Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Shirley’s POV

My spy’s written report came with the dawn, pulled by a furtive omega who couldn’t look me in the eye as she handed over the sealed envelope. I raised a hand to wave her off, already aware of what the message would say but needing to read it in black and white.

"Ryan spent around one hour with Freya on Moonstone Bridge.”

“Miu deserves better than this,” I whispered to my sleeping daughter, curled in her fancy bassinet next to my chair. "We both do."

But anger wasn’t going to solve this one. That sort of rage was a luxury I’d learned long ago that I couldn’t afford — not when mere survival hinged on vigilant manipulation and surgical strategy. Power, my father had trained me to believe, resided in those with patience enough to plot and ruthlessness enough to carry through, even if the cost was dear.

I got out of my chair and went to my writing desk and wrote some letters. If Ryan wanted to play secret games with his pretty little Freya, I would see that every supernatural in the city knew what kind of an Alpha he was.

"Lady Margaret," I wrote to the Luna of the Southern Pack in my carefully feminine, dainty script. “I hope this email finds you and your family in good health. I wanted to ask your counsel about a sensitive matter regarding pack stability and some troubling activity from an ex-luna who may be a threat to our kind..."

Every letter was a work of art, so subtly crafted that it pictured Freya as a disturbed female who threw herself at my father when she couldn't hold her ground with her first mate. I touched on a putative insanity, insinuated harmful fixations and made an oblique reference to her sway over potent Alpha males as being dangerous to the status quo.

The campaign’s genius was its subtlety. I never came right out and blamed her, Just drunk Luna's ramblings about how worried she was for her child, for the community. By the end of my twentieth letter, I had spun a web of doubt and distrust that would haunt Freya everywhere she turned.

"Luna?" My work was being interrupted by Maya’s voice and I placed papers over the letters in a hurry.

"Yes, Maya? Is everything alright?”

The older woman was looking troubled as she entered my office, her normally unruffled facade slightly rumpled. “Some of the pack members are talking. His Alpha and… raine maybe?"

I made my face into a look of baffled innocence. "What kind of rumors?"

“That he’s been meeting in secret with her. That he’s turning his back on his responsibilities here, to pursue something he threw away.” Maya looked at the sleeping baby and back to my face. "The pack is concerned, Luna. They don’t know why their Alpha has his eyes on the past, not the future.”

Perfect. My network had been in place and working, further planting the seeds of doubt I’d already carefully sown amongst the most gossipy pack members.

“It’s nothing,” I murmured, a perfect hint of doubt in my voice. "Ryan's been working so hard to get ready for the challenge. “Maybe he’s trying to make sure there are no hiccups prior to..."

I allowed the sentence to hang for a minute before burying my face in my hands, as if too emotional to speak. "I wouldn't be able to stand it if he died or something, Maya. Miu, she needs her father and I... I wouldn't be able to handle it without him."

Maya’s face softened with sympathy, just as I’d hoped. "Oh, my dear. You must not hold such a wife's thoughts. The Alpha is powerful, and he will help you, I know he will, but his love for you and the little one will return him home safely."

"I trust you to be correct," I murmured and let a solitary tear trickle down my face. "But sometimes I question if his heart really is with us now, or it's stuck then… with… her…"

That admission was measured to sound reluctant, wrenched from my lips by grief and fear. Maya stepped in to console me, her maternal side activated at my perceived fragility.

“The Alpha selected you,” she said firmly. “That has to be worth more than some teenage infatuation.”

"Does it?" I inquired, staring at her with wide watery eyes. There are times when he gazes at me and I think he’s peering right through me and seeing someone else. "I bet when he holds Miu, he wonders if that's what his kid with her would have looked like.”

Every word was poison smooth silk, calculated to generate doubt and sympathy in its balance. Maya grimaced as well—though not at me, she made it clear, but at the story I was telling.

“Maybe somebody ought to have a talk with the Alpha about his values,” she suggested, carefully. "Someone he trusts and respects."

