Page 70 of Violet

One blonde Sabine Omega seems to think so. She’s been heard whispering his name, getting cozy in corners, and sporting what people are saying might be an Alpha bite.

And we all know a mark means an Alpha has laid claim, and a mating ceremony is to come!

But others are saying it was all a ruse. Just a bit of lipstick meant to cause a stir.

I wonder what our Luxe thinks about all this?

Miss V was seen leaving the Hargrave House party early and hitting the town for some St.-James-free fun.

GASP!

Is Sabine’s power couple no more?

We don’t know yet, but the Queen Bee will tell you this:

Our Luxe was seen this morning with a pristine neck. Her throat was unmarked.

But for how long?

- Queen Bee

CHAPTER

TWENTY

Stephan

The wait in the Gardeners’ sitting room is excruciating, even though Mrs. Gardener serves me tea and offers me cake. My thoughts have been a little preoccupied since the night of the Hargrave party, club Yin, kiss in the dark.

I don’t regret much in my life, but kissing Violet purposefully in front of Heath and the Monarch’s men? Not my smartest move. But thinking about losing her, thinking that might be the last time I could have her to myself…

There’s no excusing it. Now I’ve fucked this up for the both of us.

Even more so when I had decided to confess to Sophine our plans. To be fair, she was threatening me and Violet with banishment and estrangement, the same thing she didwhen she’d found out about my relationship with CeeCee. I couldn’t care less—I’ve built my own life away from Sabine and my family’s connections. But Violet? Her family is everything to her.

It would devastate her.

So I told the battle-ax everything.

And when she had asked me to tell her the truth about my feelings for Violet…I told her that, too.

Violet perplexes me. I think about her too much. I always catch myself staring, noticing the little things about her—how she worries her lip when she’s overthinking or scrunches her nose when she doesn’t like something. When she looks at me, really looks at me, I feel…different. Off-balance. And when she’s gone, I’m restless.

I don’t know what that means, if our act has only confused things more, but I found myself rambling when answering Sophine’s question. I like her, I settled on, which is true. And when given the chance to answer the same question, Violet had told Sophine the same about me.

Butlikeis a far cry fromwanting a mark, and that’s exactly what she’s forcing us to do.

“No, thank you,” I say to Mrs. Gardener as she holds out a plate of freshly baked oatmeal cookies. My stomach is doing somersaults. I hadn’t slept a wink last night, either.

Heath sits in an armchair reading something on his tablet but makes sure to stop every few seconds to glare at me.

Dick.

Tradition says I’m going to have to ask his permission to claim Violet as my mate, before marking her. I know he’s itching to get me alone to either try his hand at beating theshit out of me or find out what happened last night when the Monarch sent him out of the room. Maybe both.

But I need to talk to Violet first. It’s why I walked into the lion’s den today to take Violet out to dinner for a moment alone with her.

With her heat so close, it’s risky, but as long as I don’t touch her, I should be able to curb my primal urges.

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