Chapter 37 CONFLICT
VANCE'S POV
Blayne returned to the pack by midday. He stormed into my office, ranting and raging. He told Cleopatra to stay at the border, and a tent was prepared for her and her two ambassadors, along with food. After two days, another thirty of her rogues were permitted to arrive but camp outside the borders at the same spot.
There was a stream nearby for them to bathe in. I sat in my executive chair scanning through the documents that she gave to Blayne to present to me. It was well written and the arrangement was right. Her references to old pack laws were strongly emphasized in her petition.
"Untamable, wild, and stubborn as hell!" Blayne paced back and forth growling and grumbling like a madman. "Rrrrrr!"
Duke was doing his rounds with Sianna. She made a list of to-dos where Duke would be her henchman for a few days. We got home last night from our blissful honeymoon. The memories were keeping me through my hectic day. Until, I had to be stuck with a grumpy werewolf who lacked the balls to deal with his mate.
"Do you know all the things that she did to me?" Blayne shouted at me. My wolf is not too pleased with him raising his voice at us. He might think that Blayne was trying to dominate him and retaliate by attacking my friend. I cock my right eye at him as a warning. "For one, she has no respect for my authority. She acts as if she is the fucking queen. She doesn't listen to a word that I have to say, and she treats me worse than the homeless man on the sidewalk!"
I can't wait for my day to end just to get this man out of my ears. Maybe I could mind-link Sianna and drown him out.
"She gave me scraps to eat! Talking about that's how they manage." He squeaked his voice to mimic an annoying female. "I had to sleep on the toughest ground with all those rocks digging out my back! And she hits damn hard."
I sighed, "I think the real problem is that you want to fuck her and she tells you fat chance! She's the one woman who keeps her legs locked from you."
His sorrowful look gave him away. "Well, I was always hard around her. I couldn't help it! She is so fucking adorable and when she speaks, all I see are the lips that I want to taste." His mind left my office for a minute as his gaze drifted into space. Thank heavens for the minute of silence. Then he spoke in a pitiful tone, "Why doesn't she like me?"
"Have you asked her?"
"No, she keeps telling me that she does not want a mate." He clasps his head in his hand and sat back in the chair with a slouch. " I am doomed!" He stares at the ceiling, "I wanted to beat up every male wolf that got near her."
"Seems like you are learning the virtue of patience and to cool down." Throwing that at him rewarded me with his infamous glare.
"Man, I'm going to die from blue balls." He complained, "Since I met her, my little general gets hard. I call someone over and we fool around, and then it goes dead. Flaccid! Then my company leaves, I think of that ferocious mate of mine, and I'm hard again. Back to square one." He flips his hands outward to accentuate his problem.
I chuckled, "That's the mate bond for you." He was finally silent. My wolf uttered his relief. "You should invite her and the two males into the pack. Get them a room here, and oversee them."
"Why am I thinking that you are enjoying this, Vance?" He pouted "You and Duke are happy that I have met the one woman to put chains on me and makes me feel hopeless." He had no choice and so he agreed.
"Why don't you try to woo her since she'll be here while we work out the details of the truce?"
"I am a player, girls fall at my feet, what do I know about wooing a woman?" I can't believe his pitiful state right now. Is this what I was like when Sianna rejected me? I hate to think that I was this pathetic. "Plus she's like a wild kitten with non- retractable claws."
"Research or ask the women to help you. There's no doubt that Sianna and Keisha would be excellent in helping you to win her heart." I gravely examined his posture. "You might want to show an interest in what's most important to her. The priority is the rogues that she is appealing for and to give them freedom and a home."
He got up like a brilliant light bulb was triggered in his mind, saluted me like a sailor, and went through the door.
"Remember to control your dick!" I shouted and I knew his werewolf ears would hear me.
I was going to visit the Blood Howlers Pack with Esme and Duke tomorrow. The journey would be for one day. I thought of leaving Blayne close to his mate for them to work things out. I ran my hand through my hair twice as I remembered the time when Sianna was ignoring me. Some mates could play hard to get but we were in a better place now. Thank goddess.
