Alpha Graham’s POV
Reagan has really gone too far this time. She thinks that she is ready for all this. To be the Luna, to run this pack, and she is not. That is glaringly clear to me now. I am so disappointed in her. The two times that she branched out to do things on her own, they have all come crashing down around us. Make that three times. She lied right to my face that Justin had rejected Raven. I would have never allowed her to drug Justin if I had known, that was the beginning of the end. She is just as ruthless, as I am. Her innocent, beautiful face, makes people believe that she is incapable of that level of deception. Hell, she even had me fooled on some of those occasions. She is very good at lying, right to your face. I probably believed her because she is my daughter, and I would do anything for her. I want to be able to trust her, the deception is for others, not for her to use on me.
She doesn’t even know half of it yet, there is more, I have already seen the proof. It is going to be sent to the council too. I am about 80% sure that we will be at war soon. She will probably never actually take over this pack because it probably won’t exist soon. That is going to be on her. Something big would end up having to happen, to stop the council's investigation. I could not imagine what that would have to be, to get it stopped. Alpha Cole is pretty pissed, and rightfully so, I messed up.
“Reagan, I know you planted the seed for Cheryl to come up with this plan. Cheryl is a follower, she followed her dad, and now you. She isn’t good enough to start things on her own. Do not throw her under the bus. Her dad is training my warriors, and we need him. We need every man that can train to do so. Do not do anything else, I am not joking with you when I say that unless something significant happens, we will be at war with Blood Walker AND Black Adder soon. They are both willing to fight to protect Raven. You have to stop. No matter what happens. Because if you don’t our little pack will be finished. I have ordered extra supplies and will be ordering extra from now on until they are at our gates. But if you hear nothing else that is said in here today, hear this, Raven is off limits to you anymore. If you do anything else that is unsanctioned by me again, you will no longer be the Luna of this pack” I told her. I can see the shock on her face. She realizes that there is no room for her to play around anymore.
“Dad” she whispers to me, and I know that she heard me this time. She knows that I am serious. I have done nothing but train her for this role, for her to be Luna. I even stacked the deck in her favor doing whatever I could do to keep Raven from being able to take it over. If I am being honest, I would have made completely sure Raven didn’t. It was Reagan's birthright and Raven didn't deserve it. I would have been willing to do that for Reagan. But everything is different now. Raven is known to others now, and it is too late. it would have been much easier to get rid of her when only our pack knew about her. So, Reagan will just have to stop. She has to know how serious this is. Where we are right now is not solid ground.
“You have to stop whatever you are planning on doing next Reagan. I know you, you are coming up with a doozy. Because you can’t leave her alone. Can you not see that you have had a wonderful life compared to hers? Leave her, and her new mate alone. This can cause tension between them, and we don’t need our pack involved in it. We need to stay out of it and keep our heads down. We need to pray that we only get a fine, because if Cole gets the go-ahead to attack. The four of us, and probably Cheryl and her dad will be first on the chopping block. That will be it for us” I tell her and I see Justin shift uncomfortably. Yes, it is hard to hear, but he has to realize that what he did to Raven may have his head on the chopping block along with us.
“Brandon tore up our treaty, and I got several calls today, some from friends, that told me they were sorry, but they couldn’t go against Brandon. We never had one with Blood Walker, as you both can imagine. So we only have treaties with about 6 more packs, that we still have. Everyone else sided with Brandon. I cannot decide if it would be better to step down now, to see if Justin can try to get the other packs back or not. But I know already that it wouldn’t work with Brandon. He will just look at Justin as competition for Raven, and he will not agree to him either” I told them, and I see Justin grin at the competition comment. I hope he still realizes that no matter what he wants, he is still bound to Reagan.
“I just hope that Raven was not seriously injured in all this. I thought that you said last night that you were going to wait for something to happen Reagan. You didn’t even wait 12 hours. Nothing you say can be believed, there should be three people here that you don’t lie to Reagan. You shouldn’t lie to your parents or me, I don’t care if you lie to everyone else, please just tell us the truth. We cannot fix it if we don’t know. So next time, and we all know there will be a next time, just come clean. It will give us extra time to think of a way out of it. Please think of the pack, and at least your parents before the next time around” Justin tells Reagan, and he is right. At the very least she needs to be honest with us.
