikel’s eyes were blazing gold. When she looked back to Daniella, the woman was looking down and away, eyes lidded…cowed. The growling stopped, and she straightened up, tension hanging thick in the air.
“I’m ready,” Mikel said simply. It was enough.
Daniella smiled.
Lila,
I love you. I miss you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t say goodbye. Please know that I’m happier than I’ve ever been, except for one thing—you. I met a guy; we eloped. I know that seems really out of character. It wasn’t planned, and I didn’t have a choice when I left Frankston.
You cannot tellanyoneyou heard from me. I need you to trust me even though this seems strange, please.
I desperately need Dad’s file from the safe on a man named Kane Preston. But I need younotto tell anyone and not to get caught. The lady giving you the note is my friend. She’ll meet you back at school two weeks from today to pick it up. I promise I’ll see you soon, and I will explain everything.
Don’t stop trusting me now. Be safe. If it comes down to not getting it or not getting caught, don’t do it.
Love you always,
Violet
It was the hardest thing she’d ever had to write. It was even harder to watch Dani’s little red sports car leave down the road in a cloud of dust, knowing in just hours she’d see Lila, and Violet wouldn’t. Then, waiting all day to hear how it went was even worse.
She’d been watching TV, not really hearing anything that was happening on the Netflix show she picked at random, when Mikel dropped down on the sofa beside her. He rubbed his black hands over his blacker face.
“Not finding anything, huh?” she asked.
The set of his shoulders said defeat. Violet thought it was fruitless to comb through what was left of his gym, but she also understood that he was keeping himself busy. He wasn’t taking being the alpha of the Bluff lightly; he’d been pensive ever since it was confirmed, and with everything that had happened, they hadn’t had a chance to talk about why.
He shrugged.
“You’ve got a little dirt…” She reached up and ran a finger down his cheek, then pulled it back to show him, and smiled at the sight of him, soot covered. “You’ve been looking all morning. Why don’t you get cleaned up, eat lunch with me?”
He considered it. “All right,” he agreed. “If there was anything to find it was destroyed in the blast anyway.”
“We already know what happened,” she assured him. “How are you feeling about the whole alpha thing? I know it’s been on your mind.”
He rubbed his black hands together and shrugged again. “Feels like I should have known,” he said after a moment. “All this time I believed…”
“You believed what you were told,” Violet said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, not caring that she’d have to wash her hands from the soot. “You can’t beat yourself up about that.”
“Just feels like I should have known,” he was quick to say. “Feels like an alpha should recognize that in themselves. I spent all these years trying to atone for what I thought my father did.”
Violet heard the “realalpha” he’d left unsaid.
“Mikel, perhaps the fact that you didn’t automatically assume you are all-powerful is what makes you different, what will make you a better alpha than someone like Kane. You care so much about this town, and you’ve been trying to do the right thing. Like Margie said, the mating bond wouldn’t have saved me if it wasn’t really supposed to be you.”
Their eyes met, and Violet watched him digest the truth in her words, watched that settle inside him, and for a moment, she saw the alpha he would be.
“When did you get so smart, Violet Page?”
“Pretty much everyone calls me Violet Davis now,” she told him, and a smile broke across his face.
“Violet Davis.” He pulled her closer, and she shrieked and wiggled, trying not to get pressed up against his sooty body. His breath tickled her neck, and it was a relief to hear him laughing. “I like the sound of that, Violet Davis.”
