Chapter 7

In the two weeks Rashel had stayed under Jethro’s roof, she tried her best to confine herself to the lovely room assigned to her, which she was grateful for. So far, she had met Veronica only twice when Jethro insisted that they have dinner together. She couldn’t refuse her host, of course. She didn’t need a seer to tell her that Veronica despised her, and in all honesty, the feeling was mutual. The woman reminded her of Viola, and anything that resembled Viola was plain evil. As for Jethro, it seemed the more she tried to avoid him, the more drawn he was to her.

One evening, she sat on the swing set in the garden, taking in the fresh air, as she hadn’t been outside in a while. She missed her home, Seth’s home. Well, it was Viola’s now. She had begun to immerse herself in self-pity when a voice interrupted her musings.

“Hey.” It was Jethro. Rashel wasn’t prepared for this conversation; in fact, she had only come out because she thought he had gone to work.

“Hey, I’m sorry; I didn’t know you were home.” She made to leave, but Jethro held her back. His hold on her hand was firm but not violent or painful.

“Please stay.”

Rashel hesitated a moment before taking her place on the swing seat she had been lounging on.

“Why do you always run from me?” Jethro asked softly.

“I’m not running from you; I’m simply trying to stay out of your way. And your mistress’s.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes.

“What does that even mean?”

“Come on, I know you’re anything but dumb. If you can tolerate my presence here, your queen definitely cannot.”

Jethro gave a tired sigh. He knew Rashel was saying the truth, but he didn’t admit it, so he changed the subject.

“I was about to go out on a drive; do you perhaps want to join me?”

Again, Rashel hesitated, but then she was in his house and at his mercy, and if he wanted to harm her, he probably would have done that a long time ago.

“Okay. Ready when you are.”

He took her on a tour of the lands within his territory. Rashel realized just how powerful this man was and how large his pack was, and compared to her husband, former husband, he was more powerful. Of course, she knew this already, but she was only just witnessing how powerful he was. By the time they returned home, the air between them was lighter, and she had told him a bit about herself. He wasn’t such a difficult person to like, and maybe she could stop rejecting his efforts towards friendship.

 The gravel crunched beneath Alpha Jethro’s boots as he walked toward the iron gate of Alpha Seth’s stronghold. The late afternoon sun bled orange across the sky, casting long, sharp shadows against the stone walls.

Two guards stood at the gate, tense and wary, but when they recognized Jethro, they stepped aside, but not without suspicion. They had their senses and weapons ready, just in case anything happened.

Seth was waiting, almost as if he knew Jethro was coming.

He stood in the courtyard with his arms crossed across his chest and his gun underneath his shirt. There hadn’t been any feud or disagreement between them before, not even an exchange of words, but they knew somehow that this was not a peaceful visit. Seth’s usual cool detachment was undercut by the raw, silent fury simmering in his eyes. Behind him, the black SUV Jethro had come for glinted beneath the dying sun.

“Seth,” Jethro said, stopping a few paces away. “I came for my car.”

“And you brought your audacity too, I see,” Seth said in that cocky manner of his.

“You had no right to lock Rashel up.” Jethro’s expression didn’t change.

“She’s mine, and that gives me every right,” Seth growled.

“Was, Seth. She was your mate. Past tense. You lost that bond when you sent her away. You don’t get to keep her in a cell like some wayward pet just because it hurts your pride.”

The silence that followed was tense, razor-thin. Somewhere behind them, a wolf howled low and distant.

“You have no idea what she’s capable of.” Seth hissed and took a step that brought him closer to Jethro.

“And you have no idea what it cost her to survive you. Let her go, Seth. If not for her sake, then for your own. You’re losing control, and everyone can smell the fear in your territory.”

Seth’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. After a long moment, he handed Jethro his car keys and turned away.

“Take your car and get out.”

Jethro nodded once, brushing past him without another word. When he returned home with the car, he met Rashel by the door. They stared at each other without saying a word. Rashel looked at him as if begging him to say he didn’t cause any trouble. He simply nodded and went into the house, but Rashel understood that there was no bloodbath or any physical battle, at least.

****

When Seth woke that morning, he woke with the hairs on his body standing, and he didn’t know why, but he felt something was off. The last time this happened was when his father was killed, and so he resolved to take great care for the rest of the day.

He would have opted to stay home, but he had an important meeting that morning. Seth hardly moved with protection because he felt he needed none; no one would be foolish enough to attack an Alpha. But that morning, as he left the house, he had a security detail with him. Two guards from his pack accompanied him, even though he wasn’t sure what he needed them for.

By the time Seth had finished his meetings and set out to return home, the feeling of imminent danger had intensified, but he pacified himself with the fact that he would soon be home. It was then that a thought occurred to him: what if there was an attack on his territory while he was away? But surely someone would have called if there was. It was in his distracted state that he heard the first gunshot. His men got their guns ready while his driver tried to get away from the attackers as fast as possible. They were a few miles from his territory, and if they could just get there, they would have backup.

Suddenly, the car stopped; there was another car ahead that blocked the road. It was then that Seth realized he had been ambushed. But by whom? And for what reason? He would figure it out, but for now, he had to survive first.

His men got out of the car first, and for a few minutes, there was an exchange of bullets. While they were distracted, he got down from the car using the other door and transformed into his wolf.

His transformation took the men unaware, and using this as a distraction, his men managed to kill two of the assassins, leaving two. At this point, all the other men transformed and fought beast to beast. After about half an hour of a bloody battle, the remaining attackers fled, seeing as they had been outnumbered and overpowered.

Seth had been shot during the exchange, but he continued to fight alongside his men; it wasn’t until their attackers fled that he transformed back into his human self. He was weak and had lost a lot of blood, and no matter how hard he tried to stay awake and aware, he gave in to the darkness that overtook him.

Three hours later, miles away in an apartment lit only by a small lamp, Viola paced, boiling with anger like a storm waiting to be unleashed. Her lips were clamped tight in a straight line, her fingers clenched at her sides, and her face red with anger.

“What the hell was that stunt you pulled?!” Viola streamed the moment Merikh walked into the room. She had been waiting for him.

“Well, he didn’t die, did he?” Merikh asked nonchalantly.

“Have you gone crazy? What happened to waiting? You could have gotten us in trouble. What if they find out you sent those men?”

“They won’t.”

“You sent them too early,” she hissed after a moment’s silence.

Merikh stood in the shadows, arms folded, face unreadable. “Seth was supposed to be weak. He wasn’t supposed to survive.”

Viola turned on him. “And now once he wakes up, he’ll be suspicious. He’ll be looking for answers everywhere. If he ever traces it back…”

“He won’t,” Merikh cut in sharply. “He doesn’t know about us. And he won’t. We clean up, we stay quiet. Seth’s already too busy watching the wrong enemies.”

Viola looked away, her eyes burning. “He always was good at pointing fingers in the wrong direction.”

“Good,” Merikh said. “Let him keep doing it.”