88. The Plan

“Tell him we don’t have the key,” said Seff easily.
Sienna’s smile left as swiftly as it came. “*That’s* your plan? If you refuse, Kiran will only torture one of you”—she glared between Hawthorn and Wisteria—“or that whiny friend of yours. I doubt he even needs it. How hard can it be to break—I’m assuming—a wooden box?”
Seff fought her scowl. She felt like such a child. *I didn't think of that*. The records weren’t invincible. They were wood and paper. A match was just as effective as an Alpha’s teeth and claws.
“He won’t do that.”
All attention went to Wisteria.
Sienna snorted. “What makes you think you know more about my Alpha than I do?”
“Simple: pride. Males like him thrive on pride and twisted honor. He favors symbolism, no?”
Wisteria’s calm statement made Sienna shift her weight on her feet. “Don’t make me agree with you, Omega,” she grumbled.
“We don’t know if Selene has the box or Kiran does,” Wisteria said, meeting each of their gazes, and Seff felt a shiver run down her spine, “and we don’t know just how much *they* know. But you, Delta, are going to go to Selene and tell her we don’t have the key.”
“And?”
“And she’ll come. It will be a lie to lure her here. With both Alphas together, both wanting the box and the key—”
“You are making confident assumptions,” warned Sienna. “Whatever the fuck’s in this box…” She shook her head. “I know those two are in on something—she’s obsessed with you as much as he is—so will they attack each other—and maybe you,” she added, glaring at Seff, “to get what they want?”
Seff’s confidence started to wane before she could fully embrace it. *Am I really going to sacrifice myself to keep the key and get the box? Could we light a match fast enough*?
She had to fake it. She had to rely on Kiran and Selene’s fixation on their dead mates whose memories might be locked in her own mind. “If they really want me, they won’t touch me.”
Sienna’s scowl was legendary. The picture she knew was barely half of what Seff’s was. Clearly she did not like going into a deal blind. *Is her hatred for me strong enough to outweigh uncertainty?*
“Am *I* going to be the one to steal the box?”
Wisteria lifted a shoulder. “You can be. Does Kiran care enough about you to not attack *you*?”
The Delta tensed as if ready to bite Wisteria’s superior expression off. “You all have too much gall for your tiny bodies. Fine. Let’s say I get the box from either of them in a best-case scenario.”
At that Wisteria turned to Seff. With the sudden gravity she looked at her with, Seff felt bowed. “That is up to you, little wolf,” she said quietly. “Either Sienna runs…or she lights the match.”
That was the ultimate question: keep or destroy the Amaranth records?
*So, only if you want to, you can burn it all.*
Seff could read every word and learn her family’s history, her family’s great legacy.
Or she could avoid learning—avoid possibly remembering her past lives—how generations had gone mad just because four wolves fell in love.
Her mother wanted the “tradition” to die with her—for the better. But why was it suddenly so tempting to preserve a collection spanning dozens of lives and experiences?
Read or burn?
Seff imagined she wouldn’t be able to decide until she saw the box herself.
Steeling her nerves, she said, “We get there when we get there.”
Sienna threw up her arms. “Gods, how stupid can you flowers be?! Plans involved *planning*, not indecision. Not being able to choose does not lead to the desired outcome.”
“Seff.” Hawthorn’s voice strummed her nerves. “You really don’t want to even see the records?”
“I…”
The past weeks played in rapid succession in her mind’s eye. All the push-and-pull, the pleasures and pains, the gold and blue blurring together with red—
“No,” she decided with finality, meeting Hawthorn’s gaze. Her best friend, her fuck buddy…the male she truly loved. His lips that she wanted to keep kissing quirked. “I don’t want Kiran or Selene to see them. If they do, they’ll only try to keep me prisoner, each keep trying to find someone I’m not. I’m done being a plaything.”
Hawthorn smiled radiantly and pulled her into his embrace, straight into a kiss. “That’s my Omega,” he beamed.
“Fuck’s sake,” hissed Sienna, rolling her eyes. “So the plan, once Kiran and Selene are in the same area we are all, I get the box, I light said box and whatever’s inside on fire. Then what?”
Seff felt safe and in control with Hawthorn’s arms around her. “Then they have nothing left and I go home with my packmates.”
Sienna wasn’t convinced, but then she decided her time wasn’t worth it. “I’m assuming you want me to do whatever it takes to fulfill my end?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. I’ll leave now, I guess.”
Seff didn’t want to wish the surly wolf who wanted to kill her good luck, but she said it anyway. The Delta waved a dismissive hand and left the room.
A brief threat resolved, Seff went limp. Hawthorn scooped her up and she was more than content to let his body curve around hers lying on the couch. Through her eyelashes she watched Wisteria sit across from them and read the letters. The Magnolia seemed to be drained of her strength in favor of letting herself grieve.
Hawthorn pressed a kiss behind her ear. “We’ll win and then we’ll go home, Seff. Promise.”
He couldn’t promise, and whatever happened in the near future hopefully wouldn’t be a fight, but she closed her eyes and smiled anyway. “You’re my home, Hawthorn.”
“Magnolia Manor—” Hawthorn stopped short, realizing the meaning of her words. His arm looped around her torso and tugged her closer, her back to his chest, their legs tangled together as if for warmth. “You…don’t want to go back there, do you?” he asked softly.
Her throat went thick. “No.”
No need to say why aloud. *My parents are dead. They were killed by our pack leader. My brothers hate me. I didn’t have a house in the first place. Who knows what—or who—Allium will choose*.
“We could live anywhere else.”
Seff blinked and craned her neck to look at him. “What?”
He smiled briefly and lifted a shoulder. “We can be lone wolves. Just…travel. Or we can join your dad’s pack, right? They’ll take you in at least. We can…” Hawthorn trailed off, suddenly sheepish. “We can…if you want…”
“Mate?” she guessed softly.
“And get married?”
Seff managed her own smile, feeling her heart return to its rightful place and bloom with wonderful emotion. Lying together on a couch in their now-mutual enemy’s harem, having just learned they were betrayed by their Alpha, knowing that Seff was the third reincarnation of a Magnolia bloodline, and about to thwart not one but two immortal Alphas’ plans…Seff felt a brief spark of hope—something to cling on to, to remind her of what she had.
She twisted around so they were chest-to-chest, pressing a kiss to his lips. “Yes. Definitely. Now let’s kick some immortal ass.”