Violet Ashes: The Blood Ridge Alpha - Chapter 30: Chapter 30

Vince is sitting behind Dad's desk again. His eyes are glued to the computer screen in front of him. He glances at me and exhales sharply. I bet he's beating himself up over all of this, and I want to help him.
"Everything okay?" he asks.
"Fuck, I hope so," I say knowing he smells grief on me.
I sit down across from him. I lean back in the dark brown leather armchair and stare up at the ceiling. There's a scratch on the ceiling from when it was just the two of us as kids. He stood on the desk, and I climbed onto his shoulders because he was convinced there was a loose board that hid a treasure. He wasn't wrong. It was just the wrong location.
Sometimes when it's cold, I feel the ache in my collarbone from when I fell off his shoulders. Dad added these softer chairs because the wooden ones he used to have messed me up. I had to be in bed for weeks, and it wasn't pleasant. I hate not being able to move around, and what little progress I made went in vain until my mom started drugging me with wolfsbane to keep my loopy until I was healed enough for my bone to settle.
Vincent and I were so close it was creepy. Two halves of a whole. It was easy to forget that when I wasn't staring back at him. A part of me resented having to share everything. The way dad expected me to be every bit of the alpha he was grooming us to become. Things got worse for the two of us when we shifted, and then Mom died. Vince tried his best to bring Dad back, and we both needed time apart when he realized that I would be the only one who could get the sad fuck back to them.
"Vy," he sighs. "We're out of time,"
Dad is close to shifting and losing his sanity to the wolf inside of him. It means we're going to have to put him down or let his feral wolf run around the city's dark corners. It's the only reason why my Dad is compromising with me. He knows his time is close, and he swallowed his pride to show us he's getting ready to go. At least, that's what I want to believe.
"There's something I have to tell you," I whisper. He looks up at me questioningly. "About Barnes."
His expression blanks the same way Dad used to when he would catch me doing shit I wasn't supposed to. This definitely feels like one of those things. My brother and Alpha Barnes have nearly come to blows trying to wrangle their wolves. Vince's reaction tells me he understands what I'm trying to say and that the asshole has known.
"You've met with him?" his eyes flicker between red and sea blue.
"Twice now. It was the reason why he signed on so hastily,"
"You should have told me," he says, sitting back without looking at me.
"I'm telling you now,"
"Fuck, Vy?" he growls and stands up abruptly.
"He's my-" he growls louder, cutting me off. "I'm not going to reject him."
"I'm not asking you to do that," he says, looking down at his hands.
My wolf howls out inside of me. The two of them agreed to a cease-fire, but now that he knows the real reason behind it. Vince isn't going to be very nice to either of us once things get more complex.
"What happened?" I ask him, wanting to know more details.
"I don't owe you an explanation," he says tightly.
"You owe me everything you've accomplished here," I growl, slamming my hands on the desk. He looks up at me angrily, and I reach for his stupid hoodie. "I didn't sacrifice everything I did for you to talk to me the same way Father does."
"You don't understand," he shakes his head.
"Then make me understand. This is our future we're talking about. Tell me everything," I demand.
"I know," he shoves me hard. I stumble back and almost fall into the armchair. "I didn't know he was our mate. He was with someone before. When he attacked us in Valeryn, I killed her. She was pregnant. I didn't know. The warehouse incident. He burned it down with all those people in it because of what I did."
His words hit me like a pile of bricks landing on my head. I think back to this morning. Alpha Barnes had been nothing but polite and excited to be as close as he got. There didn't seem to be an ulterior motive. He seemed so genuine.
That fire killed three fifteen-year-olds and two betas. He trapped them in there. It was covered up and I never got the name of the piece of shit who did it. He sits down, burying his hands in his hair.
"Arsenial is a fucking piece of shit," he growls. "I let this rivalry go too far. You're not the only one who has sacrificed themselves in all of this, Vy."
"How did it start?"
"He asked for assistance against a rogue. I don't even remember his name. At the time, he was running with Darren Phurry, so I declined his request."
"Then what?"
"He took offense to it," he shrugs. "I don't care if you mate with him, Vy. I'm tired of his shit. I'm tired of all this," he sighs. "I was hoping our distance would have spared you or that you turned your fucking human so-"
"Vin-" I lower myself into the armchair, processing.
This is messed up. A lot more that I spent time with the man without him having brought any of this up. That encounter at Wise Men Say wasn't a fucking coincidence. He likely approached me knowing exactly who I was and not just as Violetta Wilde. It was a move against Vincent, and I was his intended target. That's the reason why he was spooked.
"I tried to apologize. I hated what happened even before I found out the woman was with child," he whispers. "It's why they refused to sign the treaty. I don't know what changed."
"I'm here," I tell him.
It didn't strike me as odd that Alpha Barnes asked me about my relationship with Vince. I chalked it up as him prying into my personal space, and I gave him enough information to know that Vince hadn't said a word about what happened between them. He hadn't. I wouldn't have let him into my home as easily as I did if I had known any of this.
"That makes sense," he sighs. "Now you know why I wanted you to come back when you first left."
"You should have told me." He's known since I left. He knew we had a mate all this time.
"Would that have changed anything?" he challenges.
No. When he asked me to come back, we had just taken out the Rogue King. A few days later, Darren was killed, and Perry was in a coma. Those six months were hell for me—the extra training and the not knowing if she was ever going to wake up. The old man turned his full attention to me, and I let him call all the shots because I didn't know which way was up.
"I'm sorry, Vince," is all I can say. This changes everything. I've let too much of the person I once was for this pack. I withstood all I did for my family, and no one is going to challenge that. Not even my mate.
"We made a choice," he reminds me. "We both decided this was the only way. We both know that I'm not enough. I thought I could handle it on my own. I'm waving my white flag, Vy."