“I agree with Justin, next time around Reagan, please don’t make us pull it out of you. Just tell us so we can get a head start on stopping the flow of blood from our pack. Time is of the essence if there is a big problem on the horizon” I told her.
I heard a phone ping and they both checked their phones, but it wasn’t for Reagan, it was for Justin. I see him smile, a real one, not the fake one that he gives us, and then puts his phone away again. I see Reagan look back toward me, and she was looking serious, but I can see her pinching her thigh to keep from smiling. Something is up with her. Goddess, Reagan cannot stop herself, she IS going to be the end of the freaking pack. How can she care so little for our pack? It has been in our family for almost 200 years This is my fault, I was too vain, and wanted to have “better” than the Goddess was giving me. This is punishment for rejecting my true mate in my vanity, and stealing Cole’s mate away from him. I made choices, bad ones, that I shouldn’t have, and they are coming back to bite me in the ass now. I need to send Justin away, and speak to Reagan alone. She won't admit it in front of Justin, as clearly he is part of her plan. I need to know what is happening. She needs to get the fact that she can’t just do whatever she wants in life, there are consequences.
We spoke a little longer and after a second text, which also made him smile. I told him that I would like to speak to Reagan in private. I am sure that he would like to leave, and I am really worried about who it could be that he was getting texts from. Did he meet his second chance mate? What about Reagan? Surely he can’t be willing to leave us when war is on the horizon.
“What better time to leave a pack, than before a war?” my wolf Duko asked me through our link. I have to agree. He is right. There is no better time.
“I am just glad he hasn’t tried to kill Reagan, to get out of his contract” I linked back. I was honestly glad, they are not getting along well at all. He read the contract, and he was aware of all the loopholes. Things that I didn’t think of when I wrote it. Things were going great for them when I originally wrote it. The only clause I had included was in case he changed his mind. I didn’t know if or when he would meet his true mate. I knew that a true mate could mark over a chosen mate's mark. So my contract only had a 5-year time frame, and what would happen to his family if he didn’t go through with it. I never thought that he would refuse to do anything other than play along. He is doting on her in public, but he refuses to do what she wanted most.
I needed him to do that as well. Her bearing his pups would be the solution to our problems. Reagan would calm down, he would relax too, and she can’t get pregnant without him. She could, but she knows it has to be his child. He will not accept another man’s child as his own. I should know, I have firsthand knowledge of that. So we are at a stalemate. He is not going to give up on this. He doesn’t want Reagan anymore, even though his bond with Raven is not intact. I cannot force him, and he knows better than to sign another contract. He got burnt the first time, he won’t fall for it again. I can’t do anything to punish him for it, as he is compliant in everything that was noted. There are no threats that I can give him that can make him do what it is that we want him to do. I am just glad that he is not as vicious as Reagan is in this. Because she would have no qualms about killing him off and finding another mate that would do her bidding. In that, she is much worse than me, as she has no real loyalties, to anyone.
“Justin, if you don’t mind, I would like to speak to Reagan a little longer. You are excused if you would like to leave” I told him, and I can see him look over at Reagan like he was trying to decide something, before getting up to leave my office. He nodded at me on the way out, but he completely ignored Reagan when he left. I let out a deep breath, and then leaned back in my chair and looked at Reagan. She was just beautiful, just like her mother, with my baby blue eyes making her look like an innocent doll. She could play just about anyone with her pure looks, it was how she was able to get Justin in the first place.
I knew he was interested in her, we had to play a little dirty to get him to agree. Justin is a good guy, he gets along with others, and he doesn’t like to rock the boat. He likes things to go smoothly. He is physically strong but unwilling to take chances. Especially if he thinks that he will be outnumbered. He lacks confidence, he needs to work on that. I knew all that, and so I knew he was the perfect person for Reagan to go after. He is just young, and most things he needs to improve on will come with experience as he ages. We just had to make him believe that Raven, the most worthless member of the pack, was his mate. Who would have known it was true? He was all in on rejecting her if she was. So many things went wrong that fateful night, it was the perfect storm to create this horrible mess that we are currently dealing with.
