Chapter 15
Liam
We were driven to Pack Valence’s compound, with security following us as we stepped out of the car like we were prisoners.
Every instinct screamed that we’d walked into a trap, but deep down, I knew that Celeste wouldn’t do that.
Not to us. She wasn’t capable of that kind of malice, no matter how badly we’d treated her.
I could feel it in my chest, where our bond should be, where I was missing the one person who should have been my mate.
The estate was grand, as was to be expected from Pack Valence.
We walked into a house with high ceilings, tiled floors, and old money dripping from every corner.
Of course she’d come here. They had power, resources, and safety.
They were helping her after we’d turned our backs on trusting her. And I hated every second of it.
Every thing in me pulled at me to challenge them, to fight this pack to get Celeste back.
It felt so wrong for her to be here with them.
She was our match, not theirs. It pained me, making my skin itch and my nerves raw, to be here in their house, knowing that Celeste chose to stay with them. It was torture.
We were led into a massive sitting room, where I finally saw the one thing I’d been searching for - Celeste. She sat on a chair as though it were a throne. My chest tightened so hard it almost hurt.
Relief crashed through me so strongly I nearly staggered. She was safe. Right in front of me. Beautiful beyond words, and looking less and less likely to ever forgive us.
Even with her face guarded, even furious, she was breathtaking.
The light caught in her hair, and she sat with a regal posture.
Her perfect eyes looked down on us with detachment, but I could sense an anger simmering just underneath.
I’d never seen her look more powerful. And yet, to me, she was still the same Celeste who had smiled in those rare, unguarded moments, whose laughter I craved to hear again, whose scent had haunted me every night since she left.
The members of Pack Valence were stationed nearby, watching from a distance.
Their stances were protective, daring us to move too close.
Celeste looked at them with gratitude, and I felt the jealousy boil inside me that these alphas were near her.
But I had no right to feel that way after what we’d done.
Finally, she looked back at us, her eyes icy and guarded, with none of the warmth I used to feel from her. My knees nearly buckled.
“Celeste,” I said, my voice breaking before I could steady it.
I stepped forward, ignoring the hostile energy from the alphas guarding her.
“We were wrong. About all of it. About you. I should’ve seen the truth sooner.
I -” my throat clenched tight, “ - I’m sorry.
I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right if you let me. ”
Beside me, Vigo’s voice cracked. “Please, omega. Forgive us. We didn’t know. We didn’t see you.” He bowed his head, raw pain rolling off him in waves.
Dante, the quietest of us all, didn’t try to approach her. He just looked up, his eyes more vulnerable than I’d ever seen, and dropped down to his knees. “Celeste, I’m sorry.” His voice was choked up, and he looked like he was stuck between wanting to run to her, and to run away.
Celeste stared at us, letting us stew in the silence, watching us with a neutrality that hurt me all the way to my bones.
I wanted her to show some emotion, anything.
Finally, she spoke, and the words gutted me.
“You would have thought I was still the enemy if I hadn't pointed out the impossible date on those falsified documents.”
She let the words sit in the air, letting us absorb it as I felt myself heat in shame.
She leaned forward. “And where would I be right now? If you thought that all those atrocities done under my name were true?” She sat back, her lip curling in disgust. “Let me guess. I’d be arrested by now, the press dragging my name through the dirt, and removed from my position.
That’s where I’d be.” Her words landed with finality, and several of Pack Valence’s members growled.
I’d never felt so awful in all my life. Because she was right.
I couldn't defend it. Even if we thought it was the right thing at the time, to take down the monster behind the Arkala massacre, and so many other violations, we still didn’t see her.
We would have turned on our own mate. And now, knowing we were wrong, we’d come groveling back to her, expecting what?
For her to forgive us? When she’d essentially saved herself by looking more closely at the paperwork? I hung my head in shame.
Vigo was losing it next to me. “Please, Celeste, we want to help you!” He was practically shaking with emotion as he looked at her, his eyes pleading as he got on his knees.
“Despite everything, our only desire is to get you out of this! Someone’s framing you!
Trying to destroy you!” He shouted, and Celeste just smiled sadly.
“Oh, I’m not the only one that was set up to be framed, Vigo.” I whipped my head up, wondering what she was saying.
“What are you talking about?” I asked carefully. She leaned forward, setting her face on her fist.
“I found out quite a bit. And while I considered letting you self-destruct, I’m not quite as cruel as you. Your pack was part of this conspiracy, too. Someone is working against you.” Her words cut through me, and I stepped backward.
“Celeste, the papers make you look like you orchestrated everything at Harringday. This has nothing to do with our pack.” I started, wondering what misinformation she’d been given.
“No. Everything was planned out, and you were led right into the trap that was supposed to destroy me. You thought I was your enemy, when the real traitor was beside you the whole time.”
I blinked. “What are you saying?”
Her gaze sharpened, then she sighed. “My uncle has been working against me for years, without my knowledge. He was the mastermind behind everything.”
I sat back, stunned. Her own uncle?
“How?” Vigo asked, and I saw Dante rear up in anger. If her uncle was behind everything, then he was the one ultimately responsible for Arkala.
