Blake’s POV
The nerve of Graham, he is going to cause all this, and then act like the freaking victim. He cannot be serious right now. I kept my eyes closed as I did not want him to know that I was mindlinking as he spoke. I am trying to breathe and stay calm right now, but I do not know if I am going to be successful at it. Kona is furious at the entitlement that Graham has towards me. He wants nothing more than to rip Graham apart right now, but I can’t act rashly. Just seeing him here, lets me know that he does have an agenda. What it is, is anyone’s guess right now, but he definitely wants something.
I let him ramble on while I occasionally send a mindlink to my men. I feel exhausted, and I know it is because I am mentally drained. I cannot deal with any more bullshit today. I might lose control, and someone will be getting hurt, I can guarantee that. His total gall at trying to blame my mate for something he pushed her to do, is simply amazing. He really did think I was an idiot, and now that I know some of what happened, I kind of felt that I was too. I almost growled out loud at him for what he inferred.
I checked my phone and found messages to me from Cheryl’s phone. I got excited that she was talking to me and realized that they were all sent immediately after the incident. She just wanted to tell me a few things. Like the fact that she left me a note and it is under my pillow. I was wondering why she would mention it and then realized that she probably thought I was going to move one of my girlfriends in now that she was gone. That was incorrect, no one will be moving in with me. I will find it when I go upstairs. She told me that we didn’t need to look for her and Kevin, because they would rather die than come back here to Black Moon. She reiterated that she has never lied to me at any time in our 15 years together, and had never cheated on me either. That she had always loved me, right up until I started sleeping around on her. I already knew it, but she mentioned that as far as she was concerned, that was the most unforgivable thing anyone could do. She also send a recording that was over 4 minutes long but came with the message to not play it in front of Graham, until I had heard it in private first.
I was trying to not cry as she went on and said that she really tried, but the safety of her child was paramount to her. She told me that she knew I would take care of the three that stayed here with me. I thought to her earlier today before she left and she was so hopeful to hug Casey. Casey just got her money, spoke to Kara in greeting, and then to her own mother. The disappointment that was etched on Cheryl’s face had not been lost on me, and would probably haunt me for the rest of my life. I caused that by showing my kids that Cheryl and Kevin didn't matter. Everyone understood what I was putting out for them. I gave them money to make sure I had their loyalty and love. I was wrong for it, I pitted them against their own mother in my attempt to break her down, and what did it get me? She was right, our kids are now spoiled brats who will run this pack right into the ground.
When Graham started talking about the house I had to wait for Marc to stop typing out a text on his phone for me to mindlink him. “I will need you to knock Graham out after he transfers the money to our account. We will then need to change his passcode, but keep his username” I told him in the link. Marc gave a slight nod to me and he was subtle as he walked up to Graham after he entered his information, acting like he was giving him privacy, to show him the total agreed upon for the project. I have surprising news for Graham when he wakes up, but being inside the cell should be a good tip-off that he has been found out. We all knew his username, and we had his cell, we could get it changed without his knowledge now.
Garrett is quick to put silver cuffs on Graham, and I started the video. It started with a close-up of the time and date of a computer screen, and I can tell that it is Cheryl’s laptop inside Luna’s office. This was dated almost 4 years ago, and right about the time I had publicly announced that Kevin was not my son. I heard the door open about 10 seconds after she had set her phone face down on the desk. As soon as I heard Graham’s voice, I didn’t need the video proof, I knew that it was him, we all knew it.
“Luna, what did you need me for?” Graham said and he was rude when he spoke her title.
“You know exactly why, Graham. I am done, you have won, please stop what you are doing to Blake and Kevin right now” Cheryl said back to him, also in a rude tone.
“What is it that you are speaking about? I can’t for the life of me think of anything that I have done wrong” Graham replied back with a smirk in his voice.
“You know how much Blake loves me. You are hurting him with these vicious, and unfounded rumors. You are causing deliberate problems between him and me. You are hurting our child now too. I will not allow you to do this to my family. I know why you are doing it, and you need to stop. I will kick you out of the pack for it. You know as well as I do what the penalty for attacking the Alpha and Luna is. You are aiming for both of us, and I will protect my family, Graham” I heard the hard tone in her voice and she was not playing with him.
“How can I do anything to the Alpha and Luna? Am I that powerful? What exactly did Blake accuse me of, Luna?” I can hear the teasing intone in his voice.
“You know Blake trusts you, for completely unknown reasons. It is not him accusing you of anything. I am. You know that I never got to leave this pack for the first 6 years. I was pregnant for the majority of that time, and Blake wanted to keep me safe. So I never left the pack. That leads me to the problem, Graham. If I never left the pack in 6 years, and no one trespassed onto our packland, how in the hell could I be pregnant with another man's child?” I heard Cheryl’s voice coming through loud and clear, with an undeniable fact. She was right. She never left, and we keep records of any incidents. After that wall went up, we didn’t have any trespassers after that.
