Chapter 10

Evelyn watched the proceedings of The Meet from the sidelines with repressed anger. If she could describe the atmosphere, it could be said as pathetic. The pack had decided to keep the mind-link open, the whole time instead of conversing in front of the Alphas.

"This is going nowhere,” thought Tyler, her second in command. "It has been thirty minutes since the meeting started, we are not getting anywhere with them."

"Yes. I am starting to believe it’s a waste of time," chimed in her other guard. There was a murmur of agreement amongst her men. From the moment they mentioned the name of their pack, the Alpha’s entire attitude turned wary. They refused to accept any information and kept contradicting each and every proposal they kept forward. She was beginning to wonder if they should have mentioned her pack's name.

"That's the whole point of this meet Evie, If they cannot even get past the name, there is no use of continuing with this," explained Bryan. Evelyn felt the beginnings of a headache starting to spread. If one issue was getting through the Alpha's, the other thing was an issue of her mate. Before she came here, she was prepared for the confrontation with him. Aside from his presence which was very distracting, it was also hard to ignore him.

From the instant she entered the meeting room, his eyes had never left her. No matter how hard she tried, she was unable to stop herself from glancing at him once in a while. His hair was cut short and he seemed to have lost a little weight. But the gaze in his blue eyes was still as sharp and piercing as she remembered a year ago. Her pack started smirking behind her.

The whole mate business has been one big jumble of vexation for her and a topic of entertainment for her pack, since last year. She would not have mentioned it to anyone, if not for Matt. He broke the news in front of her entire pack-the way she found her mate. They never let go of the chance to tease her.

Evelyn frowned when she remembered the incident, ′I used to run away whenever the topic of mate was discussed, now the same is coming back to haunt me.' She cursed herself. She very much wanted to kick each of her pack members right now for making her the subject of gossip at a time like this, And to make the matters worse that guy, was not giving up either.

"Your Romeo is trying to stare you down," whispered Tyler behind her. She kicked him in the shin, he bent over and grunted in pain, the noise earning a glance from the whole room.

“EVERY ONE SHUT UP AND GET BACK TO BUSINESS, WE ARE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE HERE,” Bryan fumed over the mind link.

Evelyn knew they had taken a great risk in exposing themselves here. Getting their trust right now was very crucial. But it was not working. The Alphas were refusing to come out of their animosity. It’s all because of the ridiculous rumors that have been circulated on their pack's name. Half of the rumors were not true, but they don’t have the evidence to prove it either.

“Guys, this is not working. We have to proceed with a different approach."

"And what approach do you suggest?” barked Bryan.

Evelyn could see he was about to lose his patience, trying to get the message across. “These people are refusing to come out of their prejudices, and if this continues, I am going to end up ripping off their heads to make them understand."

"Well then, I guess the only way to convince them now is to come clean," she stated.

“WHAT!” Each of her pack members heads snapped in her direction and yelled at the same time. Even Bryan, who was facing away from her stopped his speech, mid-sentence to turn to look at her. If the situation had not been serious, she would have had a good laugh at their reactions.

“Are you crazy? You can’t do that.”

“You are out of your mind," yelled Tyler

“This will not work... I forbid you.”

Everyone started shouting at the same time over the mind link, Evelyn felt her head would burst with all the noise. Even the other Alphas stopped their discussion and looked on with interest.