Chapter 136

Agnes

I stared at Olivia in disbelief, my mind struggling to process her words. Medication? That was what was in the vial? But it made no sense—there was no label, no prescription information, nothing that would indicate it was legitimate medication.

“What?” I stood, dusting myself off. “That’s your medication?”

Olivia’s perfectly painted lips curved into a hateful little sneer. “Don’t play dumb, Agnes. This is my prescription. My doctor gave it to me after…” She faltered for a moment, her mask of anger slipping to reveal something that almost looked like genuine distress. “After I had the baby. For postpartum depression. I was wondering where it went—you stole it, didn’t you?”

I shook my head, baffled by such a claim. “I didn’t—I wasn’t—”

But it was too late. The people nearby had already begun to notice our exchange, and they were turning away from their conversations to watch what was happening. I caught snippets of whispers as they spread through the crowd like wildfire.

“Isn’t that the Luna who was in the news…?”

“…making a scene again…”

“…always causing problems, isn’t she?”

My cheeks burned with humiliation as I went to turn away, my eyes scanning the crowd for Elijah. But before I could get away, Olivia stepped in my path. Her gaze flickered with something angry and malicious once more.

“What were you planning to do with this, Agnes?” she scoffed, folding her slender arms across her chest. “Were you hoping to expose me or something? Make me look unstable?” Her eyes narrowed. “Or were you going to tamper with it somehow? Make me actually unstable?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, what she was implying. “No, I would never—”

“Are you trying to make me crazy like you?” she hissed, her words slicing through me like a knife cutting through butter. “So you can knock me down to your level?” She huffed, shaking her head. “I knew you were the jealous sort, Agnes, but not like this. You know, maybe you could use some medication for your delusions. Maybe then you wouldn’t be so insistent on searching for a child that’s long since been dead.”

Before I could answer, she took a step forward. “Or maybe,” she bit out, lowering her voice so only those around us could hear, “you wouldn’t try to sneak DNA samples from my daughter.”

The people around me gasped, but I hardly heard it.

As she said those words, I felt as though all the air had been sucked from my lungs. The room spun around me, the faces of the other attendees blurring together as Olivia’s accusation echoed in my ears.

Crazy like you. Delusions. Sneaking DNA samples.

The words struck a nerve so deep and so raw that I couldn’t even formulate a response. My throat closed up, my eyes stinging with unshed tears.

Because wasn’t that what everyone thought? That I was the unstable one, the crazy one, the one who snuck around and lied and cheated and manipulated?

Meanwhile, Olivia, the woman who had allegedly made my wolf disappear so she could take my mate from me, was the saint?

I opened my mouth to say those exact words to her, but no sound came out. What could I even say, anyway? Even if I did say it, then I would just be laughed at, painted as the insane one for even implying that Olivia had done such things.

No. I was backed into a corner, and somehow, I had a feeling she knew exactly what she was doing.

Just then, I felt a warm and familiar presence at my back, then a strong arm slipping around my waist. Elijah was suddenly beside me, drawing me against his side protectively.

“Olivia,” he said, nodding his chin toward the vial in her hands, “if that’s really your medication, you must have been missing it. I found it in my office today, laying on the floor, which means you’ve been without it for the entire day. You should probably take it now, shouldn’t you?”

Olivia’s gaze flicked between Elijah and me, a muscle twitching alongside her mouth. She stared at us for a moment, and I knew then that she didn’t want to drink whatever was in that bottle.

But then, nodding, she twisted the cap off the vial. “Of course,” she said airily.

I watched, rapt, as she raised the vial to her lips. She took a sip without hesitating.

The moment the liquid passed her lips, I felt Elijah twitch beside me. His arm around my waist tightened, his fingers digging into the silk of my dress hard enough that I grew worried it might tear. His entire body seemed to strain forward, as if drawn by an invisible force toward Olivia.

But rather than pulling away from me, he pulled me closer, his grip almost painful now. I glanced up at him, confused by the conflicting signals—the way he seemed simultaneously drawn to Olivia and determined to stay anchored to me. It was as though I was his lifeline, his rock in a stormy sea, keeping him from being swept away by whatever current was trying to pull him away.

With a honeyed little smile, Olivia recapped the vial and slipped it into her own purse. “Much better,” she said, waving her hand. She glanced around at all of the onlookers. “What are you looking at?”

The nearby attendees quickly returned to their conversations, clearly intimidated by the whole thing.

Without another word, Olivia then turned and walked away, her crimson dress flowing behind her. The crowd parted to let her through, and thus the spectacle came to an anticlimactic end.

But Elijah remained rigid beside me, barely even breathing. I placed my hand over his where it rested on my waist, gently prying his fingers loose from their death grip on my dress.

“Elijah?” I whispered, turning to face him properly for the first time since he’d come to my rescue.

What I saw made my blood run cold. His face had drained of all color, the tan skin now ashen and clammy. A fine sheen of sweat had broken out on his forehead, and his pupils were dilated so wide that his eyes appeared almost black.

“Are you okay?” I asked, reaching up to touch his face.

He blinked, and his eyes returned to normal. But his expression remained strained, as if something had deeply unsettled him just now. I wondered if Olivia was manipulating the mate bond again, and it made my heart ache, but I couldn’t see his mating mark beneath the collar of his shirt to tell if it was glowing or not.

Finally, he cleared his throat and smoothed down the front of his suit jacket.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, glancing at me. “You were just headed to the bar, weren’t you?”

I frowned. “Yes, but are you sure—”

“Could you please order me a whiskey, on the rocks?” he cut me off. When he looked at me, there was something flickering behind his eyes, as if he was holding back. Something about it left me feeling strange, but I nodded.

Before I could say another word, he turned on his heel and strode away in the opposite direction Olivia had gone.

I watched him go, utterly confused, until he disappeared in the crowd. By now, many eyes were on me again, surreptitiously watching for whatever reaction I may have to the whole ordeal.

Somehow, I schooled my expression and forced a small, placid smile onto my face. I turned on my heel and strode over to the bar, ordering a whiskey on the rocks and a glass of red wine.

But my movements felt stiff and uncomfortable after everything that just happened, and the wine tasted like blood in my mouth.