Chapter 23
· Aubrey ·
Bianca’s impatience starts to show as she paces in front of me, her steps slow and deliberate and she keeps pulling her phone out like she is waiting for a call or message.
However, despite her patience, her confidence is as palpable as it is unsettling.
“You didn’t sound so confident about Rhett’s plans earlier,” I taunt.
She stops abruptly, her predatory gaze fixes on me.
“Excuse me?”
“Wherever you held me last time. I heard you both arguing, you seemed worried.”
“No, we were discussing it, not arguing and Rhett has it figured out. Don’t you worry!” I’m unsure if she is trying to convince me or herself that Rhett is capable of pulling off whatever it is he thinks he is doing.
“Do you really think you’ll both get away with it?
” I ask her, trying to mask the tremor in my voice.
She purses her lips looking annoyed. “That you’ll what?
Take over my father’s pack and they’ll just bend a knee for their new Alpha?
You’re both delusional if you think that.
They know it will be forced, they will know what Rhett did to my father.
You can’t just command loyalty!” I spit at her.
She rolls her eyes. “They won’t have a choice, you’re your father’s heir, their rightful Alpha or next in line. Once Rhett has mated and you’ve marked him, they’ll have to accept him as their Alpha, and you by default their Luna.”
“And yet you think he’ll get rid of me?” I laugh at how she’s not seeing what I am. “He intends to keep you as a side piece. He takes over my father’s pack; they’ll only remain if I am by his side, they will turn on him the moment he tries to get rid of me.”
Bianca seems angered hearing this and goes to retort, but I cut in once again.
“You’re best off running while you can, Bianca,” I warn her.
“Rhett doesn’t care about you. When the council comes for you, he won’t be your knight in shining armor.
He certainly won’t risk his own life for you when Soren comes for me, and he will. ”
She laughs wickedly. “You think I’m worried about your pussy king?
He couldn’t even save his wife. He also has no ties to you, yet you think he is looking after you betrayed him?
” Her words hang in the air like toxic fumes but I refuse to let them get to me.
She doesn’t know Soren like I do; I know he’ll come even if it is just to punish me.
If I am dying by anyone’s hands it will be his.
I remain silent, watching her every move, anticipating her next words.
“Your pathetic king isn’t coming for you. You need to get that idea out of your head. And you think I am delusional, you’re not even a Lycan!”
“Soren didn’t care that I was a werewolf, and not Lycan.”
“It doesn’t matter, even if by some miracle he did come for you, he’ll be too late.
He already is with that mark on your neck.
No king will risk their reputation by being seen or marrying a marked woman!
” she declares, her tone smug. “We’re going to take down your precious king and take over the supernatural council.
Besides, you’re useless to him now with Rhett’s mark on your neck, last I checked mate bonds can’t be reversed.
” She sneers at me, her voice low and filled with venom.
Yet the King isn’t a werewolf, he is a lycan, the more dominant species, he is the predator while we are diluted versions of his kind.
I know something could be done. Her eyes drop to my neck, and the jealousy burning in her gaze is so blatantly obvious it’s sickening.
“He won’t see it coming, just like he didn’t see it last time.”
“Last time?” I can’t stop myself from speaking, I’m curious about the details, besides the more I know, the more information I can give Soren. I know Bianca loves to gloat like she has already won, so she won’t see the danger in blurting out their secrets. She already has.
“The queen, do you not pay attention to anything? You are a terrible eavesdropper.”
“That makes no sense, Rhett wasn’t an Alpha back then?” She huffs, annoyed.
“Exactly, he should have been. His father refused to give him the pack. So Rhett went to the council and complained. They told him he had to wait until it was handed down or he had to challenge his father. Naturally his father was pissed learning this but still refused despite him being old enough. Rhett was a laughing stock. His father believed he was too immature.”
His actions right now are proving his father right. He is going to get his pack slaughtered at this rate.
