Chapter 57
"It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly. " ―Samuel Butler
Rose's POV
**One week later.**
Two weeks without Aiden. Two weeks of finishing up the paperwork to give Alistair autonomy over our pack funds and lands.
It had been two weeks of me fervently tampering with the accounts, transferring the bulk of pack funds into covertly formed shell companies.
I knew on a certain level that what I was doing could be termed as illegal.
But if I went to jail for it, it'd still be better than having to live in the empty mansion, missing Aiden, yearning for him and having to endure Alistair's groping hands which were getting bolder by the day.
It seemed that as time passed, he was warming up to the idea of me.
Or he was just sex-starved. I couldn't discern which and I really didn't care when all I wanted to do was vomit over the way he let his hands wander over my body as I sat working at my desk in the pack office.
He hadn't outright tried anything, but just the way his hands brushed against my waist, my back, my thighs, my hair.
..it made me shiver. It made me feel dirty.
Because no matter what ancient texts said about the mate bond, every inch of me called out for Aiden.
He was my soulmate, pack laws be damned.
He was my one and only. And when I gritted my teeth, letting that lecherous man on the brink of retirement rest his hand on my shoulder, my back, my arms, I felt like I was betraying my love.
Today, Alistair had left me alone to my own devices. I'd made excuses that I needed to figure out my training times at Dr. Danvers clinic.
Jake had been calling me for days and I knew he was doing so because he was frantic with worry for me, and I had been ignoring his calls.
The less Jake knew about all of this the better.
But finally, he began threatening to come himself and challenge Alistair.
Despite my reassuring texts, he said he wasn't satisfied until he heard my voice.
So I decided to call him today. He picked up on the first ring, informing me that his mom was at the Rushing River Pack to help out withAiden's recovery.
Aiden was still in a coma. The doctors had no idea when he'd wake up.
Jake wanted to challenge Alistair. I stopped him, lying to him that I was perfectly safe.
"You can't be serious," Jake said over the phone.
"It's fine, Jake,” I intoned. The last thing I needed was for him to run in here and get killed. He'd been easily defeated by Aiden. There was no way Jake stood a chance against Alistair. "I have it under control. I'll let you know if I need your help."
"That cunt Lexia was in on all of this, wasn't she? She tried to get me to challenge Aiden, but when it didn't work, her dad stepped in." Jake's voice was angry. "She did this because she's still blindly hoping Aiden will pick her when he wakes up."
"I think we all know that's not going to happen,” I assured Jake.
I didn't want to give away too much. If I told him Lexia had said she'd help Aiden come back, it might reach the wrong ears. I still had no idea why Austin had been transferring pack funds to his married sister. Who knew if she was a spy for Alistair or had some other nefarious motives?
"Lexia wasn't helping her father. I think she's just as disgusted as you are by all of this. After all, it's only been two months since her mother passed away."
"Rose, please promise me you’ll tell me if you need me to come.
I have a plan; we can get you out. We can hide you!
" Jake was begging me at this point. "I talked with Tony. He said the Coventry Pack reached out to offer assistance. They want the entire family of their future alpha’s mate to come live with them.
It's a perfect opportunity for all of you to get away from here.
Once you're on their land, Alistair has no claim over any of you. "
I was already aware of the offer, and I hadn't, even for a minute, entertained it. Who would protect our lands if I left? Who would take care of the pack wolves? Surely not Alistair. He'd ravage our pack like a disease, leaving a wake of suffering behind him if I wasn't here to stop him.
"I'm not leaving my pack,” I stated firmly. "I'm staying here and waiting for Aiden."
"How can you even be so sure he'll come back? Your mate bond's broken now,” Jake pointed out.
"Because he loves me,” I replied simply.
After a few more minutes of back and forth, Jake finally relented.
I breathed in deeply as I finally shut my phone, wishing for the umpteenth time that this was all a bad dream I'd wake up from, eventually.
My eyes fell on the screensaver which was a picture of Aiden and me at the previous regional meeting.
We'd been so happy together.I'd do anything to have those times back.
I sighed and went back to searching through Aiden's study. Alpha Austin must have had a copy of the EIA report somewhere in his office. No one even knew who had been contracted to conduct the EIA so I couldn't even get a copy from the contractor. Dad had told me that Austinhad kept it under wraps, afraid that the big oil companies might try to bribe or coerce the firm in charge of the EIA. I couldn’t help but wonder why Alpha Austinhadn’t tried to warn me about any of this?
He may not have known if Alistair was the culprit behind his death, but he could have at least told me the location of this report.
But if he did, then it would have increased the chances of Alistair finding the report and figuring out a way to tamper with its contents.
I had done enough research by now to realize that anyone could contract a firm to develop an EIA report, and, with the right amount of money, the report would generate a favorable outcome for the oil company to drill for oil on their precious lands.
In hindsight, Alpha Austin had probably thought it was better to let sleeping dogs lie.
There was no point in interfering until a problem arose and I asked him about it myself.
But Alpha Austin had probably never counted on his son being challenged and defeated by a crazy lunatic.
My only consolation for now was that I hadn't put through all of Alistair's paperwork for the right to sell or acquire pack land. But even so...I'd only be able to push it another week until Alistair got suspicious of me.
He'd already mentioned a few times, albeit off-handedly, that the mate bond made me complacent.
He probably believed I felt a pull to him now that he was alpha.
