Chapter 59
After showering and getting dressed in the yoga pants and sweatshirt I had worn after my nightmare, Daniel was dressed similarly in sweats, we headed downstairs for breakfast and more coffee. The household staff didn’t come in until after eleven as it was the weekend, which gave us time to ourselves and time with Ben, Maria, Richard and Miranda. Daniel had already arranged that we would get the planning for our trip and all other sensitive matters over with first. The household staff would be able to witness any prep for the meeting with the elders without any issues. It was barely nine, we had just sat down for breakfast when someone started banging on the front door. Daniel went to open it frowning, the next thing I knew Maria and Ben burst into the house.
“Excuse the intrusion but things have changed so we will need as much time as possible.” Maria sang as she charged into the kitchen her arms full of bags.
“What’s changed, exactly?” I asked as Ben followed after her, also carrying a number of bags.
“The council have voted and decided Charlie is to undergo a full medical examination and a tribunal. Tonight.” Ben said, his fear evident on his face. “Mom and Dad will be here soon, Mom has agreed to help prepare Charlie, so we need to get as much done as possible this morning. Charlie has an appointment at the pack hospital at five. She is to go straight from there to the tribunal.” Ben explained, his eyes were glued to the floor the entire time. Maria looked pissed but determined as she started sorting the bags and placing them on the table. Daniel had a face like thunder, I had heard him snarl several times as Ben explained what had been decided.
“What does an examination and a tribunal entail?” I whispered, shocked and scared.
“The examination will be a physical and they will take some blood, it won’t be too invasive, or intrusive. The tribunal however... well, one hasn’t been conducted in decades, so I’m not really sure, but from what I’ve heard, you will be sat in front of the council. They will ask you any questions they desire, if you lie, they will smell the fear, the sweat, and they will hear the increase of your heart rate. And if you lie, they can decide to banish you from the pack. Typically, a tribunal has only been held when a member of the Alpha’s family has broken a law or become a danger to the pack. But it has been used to unseat an Alpha before too. This is Owen’s doing, his way of ousting Daniel without challenging him.” Ben replied, his eyes fixed on his feet.
“We do have one thing going for us.” Maria piped up, which snapped my attention to her. “They have to appoint a council head, like a chairperson. Your father is the obvious choice, he can decide if a question isn’t relevant, and control the whole thing, like a judge.” She added for me.
“Alright, what do I need to know? What do I have to do?” I asked, deciding I had to be strong, I wouldn’t allow a bunch of old men to break me so easily.
“Well, the last person to go through a tribunal was Miranda,” Maria whispered. “So, she will know best how to prepare you and she will be here soon. I’ve brought a load of clothes for you to try on while we work, but first! I need a coffee, Daniel please?” Maria asked, she batted her eyes at him with a mockingly sweet face. I couldn’t help but laugh, the whole thing was ridiculous, but Maria’s response to it all kept me calm. And if Miranda could get through it, so could I. By the time Daniel had made coffee for Ben and Maria, there was another knock on the door. I tried to get up to answer it, but Daniel motioned for me to sit and went himself. Miranda breezed in the room with the same arrogant attitude she had expressed the day before, Richard followed closely behind her. I was clutching my cup by that point, struggling to maintain my composure.
“Well, we have our work cut out for us.” She sighed, looking me over. “Maria, could you take the clothes upstairs?” She asked, I tilted my head and raised my eyebrow at her. “Please?” She huffed, as she rolled her eyes. All three of the men in the room exchanged a look of confusion.
“Good morning, Miranda, so nice to see you again.” I smiled, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Do you want my help or not?” Miranda snapped at me. I took a deep breath.
“Yes, I do. Thank you for coming and agreeing to help me. I’m sorry and thank you.” I responded, shocking Miranda, Daniel and Maria, who was gathering the bags together.
“Yes, well, Daniel loves you, and maybe I misjudged you. I’m willing to try if you are.” Miranda bristled, as she took a seat at the table.
“I am willing to try, maybe we should get the coup business out of the way first? Then I will do whatever you say, I don’t want to give anyone an excuse to endanger Daniel’s role as Alpha. So, anything you can do to help me I will gladly accept.” I needed to play nice, even if only in the short term.
“Good, yes, I agree. Let’s get this over and done with. Richard?” Miranda called to him.
“Umm, yes, I have come up with a cover story, assuming this weekend goes to plan,” Richard said, taking a seat at the head of the table, his wife on his left and me on his right. He gently squeezed my shoulder and gave me a warm smile, which I returned. “I was thinking, the best story could be a version of the truth. You are both going to try and find out Charlie’s heritage, say you have a line on Charlie’s father, you can’t go to her mother because she is human, so you are tracking down her father for answers.”
“Would that work? And wouldn’t it be suspicious with the coup and everything else going on right now?” I asked, unsure about his plan.
“That’s actually the best part, by leaving and saying it’s to track down your father, it appears as though Daniel is looking out for the pack and abandoning it. His critics and those involved with the coup will say he is putting you before the pack. Allowing us to weed out those who have doubts and focus our attention on Pratt and anyone who speaks out. Those who see that Daniel is doing his best for the pack and who state so openly will be less suspicious than those who don’t.”
“Unless they use that as a smokescreen, support him in public while quietly poisoning the rest of the pack against him,” Ben stated, I could tell he was running scenarios in his head.
“That’s the gamble, but, with the added surveillance, I’m confident we will discover who is involved.” Richard nodded, and everyone looked to Daniel, ultimately the decision was his.
“Yeah, let’s do it.” He nodded looking at me, I smiled, to let him know I supported his decision.
“Okay, we will make the announcement after the tribunal, tomorrow might be best, make it seem like you just got the lead?” Ben asked everyone.
“Yes, that sounds like a good plan,” Daniel said, as he moved around the table to stand behind me, he placed his hands on my shoulders. He was too anxious to sit down, I could tell, but still needed to feel me, to keep his wolf at bay.
“Alright, now we should discuss the current surveillance, and what they’ve found,” Ben said, he looked a little pale. I knew it was bad when he couldn’t just spit it out, but when he pulled out several thick manila folders, I realised it was far worse than I could have imagined. “The first and second families we put under surveillance, as we expected, there was no suspicious activity. And we have ruled them out as part of the coup. However, we have surveillance images of Matthew Pratt meeting with Owen in the city. We also have several recordings of phone calls between Owen and a number of elders all of which are pretty damning, although he doesn’t say outright that he wants to replace Daniel, there is enough said to implicate him in the coup. We also have photos of a meeting between Pratt and a vampire, we aren’t sure who this vampire is, but we did get a name from our audio surveillance.” Ben started handing out photos and transcripts of phone calls. “We also found several text messages and phone calls in and out of the design department of Appletree. It appears Pratt has convinced most of those who work beneath him that Charlie would be the downfall of the pack, and they are spreading this extensively. Now, thanks to Charlie’s influence over the past week, firstly at Appletree and then whatever happened here, the omegas have been deploying their own counterattack.” Ben paused so everyone could fully assess what he had just said.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, dubiously.
“The omegas have been rallying to your side, so the numbers we estimated for the coup have dropped significantly. There are still several high-ranking members of the pack on their side, but everyone else, the assistants, the household staff, the warriors, have all been swayed back to Daniel’s side.” Ben announced with a grin.
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