Chapter Text
Over the years, Violet Sorrengail lived in many houses, and even a few camp grounds here and there.
Wherever her mother was stationed, they followed.
She’d always made a sanctuary for herself in her father’s office; she found solace in his books and ancient manuscripts.
Whether curled on a worn couch, tucked into an armchair that swallowed her whole, or perched on a sunny windowsill, she spent her afternoons deciphering forgotten scrolls while her father worked nearby, smiling at her whenever she looked up.
She’d only been to her mother’s office three times. No, she’d been summoned to her mother’s office to receive devastating news three times.
The first time, she’d been young, barely fourteen years old. Her mother informed her that her older brother was not coming home.
The second time, older, she was summoned to a red-eyed and hoarse Lillith Sorrengail telling her that her father’s heart had given out.
And the third time, she was twenty.
Her mother did not bother to speak; she did not even face her. She stood behind her desk, by the window, hands clasped behind her back.
Violet took a moment to catch her breath after climbing three sets of stairs. She’d climbed them slowly, apprehension and dread making her linen attire feel like lead, weighing heavily on her shoulders.
Bad news came in threes. And besides her mother, her sister was her only living relative.
“Is she safe?” Violet finally spoke when it became apparent that her mother would not be doing so.
Met with silence, Violet stepped forward, closer to her mother, to her desk and asked more forcefully. “Is she safe?”
“Mira’s fine.”
The relief was instant, nearly bringing her to her knees. But bad news came in threes, she remembered. While she was immensely thankful that her sister was not dead or gravely injured, her stomach still rolled with unease and her heart beat an erratic rhythm she felt in her gums.
She did a quick perusal of the premises, attempting to find an explanation for her mother’s unusual behavior; there was not a hesitant or uncertain bone in Lilith Sorrengail’s body and she never wasted time getting to her point.
The answer sat on the desk, in the form of a parchment bearing the royal seal. That, in itself, was not unusual, her mother was King Tauri’s second in command and royal correspondence crossed her desk daily. Violet’s name though, in bold, gave her pause, sitting just beneath another.
If her heartbeat had slowed by even a fraction when she learned that her sister was not dead, it roared into a frenzy in her ears once she skimmed the text.
The third time she was summoned to her mother's office, Violet Sorrengail learned that the Crown had decided her future.
By royal decree, and as part of a peace treaty with the Tyrrendor packs, she was to marry their Alpha.
Xaden Riorson.
Violet's hand trembled as she reached for the parchment. Her fingertips skimmed the smooth paper, immediately recognizing the expensive stock King Tauri favored. Her eyes traced the elegant script, the careful wording and the familiar lines of Navarre's royal crest.
She pored over the document until her mind knew without a doubt what her heart was trying to deny. The document was authentic and was, without a doubt, written by the king himself.
Shock withered into anger and a deep sense of betrayal. “You,” She cut herself off and swallowed against the sudden threat of tears in her voice. “You said yes to this?”
Because while she and her mother were not remotely what would be considered close, she knew general Sorrengail’s way of thinking well enough. She was not summoning here to be offered a choice or to even obtain her opinion on the matter. Had she not already agreed to this, the parchement would be cast aside and Violet would be none the wiser.
No, the general had already agreed to the decree and was only informing Violet so that she could execute.
“You leave in a week.” Lillith Sorrengail spoke her first words since Violet entered her office, hell, those were the first words Violet had heard from her in a month. “A Tyrrish escort will accompany you.”
“You can’t expect me to agree to this.”
“Your agreement is not required.”
“The hell it isn’t!”
Her mother finally turned around, an eyebrow raised that told Violet that the general did not appreciate being yelled at by her five-foot nothing daughter.
“Even Tyrrish elders require consent before initiating a mating ceremony, mother.”
General Sorrengail crossed her arms. “Which is why, in a week’s time, you will freely give your consent to marry Riorson.”
Violet felt bile scorch the back of her throat. “Mom, why?”
“In spite of the Calldyr accords, there have been many skirmishes between the Navarrian and Tyrrish that have cost us people, money and resources. A marriage between their Alpha and a Navarrian noble was negotiated to strengthen the peace treaty.”
“I am no noble!”
The general continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “As king Tauri has no daughters of his own, he chose you, as the daughter of his second-in-command, you are the closet thing.”
“And you said yes?”
“Riorson is young and powerful, he is the strongest Alph-“
“His father killed Brennan.”
A miniscule flinch distorted general Sorrengail’s angular features for a heartbeat, betraying the aloof attitude she was trying to maintain.
“And I killed his father.” Her mother’s face settled back into frigid apathy and the words were delivered monotonously, as if those two facts had no real effect on the present conversation.
“And you think somehow, he will be amenable to marry me? The daughter of his father’s executioner?” Violet threw the parchment on the desk, craning her neck to hold her mother’s cold stare.
“Riorson has already agreed, hence the escort arriving in a few days.”
A manic laugh threatened to erupt past Violet’s lips. Just half an hour ago, she’d been heading to the Archives to return a manuscript she’d finished translating for her friend, intent on borrowing a text that could help her decipher some of her late father’s work.
Violet was a person that ran on facts and evidence. Every decision depended on gathering information and evaluating every aspect of a problem, before coming up with a valid course of action. It was how she survived after Brennan, how she moved on when her father succumbed to his grief.
She felt helpless and paralyzed in the face of a problem so absurd, so far-fetched that, for the first time in her life, Violet didn’t know what to think and therefore, did know what to do.
“Of course, he would agree; a perfect opportunity to get his revenge on you.”
Lillith’s gaze turned sharp at that. “Riorson will not lay a finger on you, nor will any member of his pack.”
The words were absolute, as if Lillith knew for a certainty that Violet would be safe in Tyrrendor.
“And if I say no?”
Lilith stared her down for a few heartbeats and then took her seat at her desk, reaching for another parchment, as if the matter at hand was already concluded.
For a second, Violet thought that she was being dismissed and her question would remain unanswered.
“Then Mira would be ordered to go in your stead, as a soldier, she would be duty bound to comply to her commander’s order.” Lilith raised her head and held her gaze. “And she would get herself killed trying to make Riorson pay for what he did to your brother.”
The world shifted on its axis and Violet reached for the chair to steady herself. Her eyes burned and she did not bother to withhold the tears anymore; they splattered onto the scroll sealing her fate.
Staring into her mother’s sharp brown eyes, Violet spoke the words that she knew would wound her mother as she had hurt her. “Father and Brennan would turn in their graves, they would be ashamed of you and they would hate you, mother.”