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Sierra called as I got in the elevator, “We all know that, Mel.” Yeah, well someone should tell the Bounty Hunters that. I called, “Tell everyone to get ready to extract Talia.” She huffed, “Ezra just had to be a dick.” He really did, but that didn’t surprise me.

I muttered, “Someone really needs to tell the Bounty Hunters the definition of insanity.” I gasped, “That’s it! I can tell them. Yes. Perfect!” I had a whole plan to get my message across because SOMEONE was going to listen to me today. It was happening.

I walked to our holoport and stepped through.

I easily found the first soon to be dead Bounty Hunter.

He grunted, “Hey, this is my bounty.” I snorted, “It’s your nothing.

Haven’t you heard of the Resistance?” He paled and I quickly slit his throat.

I ripped off his shirt and in blood wrote: Insanity. On his chest.

I found the next one and snapped her neck. I’d killed several of them when I found a group. Perfect. I tapped the buttons on my watch and scrolled through the weapons list. I picked the grenade and my watch produced it.

I threw said grenade into the building. No one came running out of the building though after it went off.

I muttered, “Surely, they weren’t all standing in the same place.

I went inside and discovered they were in fact gathered in the same spot.

They were all blown to pieces. Whatever. I could work with this.

I grabbed some body parts and took them outside.

I lined up all the body parts and wrote on them in their own blood.

I laid them out in an order, so the blood read: Insanity: defined as repeating the same action over and over and expecting different results.

LEAVE HIM ALONE! The last body had a resistance circle.

I sensed a change in the wind. My instincts practically screamed at me that someone was coming. I quickly ran and climbed a tree watching the area. I grabbed my sniper rifle, looked through the scope, and saw the head of Xander’s guard, Egres.

I took my finger off the trigger. I watched as another member of Xander’s guard, Gordon, appeared. They both looked at each other and got on their phones. I nearly called them tattletales, but they were doing their job.

They were really close on my tail this time, but I was happy they were so good at their jobs. It kept Xander safe… so… we were all the same team, which they clearly knew. Because they were usually the first on scene after I’d killed people for my mate.

King Bjourn came through a portal, along with Alpha Eric. I ached to run to Alpha Eric and practically demand he be an Alpha of worth. I bit my lip hoping to see pride in his eyes. I wanted an Alpha’s pride back in my life so badly.

I nearly fell out of the tree leaning forward but saw that he was impressed. That was practically pride, and my blood hummed with recognition. He was supposed to be my father in law and he was an Alpha. It totally counted.

They looked at each other for a while before they started talking.

Alpha Eric commented, “So, yet again, it’s for Alexander.

” Everything was for him… obviously. Was that not obvious?

I mean Laxenread… I didn’t kill Ariena yet, but I was trying…

I’m super busy and I did hurt her… so… I’ll get her eventually.

I killed Bounty Hunters for him… a lot. It was basically a full time job.

King Bjourn said, “This isn’t even the first time the Bounty Hunters have been dead when we got here.

The Resistance protects Alexander with more ferociousness than anyone else.

Why won’t they talk to him?” Umm… technically speaking, I do talk to him all the time now…

in email, which counts. He just didn’t know it was me.

I wiped a tear away that was going to fall. I wanted to tell them that I listened to every single voicemail he left for the sniper… some multiple times. I transferred them to a file on my computer so I could hear his voice. He sounded so sexy… which really helped with forming ILYX… so…

Egres’s voice jolted me back to the conversation, “There has to be someone who would do this for the Duke.” Plenty of women would want to. A pain filled my heart thinking about all the women that came down to brag about my mate in front of my face.

On the one hand, my mate was the whole package.

On the other, he was supposed to be mine.

Circumstances just ruined all our chances.

Maybe when he figures out all I’ve done for him, he’ll understand and consider giving us a real chance.

He liked talking to Ashley… who is me. So, in some ways…

when you think about it… he did like me.

Alpha Eric was rubbing his head. I frowned wondering what was wrong with him. Did he have a headache? King Bjourn said, “Let’s take this back to our realm. Bring the bodies back with us. Maybe we can get something off them, like a fingerprint.” I nearly snorted.

As if I would’ve been that careless. I was wearing gloves. Gordon grumbled offering, “We never do.” King Bjourn reasoned, “Eventually, something has to break our way with this group.” No, it didn’t. It really didn’t.

I waited fifteen minutes after they left. Somehow, I knew someone else was here. I saw another portal open, and Prince Louis Cambridge left. I waited another half hour. I was about to get down when another portal opened.

I grabbed the tree branch so I wouldn’t fall. Prince Gabe Cambridge had just left. I was normally better at figuring out people were here. Maybe they’d figured that out and adjusted accordingly. Or they were further back. I’d have ILYX run diagnostics and recalibrate.

After an hour, I got down. I jogged towards our holoport. I rounded the corner of the building when I heard a man yell, “STOP!” My eyes widened when I spotted Crown Prince Hastein Cambridge. Shoot. I turned and ran for all I was worth.

He yelled, “WAIT! I WON’T HURT YOU! STOP! I JUST WANT TO TALK!” Portals started opening but I was already out of sight at our holoport. I went through and ran into our building. I put my hand on the inside of the elevator and took deep breaths. My heart was pounding.

Of course the future King waited the longest. I’d do better next time when I was observing before leaving.

Crown Prince Hastein wouldn’t come close to catching me again.

I grumbled, “Now, I just need to plan to hide another Future Luna… in another pack… gosh I wish I could say it was the first time.”

Seeing the Cambridge’s reminded me I needed to reach back out to Benny.

He was resistant to letting me help him, and the ONLY reason I let him somewhat get away with it was because he’s Xander’s cousin…

.plus Sierra pointed out that I did understand his drive to get his vengeance… but I was trying to help him with that.

I could call JJ. He was funny and I was certain he and Alexander got along the best out of everyone. I winced knowing it probably hurt Xander to have JJ in the shadows. Jason would probably like him too. JJ thought I was funny.

So, ultimately when I went to Xander having his cousins like me was good. Alastair and his kids like me too. I should check their trackers and make sure they were all ok. Ugh. Sometimes it was exhausting running everything alone. But for now… it was the way it had to be.