Celeste continued. “He has several board members on his side, who are in agreement to place him as CEO and overthrow me. They are outnumbered, but by persuading the rational board members that I was messy, my uncle thought he could unseat me sooner.” She looked at each of us carefully as we took in her words.
“When that didn’t work, he came up with an ingenious plan to oust me. You’ll know all about the first one. It was supposed to happen the night of the Darlington Ball.” My mind flashed back to when we’d planned to get her to miss the vote.
“But Celeste, that wasn’t your uncle. You know that. We already told you it was us.” Dante said, his face riddled with confusion.
“You thought it was your pack who came up with the plan. But it wasn’t. Try to keep up. Think back, who originally came up with the idea to hire a pack to get me out of the way, make me miss the vote?” She asked, her voice sharp.
I stepped forward, my hands out. “Celeste, it was our pack’s idea. I don’t know what you’re getting at, that had nothing to do with your uncle-” I tried to explain, but Celeste cut me off.
“Think! Who had the idea?” She asked, and I looked at Vigo and Dante in exasperation. But Dante’s eyes were clouded now.
“Well, technically it was Elijah’s plan.” Dante said to me, and Celeste sat straighter.
“Now you’re catching on. Elijah brought you the great plan, because he knew one of the board members would flip on me if they thought I was irresponsible, right? How do you think he knew so much?” She asked, her gaze sharp.
“Elijah is a neutral party, he networks with so many people in our industry, including some of your board members.” Vigo explained. Celeste shook her head.
“And I’m sure Elijah was the source of your idea to blackmail me too, wasn’t he?” she asked. My stomach started to sink. Something wasn’t right. I looked at Dante, who was slowly shaking his head.
“Elijah didn’t come up with that idea. It was given to him.” Celeste said slowly. “Elijah is working with my uncle.”
The air left my lungs. That couldn’t be true. Elijah - our ally, our friend - working with Gideon? No. I shook my head, but the doubt twisted like a knife inside me. Immediately, I felt the shock from Dante through our bond - the denial, the anger, the confusion.
“That’s impossible,” he rasped. “Elijah wouldn’t - ”
“My uncle’s been planning this with Elijah from the start.
He gave Elijah the Tedena documents. He orchestrated everything - every move you thought was yours.
” Celeste said with certainty. I was frozen.
It was inconceivable - but how could she have known he’d given us each idea?
To be working with her uncle, he’d have to have been betraying us for years.
Dante finally stood tall, shaking his head.
“No, Celeste. That can’t be true. Your uncle may be working against you, but Elijah wouldn’t ever work with him.
I’m sorry. Whoever gave you this information, it can’t be true.
” I knew Dante trusted Elijah with everything in him.
But as I considered it with growing horror, the pieces started to fall into place.
“It’s true. I can vouch for it.” A new voice cut across the room, cool and unflinching. A tall, steely-eyed beta walked toward Celeste.
“Sterling.” Vigo said quietly. Vigo had told me about him - apparently, he was the beta assistant who’d helped Celeste move on that first day in our house.
He stepped out of the shadows to her side, positioning himself next to Celeste as if he belonged with her, sliding an arm around her shoulders in support.
I barely suppressed a growl. How dare he touch my mate?
“It’s true. Gideon and Elijah have been in each other’s pockets for years.
Gideon gave him the Tedena files. He’s been feeding him intel all along. ”
Vigo staggered a step. “No… then the kidnapping-”
“It was Gideon’s idea,” Sterling confirmed, his tone steady as stone. “He told Elijah, who pitched it to you. How else would you have known her exact schedule? Gideon cleared the way.”
My mind reeled. If this was true, everything we thought we controlled had been a puppet string in Gideon’s hand.
“No! Why would Elijah do such a thing? He has no reason to betray us! He wouldn’t!” Dante roared out, his voice full of anger. Sterling looked at him like he was something on the bottom of his shoe.
“Gideon has promised him that once Celeste is out of the way, he can help him get your pack out of the way next. Elijah wants control of Manticore Tech. Gideon knows how to help him get that.” Sterling’s words were cold.
“And once Elijah is in control, ethics can be thrown out the window. Apparently, Elijah thinks your morals are holding your company back.” Sterling said with a raised eyebrow, putting an emphasis on the word ‘morals’ like he thought we were full of shit. He was kind of right.
Vigo’s voice broke into the silence, ragged and trembling. “Is that why the kidnapping failed? Because her uncle couldn’t stop double-crossing even his own plan?”
Sterling’s silver eyes cut to him. “No. It failed because I ensured she lived long enough to cast that vote. If I hadn’t intervened, she’d have been voted out already.”
The room tilted. I couldn’t breathe. Betrayal, guilt, and shame warred in me until all I could do was stare at Celeste - our omega, our mate, the woman we’d broken and lost. And she was standing there alive, untouchable, flanked by others who guarded her as fiercely as we should have.
Vigo moved forward, his body tall and threatening as he faced Sterling.
I could feel Pack Valence brace to attack him if he got any closer.
“Why you?” He yelled at Sterling. “You’re her uncle’s employee!
You have no loyalty to her! If you knew all of this, why would you wait all this time to step in? Why now?”
Sterling started to answer, but Celeste held up a hand. “I’ll tell you why.”