Well I didn't really, but I'd keep letting him think it.
We needed as much time as we could get. And if he thought I was eager to do his bidding, he'd leave me be.
I tensed, clutching some documents in my hand so hard that the paper began to crinkle.
My werewolf hearing picked up on a car pulling up into the driveway.
Then furious pounding footsteps running into the house.
I sniffed and my blood ran cold. Why was Alistair here?
The door to the study was kicked open, its hinges broken so that it hung drunkenly from the doorframe.
“Fucking liar!” Alistair roared, striding over to me.
My head turned from the shelf on the far wall, curls falling over one shoulder wildly.
I did my best to make it look like being in here wasn't at all outside of the norm.
But Alistair's eyes keenly registered the random papers in my hand and one hand resting on the shelf as if to pull more records out.
"What are you doing in my study?" he asked in a dangerously low voice.
He knows I know his real motives.
I tried to push the wayward thought away, silently hoping he'd think he was being paranoid.
"I was just trying to or-organize some of these papers." My voice wavered slightly, giving too much away to Alistair.
"I see I've underestimated you." His lip curled into a sneer. "I always knew you were a perceptive little bitch. Think you're so clever, don't you?"
He lifted his hand, pulled back, and swiftly brought it back down, effectively slapping me. My head snapped to the side. My vision blanked and there was a terrible ringing in my ears. I'd never been hit so hard in my entire life.
“Pity I didn't see it sooner. You're good at hiding things, you little slut. But not that good!"
I wiped the blood from my lip, shaking my head to try to clear it. In an attempt to throw him off my trail before he killed me, I tried to speak.
“I-I don’t know—”
His eyes promised a painful retribution as he cut off my pathetic attempt.
"You’ve manipulated the books! I know you have! You've been going through them all week! You think I’m stupid to not realize that there is no way your pack could be in the red?!”
I didn't know whether to be relieved he didn't know about my knowledge regarding Evercore or to be terrified because he knew what I'd done to the finances.
"The accountant's responsible—”
“You were counting on hiding the funds so I couldn’t use them!" Alistair yelled malignantly. "I don’t know whether to fuck you or kill you…maybe I'll do both!”
He said it with such an ill-concealed leer that I felt like I was going to puke.
And before I could blink, his canines erupted, and hands closed around my throat. My anguished cry reverberated across the room when he bit over Aiden’s mark, mangling the side of my neck with vicious brutality.
It was like a piece of my soul being ripped out as my mate's scent that had still lingered on my skin seemed to disintegrate. The physical pain I could take but the mental pain of his loss was unbearable.
Aiden.
My mind called out to him as the last vestiges of his mark completely disappeared from my soul and body to be replaced by Alistair’s. I felt like I was dying on the inside. Like my soul was shriveling up and being left to rot in this shell of a body. I was nothing without Aiden.
And then, teeth still wet with my blood, the monster pulled back cackling over his success.
“You wanted to hide things from me...let’s see what else you’re hiding my little wolf.” Alister sneered into my brain. .
His words chilled my brain before he began an altogether new assault; one on my mind.
Aiden’s mind sweep had been nothing, nothing at all, compared to the way Alistair pushed inside, tearing through my memories haphazardly.
It was like going through a catalogue in a library for him, pulling out books that had even the remotest information regarding the workings of the pack and how to access pack funds.
When he was done, he simply threw the volumes onto the floor, spines falling apart with Alistair stomping over them viciously to get to new information.
It was too much, too fast. My head was beginning to hurt as my memories and timelines jumbled together in his bid to glean as much information as possible.
Aiden’s perusal had been slow, gentle, albeit anxious.
Alistair’s was downright vindictive. Undoubtedly, Aiden had picked along gently at my brain, retreating when I had pushed back on specific memories.
Alistair hammered his way through, bull dozing other memories to get to the ones that concerned him.
Where Aiden had been an interloper, Alistair was a guerrilla partaking in warfare inside my mind, burning through as much information as possible to find. ..something specific.
I tried to push him away, but he simply sliced through my resistance as easily as swiping through a stick of butter, butchering my mind in the process.
The very plates of my skull ached and trembled in protest. I formed a wall, strong as steel and mortar with a durable foundation.
But he shattered it like a flimsy pane of glass.
That’s when I realized how foolish I’d been.
My pathetic wall had never been able to keep Aiden out.
Aiden had been keeping himself out, out of deference for the boundaries I wanted to maintain.
Despite aching to tear down those boundaries, he’d respected my wishes.
Wishes Alistair was gutting as he tore through my mind, tormenting me in the process.
And then he got to the memory of me and Aiden with the account book open in his study.
Aiden smirked, his hands cupping my breasts talking about how excited he was for her next heat...
My hands unconsciously splaying a hand over my stomach...
NO NO NO he couldn’t find out!
I pushed back with all my might.
I began to feel nauseated; a cold sweat broke out as I tried to fight him. My stomach protested, heaving up the bread I'd managed to scarf down earlier. I fell to the floor on all fours.
Alistair stilled his assault, moving back with an exclamation. Probably didn’t want me getting vomit all over him.
I was sweating, I was dizzy, and my body twitched jerkily as it slammed against the carpet. My mouth began to froth. Alistair was swearing, cursing, and screaming angrily. I faintly realized I was having a seizure.
In the back recesses of my mind, I could have sworn I heard Aiden screaming my name right before I blacked out.