Chapter 290
“It was you, wasn’t it?” I turned fully to look at her. My hand was itching for another slap. “You plotted that whole incident the other day.”
Vivian took a step closer and lowered her voice. “I’m only trying to help you, Ellie. Dominic and I… well. We were always a better match, anyway. But he’s still insistent, for some reason, on not breaking that contract of yours.”
I pulled my head back, nostrils flaring. “Wait. Are you two…”
Vivian’s lips curved.
“Don’t act like you ever loved him,” she said. “You just feel trapped by him, anyway.”
My lips parted, but nothing came out other than a small sound that immediately made Vivian smile.
Vivian. Dominic. Together.
That was all I could think of now.
How many times had they met in secret, sharing their deepest fears and desires with one another? How many times had they…
I didn’t even want to consider it. But deep down, I knew it was true. Dominic had been so quick to put Vivian in my position in my past life. It was no wonder he was pulling her closer in this one-they were sleeping together.
And Vivian was pulling the strings behind all of it. Sleeping with my husband while planting ideas about me and other men into his head.
He wasn’t blameless in the matter, of course. Not by a long shot. But now it all made sense.
The exact same fucking thing that happened in my last life was going to happen in this one. If I didn’t get out of here one way or another, then Vivian and Dominic were going to find a way to get rid of me in the most permanent of ways so they could be together. I was sure of it.
And this whole sham of a marriage had been nothing but a fucking humiliation ritual.
“What’s wrong, sister?” Vivian put a hand on my arm. “Cat got your tongue?”
“Don’t fucking touch me.” I slapped her hand away, which only made her smile further. I had nothing more to say to her. I turned and stormed down the hall to my room, where I shut the door and locked it.
I turned to face my room, my hands tangling in my hair. My mind raced. I considered packing right then and there and leaving as soon as I could. If Vivian and Dominic were already sleeping together, then that meant I had even less time than I thought.
But then, through the window, I saw movement in the garden below. Limping over, I looked down to see Colt walking down the path. He stopped and did a double take as Vivian walked past him, ignoring him completely.
I could see his face fall even from here. The slump in his shoulders.
Suddenly, I had an idea.
I was still going to leave. There was no question about that-it was, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
But there was one thing I could do before that happened. A little parting gift, just to throw a wrench into Vivian and Dominic’s plans.
Dominic wanted to be jealous of me? Vivian wanted to fan the flames?
Well, two could play at this game. I wouldn’t linger to see the house they’d built together burn, but at least I would know it was burning by the time I was gone.
I moved to my desk, where one of my textbooks from the academy was sitting out. I sat and opened it, flipping to the index.
1/2
Tracing my finger down the page, I found the section on aromatic herbs.
+30 Bonus
The plants I was looking for were about halfway through the section. Two of them, both known for enhancing a wolf’s natural scent. Commonly used in fertility elixirs, making a mates’ scent more potent to allow two wolves to have an easier time mating
It was risky. But the plants were abundant in this region, and the book outlined exactly how to distill them into a subtle but effective perfume.
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