Page 13 of Knot in My Wildest Dreams: Part 2
“Don’t mess this up.” She said, and before she ended the call, Liam quickly rushed to speak.
“Celeste, we know it wasn’t you who signed off on those papers. Someone is trying to sabotage you!” Liam said quickly, stumbling over his words.
“Yeah, apparently it wasn’t justyourpack trying to ruin me.” Her words hit me in the gut, and Liam looked sick. Her words were laced with disgust.
“Celeste, please, let us help you.” I said, beginning to beg.
“Stop. Come to Goldsun Park. Someone will pick you up there. And this is important - you cannot tell anyone where you are. My life depends on it.” She said.
What the hell was going on? I looked at Liam, perplexed, as I nodded to him. “We agree, Celeste. We’ll be there.” I said, before I heard the click of the phone as she hung up.
A moment passed before either of us spoke. I knew he was thinking the same thing I was - if this was a trap, we’d be screwed. But I just didn’t believe she would do anything to us.
“Call Dante and tell him to come now. We need to be there in half an hour.” Liam said, and I just reached for the keys.
Chapter 13
Dante
“She’s with the Valence pack.”
Liam’s words sounded hollow, as if broken, when he spoke to me. I froze, not understanding. Pack Valence was the elusive pack she’d dated right before our arrangement. They broke up. Why would she be with them?
“What the hell is she doing with pack Valence?” I yelled, barely able to contain myself. Vigo came running into the room as he felt our distress through the bond. Liam was there, waiting for me after they told me to come back right away.
“She’s about to go into heat! She’s in a house with a bonded pack of alphas!” My voice was horrified as I looked between them. “Can she even trust them?”
Liam’s tall, broad frame, usually so confident, looked broken as he stared at the phone. “I don’t know. She wants us to meet at the park. We have to go now.”
I followed them, my fists curled up as I clenched my jaw. Of course she would trust them over us. They weren’t the ones planning on ruining her life.
Pain ripped through me as if a scythe was being dragged through my chest. Pack Valence. They were the last pack Celeste had been with before us. In all the research we had done, we could never figure out what happened to end their relationship. But now, she was with them. Right before her heat was scheduled to start. After she’d gathered up the courage to ask us to help her through it.
Now, we were headed to a park to be picked up, and Celeste had some mysterious reason to meet us that she hadn’t explained. I couldn’t even think about that right now - I was too distraught over the idea of her with Pack Valence.
There is nothing quite like the knowledge that your mate is going to go through a heat with another pack. Everything in my body was screaming at me to find her, fight them, and fix this. I felt like my instincts were driving me to near madness with jealousy and need. But this was my fault. I’d driven her away. In my need for vengeance, to seek out retribution for the pain she caused my people, my judgment had been too clouded by revenge, and I’d missed some key clues.
Celeste was the patsy. In the years following her father’s death, Harringday Industries had been increasingly pushing the envelope with how bad they made the lives of the workers in Arkala. I heard from my cousin about how many workers’ protections were being changed, and how much was being covered up.
The only change had been that Celeste was now making decisions as the new face of the company. I also heard rumors about the shady practices their company was engaging in all over the province. When I found out my cousin was killed after the workers tried to revolt, my world shattered. My family, the people who cared about me, helped raise me - they were gone. And my resolve to end the Harringday reign of terror began.
My pack was smart and driven, almost to the point of recklessness. We decided to take on an impossible task - going up against Harringday Industries. We were capable, and our ideas were great, but in a world where acting like a bully gets you rewarded, we were fighting an uphill battle. At times we held on through sheer willpower. But I knew eventually, I’d be vindicated.
Now I realize how ignorant I was. Celeste was an omega. Spoiled and naive, sure. But evil - that was something I had trouble seeing, ever since she came to live with us. I should have looked past my own rage to see who she really was. I was so set on taking her down I didn’t see the small clues in front of me. The way she truly tried to make changes. The difficulty she had making even minor progress. Her gentle nature, and how it contradicted all the stories we read about her in the press. Shewasn’t the person we thought. But I was too blinded by the scant evidence I had to press the issue further.
And now, knowing I’d likely lost her forever, I was in what felt like an eternal pain. Like a dark abyss, the memories of the past were filling my mind as I tried to make sense of it all. The death, destruction, the lies - all of it was too much. And now, I missed my mate. And that pain of loss after years of hating her was tearing me in two.
Chapter 14
Vigo
We waited at the park, and it felt almost too quiet. A bird soared across the sky, and laughter from children playing echoed faintly from somewhere beyond the trees. But I felt removed from all of it. My chest was hollow, my heart pounding with only one thought: Celeste.
Dante seemed agitated, unable to stand still. He sounded relieved that she finally contacted us, but I knew he was hiding a nervousness about what she could want to tell us. I still blamed him for hiding the secrets about how much he knew of the kidnapping plot. But I knew out of all of us, he would be the most distraught. After thinking he would finally get justice for the crimes committed against his family, he instead pushed away our mate. Now we had more questions than answers.
Liam stood beside me, his arms crossed, and his face unreadable. I envied him for that. My own mask had long since cracked. I couldn’t hide the way my hands flexed, the ragged sound of my breath. Every second we waited was torture. I needed to know Celeste was safe, and I needed to beg for her forgiveness. I needed her more than anything.
A black SUV rolled up to the curb, dark windows flashing under the sun. Two alphas stepped out, and I knew immediately that they were Pack Valence’s hired security. I felt their eyes skim over me, judging.
