Page 24 of Second Chance By Fate

“I… I think this started with your parents,” she explains, sitting up. “One of your fathers brought this on you guys.”

My eyes narrow. “Which one? How do you know?”

The thought of any of my fathers—the three brothers who made up our previous ruling Apex triad— leaving behind an unresolved conflict makes my skin prickle.

She shakes her head. “My dream… it’s already fading…”

Her head drops back against my chest, and she’s asleep again. I realize that she’s been chattering in her sleep the whole time. She won’t even remember this conversation in the morning.

Frustration floods me, and I want to wake her up, but I don’t. Violet needs to heal, and I need to process what she just said.

We stayat the pack house all day. Enzo sent word to the pack that the east end house isn’t to be used, and we’re on guard for any suspicious activity around us, but the unusual acts of magichaven’t followed us outside the estate. Here, the house doesn’t shake, and there are no random flashes of light. I wait for my suspicions to kick back in, for my wary mind to suggest that maybe Violet is just on her best behavior now that she knows she’s being watched, but I can’t reconcile the idea that the driver tried to kill her, too. If she were truly working with them, they would want her alive.

I curl up with Violet on the couch in the living room with my brothers, a movie playing on the mounted television, but we’re discussing the plan for tomorrow, so none of us are paying attention.

“You go in and get out,” Jax repeats. He’s said this so many times by now, I’m getting annoyed.

“I know, Jax,” Violet sighs in exasperation. “I’m not looking for trouble.”

“I didn’t say you were, but you’re also not going to avoid it if it finds you, are you?”

She sneers at him. “I know you mean well, babe, but honestly, it’s a little hard for me to forget that you threw me out of here three years ago without ever worrying about my well-being.”

“That’s not true,” Jax growls. “We did worry about you! I told you that I tried to contact you.” He looks at us accusingly. “Did you put a blocker on my emails or texts?”

“No.” I frown at Enzo, but he appears just as confused.

“No,” he answers with just as much perplexity. We look to one another. “Could the dark witches do that?”

“They didn’t stop us from reaching out to the Florida Apex Alphas about her,” I blurt out.

“What?” she scoffs, surprised. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I glance at Enzo, but he doesn’t meet my eyes.

“We reached out to the Florida Apexes to keep an eye on you,” I admit. “They knew you were in their territory.”

Her eyes pop in dismay, and she pushes my arms away from her slender form. “You were spying on me, even from here?! What the hell was the point of exile if you were just going to keep spying on me?!”

“No!” Jax grumbles. “It wasn’t spying. We wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“You banished me! If you were so worried about my safety, you wouldn’t have kicked me out of Arizona in the first place!”

“You know why we had to do that,” Enzo sighs. “Come on, Violet. There’s nothing we can do to change the past now. We did what we thought was best for the territory at the time.”

She sits upright on the sofa and looks at me. “I’m not trying to change the past. I’m trying to change the future… for all of us.”

Drawing in a deep breath, she looks at us imploringly. To my relief, she settles back into my arms, and my hold tightens around her.

“You have to think,” she urges. “Why would this happen? What would your father have done to them? This level of hatred…”

“Nothing!” I snap, defensive, but Jax and Enzo are less insistent.

“She’s right. This doesn’t come from nowhere. Someone must have triggered this,” Jax agrees.

“Whose side are you on?” I grumble irritably.

“I’m on the side of getting this curse lifted,” Jax fires back, jumping up to pace around the room. “But to do that, we need to understand it.”

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