Chapter 83 - Battle Plan

Kai was the first one to arrive back at the guest house with Gabriel following closely behind.

As he went in, he spotted Dylan chatting animatedly with Rae. "Welcome back." Dylan gave Kai a quick nod as he approached them.

Gabriel entered soon after Kai. After spotting Dylan, he raised both of his eyebrows in surprise.
"Dylan?" He hadn’t seen him since school.

"Hey! Long time no see." Dylan gave Gabriel a firm pat on the shoulder. "Wow, you've beefed up a bit since school days. You look good." Dylan gave Gabriel a warm smile.

"What are you doing here?" Gabriel asked, confused at the growing audience.

"You know me, I've always been one to stick my nose in everybody's business and this particular business has everyone’s vested interest. That and I have duty to uphold the needs of our future King." Dylan gave a cheeky look in Kai's direction.

"Dylan" Kai reprimanded him sternly.

"Future King?" Rae questioned as she noted the eye contact between Dylan and Kai. She looked back up at Kai who was now stood next to her, with his arm wrapped around her waist. "Kai?" she prompted again.

"Ignore him," Kai said dismissively.

"I don't understand, am I missing something here?" Gabriel questioned.

Dylan chuffed and let the 'King' subject go. "That specific topic aside, I think we're all missing bits and pieces of what the hell is going on, which is why I wanted to see all of you. Now all of the key players have assembled, I think it's time we talk about how to correct the current state of affairs involving both Kaiden and Raeliana."

Dylan flipped some papers down on the coffee table. Kai, Rae, Gabriel and Arrow all gathered round to take a look. "Let's start with this."

"Who's this?" Gabriel asked.

"This is the guy that attacked me last night," Rae said.

Gabriel snarled in response.

"This is, or was, Darius Dawson. The one you asked me to look for Rae. The one that was on the CCTV footage you shared with me. You're right that he was in my pack, albeit unofficially." Dylan explained to her about Darius' connection to his father, Roman, and how he was under employment with Lucas as part of the Blue Moon pack.

"If Lucas sent him to find her then he must already know that she's your mate Kai. What we don't know is if he knows who she really is. I suspect the only person who will know that outside of us is the person working for Colton."

"If that's the case, surely it has to be Lucas, right?" Arrow asked.

Dylan sighed "That would be the most obvious assumption, but like Kai mentioned, Colton told him that he wants her alive. Whoever was working for Colton has now got their own agenda and must have turned against him for some reason. They want Kai dead or out of the way and the quickest way to do that is through Rae."

"So, who wants you dead?" Gabriel asked Kai.

"Who doesn't want him dead is probably the shorter list," Arrow replied for him.

"Based on the information that I've gathered; I've narrowed it down to three people." Dylan flipped down three pictures.

"This shit stain." Dylan pointed to a picture of Roman.

"Your father?" Kai questioned.

"We both know he has both the capacity and inclination to be involved and ultimately he was the one that arranged to have both Darius and Reid Dawson transfer to the Blue Moon pack. Both of whom have tried to attack Rae. It's very possible that he organised the hit himself considering how loyal those brothers were to him"

"Then there's Lucas," Dylan pointed at his picture. "Since Kai was sent out of the palace, he's been behaving suspiciously. He's usually pretty cool headed but he's been more forceful at driving home some of his more outlandish proposals at court. Many of which seem to favour his interests and more concerningly, relations with Sirran. That aside, with his daughter being married to Matias, it's in his best personal interest to have Matias succeed the throne."

Dylan moved to the picture of Kai's oldest brother. "Then there's Matias himself. There's no denying that he's had an aggrievance with you since the day you were born. We can’t discount him."

"I thought that for a moment too," Kai interrupted. "But it just doesn't feel right. It's not my brother's style to attack from the shadows. He's loyal to Galas, he would never sell out his own country and consort with the enemy, plus he's not the type to take orders, even from a King like Colton. He's too proud for that."

"True." Dylan nodded. "But like you said, we know that whoever was working for Colton has betrayed him. It's every bit as possible that Matias was working with him to get the information that he needed about Rae to get rid of you, then broke off contact with Colton once he had gotten what he wanted. As much as he likes to pretend that you're inferior to him, I suspect he's scared of what your potential could be. No matter what the circumstances were at your birth, you are the child of fated mates. He knows you could surpass him physically. We can't rule him out."

Kai frowned but allowed Dylan to continue.

"Regardless of what I’ve outlined here, all three have a connection and the meeting that they've planned between themselves only solidifies that at least one if not all of them are knowingly involved trying to get rid of Kai. I'm confident that it we can get eyes and ears on that meeting, then we can get the proof we need to confirm it. I've confirmed that the meeting is happening five days from now. I'm pretty sure we can provoke them in to having this meeting sooner *if* we start making some moves. If they’re caught off guard, they’re more likely to slip up and leave evidence. To do that, I'm proposing two things."

Dylan looked over at Rae.

"One, we need to formally present Raeliana to the palace as the lost princess of Aldia and the fact that she's fated mates with Kai. With her being of royal blood, her union with Kai will automatically grant her all the protection and rights of a Galas royal family member. Naturally, given the prospects, a fated royal pair will automatically re-raise questions about Kai’s candidacy for him to succeed the throne rather than Matias."

Kai growled. "That's not what this is for."

"I know. Regardless of your thoughts on that, it's obvious that the question will be brought up. We'd be foolish to not take advantage of this. I'm confident that this question alone will stir Matias, Roman and Lucas in to pushing their meeting forward. I think we can all agree that none of them are favourable of you. The sooner we can get them to convene, the sooner we can get the evidence that we need to out them. Which leads me on to what we need to do next."

