Selene POV
"Good," I nodded and brushed past him to head back to the pack house.
"Don’t walk away from , Selene," Kurtis chuckled dryly "The fate of this pack rests in your hand. Only if you understand who King Tanner is, you’d not hesitate to help out. Are you so vengeful that you want everyone to die because of an offence that we know nothing about? How long will you harbour the resentnt you feel?"
"Resentnt?" I arched my brows as I stared at him, trying to understand what he was talking about "About what and on who exactly?" Then I shook my head as if to co to my senses as I murmured "I shouldn’t be doing this with you, Kurtis... engaging in a conversation with you will only make angrier, so please, let just walk away and good luck with whatever you think will happen, just count out of it,".
"It’s is your duty, Selene," Kurtis ran up to , blocking my path "When my grandmother rescued you that night and harboured the wrath from the moon goddess to keep you because you escaped from your mate despite being cursed... she had high hopes that one day you’d stand up for things like this. I can’t believe that you want to turn a blind eye,".
"Oh please!" I snorted "You don’t believe in the moon goddess or her powers. You didn’t change three years ago and please you can drop the act now... no one is here to watch us and I know you have these high-handed expectations from but you have to understand that I cannot do anything. I do not have the power to..."
"Stop lying Selene," Kurtis growled with annoyance "I watched my grandmother teach you how to control your emotions. You have the power to cast spells... not everyone can do it but you did it. Doesn’t that tell you sothing...".
I took a deep breath, trying to tie the frayed ends of my nerves. Everything was happening at once. I was becoming overwheld by it and the most annoying part was this. I’ve never been chivalrous. From being Xavier’s wife for seven years and enduring abuse and maltreatnt, I quickly learnt that the more I suppressed my emotions and spoke less of my opinions, I would be fine.
So, I was quick to accept I had wronged Belinda and would quickly apologize. Back then, when Belinda saw that I was no longer falling for her tricks, she gave up pestering and setting up. That was how I practically gained my freedom and survived.
"I cannot do that now, Kurtis," I said with a deep sigh "There are conditions to casting spells and controlling the elents. But I could do sothing else, anything but using those powers. Besides, the girls have not been having clairvoyance for a while now. I don’t know if the incident at Greyhound traumatised them but this is almost a year since we got back and not once have they been able to tell of sothing that’s supposed to happen in the future,".
"So, they’ve not seen this attack?" Kurtis asked perplexed.
"No," I shook my head solemnly "I must trade with caution. Anyways, I will do any other thing except cast spells or whatever it’s called,".
"Fine," he nodded. "I have another plan but it’s far more dangerous than the first,".
"Tell already, Kurtis..." I rolled my eyes.
"What if you pose as a mistreated, disgruntled wife and try to see King Tanner himself? The truth is that no one has seen him since he lost his mate. There are no weaknesses that we know of except his imnse love for his daughter but I want to think that Tanner doesn’t like to see won suffer or be mistreated in any way. In his Packhouse, for instance, none of the female maids does heavy jobs. They’re limited to taking care of the won. They don’t cook or do anything that requires them exerting a lot of strength,".
"So!" I chewed my lips trying to think and talk at the sa ti "I’ll infiltrate Tanner’s circle and whine about how Noah is a bad husband to and you think he would believe ?" I laughed "C’mon, even a baby would see through the laness of that lie,".
"What if you also go and inform him about Noah setting up soldiers for war? You know...sound like you’re distressed and you want to leave and you’re seeking redemption," Kurtis said.
"That’s stupid," I sighed "Seeking redemption? He won’t believe , Kurtis... that idea will not fly and please don’t tell you’re planning to use Princess Jade – his daughter as a negotiation chip. C’mon, we’re better than that. I thought these Kings knew what it ans to be dignified,".
"They don’t... especially Tanner. Why do you think a lot of packs stopped doing business with them? It’s because he doesn’t know how to take a joke and betrayal in Tanner’s book is not doing what he asks you to do. In this situation, he feels disrespected that Noah turned down the marriage proposal more than hearing his daughter went missing. Things like that matter a lot to him,".
