Chapter 42: Proof

**Elliot’s Point of view**


The meal was interminable. I finally went back to my room and immediately took off these awful shoes. I'll never wear those horrors again.
I look at my phone but Alice hasn't called yet. I throw it on my bed and decide to take a shower.
I am just beginning to untie my tie when someone knocks. A little surprised, I open the door to a very agitated Owen and Simon. They walk into my room and I barely have time to close my door before Owen starts talking at full speed.
"Don't be mad at me, but I told Simon about the mission you gave me and it gave me an idea. I told you I didn't have the computer skills, but Simon's friend's friend has a cousin whose girlfriend is the sister of an acquaintance of ... well, yeah, whatever. I got the info you wanted."
"Wait wait wait. This friend ... the girlfriend of the sister of the acquaintance's cousin, anyway, what do all these people know?" I ask, slightly panicked.
"Nothing, don't worry. Just that I wanted to locate an offshore account."
"And you did?" I ask, excited.
"Better than that!" Simon exclaims. "The guy taught him how to hack the account and he has access to all the information. Like all of it!" He adds, giving Owen a big pat on the back. 
"The guy who used the card, Rudy Foley, he's got millions in his account, weird for a rogue, huh? And guess what? He gets regular wire transfers from one account. Offshore too."
"By the Moon Goddess! It never ends!" I say as I sit on my bed.
"It does. I have a name. Specifically the name of a company. Drum roll Simon please." 
And this idiot does it, with a big smile on his face, taking a malicious pleasure to keep the suspense going.
"Orion Resort."
I frown. "The luxury hotel chain? Makes sense. Alphas are rich because they own shares in companies. Because of that, we know that an Alpha with a percentage of that company is in league with the Alpha of the rogues."
"Wait what?" Owen asks, dumbfounded.
Oh shit.
"Long story. You just need to know he's the leader of the rogues and he's getting paid by an Alpha to attack us."
"Okay. But if only we had the name of this Alpha..." Simon says in a theatrical tone.
I stand up. "Do you have it?"
Owen takes a very serious look and a pompous tone. "My dear Simon. Did you know that banking transactions leave a trace, an IP address? And that each IP address is unique to each computer? And that computers are geo-locatable?"
"No, my dear Owen. I didn't know that!"
They look so proud of themselves for making me wait like this that I can't help but cut them off in their delusion.
"All this act to tell me that the computer is located in White Mountain pack and that Alpha Thomas is therefore behind it."
The look on their face is priceless.
"How the hell do you know that?" Simon asks.
I tell them what my grandfather told me and this time, Simon is much less excited than for my mom's story. It turned out well for my parents and Alice's parents, but the previous generation was not so lucky.
"What a horror. And no one ever knew. That's so sad. Violet and Vivian deserve to be remembered." Says Owen.
"At least now we have proof that Alpha Thomas is the brain behind the attacks on our pack." Says Simon.
I shake my head. "That's unusable evidence. I got the information illegally and so is what you did Owen."
"So we did all this for nothing?" Owen gets angry.
"No. Now we know who our enemy is. We know where to look for the links and evidence. He'll make a mistake and we'll be so focused on him that he won't have time to say whoops that the King will order to arrest him." I assure.
They sigh. "I guess that's all we can do for now." Owen says.
"Oh no. There's one thing Elliot can tell us." Says Simon, with a mischievous smile. "You and Alice have been gone a long time." He adds, wagging his eyebrow. "Come on. Tell us everything."
"Nothing interesting. We joined Prince Benjamin in the library because he wanted to talk to us, then we joined the King."
"You saw King Matthew? What is he like? What did he say?" Simon cuts me off, forgetting Alice.
"First very nice, then he literally ordered us to mark and mate. With his super Alpha tone. Alice told him to fuck off and we went back to the ball."
"Directly?" Owen asks suspiciously.
"Yes. But don't worry, we were careful not to come back at the same time." I lie.
"Look how red he is! I'm sure something happened." Owen teases me.
"You want to talk about things happenning? Fine. After dessert, you disappeared. And so did Sam. Coincidence?"
He wriggles around nervously and mumbles a good night before leaving. 
Simon still looks at me with amusement, but when I remind him that he too disappeared at the same time as Melanie, he is not at all embarrassed.
"Don't act like you're surprised. I already told you that we're unofficially together and we're just waiting for you and Alice to be together. And obviously, it's in a good way good." He says, patting me on the back.
I wish I could be so sure.