Chapter 496: Hope
The pack members who had been standing, stunned by everything that had just occurred shifted uneasily, confused and ashamed. How had Violet taken control of their minds like that? It was more disturbing than anything they had ever experienced before.
The females who had felt the threatening hands in Violet’s memory holding them down as if they had lived the experience themselves had a new appreciation for what she had been through, and some of them were still terrified by it even though it had only happened in their minds. It felt so real.
And how had Neoma died? Those who did not have the vision of the Veiled did not see exactly what occurred. Neoma jumped in front of their Luna and fell. What was the cause of her death? Was it truly something else that Violet had done? Were the alyko that powerful after all?
Violet smiled to herself. She may not have succeeded in eliminating August, but there was a confusion in the air now. Everything she just told August about Graeme’s inability to bring himself to kill her also appeared to be true. He instructed her to be taken back to the dungeon, delaying whatever punishment would be given for the time being rather than reacting to the threat to his people and the threat to his mate.
The confusion and shame and guilt of the pack members loomed larger around them as August stood glaring at Graeme, not understanding his choices. August could feel the satisfaction growing in Violet. She could feel the overwhelming sorrow of Lucas who stood next them, lost in his grief. And she didn’t know what to react to first.
It felt like only moments ago that she had just been concentrating on trying to bring life to a horrifying vampire, and now she was standing in the aftermath of such chaos in her own pack. The contrast was alarming.
This was meant to be their home. This was meant to be where all of them felt safe.
Graeme moved to bring her closer to him again, but she backed away. She had too many questions for him, and this was not the room to get those answers in. Their pack—their family—needed them first. They needed someone to sort all of this out for them, because right now their sense of home and security and safety was threatened. Their very sense of self was threatened. Violet had invaded them and made them question who they were.
"I wish to ask something of all of you," August said, turning to address them, making sure to catch the eyes of as many of them as she could. She recognized so many faces, their familiarity warming that center in her where they all seemed to unite.
A bright smile finally spread on her face when she saw the sacred circle of females who she had spent time with while Graeme was away. Charlotte, Sylvia, Raya, Liv, Agnes, Ethel, Greta... and then the kind, patient face of Maggie whom she recognized most from Graeme’s memories.
She sighed, the beginning of a deeper understanding about Graeme’s motivations beginning to spread through her again when she recalled how broken he was before. Her eyes darted back to his for a moment. He couldn’t kill Violet because at the root of all of this, he was still the one he blamed the most.
"You may not have witnessed it, but this girl saved me," she said, gesturing toward Neoma who was still in Lucas’ arms. "And not only did she save me, but she saved this child. She saved the heir to our pack." Her hands ran over the small swell of her belly.
"For whatever reason, the Goddess has given Violet this incredible ability to use forces that most of us cannot see. But instead of using that ability to help heal herself and others like most alyko do, she has chosen to create this nightmare today. She took over your sense of reality, she had you attacking your Alpha, and she sharpened all of her anger and hatred into a weapon to try to destroy us."
Violet growled as the focus in the room turned on her.
"What I wish to ask of you now," August sighed, "is simply to focus on what you love most in this world. Focus on that truth. I want to try something, but I need everyone’s help. Everyone’s," she emphasized the last word and glanced at Graeme whose brows were threaded together as he listened, trying to make sense of what she was asking.
She approached Lucas and gave him a soft smile. The grief for the one he had lost was visible—not just in the turmoil on his face or the wilted curve of his shoulders, but in the aura that surrounded him.
The strange thing about sorrow is how beautiful it also is. At the heart of it, at its very center, is the most exquisite, brilliant love—a love that is sometimes not even felt to its fullest until the object of its intensity has been lost.
That is what Lucas had surrounding him at that moment—a brilliant, exquisite, palpable love that August could only guess had bloomed for someone who was meant to be his mate. And based on what she, Nedra, and Penelope were all able to do with the love Penelope had declared for Zagan, there was a chance that instead of bringing life to a vampire today, she could focus that miracle on someone else.
"I am going to try something, Lucas," she said softly to him as she brought her hands to rest on him and Neoma. "Can you do something for me?"
"Anything," his voice broke.
"Concentrate all of your energy on what she means to you, okay?"
"I think..." his voice broke a second time, and his breath stuttered in his chest that was burning with the loss and with the rush of tears that wanted to escape but that he was holding back—afraid to continue feeling the depth of this absence that was so crushing.
"I know that she... she was my mate, Luna," he whispered the confession, unable to keep it in any longer. August’s gentle understanding was enough to release it all, and it finally all came rushing out in a torrent of emotion for the second female he had lost who had threaded herself into his being.
Why had another been taken from him? Why was he cursed to be unable to protect the precious gifts he had been given? Somehow he had failed all over again, and there was no excuse. He should have never left her side.
Neoma had been viciously attacked by Andreas after he used her for years. She had sacrificed herself for Lucas when the ancient vampire Zagan came to retrieve her. She had stood as witness for Graeme and admitted her guilt in front of the whole pack as rebuttal against Violet’s accusations. She had stopped the crazed intruder—Violet’s mate—from finishing off their Alpha when no one else could. And now this? How much of a price did she have to pay for a past that she was truly not responsible for?
Neoma had convinced herself that this was all that she was worthy of in this life time—a sacrifice to atone for the role she had played in the past. But she was so much more than that. She was that beautiful, selfless sacrifice and so much more.
"I know who she is to you," August whispered back to him. "I see it."
"But she’s gone," he croaked, hugging her lifeless body closer to him, his tears falling on her scarred face. "I never had a chance to tell her. I told her she wasn’t my mate. I hurt her, I know I did," he said in a furious whisper for only August to hear.
"Lucas," August rested her hands on his shoulders—this male whom she had once been convinced was plotting against her. She had been so mistaken about him. He had such a loyal, true heart. "Don’t focus on that right now, okay? I need you to concentrate on that bond with her and the love you have. Think about all the joy she brought to you. I think it can heal her."
"What?" His eyes darted to hers in surprise with a sudden hope, and then the shadow of fear behind it. He was afraid to believe her. He was afraid to have hope that she could be right.
"Trust me. I have seen it," she reassured him.
If there was any hope that she and Penelope and Nedra could bring life to that monster on Zagan’s island, then this had to work. There was no way she was going to let this girl die in her place, the recipient of all the hatred Violet had for her. It was not right.
’Goddess, help me,’ she thought as she witnessed the spark of hope finally burn furiously in Lucas’ eyes as his fear to trust her burned away. She had to do this for him. Even if it was the very last thing she was capable of doing, it was going to be this.