"What's that?" Arrow asked.

"We need to get Kai's disciplinary hearing brought forward. No date has been set yet. As it involves a member of the royal family, all of the council and the royal family will be required to be in attendance. It will be the one chance that we have to challenge them openly, so we'll need to have the solid evidence that we need before then. I can liaise with the other alphas that I trust in the council to get that actioned. If his union with Raeliana is announced, they'll definitely want to try and resolve this quickly and more likely in your favour, given the elevated position that you'll be in from your union to Rae. If we can get the evidence that we need before then, we can lay all of our cards out on the table and end this all."

Kai looked down at Rae apprehensively. It already felt like there was a lot of pressure for her to go along with this but he'd still be willing to find another way if she opposed it. "What do you want to do Rae?" he asked. "There's obviously a sense of urgency to all this and a good element of risk which is..."

"Let's do it," Rae interrupted. She responded confidently with no sound of hesitation in her voice. "I'm done with waiting around to see what move everyone will play next. Let's take the lead on this."

Kai and everyone else in the room looked at her in awe as she responded confidently. Considering she had only discovered her true identity just a few days ago, she spoke with the conviction and eloquence of someone with who had been living the life of a noble for year.

Kai smiled at her with pride. He cupped her face as he pulled her towards him and then pressed a deep kiss on to her forehead. As he pulled back to look at her, the same determined look was still there, in the form of a confident smile on her lips.

"Before we head back to the capital, I want to spend a few days training you. Things could get messy really quickly once your identity is revealed publicly, so I want to prepare you as much as I can..." Kai looked over towards Gabriel. "...alone."

Gabriel bared his teeth. "That's not what we agreed. The condition was that I'd accompany her."

Kai remained calmed. "I'm not denying you that. You can from the moment that we get back to the capital, but I need to train her alone. With the time that we have left, the training I'm planning is going to have be rough and dirty for it to be useful to her. I can't do that with you there."

Gabriel gritted his teeth. "Rae?" Gabriel looked to her for support. If she told him to stay with her, nothing would keep him away.

"It's okay Gabe. I'll be okay with Kai," she replied affirmatively. "I'll meet you back at the capital."

Dylan looked from Rae back to Gabriel. "I actually had a job I was hoping you could help me with Gabriel. It will help with preparations."

Gabriel sighed. He still wasn't comfortable with this. He walked over to Rae and pulled her over to the side, to Kai's mild displeasure.

"Are you sure about this?" he whispered. "You know they're effectively using you as bait."

Rae gave Gabriel a tight smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. We're going to meet back up at the capital anyway, right? This is the first step to freedom, and possibly the first step to creating a secure future for all of our displaced pack members trapped in Sirran. We have to do this. *I* have to do this."

Rae wrapped her hands around Gabriel's big frame then hugged him tightly, taking him completely by surprise.

Gabriel couldn't help but smile down at the small woman in front of him. She wasn't a kid anymore that he could make decisions for. She was a grown woman, and she was making him apparent of that every day. "When did you suddenly get so grown up?" he asked quizzically.

"You make it sound like you're an old man. You're only a couple of years older than me you know," Rae replied petulantly.

Gabriel huffed. "Yeah, I know." He patted her on the head like the protective big brother he’d always been. "Listen to me, okay?" he asked.

Rae pulled out of her bear hug at looked up at his deep brown eyes.

Gabriel rested both of his hands on her shoulders. "If I don't see you back in the capital in more than three days, I'm coming to get you. I couldn't give a monkey if ‘his royal dark and moody’ over there likes it or not."

Kai's ears twitched at his words, but he also couldn't help but be slightly amused by it. He knew that although Gabriel was whispering, he had wanted Kai to hear it.

"Okay, okay" Rae said in a placatory tone.

"And one more thing." Gabriel leant right in to Rae's ear this time and really whispered. "Use what I've taught you so far and really kick his ass for me."

Rae couldn't help but giggle. "Yes sir."

Gabriel smiled at her then walked back over to Kai and faced him head on. The room got silent as Gabriel eyed him up.

Dylan snorted *'The guy has guts. Definitely a useful person to have on your side'* he said to himself.

Kai remained unnerved, with both of his hands casually in his pockets.

"I'm trusting you with her. She's not only my Queen, but my little sister too."

Kai's mouth twitched at the Queen comment. It was the first time he had heard her being referred as that. Of course, as the only surviving member of her family, that would make her both a Queen and an Alpha. The gravity of that realisation hit him like a sledgehammer. She wasn't just his. She was also the Queen of a lost nation. Kai's eyes strayed to her briefly before he refocused his attention back on Gabriel. "I know," he replied plainly.

"If this plan of yours all goes south...."

"You'll have first dibs on claiming my head," Kai interjected.

Gabriel snorted as he tried to suppress a smirk. "Good."

"Great!" Dylan said as he slapped his hand on the table to get everyone's attention. "Gabriel, Arrow, you can both come back with me. We should prepare to go as soon as we can."

Arrow and Gabriel nodded then split ways in the house as they prepared to leave.

"Before we do go, I need to talk to you." Dylan looked over towards Kai. "In private, if that's okay?" He looked apologetically towards Rae for permission to speak alone with him.

"Sure! I need to freshen up anyway." Rae nodded at both Dylan and Kai, then made her way down one of the halls to the bathroom.

Dylan motioned Kai over towards a study in the side of the house, then closed the door behind them.