Chapter 16

Asher~~~~

"Fuck! Fuck!! Fuck!!!" I yelled as I smashed the mirror with my phone. "Why is that fucker still alive?!"

"Asher, calm down," my brother, Dylan replied. "You're distracting me."

"What the fuck is there to not be distracted about?!" I hissed. "I paid a huge sum of money to that broker and I got nothing in return. That idiot is still alive and I'm stuck in here hoping this shit doesn't blow up in my face any second from now! What if the king finds out?!"

"Yelling isn't going to solve anything," he sighed.

"But it sure as hell is making me feel better," I retorted. "Fuck! I don't feel even a little bit better!"

"See?" he sighed again. "This is just a waste of your energy. This anger is supposed to be directed at finding a solution to this problem."

"And what solution do you propose?" I hissed. "Because I sure as hell don't see one. Just how hard is it to kill one stupid man?!"

"Calm your ass down!" he yelled, standing up abruptly and his brown eyes changed to yellow as he glared at me. He was just about two inches taller than me but he made sure to emphasize it as he stared down at me. "I warned you to be sure of the people you hire in the first place. Just how stupid can you be?!"

"Oh, now you're turning on me?!" I yelled. "I'm sorry if I don't meet your expectations but I'm out here busting my ass for both our sakes."

He sighed as he sat back down. "I know this is for the both of us. That's why I'm suggesting that we approach this sensibly. We can't be rash about our actions now or they could backfire big time. We have a broker who you have no identity on, an assassination which is obviously unsuccessful since that giant is still alive, and the said broker might have evidence against us. In other words, we've been scammed or the assassins were defeated. If the latter is the case, then we are dealing with a real freak this time."

"What do we do then?" I asked, finally calming down a little bit.

"We improvise," he replied. "There are many ways to kill a man. We already lost on the assassination front and sincerely, I don't think it's wise to try it again."

"Then what next?" I asked. "He is only gonna expand his influence on Ariel's parents slowly. Even though I'm more influential in the kingdom than he is right now, I fear that guy. There's something about him. An insatiable hunger to be powerful and I fear I might be on the losing end in the next few years or even months. I don't want to lose Ariel."

"Me neither," he replied. "That girl is our ticket out of this life of suffering and subordination and into wealth and affluence for generations to come."

"What do we do?"

"Then we just have to prevent that, right?" he asked. "We just have to make sure that he can't get to the point where he becomes a threat to you, right?"

"The problem is how?" I sighed as I finally sat down beside him. He placed his hand on my head and pulled me closer to him as he placed my head on his chest. "If I knew how to get him cornered, I would have done it as soon as he stepped into the kingdom. The only thing I could think of has just failed me."

"You don't know, but I do," he smiled.

"What?" I asked lifting my head off his chest to look him in the eyes which were brown again. "You do? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wanted to be sure so I was working on it," he replied. "I didn't think that you would just go after him without asking me first."

"I was scared, man," I replied. "I thought I had to do something before I lost everything to him."

"Well, that's in the past now," he sighed. "I have found a way to get him to bring himself under our mercy. By the time we're done, he would be the one begging us to kill him."

"And how do we do that?" I cocked an eyebrow, hoping he had something reasonable to say.

"You do know that he has multiple women living under his roof, right?" he asked, with a grin.

"Yes, I replied. "I took him there personally and I'm a royal guard so I have information on everyone in that house with him. What does that have to do with anything?"

"What if one or two of them disappears?" she smiled. "What if the kidnappers call and ask him to meet them somewhere quiet? A place where you could kill anyone and nobody will even notice no matter how much they scream and beg for help."

"That would be hard," I replied. "The guy is royalty and a guest of the Alpha himself. If anything happens to the people under his roof, all he has to do is inform Ariel's father and suddenly we're the ones being hunted."

"You think that way because you assume he thinks like you do, brother," she replied. "Do you think you would still be working for the king after what I did if the king thinks like you do?"

My brother, Dylan is a fugitive of the kingdom's laws as he had committed a series of untold crimes against us. Crimes that even I would frown upon if they weren't done by my brother. He was an administrator who worked directly under the king and using his position, he committed embezzlement, fraud, unlawful accusations on people who don't do his bidding, females especially and espionage. He sold some of the kingdom's secrets to other foreign packs while we were at war. I know he is the vilest person I have ever known, but he's still my brother and he has always looked out for me. He went into hiding with my help but he sneaks into the kingdom to visit me once in a while.

"What?"

"Never mind that, but if I was the king, I would have killed you or tortured you until your brother came back," he said dismissively. "The point is that he isn't the kind of man that you are. Some men are born and raised with hero syndrome in them. I am even more convinced of this because he comes from a pack which prides itself in chivalry, fairness and heroism. I know because I also tried to sell information to them that would have helped them win the war easily. In their words, they rejected it because they didn't want to cheat in a war where people were putting their lives on the line."

"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" I asked lifting my head again.

"Yes, little brother," he smiled. "Exactly what you are thinking."

"What if he doesn't care about her as we thought?" I asked. "What if he just ignores it?"

"Well," she shrugged. "He might not care about them, but he still has his humanity. He wouldn't let innocent people die because of him."

"And if he does?" I asked. "What if he tells the king immediately instead of coming on his own? That's the main problem here."

"Then we have nothing to lose," he smiled. "We kill her and pin it on him. We might not give much proof, but we can always attribute it to him being a Northerner and prey on the hatred and distrust between both sides. With a good argument and decent publicity, we could easily influence both the elders' and the public's opinions of him. That would tarnish his reputation and eradicate his influence We might not even need to wait for him to be convicted or sent back to his pack since you would most likely be in charge of guarding him. A well-planned attack would do the trick and we could blame it on the general public saying some unidentified werewolves attacked and killed him. If he is held in the dungeon, then of course we can easily get a few officers under your control and he would be snuffed out in a few days. There are so many options that the females living with him offer us. Also, with the bastard facing so many problems, who do you think would be Ariel's father's pride and joy?"

"Me," I smiled. "Dylan, you're a genius."

"I know, baby brother," he smiled proudly. "That's why I was able to stay alive this long."

"I'll get to work on it right now before it gets too late," I said as I picked up my phone and dialled the number of one of my goons, Larry.

"Larry," I said the moment he picked up. "Mobilize as many men as you can and make sure to kidnap any lady together with the Northerner at the moment."