CHAPTER 55

Mila stared bleakly at the pristine countertop before her, her troubled thoughts on the Luna who had cried out her heart then gone up to her room hours ago. She had wanted to go after her, then thought better of it. Going to her when it was still so fresh would have hurt her pride more and compounded her shame. Everyone had heard the harsh and degrading words the Alpha had said to her.
The atmosphere in the house was stifling, unlike the quite joy that had been there earlier that morning. She could not wait for nightfall to get away from it all but the Luna was not so lucky. She was going nowhere without the Alpha's permission.
Like magic, guards had been deployed around the house after he left. His action had spoken volumes, loud and clear; he was going to punish the Luna for her betrayal by taking away her freedom and making her feel beneath him while he did it.
And it was a betrayal indeed. Mila herself had been in the dark all the while, from the mating ritual when she met the Luna for the first time until that morning.
"Morning."
The imposing voice jolted her out of her thoughts. She glanced up and her head went down when she saw Rose sitting there in her wheelchair. She had not even heard her come in.
"Morning ma'am," she replied quietly.
Elise materialized behind her at the doorway of the kitchen, her usually cheerful smile gone from her face. "Morning," she said solemnly.
"What's with the gloomy looks?," Rose scoffed. "I need to speak with you, alone," she said to Mila. Then she rolled away without a response. Mila followed after her quickly.
Rose turned around to face the girl as soon as they found a private place.
It still amazed her she had met the girl at the time she did. Rose believed the goddess had a hand in their meeting because if it had not happened the way it did, they probably still would be just members of a pack with ranks sepersting them. It had been her last visit to the mountaintop. The wolf had intruded on her silent thoughts and she had been so apologetic after.
Rose had been caught by something in her eyes and all through her rushed apology, she had just stared pointedly at her. There had been an unusual aura about the girl and she had continued to stare her down for a long while, expecting to get her answer. When she did not, she had asked.
"Who are you?"
"I'm a member of the Crescent pack, an Omega. My name is Mila and I'm an orphan. Please forgive my wandering, old Luna" she had replied with her head bowed.
"No. I meant what are you?"
"I'm an orphan,"
"I heard you," Rose had snapped at her. "What are you, orphan?"
"A Clairvoyant," Mila had answered solemnly, unhappy that someone now knew about her gift. But at the same time, she had been so happy to have someone recognize that there was more to her than being a lowly Omega and also, it had been her time to finally reveal to the old Luna all she had seen.
Like Rose, she had believed then that their meeting was prearranged by the goddess herself. There had been no reason to hide anything from Rose or be scared that her words would not be believed. There had been no fear of them landing her in trouble. The old Luna had recognized her gift, and every word that had come out of her lips, Rose believed, had been set in stone.
After that, she had become Rose's ears and eyes. Mila had watched Adele and the old Beta, reporting everything they did to her. Then Rose had made her participate in kidnapping Shana for the mating rites because she had feared that Adele might do something stupid. Then after that, Rose had made sure the girl was always with Shana. She was a kind of shield from hostility in the pack as well as a reporter to Rose but Shana knew nothing about all that. To her, Mila was just a friend.
"What happened here? What was the reason for your urgent message?," Rose asked.
"The Luna is a Crier," she replied hesitantly.
"How did you know?," Rose asked slowly.
"The Beta came in this morning and requested to see the Alpha urgently. Then, it turned out their discussion was about the Luna," she said.
"What else was said?," Rose asked calmly. It was not an easy feat keeping the urgency from her voice.
There was hesitation as Mila considered her next words before she said them. It involved Rose's son after all. "The Luna is here because of an assignment from a dead man," she replied carefully.
"What did the Alpha do?" That was what she really wanted to know. If all went as planned, the news should not have come as a surprise to Asher because his mate had been dying to tell him the day before.
Unless, she did not. It was clear in the sadness that crept into Mila's face.
"He left."
She felt helpless on hearing those words. Obviously, nothing had been said about her involvement or her grandson would have paid her a visit that morning. It was obvious Mark had intentionally kept that part a secret so as not to hurt Asher even more. But it only made her feel more guilt for the role she played in making Shana keep the secret to herself for so long. There was no question as to how Mark had found out. It could only be Adele.
"Where is the Luna?," she asked tonelessly.
"She's in her room."
Rose gave a short nod and turned to leave. There was no pont going to console a heartbroken Shana. Nothing she was going to say would make her feel any better.
Mila stared in wonder at the departing woman.
She had known everything. The news had not surprised her in the least. Instead, she had been sad and Mila had seen her at a lose for what to do for the first time.
★★★★★★★★★★
A couple of days after, Thomas paced around his room agitated.
It had been days since he got a cryptic message from Alpha Collins. It was no ordinary message when he finally understood the meaning.
It had arrived by courier. When he opened the large box in his office, hundreds of pictures of Adele had spilled out of it with each marked with a tiny, red dot on her head. They were pictures taken as she went from place to place and from them, Thomas had discovered she had paid a visit to Asher despite his warning.
But he had been relieved when she denied revealing anything about his mate to him after he confronted her. Since then, he had been waiting for Collins to make contact with him again but the Alpha was taking his sweet time and making him wait.
More convinced now, he believed he had dug his own grave the moment he formed an alliance with the coldblooded killer, but there was no going back now. His family was in danger.
And more than ever, he wanted things to progress as fast as possible because Asher was beginning to suspect him. He knew his Alpha had people watching his every move as well as his children's. Also, he had been able to find out from a loyal wolf about a strange wolf's visit to Asher. Things were spinning out of his control and Collins was just calm about it all. The bastard was so assured of his victory.
His phone rang loudly and he raced to pick it up without even checking the caller.
"Hello," he said calmly
There was the sound of heavy breathing at the other end of the line and Thomas knew it was the call he had been waiting for.
"I got your message and you should know my family is keeping her mouth shut."
"Good," Collins replied heavily.
"But you are not keeping a tight leash on your dogs. Asher got a visit from a wolf, and a message. If my guess is right, it is one of yours," he said then paused meaningfully but there was no response from Collins. "We are the only ones in on this. The wolf isn't one of mine. It has to be one of yours," he added convincingly.
"Do you know him?," he asked sharply. It was evident from Collins voice that Thomas had gotten to him. He hated failure, no matter how small it was. His victory so far, has been faultless and without any loopholes. And this was a big failure. They were going to be in trouble if Asher found out about them.
"His name is Kevin Sharpe."
"The name is fake," Collins said with irritation coating his tone.
"You should know. He's one of yours." Thomas smiled to himself. It felt good to put the arrogant bastard in his place for the first time.
"Watch it old man. The messenger would be found and thoroughly punished," he said coldly, making the hair on Thomas's back stand on end.
"Who could it be?," Thomas asked in an undertone, the earlier conceit and aloofness gone from his voice.
"Only one wolf in my pack dares," Collins replied, his voice sharp and frigid.