Page 1 of Knot in My Wildest Dreams: Part 2
Chapter 1
Dante
The room was silent, full of spent anger and a soul deep aching. We’d already done enough fighting and tearing each other apart, and not the cold reality was setting in. Liam leaned back against the windowsill, arms crossed, eyes dark. Vigo stood by the fireplace, flipping through one of the documents with a frown that seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face since we lost her.
No one wanted to say it. No one wanted to be the first to speak the words:
Celeste was gone. And we had no idea where she went.
“We should release a statement,” Vigo said eventually. “Before someone else does. We have to find her, this is urgent!”
“No,” Liam said sharply. “We don’t know enough.”
“She vanished! There’s no trace of her, and she knows we have all this dirt on her. And now she’s nowhere to be found, and she won’t talk to us. We have no idea who’s setting her up, how deep this goes. You know how bad that looks, right?” Vigo growled, throwing the stack of papers down.
“I said no. We need to find her, explain ourselves, and get answers. Keep trying her phone!” Liam ordered, and I sighed, frustrated with the lack of progress.
“This is your fault!” Vigo snarled, looking over at me with disdain as he raged about in our living room, pacing like he was going mad. “She’s vulnerable to whoever is trying to ruin her. She probably doesn't even know who is behind all this!” He yelled, throwing a flurry of the papers at me. I stayed silent. I’d already betrayed their trust, and I couldn't blame Celeste for leaving us in the dark.
Vigo raged throughout the room, pacing like a maniac while I stood, my body numb and my mind racing. Everything I thought was real, was a lie. And I might just have ruined everything in my life.
“That’s enough!” Liam finally shouted, letting his dominance flow out with his bark. Vigo didn’t stop raging, merely letting out a pained howl in response. I knew how he felt. I was barely holding it together. My scent match was gone, and the rejection pained my alpha side like an unending stab in my heart.
But Vigo was right. This was my fault. I’d lied to my pack, and to her. I had to try to make this right, even if it took the rest of my life.
LIiam stood tall, his face resolute. “We need to find her and plead our case. I’ll work on getting her to hear us out.”
I swallowed hard, hoping there was even a remote possibility that she’d hear us out. “I need to find out more information. I’ll talk to Elijah. I need to see if Arnault and Sterling are working together.” I said, my mind spinning. Those two betas had been the only two other witnesses who had signed off on the incriminating documents with Celeste’s signature.
If Celeste really was innocent, then those two would know more than anyone what the real plan was. I didn’t know either of them - it was Elijah who had procured the initial paperwork with Arnault’s signature back when we planned to use the evidence to blackmail her into our fake courtship.
Liam’s eyes caught mine, searching, weighing. I felt through his bond that he was uncertain, distrustful of me. That hurt almost as much as Celeste’s disappearance. My own pack was wary of me, not that I could blame them. I’d withheld information about our plan to interfere with Celeste at the Darlington Ball over a year ago. I thought it was for the best at the time, but it blew up in my face.
Finally, Liam closed his eyes and gave a single, sharp nod. “Go on. See what you can find out.” He sighed.
The air was heavy with regret. If we didn’t figure this out, Celeste’s future was in peril. And we should have seen the signs of the conspiracy much sooner. And to add to it, I was worried about our pack’s future as well. Without trust, and without a center, we were flailing.
I grabbed my keys and headed toward the car, ready to ask Elijah for more information. I’d been the one who found the files of all the incriminating documents on Celeste. The proof I’d been desperately seeking for so many years. And it proved exactly what I suspected - along with all the backdoor, illegal deals we knew Harringday was making, the files I found proved that Celeste had ordered the killing of the miners in Arkala. The workers that also included my family.
Only, we found a discrepancy. For one signed document, Celeste could not physically have been there to sign the on the date listed, and we knew that for an absolute fact. Which threw everything else into doubt. Was it possible that she approved someone to sign off on her orders anyway? Or was it possible that she was innocent in all this?
If we were wrong… if there was any way at all that Celeste was a victim in this as well…
Then I’d destroyed the one person I was supposed to protect.
There was another reason I wanted to leave the house, which I was too ashamed to admit. I could still smell her here. In our home, in the air, down to my bones. Her scent haunted me, andit hurt worse than anything else before. Celeste was my scent match, chosen for me by fate.
I thought she’d been the one who tore my world apart. But I’d done the same to her, and if I was wrong… my body seized up every time I thought about the hurt I’d caused her. I might have just pushed away the only chance at happiness I’d ever really had.
Chapter 2
Liam
Our pack was in shambles. We had lost our mate, our scent match, our everything. And only now, after the damage had been done, did we fully understand the magnitude of our mistakes.
I sat at the table, the scrap of paper laid out in front of me. The circled date glared back at me, damning every assumption we’d made. My hand tightened into a fist.
I looked down now, my eyes running over the circled date for the thousandth time. Despite all our work to find out the truth, it was Celeste herself who had found the one small thing that fractured the plan against her. The one piece of evidence that threw everything into question. On the day that she was supposed to be at her compound, the day that this paperwork had her signature - she was in my bed, with me. Practically allday. She’d never left our house. She was being framed. I was sure of it.