” Oh no”, I said at once, clamping her hand. “I didn’t want to be that mate who’s a drag, wants his attention. If his heart's not here, make him force it; and if it doesn't come then that will be a sign he's going."
The manipulation was working perfectly. My protective instincts were locked in now, and Maya had heard my worries through the pack before I'd managed to speak again.

When she was gone, I let myself have a little smile of satisfaction. But there was more to be accomplished yet. The letters were only a start – I needed allies, individuals who could act upon my behalf without being linked to me.

I was interrupted by a gentle tapping, which I was invited to enter. Daniel entered the room, his face grim and his always impeccable posture a little slouched from fatigue.

"Beta Daniel," I greeted, motioning for him to take a seat. "You look troubled. Anything I can do to help?"

He studied my expression for a second, apparently confronted with some internal dilemma. "May I speak freely, Luna?"

"Of course. We're all family here."

“Ryan is pulling a mistake,” he said matter-of-factly. “These clandestine meetings with Freya are not only politically dangerous, they’re personally dangerous. He's losing focus, losing perspective. They are starting to notice.”

I nodded empathetically, my face deliberately concerned and not smug. “I have been concerned about him as well. The pressure of the impending challenge, his mixed emotions about his ex-relationship… it is too much for anyone to deal with.”

“It’s beyond stress,” said Daniel, gravely. "It's an obsession. He convinces himself that all he needs to do is remind her of their love, and she’ll return to him. He doesn’t realize how far beyond what they had progressed.”

“-And that obsession is clouding his judgment,” I replied gently, giving him permission to articulate his fears.

"Exactly. He’s letting everything with the pack slide away and showing his disregard for everything here, all on account of a woman who’s already said she wants no part of him.” Daniel sat forward, his gaze intense. “Someone has got to stop him before he wrecks everything we’ve worked so hard to build.”

I paused as if struggling to find the words, and manage a painful emotion. I don’t know what to do, Daniel. I love him, but I can’t compete with a ghost. And now there was Miu to consider..."

“You shouldn’t have to fight,” Daniel said adamantly. "You're his mate, his Luna. She’s all memory, then refused to be one.”
I needed his voice stained with hatred when he was talking about Freya and that’s exactly what he had. Daniel's devotion to Ryan could be no question, but his hatred for the woman he felt responsible for wreaking havoc on his Alpha was tenfold.

“What if there was a way to … solve it?” I asked carefully. “Something that might make Ryan have to wake up and smell the coffee and decide his future is here, with his real family?”
Daniel's eyes sharpened with interest. "What did you have in mind?"

I stood and went to the window, looking out over the pack grounds as the wolves did their thing. Freya, it appears, has her way with powerful men. My father, Ryan, maybe others that we don’t even know about. Could that be flipped into evidence of instability? Of dangerous manipulation?

"You mean this stuff about setting her up for something?" said Daniel slowly.

“I mean letting the truth out,” I replied, easily. “Showing the preternatural world just what sort of woman would wreck one relationship and jump at once to gloating over her victim’s mate’s father. About showing the pattern of manipulation and emotional devastation she inflicts."

It was a moment before Daniel replied, the implications slowly coalescing. “What would you require of me?”

I turned towards him again, giving him a glimpse of the steel beneath my carefully cultivated softness. "Your loyalty. Your discretion. “But you, helping to defend this pack from a woman who has already committed enough harm.”

When he nodded, I heard the last piece of my plan snap into place. And with Daniel in my arsenal and the fueling suspicions that plagued the pack, I could systematically dismantle Freya’s reputation while playing victim to her machinations.

“And there’s something else,” I added as he was about to leave. I will need it to document the meeting Ryan had with her. Times, locations, witnesses. If we’re going to rescue him from his obsession, then we have to prove how far it’s progressed.”

So Daniel went away, and I went back to my letters as a rejuvenated woman. Terms like most darling families no longer mattered after Freya’s reputation was destroyed and Ryan had come to the sobering realization of where his true loyalties needed to be.

And if my dad lost trust in his darling mate in the process, well then…that would just be a bonus.
I had learned that some battles weren’t won through claws and fangs but with whispered words, seeds of doubt sewn.

This was my kind of war.