“Look if you are accusing me of something, Cheryl, just spit it out, I do not have time to try to figure out what you are trying to imply here,” Graham said to her, and he didn’t try to hide his disrespect. Now he was blatantly speaking to her with contempt, and I would have killed him for doing it in front of me. His boldness and flippancy while speaking to his Luna were seriously pissing both me and Kona off.
OK, I will. You are a liar, Graham. You are lying about me, and lying about my son. You know as well as I do that Kevin is indeed Blake’s child” I heard Cheryl say directly to him.
“What is your point, that is a statement, not a question,” Graham said and I can tell he is enjoying the little cat-and-mouse game. He is enjoying messing with Cheryl. He wants her to lose her temper, and she is getting there.
“OK, let me be more clear then. You, Graham Sullivan, are causing a rift in my family, for spite, because your piece of shit daughter drugged and took advantage of my mate. He chose me, she was mad because he didn’t choose her. She went after him, to cause problems between us, and try to take my spot as Luna. It didn’t work, and due to her crime, Blake sentenced her to death. You didn’t want her to die, as you can’t come back from that, so you planned to get her out of whatever hot water she got put in. Just like you always do. You didn’t plan on her becoming a breeder” Cheryl’s voice stops speaking as I am sure she is grinning at him, as she was giving all his mocking that he had given her, right back to him. He didn’t like it at all, but I was so proud of her for not backing down with his clear threat to her when he growled.
“So, Graham. I acknowledge that she had a really bad first day there, but that was not on Blake, or me. Neither of us knew that Garrett and Marc had pulled Michael aside and told him that she had drugged Blake, and whatever else they told him. I don’t know what was said as neither Blake nor I, were there when it happened. What happened to Reagan at Blood Tracker was bad. I won’t deny that my heart breaks for what Michael and those women did to her. But that was never anything that we advocated or instructed anyone else to do to her. You are blaming it all on Blake and me, and are out to destroy my family, and I will not allow you to do it. I won’t allow you to keep hurting my husband or son, Graham. You need to stop, or I will tell Blake” Cheryl spoke honestly to Graham.
“You and Blake hurt my child, and now, I will hurt yours. It is as simple as that. But don’t worry Cheryl. Once I get you and Blake over and done with, and your son out of the picture. I will make sure that Garrett and Marc get what is coming to them. Why start with the guppies when I have two sharks to hunt? Plus, it is already done. It seems like I heard your own mate tell everyone that you not only cheated on him Luna but bore a child out of your bond. He is hurt, and he wants you to pay, and believe me you will pay. All I have to do is plant the seeds of doubt, and your mate willingly waters them for me. He was quick to completely believe the lies I told him about Kevin. If I had known it was this easy, I might have gotten Garrett and Marc back at the same time. But I don’t want to overreach. I needed this to be done well. Seeing your pain and discomfort as the whole pack believes that you are a slut who cheated on your mate, makes me happy to watch” Graham tells her and he is vicious in his words.
“You won’t win. I won’t allow it. You might make me suffer, but I refuse to break. I will not do it. Aren’t you scared that I would tell Blake about this conversation? That he will lock you up, or throw you out of the pack, for your actions against us?” Cheryl questioned him, and he laughed at her in response.
“Please, I am invaluable to him. I give him money, a lot of money, and he lets me do whatever I want to. He will never believe you over me anyway. I already told him what a liar you are. That he cannot believe or trust a cheater. He will never believe you and I will never admit that I did this because if my child has to suffer, yours does too. I couldn’t do it to his heir, and your other two were too young, so poor Kevin had to be the one to carry this burden for his family. Plus he looks just like you, and nothing like Blake. He already believes me completely. There is nothing that you can do to stop this. I have been working on this for years, and you are just now hearing about it. You, my dear Luna, are going to suffer so much, and that makes me happy. He does whatever I want, if you think that it hurt you when he slept with Reagan, just imagine when I get two or three girlfriends for him. You already know that he is a very attractive Alpha. I cannot wait to see what happens when he does just that and you get to receive the pain that my daughter has had to live with for over 10 years now. I will not stop until I have broken both you and Blake. Poor Kevin is just collateral damage. I do hate that as he is a child, but the plan is a good one, and you know that I don’t like to deviate from my plans” Graham tells her, and I feel sick.
He did this to us, knowing it was all a lie, just to get us back for what happened to Reagan at Aaron’s pack. That was not on me and Cheryl. Garrett and Marc had started that ball rolling and everything that happened to Reagan at Blood Tracker was on Michael, Tabitha, and Jennifer. I know what happened there after the fact, and I had been sick to hear about it too. But we had absolutely nothing to do with it. I looked at Garrett and Marc and the guilt all over their faces tells me that they had indeed done something wrong. I will have to talk to them about it later, as I didn’t want to miss the rest of the audio file. I had heard that Reagan has been an exemplary pack member ever since, but I can't take the chance on her living here.