++++++
We arrived at the Blood Howlers Pack around 8 am by helicopter. Sianna was among us with two elite warriors making us a group of six. The pack was surrounded by my men who were sent ahead and my visit unannounced. This was in the event the pack retaliated for what was about to go down. Five elite warriors were giving instructions to go to the secret tunnels to confiscate our weapons and provided them at the packhouse for evidence when I summoned them.
Sianna was looking rosier these days and she preferred to be at my side. I saw no harm in letting her travel as everything with the baby was okay. With her mom being the pack doctor, she was extremely strict with Sianna's pregnancy, more than I was. So she found comfort by my side.
Esme had been behaving herself and I watched her cautiously whenever she and Sianna engaged in a conversation. It was tough for her to see another lady by my side after being that woman for so long. When she saw Sianna and me in our loving moments, she had an arduous look on her face. To her, I was just another person she had lost who she had loved.
Sianna was beautiful in her brown cashmere top that slants off the left shoulder and white jeans shorts. My possessive aura washed over my features as my gaze lingered on her, watching the cool afternoon breeze sweep her black hair, cascading her tendrils all over.
We braced ourselves for the touchdown with grim faces as the helicopter landed smoothly in the open pavilion at the border. We were greeted officially by the gate entrance to the territory by Alpha Helios and Beta Elliott.
"High Alpha Vance, this is a pleasant surprise. To what do we owe this visit?" He came out of a black Benz towards us. "My mate is with child so it's best to proceed to your pack house. Is there a car available to bring us there?" I got to the point. "Greetings High Luna, it's a pleasure to meet you, and congratulations on your pregnancy. I am Alpha Helios and my Beta Elliot. Please come this way to the car." He gestured with his hands to the vehicle and we got in. The two warriors were left on foot. They would also scout the premises and be at our side at the pack house afterward.
We got into the large three-story building. They ushered us to Helios' office and I sat in his large office chair instead of him, taking Sianna on my lap. My warriors were looking for Gail, his daughter to bring her to face us and our claims. I abided time by probing both men.
"Please allow me to get you some refreshments. I believe our High Luna might be peckish from the journey." Beta Elliott excused himself to order the kitchen staff to prepare us meals.
"Shall we prepare rooms for you? How long is your visit?" The Alpha asked.
"We should be done within five hours max," Duke responded. Alpha Helios held a poker face but that did not mean a thing to us. "Esme, could you explain why we are here?" Sianna drew the woman's attention. Ignorant of our past intimate affair, she was rather warm and friendly towards Esme. Either that or she was truly mature in dealing with ex-girlfriends.
The door opened and Beta Elliott returned with a tray of sandwiches, an omega followed with a jug of juice and placed it in front of Sianna. The Beta took to his Alpha's side.
Esme nodded and took the floor. "While I was at your camp dealing with our political matters, my scouts and I discovered several items that were from the Wolverson Pack of which we have no authorized documents to indicate that they were permitted to be here for your use."
Helios cocked one eye upward at his confusion as he and his Beta looked over the images. "What might those items be?" Esme showed photos of our weapons in their tunnels east of their pack. "Do you recognize the tunnel marks as your own?" "Yes, these are mine but uh......... what are those weapons doing there?" He feigned ignorance. The sparks and tingles that discharged from my mate into me kept me calm while I studied his features.
"Are you saying you have no knowledge of how, when, and why our weapons are hidden in the war tunnels of your pack?" Duke asked with his death glare.
Helios took his time to answer but still stammered a bit. He knew this was trouble. "I-I was not aware." Realizing the implications of his dilemma he quickly added, "I have failed in my duties to know what was occurring within my pack but I can assure y-you that..
.....
"
"You can assure us of nothing!" I said with a low guttural sound from my throat.
Sianna was eating the sandwiches. I mind-linked my troops to bring his daughter in. They had tracked her on the pack grounds and found her. When they entered the room she appeared with slight bruises and frizzy hair indicating that there was a fight. Each warrior gripped her arms tightly. She staggered a little but stood her ground.