“But then one of the council elders stopped him as we were leaving the council. Told him that could change if he spoke to the Vampire King. I guess you can imagine our shock when we learned vampires existed. Did you know they kept it from the public worried it would cause hysteria or wars?” she states looking as shocked as me when I learned they existed.
“Anyway, the elder introduced us to him, he needed cargo moved and picked up, Rhett cut him a deal, he just needed the pack handed down to him first and then we could plan out the rest.”
“The rest?”
“Taking over the council of course,” she quips, I furrow my brows. “Anyway Rhett started to build a relationship with the King, working for him but then his father found out.”
“That still doesn’t explain what that has to do with Soren’s queen!”
“She stuck her nose where she shouldn’t.
Rhett’s father was quite close with the King; he delivered supplies to the castle regularly back then.
Rhett knew she’d be an issue.” If I press more, she’ll become suspicious so I momentarily divert the conversation back to her hoping she’ll give me more information.
“So what are you planning to do, once Soren finds out and comes for me. Rhett marking me won’t change that.
” My voice is more forceful now as I try to think around the pounding of my skull and burning agony of my wrist twisting in the binds.
I bite my tongue at the pain, my blood making my hands slick as they bleed from the ropes tight knots.
Bianca laughs, turning to face me, her lips curling into a cruel smirk.
“You don’t get it, do you? Soren’s too na?ve to see it.
He didn’t even realize his precious wife was investigating the council or that Rhett’s trucks were carrying the rogues into his castle when the shipment was dropped off.
And the queen, too stupid to realize the danger she was in, she should have known when it was Rhett driving and not his father.
She thought she could expose the truth, but all she did was sign her own death certificate. ”
My breath hitches in my chest. “So that is why he killed her, the queen was investigating the council?” I ask, barely able to keep the tremor out of my voice.
Bianca raises an eyebrow, looking at me with twisted amusement. “Yes, and the corruption within the council twice she filed against one of the elders, both times he managed to falsify her claims. Made her look like an idiot. Even Soren thought she was paranoid.”
“Which elder?”
She laughs. “Nice try, I see what you are doing, not that it will help you anyway. It’ll only get you killed like it did her.
She should have minded her own damn business.
But like the entitled bitch she was, she had to run to council elders and her husband.
She was getting too close, asking the wrong questions.
She didn’t know when to stop, and that’s why she had to go. ”
“Too close to what?” I snarl.
“Jeez, Aubrey, you still haven’t figured it out?
” she rolls her eyes. I have. However, information is key.
“Rhett’s father figured out what Rhett was really doing—dealing in trafficking and the blood trade of humans.
The fool just couldn’t turn a blind eye to it.
It was for the betterment of the pack. He tried to go to Soren but when he couldn’t, he went to her at the council.
Had he handed down the pack to Rhett, and remained ignorant, he’d still be here. Rhett took his death hard.”
“Ignorant to what? Trafficking humans to the vamps?” I ask, disgusted.
“No, foolish girl. The Vampire King has been building an army. We knew the only way for the pack to survive was to ensure we were on the winning side when the war broke out. So Rhett cut a deal with the Vampire King. He was only trafficking the humans to build his trust.”
“How did his father find out?” My hands grow slicker in the ropes, as they loosen more.
“His father? He found out after catching Rhett loading the trucks with unmarked containers. Rhett warned his father, but the idiot ran straight to the council and the queen. We couldn’t have that.
His father threatened to expose everything to the rest of the packs, and that wasn’t part of the plan. ”
My blood runs cold. “So he killed him? Rhett killed his own father?”
Bianca shrugs nonchalantly as if it’s no big deal.
“You’re both monsters,” I whisper.
“No, we are trying to save the pack from becoming collateral in a war that is inevitable.”
“What war!” I growl. There has been no pack tension in years until now.
“With the humans, who else. Aren’t you sick of hiding on full moons, sick of having to bend to their governments?”
Bianca’s lips curl into a smirk, and she steps closer, leaning down to whisper in my ear.
