Everything was working out as planned. Cynthia thought.
The blame had been shifted to another pack and no one would be any wiser. The Silverwolf pack would take the punishment due and once the wolves relaxed again, it would be chaos.
The envoys would find only what they wanted them to find and come to the conclusion that Cynthia’s people wanted.
Calvin was crazy about her and she was slowly becoming ingratiated with the upper tier of the pack.
This was all well and good but it wasn’t what she wanted. At least not personally. She had put aside her personal vendetta to ensure she carried out her due responsibility. Now she wanted to carry it on again.
She still intended to take her revenge on Adrian and Ava.
It was a long time coming. Perhaps the problem she had was the fact that she was trying to be subtle. She was done with that.
It was time to grab the bull by the horn.
She would not just kill them, she would do it in the grandest way she could think of.
*****
The brunch was awkward.
And the problem wasn’t with the pack.
The pack members were rather excited and the mood was lively as all four of the envoys had made it down in time.
Down the table, Ava could even see Harry fighting back a smile at Ginger’s antics.
The envoys were not particularly friendly but they weren’t standoffish either.
So no the problem wasn’t on that end. It was between her and Adrian.
Now Adrian had not said anything or asked her any questions despite the fact that she was sure he had overheard the better part of their conversation. He had just escorted her to the table and even helped her pull out a chair like a perfect gentleman.
She pondered on the fact that maybe he had not overheard anything. Even if he had, she hadn’t said anything wrong, had she?
But she felt weird. Like she had been hiding something from Adrian by not speaking to Javier in front of him.
In her bid to avoid a stilted conversation that wouldn’t have allowed her to apologise properly, she had done for a more private one, now see where that left her.
“Ava, is the food not to your liking?”
Ava startled out of her thoughts to see Adrian looking over her with concern as though to gauge if she was fine.
“No. I mean yes.”
Adrian blinked at her and she fidgeted.
“What I meant to say was, the food is great, it’s just that I’m not feeling too well. Maybe I need to lie down, and get some rest.” Ava pushed her chair back and stood up quickly feeling the eyes of the envoys on her.
She was probably breaching a ton of etiquette rules by doing this but honestly, she just needed to breathe.
She gave them a bow that was more of a head incline than a bow before leaving to go up to their room.
She was there for a few minutes at most cleaning off her makeup and washing her face before Adrian came after her.
“Ava. What was that? I thought you wanted to have the envoy here, that you wanted to be a respectable host, so why would you just leave in the middle of brunch like that?”
Ava dropped the little towel she has been using to dry her face.
“Goddess it was nothing, Adrian. I just felt weird. If you want I can go down to apologise to the envoy?”
As she spoke, she averted her gaze from his.
It was so easy to be confrontational when the truth was she just wanted to tell him that she was sorry. That she knew it wasn’t a big deal but she felt strange as though she had done something wrong.
“I already dismissed brunch. There is no need.” Adrian’s voice was so serious that Ava felt like she had only made the situation worse.
“I’m sorry. I should have handled myself better.”
Adrian was silent then he nodded. Thankful that she was now off the hook, Ava made to move past him to go to her wardrobe, her left hand trying to unzip the dress.
She felt Adrian behind her.
“Let me.”
His hand brushed her left hand removing it so that it was his hand going down her back leaving a trail of fire and want everywhere he touched. Ava’s breath accelerated.
Adrian dropped a kiss on the back of her nape, making her shiver. Her zipper was now undone but she couldn’t move to save her life.
“Ava.”
Goddess even his voice was doing so many strange things to her that she couldn’t quantify.
“Yes?” Her voice was breathy and husky as she lost herself in his touch.
“You didn’t leave dinner because of Javier, did you?”
Ava froze.
“Did seeing him again make you reconsider us?”
*****
Rhea heard her mother curse the Mountain Coast pack first in a slew of Spanish, then French, then finally English.
“That fat faced slut is behind this I can tell. When Adrian brought her to the meeting, I could tell she was trouble. How dare they accuse us of consorting with rogues? The Silverwolf of all packs!”
It was poor language for Luna Rita of the Silverwolf pack but then again the circumstances weren’t the best either.
Rhea knew what was coming next – her mother was like a broken record these days. The side comments about how perhaps if she had married into the Swift Wind pack, one of the strongest and most defensible packs, like her mother had wanted, none of this would have happened.
Rhea tucked her deep burgundy hair behind her ear as her mind wandered. As for the first time in days, she considered the fact that her mother was right as she felt an unsettling feeling wash over her.
Her mother was bothered about the blow their name would take for being associated with such a scandal after the matter was resolved. But Rhea was beginning to fear that the matter would not be resolved.
It was a minor misunderstanding that would be easily resolved so why were the envoys here? Why were they going to be summoned before the Werewolf council?
Maybe if she had accepted the Swift Wind boy instead of greedily desiring to remain in her father’s pack and hoping to inherit it as a female Alpha like Angeline, maybe this would never have happened because her family would have been strengthened by the alliance.
“In all my years as Luna, never have I been summoned to a council meeting for…”
Rhea tuned her out again. She refused to worry about this. Everything was going to be fine. Her family would not go down like this. Everything would be amended and then she would take her rightful place leading the Silverwolf pack to greater heights as she had always dreamt of since she was a child.
A dream that she had only begun to see come to reality as she watched her elder brother drown. If anyone did anything to compromise her plan then she would show them as much mercy as she had shown him.