Her father scanned her appearance with questioning eyes. "The warriors were rough." Gail accused.
"Perhaps you tried to run?" Duke lashed at her. She glared at Duke but regain composure when she flickered her eyes on me and my mate sitting in my lap. "These photos were taken two weeks back to show the presence of unauthorized weapons belonging to our Wolverson Pack, we believe you might be a lot more helpful than your father was?"
Her eyes never left the shock of seeing me with my Luna, roaming them up and down Sianna and twitching her face as if wounded. It was my reverberating growl that snapped her insolent stare.
"Father was not aware of those." She did not look at the photos before she answered. She knew playing dumb could get their pack slaughtered. She couldn't face her father's eyes either. "They were being transported from Hank's mansion but you raided them before we could complete the mission."
Helios blazed angrily with his hands on the top of his head, "What the fuck did you do?" I raised my hand to silence him. We were the ones doing the interrogations, not him. He sat but was still fuming with anger.
"Why were you involved with Hank Floyd?" Esme wanted to confirm in this forum.
"He's my mate?" Her tone was flat so as not to disrespect the higher authorities within the room.
"What was the intention of stealing our weapons?" Duke asked.
"My mate wanted to gather enough rogues to have an army to attack his old pack for revenge. He found a loophole in the Rogue Integration System and used it well among the packs but your weapons were better." She sounded as if she wanted to cry but no tears were in her eyes, "He thought he could do enough damage in one go with your weapons. I was trying to help him by hiding the weapons here so that I could try to convince him in the process of not messing with you. I wasn't going to tell him where I hid them! I believed that if I gave him a home here, I could change his mind. I only needed time to convince my father to accept him as his future Alpha."
"While we understand that Hank is your mate, you should have reported this to our pack and tried to return our weapons. You are an accomplice." Sianna highlighted.
Gail gritted her teeth in anger as if she didn't want to hear anything from Sianna. I slammed my fist on the desk and it jerked off the floor. She cowered at my temper and whimpered.
"How could you do this without talking to me?" Helios asked sympathetically. So, evidently, he did not know of his daughter's
misdeed.
"Father, he's my mate and I wanted to help him change and forsake his vendetta." She explained this was the first time that she met her father's gaze. With imploring eyes, she motioned her hands for his understanding, trying to touch his shirt.
"Do you know how much trouble we are in? Did you think of the pack or me?" He held a melancholy look at his eldest daughter
of two.
I watched them closely then uttered with all coldness, "Shall we walk to take a look at the weapons that my team has recovered at the front of the pack house?"
I got up, holding Sianna's hand. We all walked to where my team dressed in all-black soldier gears stood with ten trunks of weapons. "This is the evidence of your crime." Sianna and I walked by each trunk to have a look inside.
Helios walked behind us while Duke stood on guard. By the time we reached the final trunk, Helios sank to his knees begging for mercy towards his daughter's fallacy. "High Alpha, please."
"There's a silver lining in every cloud," I said to him. "Lucky for you......" I picked him up off the ground with a grip on the front of his shirt, under his neck, "You still have one daughter left to take the Alpha title."
Helios' face crumbled and tears fell, his lips trembling. I turned to Gail and then looked at Sianna.
"Alpha, we are not like this." She petitioned, using the affiliations of our teenage fling as a shield. "You and I were lovers." Sianna's hand in mind tightened. I know that her wolf did not like that. "I loved you, Alpha. We were going to be together, don't
you remember?"
Gail ran forward and grabbed my casual button-down grey shirt. "All I ever wanted was you. Please remember our good times. Please, please believe that I wouldn't go against you!"
Sianna's wolf surfaced with boiling anger. She reached out her hand to position it between us and clasped Gail's red fitted cami top to pull her towards her and away from me. My mate's eyes turned amber and I knew she was about to smack Gail's head off.
I interject by holding back Sianna, while Duke took Gail away. Sianna angrily turned to look at me. There's nothing like an angry pregnant she-wolf.