"What if I go as Noah’s wife to demand why he wanted...".
"Bad idea," Kurtis rolled his eyes "Listen, more than anyone here, I have a lot of experience that I gathered in my years as a vagabond and whether you want to believe it or not, it’s always the last of strategies that work,".
"Fine," I sighed "I’ll stick to your plan but what provisions will be put in place to ensure I don’t get hard if things get out of hand,".
"Don’t worry, we’ve made careful arrangents for that. We’ll give you the code to use when you think you’re in trouble and we’ll be right there waiting for you,".
"This plan..." I tried to sound like I didn’t care "Is Noah aware of it? Did you inform Xavier? This is not because I’m into him or sothing but because of the girls," I added quickly.
"Yes, they’re aware. To say the truth, it was Xavier who suggested that we ask you to et with Tanner, sothing about you having your way with words to which Noah agreed but they were too ashad to ask you. Because they’re worried that you might not agree,".
"Valid enough!" I hid a smile at the back of my hand "Let know when you’re ready,".
~~~
Exactly two hours later, I set out in a car, that headed to the hotel in town that the emissaries from King Tanner were lodging. Kurtis insisted that King Tanner would be among these emissaries because according to him, the number of security details that the Western emissaries travel with at all tis is unusual.
In his opinion, that kind of detail is made available when they are trying to protect royalty or soone in that line.
So, it was possible that Noah may have t the king several tis and did not know. As the car stopped in front of the hotel, I gave so instructions to the driver before I walked inside. At the receptionist, I flashed Noah’s entry card at her and she nodded that I could proceed. Trying to fight the nerves that constricted my throat as I entered the elevator, I tried to think of sothing else.
As I waited for the elevator to close, and take up to the Tanner’s floor, soone slipped in, muttering a half-hearted apology as he bumped into (I was practically standing at the entrance). Imdiately he entered, he entered the sa floor I had entered so monts ago and the door swished closed.
As soon as the door closed, a certain anxiety seized as I stared at the profile of the man in front of . He had his back to , so I could only make out his long legs supporting an equally lanky torso. There was a cap on his head that concealed his hair and so part of his face but I saw golden locks sticking out from the cap... maybe he was blond.
Trying to shake off the feeling, I leaned at the corner of the elevator trying to rehearse my lines to King Tanner’s emissaries while hoping I would be able to find him with them. The elevator finally stopped at the floor and I waited for the man to leave before I stepped out and continued in the direction they had described where he was lodging to .
Sothing caught my attention... the man from the elevator from monts ago was behind . When he noticed that I was looking at him, he made a big production of stooping to tie his sneakers. I had to think fast...
If I wanted to go back towards the elevator, I would pass him and there was no way he wouldn’t know that I was trying to get back on. From where I stood pretending to be looking for the room number, I tried to co up with an escape plan. There was no doubt he had co for .
The room number I was given to look for the emissaries from the West was room 4B and from where I was, that was the exact room the strange man was kneeling in front of to tie his sneakers. What am I supposed to do?"
"Maybe confront him?" Bea suggested, "It might put him off for so seconds... long enough for you to escape. I had a bad feeling about this, Selene and I told you before we left the pack house but you never listen to ,".
"Not now, Bea," I chided my wolf and ended the mind link, these days, we didn’t agree on anything at all. It was either we were bitterly arguing about the right way to go about sothing or we weren’t speaking to each other.
Pulling myself to my full height, I approached the door. When I reached the man, I stopped in front of him and waited for his eyes to trace to mine.
"Hi," I said coldly "I’m supposed to go in there," I pointed to the door of the room.
"Oh!" he quickly jumped to his feet not before I noticed that he pulled the cap tighter to cover his face. He moved back quickly almost 200 ters away from causing my muscles that have tensed seconds ago to relax. As I raised my hand to knock on the door, from the corner of my eyes, I noticed the man struggling with sothing... it was black in color.
Turning to see what it was, the last thing I rember was him looming over with a smile and then the world turned dark.
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