CHAPTER 87

Mila watched the furious rush of activities around her with consternation. She had no idea what was going on but it wasn't going to be a pretty day.
She prayed silently for Shana to continue to be safe. She had come here and all her suspicions had turned out to be true.
And she had learnt more.
Shana had actually been pregnant. She wondered what more Elise had kept hidden.
Her running off to rescue Shana was the stupidest plan she's ever had. But she had felt restless while she waited for Cole to get hold of the nomads that had rescued him to help him. She had grown restless watching Armando and Mark flounder around Elise, waiting for her to slip up.
Everyone had been trying to be methodical and reasonable about it. And they had all wanted to keep everything from the Alpha but the mere thought of what Shana was going through when everyone was tiptoeing around had spurred her into action.
It had been easy to blend in once she entered the territory. No one noticed anything off about her presence, just like it had been all her life.
A stupid decision, because now she knew the need to have thought it out before coming to Collins' door.
The man was cunning, she would give him that. Since her arrival, she had only caught a glimpse of Shana once and Mila would forever remember the blank look she had seen in her face. And she had realized there was no way she could help, unless she wanted to get both of them killed.
"I want the whole territory searched and turned over till she's found. If you see anyone who seem even the least bit suspicious, I want them dead!"
She heard the bellowing before Collins himself materialized, surveying his surroundings with the eyes of a hunter.
Everyone was running around but Mila stood there. Then words from people around her started filtering into her ears.
"..... believes it's an escape" "....someone helped her escape" "....she's a Crier."
Her blood ran hot and cold as she pieced the words together.
"God please, don't let them find her," she prayed as one of the guards pushed her out of his path.
★★★★★★★★★★
"Thank you Elise, for all that you've done" Asher said with a big smile as she placed his breakfast before him.
"You are welcome. I'm so happy to see you down here, just like the old times before...," she broke off as her eyes misted over. "I'm sorry for bringing up painful memories."
Asher flashed her another indulgent smile. "It's fine. I'm fine. You can talk about old times."
Elise wiped her tears on her handkerchief and smiled back.
But inside, her mind was in a turmoil.
Why was he looking like he moved on already? Was there a new development she didn't know about? He should be depressed and on the brink of taking his own life, not smiling like all was well with his world.
But it was a relieve to know he believed her.
In the past weeks, she had tiptoed around and had to watch everything she said or did.
She was not stupid. She knew everyone had been watching her and she had known all of Mark's care and attention had been a ruse.
She had known him long enough to know he was not capable of doing anything he even suspected to be wrong. His moral compass was one that even his father had feared.
So she had watched him make a nuisance of himself while she played along with him. It was either that or send him to hell like his cowardly father.
"Are you sure you are ok with that?," she asked testing him.
"I'm. In fact, I insist you talk about old times. Can you recount to me again what happened that day? From the beginning to the end," Asher said, resting his arms on the table and casually picking his coffee to take a sip.
He saw Elise pause momentarily, a startled look entering her eyes. "I don't feel so good after I remember it all," she edged. "If you'll excuse me," she said and started to leave the kitchen.
"I'm afraid not." His voice boomed, ,stopping her dead in her tracks. Elise turned back to him sharply. "You'll start talking now Elise."
Elise turned sharply to see the look he levelled on her. It was a look she had seen several times but it had never been directed at her.
It was the look of death.
"Ash...Asher...why...I mean, what do you want to know?," She asked clearing her throat nervously.
"Everything."
"Like I told you, Shana killed...."
"Stop with the lies!" She jumped as his hand connected with the kitchen table. "You had better start telling the whole truth now or I swear to God I'm going to make you suffer."
"Nothing you are going to do would make me suffer. You know nothing about suffering. Suffering is seeing the man I loved being used and shamed by your whoring mother while she lived on like nothing happen. Suffering is watching him die while a bastard took over everything that belonged to him. Me suffering is watching you happy, living happy ever after while Adam couldn't even find peace in the afterlife," Elise delivered rapidly, her temper fired in the face of discovery and knowing she couldn't hide anything from him anymore.
"So, that's your reason for getting Rose killed and endangering Shana?," Asher asked bitterly, cold sweat pouring out of him.
"It was more than enough reason to kill the lot of you," she answered vehemently, no longer scared of what he would do to her.
If he didn't get her out of his sight, Asher knew he would commit murder.
"Get her out of my sight." He had barely said the words before Armando materialized. He had been waiting just outside the door for that moment.
"What are you going to do to me? Kill me? Lock me up or exile me? Nothing you do is going to make any difference to me," she screamed hysterically as Armando dragged her out and deposited her in the waiting arms of two other guards.
Then he turned back to Asher. "What now?," he asked unceremoniously.
"Now we go get my mate. My God, I hope she's well. What have I done?"
