What the hell? Did Calvin just find his true mate? What did this mean for Cynthia’s plans to use him as a link to Ava and Adrian?
Cynthia could smell smoke. It was the scent of all her carefully laid plans turning to ash.
*******
He had always been ambitious. Anything he wanted, he got. Not that it came easily, he worked hard for every single thing he had. He sacrificed. Nothing was too much. He gave his all and he reaped abundantly.
And now it was almost time for the culmination of all his efforts.
There was a knock on the door.
“Enter.”
Ford entered with his head bowed. Not that he cared so much about that. He was more bothered about the news he carried.
“Well? Speak up.”
“He took the poison.”
He relaxed back on his seat feeling more than a little at ease. Y had been a very good pawn but the main purpose of having a pawn was so that it could be discarded or sacrificed when the going got tough and a difficult decision needed to be made.
“Rita and Gabriel?”
“No confessions from them.”
The council would tire of their resistance soon enough and with the overwhelming evidence against them, they would move to execute them.
For now, he would lay low and play the field.
“How are the experiments going? Do we have any promising results?”
Ford shook his head.
“The scientists are sure that they will have something for you soon enough, they seem certain of an imminent breakthrough.”
He sat in his chair, swivelling, his mind calculating.
If not for the fact that he had handpicked those people himself, he would have thought them either dumb or guilty of foul play. He cautioned himself. He had to be patient or he would make a costly mistake.
The problem was that time wasn’t quite on his side.
“You can leave.”
He waved Ford out and reached out for his burner phone.
It had been too long since he had spoken to Cynthia.
She was hiding something from him. He could tell. Even if she had been carrying out her duty exemplarily. Maybe she was still angry at him for sending her away from him at this critical time when she was pregnant.
She would be safe and well protected while fully able to further their cause. If only she understood that fact maybe she would stop sulking like a child.
The phone rang and rang but she didn’t pick up.
The call was disconnected. Dorian stared at the screen of his phone for a minute, or two. He didn’t mind that she missed his call. It wasn’t the usual calling time so it was possible that she was busy.
No. What bothered him was the fact that his instincts were all but flaring warning signs. His instincts had never been wrong before.
Was it time to recall Cynthia?
*******
Everything had happened so quickly. One minute, she was listening to her mate give an impassioned speech, the next, Calvin was in front of Rhea staring at her in shock as she was with him.
The weirdest thing had gone through her mind at that moment. She could finally see Rhea’s eyes. They were a sparkly green just like Gilbert’s.
Then the thought was dismissed almost as soon as it entered her head. Neither Gilbert nor Rita had red hair plus they only had one child. A male heir.
The next thought that entered her head was.
Cynthia.
Hours later, while the entire pack dined after the meeting concluded and congratulations were extended to the newly found mated couple, Ava found Cynthia seating apart from everyone else. Not that she could blame her.
She would probably have done the same thing if she had been in that same situation. Only she had been the Rhea in her own situation. Goddess, she had to find Gabby.
Ava sat next to Cynthia and handed her a glass of juice.
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry about–”
Cynthia met her gaze.
“Don’t you dare.”
Her voice was firm but her lower lip quivered a little.
“Oh, Cynthia.”
Ava took her juice glass from her shaking her and enveloped her in a hug. Cynthia let her.
She didn’t have the words to talk to her about Calvin. This was so unexpected. Sometimes she wondered if the moon goddess was having a good laugh up there at their expense because what else could explain this terrible situation?
First mating her with her sister’s fiance then, although that had turned out well to an extent, and now this. This was the last thing Cynthia needed right now.
After finally finding love again after the loss of her mate, this had to happen.
Ava wondered if it was somehow her fault for agreeing to bring Rhea back with them. Maybe if she hadn’t then… no, it was destined to be so by the Goddess, it would have happened with or without her.
She just wished that it hadn’t happened to Cynthia of all people. She was shaping up to be a good person, and then all of this had to happen to her.
“I think I was too hopeful, Ava. Someone like me shouldn’t have the luxury of finding happiness.”
Ava’s heart broke a little at the sound of her voice.
“Please don’t say that, Cynthia.”
As she spoke, she noticed Calvin standing at the corner of the room as though he had been on his way to see Cynthia when he’d noticed both of them were having a delicate conversation.
Cynthia though couldn’t see him as she continued speaking, her head on Ava’s shoulder and her back to him.
“I’m happy he found his mate. It’s something so beautiful and rare. I got to experience it with Dorian and I… I want him to have that, he deserves it. It’s just that I don’t think I can handle seeing him alone much less them together. It might break me.”
Calvin backed away at her words and Ava couldn’t bring herself to call him back.
The both of them would talk later maybe when it wasn’t still raw and painful.
“It’s going to be fine. I promise. It’ll get better.”
*********
It had been a week since the meeting and it was Zinora and Alex’s mating ceremony.
Martha Black had simply outdone herself with the arrangements and organisation. It was going to be her last hurrah before she went world exploring with her mate.
Something Cynthia was able to glean due to how sympathetic Ava was to her now that she had lost Calvin and reminded her of Gabrielle.
It was sort of sad that it had taken Ava this long to understand the suffering her sister had gone through because of her and Adrian.
The party was bubbling and Cynthia had no idea what she was doing there. She didn’t like or even establish a relationship with Alex and his strange mate who didn’t seem to know the steps to the song and kept trampling on his feet while apologising effusively. The besotted soot just smiled at her as though his feet were made of iron.
And there was Ava dancing with Adrian like it was the most natural thing in the world. Their eyes never left one another for a second and it almost made Cynthia feel like a voyeur watching them.
Ugh. They had to get to a room. Quickly. Before they tore each other’s clothes up here at this party.
Cynthia nursed her orange drink wishing it was something stronger that would make her pass out instead of seeing her enemies in such conjugal bliss.
From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Calvin and his mate moving forward to meet Alex and congratulate him.
Why couldn’t the bitch have been ugly at least? She would have used that to console herself for the loss of such a valuable piece in this game.
So much strategizing and endurance just for this?
Calvin had spoken to her just yesterday. He had been very formal and apologetic standing a distance apart from her while he ended their relationship. He hadn’t even touched her once, not even her hand.
She didn’t know why it annoyed her so much or why she even noticed it but she did.
And as she watched him move with his mate, holding hands with her before pulling out a seat after his conversation with Adrian, she labelled the emotion.
It was jealousy.
****
Jenny was on her way to congratulate Zinora and Alex when she noticed Cynthia looking sick.
Nelson was busy talking with Adrian which was better. She wasn’t like Ava who had completely forgiven and forgotten all that Cynthia had done.
Ava had a good heart. Sometimes too good. That was why she could forgive so easily but Jenny… Jenny couldn’t get the image of who Cynthia had been before out of her head.
The change was too drastic for her to comprehend so while she was openly supportive of Cynthia, she kept looking for a peek of the former Cynthia subconsciously.
But now looking at Cynthia who couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Calvin who was sitting with his newly found mate, Rhea, she felt that doubt dissolve to nothing.
Cynthia had made mistakes but who hadn’t? Maybe it was time to stop judging her so harshly for them.
Cynthia dropped the glass of juice she had been holding and walked out of the wedding reception.
Jenny began to follow her when she noticed Calvin leave his mate to go after her. His mate watched him leave with an unreadable gaze.
There was something very wrong with this image. Jenny paused. Then after one last look at Rhea, she was following after Cynthia and Calvin.