Violet Ashes: The Blood Ridge Alpha - Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Lycan Tech's new Tower is beautiful and a lot taller than the one across the way. Perry retained the original layout and gave the remodel a subtle upgrade without compromising the 1920s aesthetic. It's going to be a while before they're done, but the building is coming along nicely. The contractor gave me a tour and a rundown of their schedule.
We get carried away talking about everything. She seems just as excited as I am to see the whole thing completed. It's a little past four when I'm headed back to my car, and I'm starving. I call Verona before deciding on anything. The first call goes to voicemail, and I try one more time.
"Mmm," she hums sleepily just as I'm about to give up.
"Hey, I'm getting a late lunch. Want anything?"
"Sure," he croaks. "Whatever you're having."
"Okay, be home soon," I promise.
"Be careful," she yawns and hangs up.
As soon as I turn the engine on, another call comes in. Vincent. I groan and answer it as I pull away from the curb.
"Yeah?"
"Where are you?" he asks.
"I was checking in on the tower remodel. I'm leaving now. What's going on?"
"An Alpha Stephen Montgomery is asking for you."
"He's there now?" this bitch promised me she was going to call me before she had Nate send someone over. Got dammit, Perry.
"Yup."
"How much time can you buy me? I haven't eaten, and I promised Verona I'd take her food."
"Take your time. I'll offer him some food here. Should I be worried?"
"No, Nate sent him from Redwood. He probably wants to talk about some of the transfers I'm requesting for the new tower. Wait for me, I have to pick up the contracts at the printers. You can just give them the whole alliance speech shit."
"How many people are we talking about?"
"Two fifty, give or take,"
"Thank you," he says gently. "I hired a few cleaning crews for the mansions. Do you really think we'll be needing them?"
"A brand new Lycan Tech tower is going up in your city, Alpha Wolfe. It's going to draw in some people with deep pockets. Deep pockets like lovely places to live in, and it's near the safest place in the city. It'll work."
"Are you going to contract your mate for this?" fucker.
"I want to. Not because he's my mate. This is a good use of the alliance you wanted him to sign. You asked me to help. This is me helping. Unless you already have someone in mind. He might take offense to it, though. He's the clear choice."
"Yeah, okay. Take care of it. I'll see you when you get here," he says, hanging up.
I stop by my favorite cafe and get some pastries. There's a Greek restaurant next door, and that's what I get for my sister. Next to the restaurant is a mini nursery. I pick up some plants and a few items I need for the greenhouse while I wait for my food to be prepared.
I can ask Verona to help me with this when I get home, and maybe she'll enjoy messing around with it. It'll give her something to do and help me make some progress with making the clock tower a little homier. I love how much I've gotten down since I haven't been to Throne Labs.
I have to admit that I miss being there. Not just because of my Mr. Thorne, but it was practically my home since I started working there. I think I'm getting as much done with everything in the pack because I don't want to admit that I'm grieving this loss. It is a loss even when the parting was as bad as it was. There were many ways I envisioned this ending, but it never turned out like this. I didn't think I would just be discarded like yesterday's trash.
When I get to the tower, Verona is already showered and moving around. She looks a little better. Her eyes are still a little swollen, but it seems like she got the rest she needed. She's moving stiffly, but it's not as bad as it was yesterday when she was moving her things into one of the spare rooms. She refused to let us help her, and I let her have it. I think being embarrassed in front of the entire packhouse hit her hard enough.
"What's this?" she asks when I hand her the foam cups.
"Some stuff I got to work on the greenhouse. I'm going to put them out here until I can get to them," I lie. "I was going to do it today, but Nate sent over someone to talk about the tower transfers. He's at the packhouse with Vince."
"Is it okay if I help?" she asks, setting the cups down to reach for some of the plants.
"Would you? It would be cool. You've seen the size of it." I laugh.
"Yeah," she nods. We head up to the house to eat. "Greek is my favorite. Did you go to Christou's?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" I'm glad the bait worked. She could use more than sleeping in all day. Although, she's welcome to that as well.
"The gyros," she smirks. "Thanks."
"Here is my card in case you need anything for the greenhouse or anything. Just don't get crazy. There's no limit on it." I slide it over the counter. It stops beside her take-out plate.
"Are you serious?" she glares at me, annoyed.
"The first time I fell in love with someone, I had to kill him, Verona. He made a mistake that got a whole lot of people killed, and there are always consequences to our actions. Not long after, my best friend lost her mate, and it felt like I lost her for a while.
"On top of that, I had to clean up the mess that was made while all of this was going on. I was expected to perform as if none of it had happened. There was no one I could call at the time. No one was there to tell me I would be okay.
"So, before you say that I'm trying to baby you or making up for the time I spent away, don't. I'm going to treat you the way I wish I had been treated when something fucked up happened to me. This isn't about pity. I just want to be your sister. Let me do that. We're not the guys, Ver. We shouldn't be prideful among ourselves."
"Okay," she swallows hard. I go around and hug her. She holds me for a while. When she's ready to let go, she rubs my back. "I wish you were taller so I didn't have to bend down that far."
"You're an asshole. I am literally being the nicest to you, right now." I pull away to eat my food.
"I'm sorry," she says after a while. "I didn't know that. That's insane."
"You don't know the half of it. We had broken up just before it happened, too. He had found his true mate. Their daughter was six months old."
I hadn't told anyone that. Not even Perry. I think she knew something was up with us, but I don't think any of them knew the extent. I will never forget the betrayal in his eyes when I stood by and let Knightly kill him. Hailey, his daughter, didn't feel any pain. She just shut her eyes and never opened them again.
"Fuck," she rubs her face. "I guess I never had to think about what it would be like to have to be Alpha outside of the city. Especially not alone."
"Let's hope you never have to," I swallow the knot in my throat down with some orange Fanta. "It's a war out there. One with no winners and it's never ending."