Reagan sits there with a small smile on her face, as she patiently waits for me to speak. She knows better than to just offer it up. I smiled back and try to figure out why she hates Raven so much. It just doesn’t make sense. Reagan had every single thing she could want growing up, and Raven had the bare necessities, hand-me-downs, very little. What could make her hate Raven so much that she was willing to try again and again to hurt her?
“Reagan, I know that you are planning something. We need to talk, because I am serious, one more thing and we will be at war with two very strong packs. Why do you hate Raven so much? I just don’t get it, you had everything that you ever wanted. What does Raven have that you could possibly want?” I asked her. I really wanted to know the reason myself. It just didn't;t make any sense.
“She looks just like me dad, except, she got the exotic looks. Every one of my boyfriends wanted to be with her, instead of me. I was "Pretty" and "Beautiful", but she was “Gorgeous”, "Exotic", “Her eyes are so beautiful”, and “Raven is the most beautiful girl in the pack.” It wasn’t true, we look just the same. I am gorgeous too. Because I look like a porcelain doll, she got the better side of the coin with her black hair, and green eyes. It made me sick. All of the guys wanted her, but they weren’t strong enough to go against the pack to try to ask her out. I may have been the favored twin, but I knew in the hearts of the guys that I wanted, she was the one that they wanted. At first, it was only because I wanted to be Luna, but after I started getting boyfriends it changed. I wish I had killed her on that bridge. Then I wouldn't feel inferior to her at all. Seeing her come down the stairs all made up for her party. I swear if I have been able to change Brandon’s drink from being roofied, to poison I would have. She keeps getting quality men, and I got a warrior, it just isn’t fair dad” Reagan told me, and I am shocked. She told me honestly why she hated Raven so much. They were both beautiful, in different ways. I could see where that would make Reagan a little jealous.
“I get it, we want what we want, Reagan. I had a warrior for a mate too, and I agree, she wasn’t good enough for me either. That is the whole reason I chose your mom. She is gorgeous, and we still have a great relationship. I care for her a lot, and no one else is good enough to be my mate, my Luna, only Cassandra is good enough to be mine. But you are gorgeous, you are perfection, and you do not need to ever doubt yourself. I don’t want to lose you over a petty rivalry, or in case we get attacked. I love you, and your mother with my whole heart. It would kill me to see something happen to either of you. Please stop whatever plans you are making, and just think about the greater good, for us, and the pack. So many innocent lives are at stake here honey. Please, please, for me and your mother. Don’t do anything else that would end up hurting the pack” I beg her. She needs to see the bigger picture, she needs to think about us all in this. Not just getting back at her sister.
“Wait, just a second dad. Let me ask you this. Earlier, you said that something significant would have to happen to stop the war that was coming, right” Reagan asked me.
“Yes, it would have to be huge,” I told her.
“This will be huge, dad. I can guarantee it. I can also guarantee that it will not involve Silver Blade at all. Also, that if any war is started, it would be just between Blood Walker, and Black Adder. We wouldn’t have any part in it. They wouldn’t be able to trace it back to us, other than to Justin. I am OK with that. He isn’t doing what I want him to anyway. He is really being an ass about sleeping with me, or our making pups together. My not being able to sleep with my other guys is killing me. But I know I have to wait until I get pregnant. I am trying dad, but it has been three weeks now, and I don’t know how much longer I can go. I wouldn’t mind getting someone else to be my next chosen mate. I already have my eyes on a few guys” Reagan told me.
This gets my interest, how is that possible? I like Justin, but Reagan is right, he isn’t falling in line like we both thought he would. He is fighting us at every turn, and I agree, she needs to pick a guy that she can control better, because Justin is not going to listen to us anymore. She sees me lean forward in my chair, and she cannot wait to spill her idea. I am shocked at the details that she has thought of, she really did think of everything with this plan. I felt so proud of her. We only need a few tweaks to it, and it will never point back to us. She is right, it only leaves Justin twisting in the wind. It does take us out of the equation, and the best part of it is that it leaves Cole and Brandon fighting each other, with no time to even look at us. They can kill off some of their pack, leaving them more vulnerable, and then when Cole does try to get back to us, we should be well trained, and our numbers closer to each other, than him having over double what my pack has. My baby girl will be happy, as she may get what she has always wanted, and that is to be an only child. She is right, Raven may not be able to survive this time around.
Putting the Plan in Play