Page 63 of Knot in Their Wildest Dreams: Part 1

Celeste’s gaze flickered up, her expression softer than I’d ever seen it. “It’s beautiful,” she murmured. I felt the swell of pride that I’d finally managed to impress the one person who had seen the best of everything. And we hadn’t spent thousands or pulled out every trick we could think of. We just showed her what it would be like to be with our pack.

Silence stretched between us, and Celeste looked down. There was something else lingering in the air tonight, and I knew she had something she wanted to talk about.

Celeste sighed, her breath barely audible in the quiet. “Before we go any further,” she said, voice cautious, “I need to clear the air about something.”

We turned to her, the starlight casting her face in a soft glow.

“I need you to be honest with me, as I have been with you.”

Liam nodded. “Alright. Ask.”

She hesitated, then took a breath, as if gathering the strength to say it aloud. “Someone ordered me kidnapped the night of the last Darlington Ball. I know this as a fact. And I want answers. I’m afraid we can’t move forward otherwise.”

A sharp tension snapped through the room. The soft hum of the planetarium’s system was the only sound as her words hung over us, a weight we always knew was there, one of our own shameful secrets we’d kept. Liam’s shoulders stiffened. Dante looked down. And I knew we couldn’t avoid this any longer. She deserved the truth. But would this be the end of us? The end of something that only barely started?

Liam let out a slow breath. “The Darlington Ball,” he muttered. “I knew we’d have to get past this at some point.”

Celeste’s expression didn’t change, but I saw the flicker of something behind her eyes. Hope? Or maybe just the last bit of trust she had in us, waiting to be either shattered or salvaged.

“We were involved,” I admitted, my voice low. I braced for her anger at our betrayal. But what I got was worse. She looked absolutely crushed.

“Wait, let us explain!” Liam started, and the way she looked at him, her eyes big and pained, just about killed me. “We didn’t know you were going to get kidnapped.”

Celeste’s lips pressed together as she assessed us, arms folding tightly over her chest, creating a wall between us despite the progress we’d made.

“We just wanted you to miss the vote, that’s all,” Liam continued. “We would never have wanted you, or any other omega, mixed up in what actually happened. I swear to you.” He pleaded.

I nodded, forcing myself to meet her eyes. “It’s true. We thought you were sabotaging us. The only way we saw to make real change was to keep you out of the way. But all we did was ask a contact to make sure that you missed the vote. That’s it.” I ran a hand through my hair, feeling the guilt settle deeper. “We had no idea that the plan included kidnapping or any type of abduction. But we didn’t ask for details, either.”

She was quiet, her fingers tracing patterns against the soft fabric of the couch. “So, you had no idea there was a kidnapping planned?” she asked finally.

I shook my head. “No. I swear. I thought they’d distract you, maybe get you to go off to some party.” I swallowed hard. “But we didn’t ask for you to get kidnapped. We didn’t want you hurt. If we would have known, we never would have gone through with it. That’s the truth, Celeste.”

“It doesn’t make us any less responsible, though,” Liam admitted. “We let it happen.”

Dante stood quietly, his gaze on the floor. I couldn’t read him through the bond.

Celeste looked away, her gaze distant as the stars on the planetarium ceiling shifted again. A new constellation emerged - a hunter chasing something forever out of reach.

“We thought you were a monster,” Liam confessed softly. “We thought you’d keep undercutting small businesses and keep labor rights from ever progressing. We truly believed the Eastern Province would be better off without you leading Harringday.” He shook his head. “But we were wrong. We know that now.”

“How would you assume any other board member would be better?” She asked, her voice betraying all the pain she was feeling. “You know how hard I fought, and how hard I’m still fighting to make things better!” she cried, and we instinctively moved forward to comfort her, involuntary purring erupting from both myself and Liam to soothe her from pain.

The regret in Liam’s face was unmistakable. “We know now,” he said while I struggled to hold myself back from wrapping her in his arms. “But back then, all we saw was your reputation, your decisions that we thought were making things worse. We thought you would keep Harringday operating the same way it always has been, or worse. Just having a different leader in place - we thought it would be better for all of the Eastern Province.” He said, and she looked up at him with sadness.

“We know now that you aren’t who we thought. It took living with you to understand that. All we had before was the evidence we could see, and the reputation you had.” He explained.

Celeste took a shaky breath, exhaling slowly as she let her head fall back. Above us, a meteor shower flickered to life, streaking across the projection. “I guess it makes sense. Everyone thinks that way about me.” She said, and looked defeated. “No matter what I do, the media always sees the worst in me. Even when I try to make changes, it’s like fighting an uphill battle.” She admitted. And it was true - we’d seen for ourselves how hard she fought, only to have the board continuously shut her ideas down ‘for the sake of the company.’

As an alpha, I’d never imagined how hard it could be for her. No matter how much power I thought her name and money held for her, she was still being underestimated because she was an omega.

“Well,” she said at last, her voice softer now, “At least now I know. At least now I can move past it.”

I straightened. “Move past it?” I echoed, unsure if I’d heard right.

She gave me a wry smile, though there was still sadness in her eyes. “I wasn’t exactly great to you either. Though I’d never have had you kidnapped, that’s for sure.”

Relief flooded my chest.

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