Chapter 487: Tentacles
"You are asking me about these little encounters I had with Finn. What is the point? Can we just get to the part where I am the scapegoat for what is wrong in this pack?" Violet growled.
"That’s not what’s happening, Violet," Sylvia replied, her forehead cleaving at the anger that had suddenly rushed in to replace whatever guilt the girl had just been feeling.
"After everything that has happened, look at this," Violet chuckled and threw her hands out in a gesture that included everyone in the room. "The whole pack is gathered to hear of MY wrongdoing. Me! Does that not seem odd to you? Pearce—one of our elders who is accused of misleading this pack for years, of plotting to have our Alpha and Luna killed, of sacrificing members of our pack to some ancient vampire, of KILLING our unborn children..." she turned to glare at Zoe or Neoma or whatever her name now was who standing behind her, "he has yet to be brought to trial. He has yet to be sentenced for all of those crimes! He has yet to face the scrutiny of every member of the pack. And what have I done? This makes no sense."
"Violet..." Charlotte tried to interject, but the gentle nature of her aging voice couldn’t get purchase on the momentum Violet had gained in her anger.
"If it is true that there is a vampire and that our Luna is off fighting it, what are we doing here? Why isn’t someone helping her? Why isn’t her beloved mate, our Alpha, rushing off to protect her? Why is it instead a better use of time for me to be on trial for the small, insignificant part I had in the edlers’ plans? Why now? Why is this one..." she pointed to Neoma, "why is she forgiven and even offered a place in our pack after everything she did to help the elders? She did SO MUCH more than me!"
"Violet..."
"Maybe it is because what I said after Samhain was too close to the truth. That we are all being fed these lies that Graeme has brought back to our pack with him! That August is not his true mate and that she has come to take over our pack for herself. She is some kind of experimental freak. She is an intruder!"
"Enough!" Graeme roared and stood from where he had been seated, the waves of his Alpha authority rolling off of him and causing everyone in the room to shudder under the weight of it.
Violet flinched, but she kept her eyes on him—not submitting. She would never submit to him. She was marked by one who was an Alpha just like him. She had that Alpha power in her aura as well. She should be the leader of Thundering Falls. It was her right after everything she had been through, but instead he had sent Beta Galen away.
"This is why, Violet. It pains me, but you are lost," Graeme’s deep voice reverberated around the room. Everyone felt it in their bones like a voice that began inside of them rather than from somewhere external. Their Alpha was speaking. Their leader. The one who was given by the Goddess herself. Just his voice was enough to remind them of it.
"I will not speed into a trial with Pearce. He has submitted. He will face his fate, but at the moment he is not a threat. You insist on letting this hatred spread in your heart, and you are feeding it. It is a threat to our home."
"And the vampire is not? And these miraculously returned alyko who have somehow not aged and have increased power are not?" She chuckled, her eyes darting to Maggie who was watching her silently with sorrowful eyes. It made her angrier. She didn’t want any alyko here pitying her or judging her. She didn’t want anyone judging her. She did not deserve it.
The chambers had been silent before, but now with Violet speaking against their Alpha—questioning his authority outright and challenging his decision-making—the silence was larger. It loomed with a new weight as if every pair of eyes were wide with terror at the knowledge of what she had just invited upon herself.
Even those who had spoken against the alyko before could not deny the peace and wholeness that had filled them after Samhain when Graeme and August had kissed and somehow ignited that thread of light and being that had healed and united them all. They could not argue against the truth of their Alpha and Luna’s Goddess-given union and leadership when they felt it weaving perfectly throughout all of them.
"Our alyko," Graeme’s voice went deeper, rolling into a clear threat that danced around the chamber and made several members fall to their knees with the authority it carried, "hold no hatred for their home as you do. Their return is sacred."
"I do not hate my home. I wish to fight for it and for the truth," she hissed.
Sam had to grab Greta’s shoulders when she tried to rise from where she was seated. Greta had never wanted to beat sense into someone more than she wanted to at this moment, and it took every ounce of self-restraint she had to allow Sam to hold her back.
"You will observe the order of these proceedings. You will respect these chambers, our elders, your Alpha," Graeme snarled, "or you will be sentenced immediately."
Violet’s eyes grew a vivid gold as she held the glare from Graeme. She was still not backing down. Instead, her anger became palpable in the air, rising to meet the dominant Alpha aura he was projecting on all of them and for a moment it seemed as if she were poised on the edge of a decision to attack him. But then she smiled cloyingly, and the aura she had released like tentacles slowly slid back as if it had never been.
"Of course," she said, her voice small and sweet. "I will answer your questions. I have nothing to hide. Please proceed, Charlotte."
