Chapter 15: Offered on a Silver Platter Part 2

Krimson’s P.O.V

‘Send her to me so she can apologize! I don’t understand how you can let such insolent people stay in your pack!’

‘Aren’t you showing too much interest in a server? We’re hosting this party for business related purposes.’

‘If you really want that land, Alpha Krimson, then have that insolent maid apologize. I do not believe in making deals with packs that don’t respect me.’

‘Go in, get on your hands and knees and apologize to Alpha Elijah!’

The entire conversation with Elijah and Lilac played over and over in my head as I sat in my living room, unable to let it slide. It’s true that I needed to get that piece of land from Elijah at any cost, because it would cement my control over all of Kansas, making me the only Alpha in the entire state, but I had never seen Elijah be this eager to get an apology from a servant.

From what I’d heard…it was possible that Killian was his lover, and both of them were only in their mid-twenties, so they hadn't found their mates yet. Neither of them took lovers openly or showed any interest otherwise…then why did sending Lilac to apologize to his room feel so wrong?

I ran my hand through my hair, unable to let go of this unsettling feeling in my gut. What I couldn’t let go of the most was that look of betrayal on Lilac’s face when I turned my back on her.

Elijah had always had a mean temper, but I had never seen him get this angry before. What exactly had Lilac done to him that he was so pissed at her? But whatever it was, I couldn’t let it affect the business deal. I was very close to acquiring a large piece of land around his pack…if Lilac didn’t screw things up…

And what the fuck was with her? She could laugh and chat easily with Liam around, but she froze up whenever I was near? The fact that her hand had been ice-cold when I had taken it earlier; and that I had been able to feel it through the fabric of her shirt…

My wolf growled inside my head, angry and upset at the same time.

First Luca and now his son?

Soon she was going to have the entire pack begging me on her behalf! What was she? Was she truly just a wolf or a witch disguised as one?

I looked at the time on the wall clock with a sigh. Twelve twenty five.

It was late…I should check up to see if…

A growl escaped my lips as I bared my teeth, my hands curling into fists as my wolf came to the forefront of my mind; rage making it see red.

Why? Why should I care about this girl? Why should I check up on her if all she was going to do was cause me more and more trouble every single day? Why the fuck was I suddenly so worried about her? Hadn't I rejected her since the day she walked into my life? Hadn't I hated her guts since the instant I found out she was my …?

However, I was broken out of my train of thoughts by the sound of vigorous knocking on the front door.

A little surprised and agitated that I had a visitor at this hour; I got up from the couch and went for the door, opening it to find Luca standing right outside, looking like he had just run a marathon.

“Lu-”

“What did you do?” He cut me off; stepping inside the room and grabbing onto my collar so suddenly that I was taken by surprise. “What did you do, Krimson?”

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I ripped his hands off my collar. “Have you forgotten who you are speaking to?”

“No, but your hate for Lilac seems to have blinded you to the obvious, hasn’t it?” Luca snapped back, unafraid as I’d ever seen him. “Is this how to plan to be the Alpha? By becoming the same monster you fought so hard to bring to justice?”

“You’re crossing your limits,” my wolf growled viciously inside my head, ready to tear him to shreds if the need arose. “That girl form Dawn Wood has been clouding your judgment since the day she came here! She’s not your daughter!”

“No she’s not, but she doesn’t deserve to be offered up to that fucker just to get you what you want, Krimson!”

Everything in me went very, very still. “What?”

“That man is a sexual predator!” Luca shouted at me, the veins in his neck showing prominently as anger sparked in his eyes like I’ve never seen before. “He lures underaged women into his room and then rapes them! And yet, you sent Lilac right into his den, without caring about her side of the story! How dare you, Krimson? How dare you do this to my daughter?”

Suddenly…everything became crystal clear.

The way Elijah had suddenly become so mad at Lilac for simply spilling alcohol on his shirt…how Lilac had stood frozen in place at the party, her eyes wide in horror…how she had looked at me with so much betrayal as I left her in front of Elijah’s door.

Shoving Luca aside, I was outside the door and racing to the pack house with him right behind me.

‘How did you find out?’ I asked him mentally, because my voice was lost to the vicious growling of my wolf that wanted blood.

‘Liam warned me about them.’ He replied as he followed me up the stairs when the elevator didn’t show up. ‘He went to a school trip with kids from Elijah’s pack and one girl tried to take her life because of what he did to her.’

Liam was too young, removed from the internal hierarchy 0f the pack and all the politics that came with it. So I understood him not telling me…but why didn’t he tell about the incident to Luca before?

‘He said he wanted to tell me, but never got the opportunity.’ Luca answered the question I wanted to ask. ‘He went ahead first, to help Lilac, as soon as he heard from me about what happened at the party.’

My pace quickened as we passed the second floor and then I was slamming the door to the emergency exit wide open and running into the hallways to find the door to Elijah’s room wide open.

Just as I arrived at the sight, I saw something that made me freeze in place.

Lilac was lying on the bed, her hair in disarray and her clothes rumbled. Liam was right above her, trying to help her off the bed…but what they didn’t notice was how Elijah approached Liam from behind, a large glass jar in his hands that he intended to crash onto Liam’s head.

Before any of us could do anything…I saw Lilac reach up to grab onto Liam’s jacket with her hands and haul him down on the bed next to her…as she reached up to cover him with her arm…trying to take the hit herself.

Everything happened in less than a second…but it was something I was never going to forget…the look of panic in her eyes…the way she was shielding him with her body…

Elijah looked startled for merely a second, before he lifted the jar even higher…and brought it down on to her.

And then I was moving.