He dropped his head into his hands and pulled at his hair painfully.
Shana was never going to forgive him, that much was certain. It was never going to be the same between them ever again, after abandoning her for weeks.
"We need a plan," Armando finally said.
"I don't need a plan. I just need to get her out of there."
"You do. You charging in there is probably what he expects and we are not giving him that satisfaction. I've really given it a lot of thoughts and I've a plan. I've only been waiting for Elise to slip up and say something."
"Spit out this plan," Asher said with agitation.
"Elise is going to help us. I don't know how we are going to make her do it but we have to use her to lure collins."
"What do you mean?"
"He trusts her and that works in your favour. You will make her draw Collins out, make an arrangement to meet with him and when he least expects it, we apprehend him or kill him. And no matter what you have to do, Elise must dance to your tune."
"But that doesn't mean Shana would be safe. I don't give a damn about Collins or his games. I just need to go there and get her out."
"You'll go there and you'll get killed."
Armando could understand his rising panic but someone had to be calm and it was him but Asher's agitation was pissing him off. He wished his Alpha had listened to him earlier.
"I know how to make Elise do exactly as I say. Get her here."
Armando made a phone call and a few minute later, she was shoved back into the kitchen with them.
"I need your help," Asher said coldly.
"And you think I'll ever help you? The goddess forbid it that I help you!," she said and spat in irritation.
"Then you leave me no choice. I promise to dig up Adam's grave and cast his remains to the animals he loved hunting so much. Then I would move his headstone out of the territory and you know that means his wolf would never find peace. It means exile from the pack," Asher said each word coldly and with emphasis as he stood to her face.
"Noooo!!!... You wouldn't dare." Elise face had gone pale and her body trembled as he said every word.
"I dare and I wouldn't just stop there. I'll race his house down with everything that would be here to remind anyone of him. And if you truly loved him, you should know how much the place meant to him."
"You can't, you mustn't," Elise implored shaking her head vigorously.
"Then you would help me."
"What do you want me to do?" She was distraught and finally, scared.
"You'll help me get my mate out of the hell you put her in, and it doesn't stop there. You'll get Thomas, Adele and Collins out of their hiding place too. I want them to pay for what they've done."
"No, no. Ask something else of me, I can't help you do that. Collins would kill me like he killed Thomas if he finds out," she said quietly.
The news of Thomas death came as a surprise to him but he felt nothing else. The man deserved it and he didn't care for the events that led to his death.
"The way I see it, you either die by my hands and make the spirit wolf of the man you love pack-less or you die by Collins' hands. The choice is yours and you need to decide now. I've no time to waste."
Asher saw the emotional conflict he had plunged her into on her face but he knew what she would choose.
Love, as he already discovered, mattered more than anything else.
"I'll help you," she said resignedly.
"Good. You'll arrange a meeting with him for today. Make it sound urgent. I want him running to see you and I want you to convince him to come with Shana."
"I've not spoken to him in a while and that's going to sound suspicious.."
"Then do all you can not to," he cut her off sharply. "What are you waiting for?," he asked when she made no move.
"I've a phone for communicating with him but I can't do that with both of you here," she replied.
Asher scoffed "Are you suggesting we excuse you so you can stab me in the back again? You must think I'm stupid. Go ahead, make the call or Adam would would be out of this territory before you could blink."
She produced a phone from her skirt pocket hurriedly and turned her back on them. Asher watched her intently as she dialed the number.
The call connected on the first ring, like Collins had been waiting for her to call.
"You backstabbing bitch! Where the hell have you been?," the cold voice screamed into the phone.
"I didn't backstab you. I've been waiting for the right time. Every move I make is being watched and I couldn't risk getting caught."
"Now is good? I've been expecting the bastard to charge in here weeks ago but that never happened? What did you say to him? Didn't you tell him his unborn child is involved in this or the coldhearted son of a bitch just doesn't care?"
Armando's hand on his shoulder was the only thing that stopped him from charging at Elise and grabbing the phone from her-after strangling her of course.
Shana was truly pregnant? Then why had Elise lied about it?
The answer came to him immediately.
Because she knew he would have gone for Shana, her killing Rose and betraying him regardless.
He was going to kill her, he'll kill them all slowly.
"I want to meet with you. But I need you to come with the Crier and Adele."
"Why do we need to meet? You just need to tell me how to make my next move in there. And why the hell do I need to come with them to meet you?," he shouted irritably.
"I can't say anything over the phone. It's complicated. I'll text you the place and time to meet. I've to go now, someone is coming."
Then she ended the call before he could say more.
"Believe me Elise, you are so dead," Asher whispered in a dark and ominous voice, his eyes frozen over.
Elise shrank back in fear, starting to regret ever messing with him.