“And once we have control of the ports, once you mark him, we’ll be untouchable.
The council will have no choice but to back us.
Rhett will own the biggest pack; he’ll get his place on the council, ensuring his vote for the Vampire King.
And all of this mess will be forgotten.”
“It won’t work.”
I look at her, disgusted. “And what, you’ll be okay with me marking Rhett? With me mating him and carrying his heir?” I chuckle.
“Who said anything about an heir? You’re only needed while he takes over.”
I laugh even harder. “You stupid bitch, you keep speaking of him getting rid of me, like he has promised this to you. But there are only two ways Rhett keeps my pack. One he keeps me and makes me his Luna, two I provide an heir. My father’s pack won’t answer to him and Rhett knows this!”
“You’re wrong!” she screeches.
“Am I, because he already killed my family, so why didn’t he take my pack when he took me?” I pause, letting her think.
“Because he needs me; only I can command them to bow to him and he knows that won’t happen. He killed my family so he has no leverage against me unless I’m carrying his heir.”
She chuckles darkly. “After we’ve solidified our position?
You’ll be sold to the Vampire King as a blood bag, Rhett told me this himself.
” This time, I can’t help the fit of giggles that overtake me.
He has done a real number on her when I just laid it out for her so plainly yet she thinks I’m the idiot here.
“If I mark him, our bond will ensure that doesn’t happen. Rhett is playing you. He isn’t going to hand me to the Vampire King and weaken himself.” How is this woman still not understanding what I am telling her?
I can’t believe he has managed to brainwash her into thinking our mate bond won’t affect him if I claim him. Mate bonds go both ways once we are marked and mated. And she calls me naive and stupid?
“Once you’ve marked him, he has no need for you,” she states confidently.
“You really are as stupid as you look. I felt you with Rhett every time you two fucked. I can only imagine the agony he would be in once I mark him. Yet you still think he’ll hand me over to the Vampire King as his plaything and personal juice box?
That he would endure that agony for you?
” I laugh, but I’m seething now, my blood boiling at the thought of everything they’ve done and everything they plan to do.
“I don’t know if I should pity you for your stupidity at believing him or laugh, knowing if I mark him, he’ll know what a conniving lying bitch you are.” I snicker.
Her hand whips out so quickly I don’t even see it, only feel it.
Her hand connects with my face and my head whips to the side with the force and I feel every single claw.
The sharp sting of tears at the slash on my face reopening it, deepening and creating more wounds.
“You dare speak to me like that. I’m your Luna!
” she hisses while blood pours and drips from my face.
My shirt is instantly soaked through with blood.
I should shut my mouth, stop provoking her but she has added fuel to fire that was already blazing in me.
“No, Bianca, I’m technically yours. Say I do mark him, how do you think Rhett will take it when he learns you were the one who really robbed him, not me.
Then loaned him his own money back, claiming your family was fixing my mistake. ”
“What are you talking about?”
“If Rhett forces me to mark him, I’ll be sure to tell him what you did. Good luck convincing him otherwise when he can feel me completely and will be able to feel if I deceive him.”
She pauses, and I see the hint of worry in her eyes.
“Excuse me?” Okay, that wasn’t worry that was her stupidity showing again, she isn’t getting it.
“Once I mark him, Rhett will be able to feel if I’m lying or not. He’ll feel it through our mate bond, just as I can feel his desire to come back here and check on me. And if I do mark him I will be sure to tell him you framed me for stealing the money from the pack.”
“Rhett doesn’t want you!” She laughs, but there is no humor in it as she finally gets what I am telling her.
“He doesn’t have to want me, but he marked me, and now his bond is nagging him to mate me. So I wonder how he’ll take the news that he banished his mate for his whore who lied to him.”
Bianca’s face twists with hatred so strong I know this time I’ve pushed her too far and that she’ll go for the kill.
“You fucking cunt!” she snarls, stalking over to me, her claws extended and I smile, feeling my hand slick with my blood slip free of the ropes.