“For the last time Graham, I am telling you to let Blake and Kevin go, or I swear to the Goddess herself that I will make you sorry you ever tried to hurt my family” I heard Cheryl’s threat and after remembering her handiwork from earlier today, I shudder at her words. She was telling the truth. She would have done anything to protect us, and I wasn’t even willing to listen to her side of the story for anything. She tried to protect her mate and pup, being an excellent mate. I was right on board with Graham willing to listen to the very worst things said about my mate, and accepting them as truth. My mate did not deserve anything I did to her, and yet I felt like I was the one wronged. I feel even worse now than I did. My actions cost me my mate and pup. I cannot blame this on anyone else. It is my fault entirely, and I am wondering just how much damage I did to my sweet mate.
“Do your worst, Cheryl, because I promise you that I will too. I want to watch your joy slowly leave you. Take your excitement at seeing your mate away, as he continues to emotionally abuse you. Make you angry at your own mate for calling you a whore for cheating and exposing you to the pack to the point that you can’t go anywhere without whispers. I will make sure that you have to worry about your son to the point that you have to physically stay with him to keep him safe. And when you finally get to where you have no joy in you at all, I am going to encourage your mate to cheat on you. I will tell him that he needs to make you feel just as bad as he does at your betrayal. That he has to break you to build you back up. Only then, after he is past the point of no return, will I make sure that Kevin is seriously hurt. I will make sure that it is your oldest child, Forest, that does it. He will take your baby's life, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it. I have been grooming Forest to do this. Kevin makes it so easy for me too. Kevin just wants a scrap of kindness from his father. It is killing him for Blake to praise Forest, but never him. Kevin works so hard to get Blake's approval, it is almost a shame that I have to do it this way. Just know this, Cheryl. By the time Blake cheats on you, the end is near. I know the guilt you will feel at letting your son die, and not having done anything to prevent it. I just can’t see how you will be able to bear the guilt” Graham said, and we all heard the door open, and then close.
I heard my mate sigh, and then a sob escapes before she can stop the recording. She knew, and still was aware that I probably would never believe her, no matter what she did, or said. She had no one here to help her, and yet she still tried to stop Graham on her own. She knew about his detailed plans. She made a few of her own, and I bet he was sorry now. She knew that when I started cheating on her that she had limited time left. He knew that cheating was going to be impossible for me to come back from. He went out of his way to destroy me, Cheryl, and Kevin. I cannot believe the strain that she was under. She was an innocent woman whose only crime had been to love me and try to protect me and her pup from a monster. I look up at the ceiling as I feel tears burning my eyes. I never knew the extent of all that she had been put through. I feel like the worst person who has ever lived.
No one was speaking now. They all heard it, and they all knew that I did exactly what Graham had told me to do. I listened to him like he could solve all my problems when he was the one to create the very problems that I faced. I wish she would have brought me the recording, but I also knew that at the time, I would have probably destroyed it in a fit of temper if she had come to me with it. I refused to listen to her at all. I was completely shameless in what I did, and I am disgusted that for an intelligent man, I did exactly what he said. He planned this out so many years ago and started implementing it. Seven years ago. He didn’t come at me strong, it was all whispers and innuendo. An “I shouldn’t be telling you this but” conversation and letting my jealousy take off and do all the heavy lifting for him.
I know my ranked wolves feel bad too. They all 100% supported me and my side of it, through all of it. When I started cheating on her, they felt she deserved it too, and started giving respect to my girlfriends, who didn’t deserve it. She saw it just this morning. I guess I deserved to feel this heartache. I was the monster she had to escape from. I am horrified to know what Graham's end game was. He knew the guilt and trauma of what was going to happen to Kevin would have killed her. I have to sink down into a chair just thinking about it. I knew what his plan was, her grief at our eldest killing his own brother, and her not being able to defend him. It really would have killed her. She would not have wanted to go one anymore. As supportive as I am of Forest, he would never have been truly punished for it. He would have gotten away with it, and it would eat her alive until the day she died. His plan was perfect, but mine was too.
I was NEVER going to let Reagan come here. I was never going to allow Graham to build a house for her. She will never come back to Black Moon, and if she does, she will end up dead, just like her mother. I am glad she has Clive to take care of her because her father is going to be locked up for the rest of his life in my cells. You see, I played him this time. I knew what he wanted and pretended to play along. I got him to log in on my computer, and we have now changed his password. I now have control of his account. I can spend all his money now, and I never have to go to him to get permission to do it. He is so smart, yet he didn’t see that coming, just like I didn't see the long game that he has been playing with me. I cannot wait for him to wake up and see what his new life is going to be like. Whatever I can do to cause him the same pain and anguish, as he caused me and Cheryl, is what I am going to do. I will also use the money to try to find Cheryl and Kevin and beg them to come back home.
I have two warriors come and pick Graham's body off the floor. I also told the warriors that they needed to make sure that they relayed to the rest of the cell guards, that Graham is no longer rich. He can’t pay them to sneak him out of the pack. They needed to know this and pass it on along with the information that I will use all of Graham's money to hunt down and kill anyone who was willing to help him. Graham was going to be staying with me for the rest of his life, however long that was going to be.
Stress can Kill