Page 181 of His Fated Luna

"It's a viable plan-B,” I decidedly stated.

"Now hold on, Rose—” Dad began. "You can't make decisions like this without convening the Council. I think we need a vote to decide what’s plan-B or plan-A."

I massaged my temples. They needed to be patient. But everyone was so worried about me and eager to get rid of Alistair, they were going to end up making another mistake. Mistakes I knew we could not afford.

"The less people that know about this the better,” I replied evenly. "Our pack is in the hands of the wrong alpha. He isn't fit to rule. I can't convene the council without raising questions from Alistair." I looked at the three occupants of my TV lounge. "This all must be done covertly. No more going by the book."

Tony's face broke out in a grin for the first time.

"Nothing like a little coup d’état to start off my first day out of the hospital."

I brushed off Tony's comment. Suddenly remembering something else that I'd been meaning to ask my father.

"Dad, have you heard of Evercore Inc.?"

Dad jumped in his seat at the words. He looked at me in surprise.

"You just threw me back decades," he admitted.

I felt relieved. He recognized the name. Maybe he'd give me some answers.

"Alistair's been asking me about the company."

"I can't imagine why."Dad's eyebrows furrowed. "It's an oil drilling and fracking company. They tried buying the land adjacent to the creek that runs through our land and into Alistair's before emptying into the lake behind his house. This was around the time you were born. Austin and Alistair both refused to sell, werewolves love their land."

And finally, all the missing pieces of the puzzle finally clicked into place. Dad kept talking and my mind worked furiously, hoping additional information would help me.

"Evercore Inc. backed off, but Austin wanted to make sure no other company could ever try to coerce them or enforce re-zoning laws to try and get the land. Austin had an EIA, short for Environmental Impact Assessment, conducted to get stakeholders off our backs for good. It's a study done on the land, to gauge how a new project like commercial buildings or drilling for oil might harm the land irreversibly. That's how we found out that the creek was a vital habitat for rare aquatic life. There are endemic species residing there. Austin confided in me about it and planned to get any future development on these lands banned to preserve the unique habitat. But the day he was supposed to go turn the report in and make the lands off-limits for all times to come, he died."

I heard all of this and nodded, lost in thought. My mind was joining pieces of the puzzle. So Alpha Austin died, and the report was never turned in. But he had the report and Alistair knew if there was ever more talk about drilling or fracking on their land, Austin would be able to convey to the new luna where the report was. So Alistair needed the new luna in his pocket or needed her out of the picture. He'd tried to kidnap me as a baby in hopes of me one day mating with his son after effectively getting rid of Alpha Austin. A son he never had. Instead he had a daughter who I was beginning to realize, with unease, had been made to feel completely inadequate over being the wrong gender. When I was suddenly out of the picture, Alistair made a new plan that involved Lexia. If Lexia became Luna, it would have paved the way for Alistair to manipulate Aiden or the laws into obtaining the land for the oil company. Lexia would never have been able to converse with the elders and stop Evercore Inc. She wasn’t the chosen one.

I was reeling as the facts rolled through my brain one after the other, filling in the missing pieces at a disturbingly fast pace.

When I arrived back and Aiden had called me his mate in the diner, Alistair had me trailed. Had kidnapped me. He hadn't wanted to hurt me back then. No, he just wanted me out of the picture. He'd told Ray not to touch me. Maybe he would have hidden me away until Lexia and Aiden were mated for good. I recalled the way Aiden had confessed to me that Lexia's parents had been pressuring him to finally make Lexia his luna when he'd returned from his study abroad. Alistair wanted me out of the way long enough to tie Aiden and Lexia together for good.

My mind was making possible scenarios out of those pieces of the puzzle. When Aiden and Lexia couldn't get along and mate, Alistair knew his plan hadn't worked. And the oil company was probably getting tired of waiting. It had been so many years since Alistair probably kept promising them an eventual sale of land. Finally, when Alistair became desperate enough, he decided that at mine and Aiden’s mating ceremony, he'd hire someone to spike Aiden's drink with poison. But at that time no one knew Dylan had been an alpha. Alistair thought that by poisoning Aiden, he could have stepped into the power vacuum created by Aiden's death.

I remembered how it was just pure coincidence that during our mating ceremony Lexia and Aiden had been in there together. Alistair played a dangerous game. What if Lexia had taken the poisoned glass? But I assumed that the evil man probably slipped the waiter a cool amount of money to make sure only Aiden took the poisoned glass of champagne. However, Aiden didn't drink it and Dylan consumed it instead. That's when Alistair decided one final time to try and get Aiden out of the picture. That was why the fire nearly wiped all of them out. It didn't matter who else was harmed in the process. And if this final plan didn't work, he might have changed his plan.

The staggering realization that Alistair didn't want the land, he wanted the money that could come from selling a strip of landfalling in both pack territories made me crumple in on myself. How could I ever out maneuver someone like that? Someone so cunning and calculative that he had been willing to wait decades to finally win?

Six days and I was ready to run.

Dad was by my side in an instant as I clutched my midsection, quaking sobs engulfing me as I tried to explain everything to the three males who had been watching the wheels turning behind my eyes.

"I miss Aiden," I wailed, shaking my head, completely exhausted from recounting my theory. "I need Aiden here!" I sobbed into my father's shirt.

"He'll come for you, Rose,” Dad assured, patting my back soothingly. There was no way I was going to leave now no matter what he said. "We're here for you."

"I-I'm afraid," I confided.

"If there's anyone who can see this through," Tony began firmly. "it's you, Rose. And you've got us. Say the word and I'll pummel the bastard into the ground."

"You'll do no such thing,” I admonished, pulling back from dad and flicking the tears away from my eyelashes. I inhaled a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "Alistair has brute strength. Battle hardened I am not." It was an echo of Aiden's words.

He hadn't told them to degrade me. No. I understood he'd said them in an entirely different context. "But I have the brains to outsmart him." I gave a wobbly smile at my father. "And you guys are going to help me. We're going to need to use our minds if we expect to stall things for Aiden."

I watched the retired beta, current beta, and second alpha of the pack all nodded in assent with me, their luna. And there was a fierce pride in dad's eyes as he looked at me, his daughter.