Page 39 of Wishes in the Moonlight (Rocky Mountain Wolves #4)

~Amanda~

Savannah and Troy arrived at the landing outside the holding cells in the pack house basement just before I did.

Troy’s sharp gaze immediately swept over my shoulder, checking for my security detail.

Any other day, I would have chided him for being overprotective, but considering he’d taken a bullet for me that morning, the concern seemed justified.

And I had brought my guard, though now that I had Jasper and Troy there, I dismissed him.

“You can wait for me at the top of the stairs. Make sure no one else comes down.”

“Yes, Alpha.” He bowed his head before nodding once to Jasper and disappearing back up the staircase.

The scent of damp concrete and old metal hung in the basement air, nothing like the fresh pine scent of the main floors. Most of the pack never set foot down there, but for me, it was becoming an unfortunately familiar place.

“Where did you find him?” I asked Jasper, my head jerking towards the door that led to the cells where Beta Chad had been taken. “Did he put up a fight?”

“He left his wife and youngest children behind to try to throw us off the trail,” Jasper explained, his nose wrinkling in distaste.

“They claimed he wasn’t home but we found him cowering in the closet in the master bedroom.

Seems like your move to seal the border disrupted his plans.

He’d been hoping to get away and meet up with the attacking packs by now. ”

Fury prickled along my skin. Beta Chad had been my father’s closest friend and a pseudo-uncle to me, although never a particularly affectionate one.

My father trusted him, and though Chad made it clear when he resigned that he didn’t support me taking over, I never thought he would betray us like this.

Even if he didn’t feel he owed me his loyalty, he should have respected my position.

“What did you do with the rest of his family?” Troy asked, his voice tight with restrained anger.

“The ones at home are under house arrest, but his eldest son is still unaccounted for.”

That son being the one Chad had always wanted to be Alpha. It stood to reason he was part of this plot, too.

“Alright, let’s see what he has to say for himself.”

Jasper punched in a code, and the door to the cells unlocked with a metallic click. On the other side, another guard waited, and he inclined his head at my approach.

“Wait outside until we’re done,” Jasper instructed.

Only when the door closed behind him did I turn to face our prisoner.

Chad stood in the centre of his cell, arms crossed.

Despite his incarceration, his posture remained defiantly straight, his expression unreadable.

His hair, once a deep brown, had started graying at the roots, the colour fading like his former influence.

He was still in excellent shape for his late forties, a man who had spent his life training for battle.

His gaze settled on me, and a slow smirk tugged at his lips.

“You’re looking well, Amanda,” he said, the words pleasant but his tone laced with disdain.

“That’s Alpha ,” Troy snapped from behind me. “And she is well, no thanks to you.”

Chad barely spared him a glance. “And you’ve got yourself a new guard dog, I see.”

Cinder growled in my mind, the vibration of her anger thrumming through me. That’s our mate he’s talking about.

Yes, and if I tell him that, it puts a great big target on Troy’s back, I reminded her.

My father had gone to great lengths to keep Troy’s identity as my fated mate hidden, and although I never expected that to work in our favour, right now, it did.

As long as someone was trying to kill me, Troy’s anonymity was an advantage.

We need to stay calm. He’s trying to provoke us.

“We have reason to believe you’ve been plotting against this pack and its Alpha, Chad.” Just as he had, I deliberately left off his title. Normally, former Betas retained the honorific as a courtesy, but he had forfeited that right. “I would think very carefully about your next words.”

He didn’t take my advice.

“Actually, I don’t think I have to worry about that at all.” His smirk widened. “You can’t prove anything, and even if you could, it’s only treason while you’re in charge. Since the clock started ticking the moment you pulled that little stunt with the border, I’d say your time is running out.”

A chill settled deep in my bones as his words sank in. “What do you think I did to the border?”

“I don’t think you did anything,” he sneered. “I bet a very special ‘friend’ did it for you.”

“You planted the necklace!” Savannah gasped, pointing an accusing finger at him. “You knew about the genie. You set her up.”

Chad chuckled, feigning innocence. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He wanted to play games, but I refused to take the bait. He’d all but admitted it. “Where did you get it?” I demanded instead. “Was my father involved?”

Behind me, Troy tensed. Even without looking, I could feel the shift in his stance, the way his body locked up at the question. It was like my body had a radar for his, tracking his every move.

Chad scoffed. “Your father is the reason we’re all in this mess. If he’d listened to me and named my son as his heir, you wouldn’t have been able to stage your little coup and make the Ravenstone a national laughingstock.”

“That sounds dangerously close to treason,” Jasper said, his voice edged with steel. “Care to rephrase?”

For the first time, Chad’s smirk faltered, his jaw tightening. “Fine,” he muttered. “I don’t know about any necklace, but if I did, I’d say your family isn’t the only one with heirlooms.”

My pulse steadied with his response. If I was interpreting it right, he meant the necklace hadn’t come from my father. That was one small comfort. He might never have supported me, but at least he didn’t want me dead.

Since that answer didn’t change the bigger picture, however, I moved on, watching Chad’s expression closely as I asked my next question.

“Speaking of your son, where is he now?”

His eyes glinted with something dangerously close to triumph. “None of you will see him coming.”

Savannah turned to me, shaking her head. “He’s obviously with the attacking packs. This guy is terrible at keeping secrets.”

She wasn’t wrong; Chad had given away plenty, but it didn’t necessarily make him careless.

He was talking because he truly believed my fate was sealed. He didn’t know about undoing the wishes. He didn’t know it could all still change.

And that overconfidence might be exactly what we needed to give us the edge.

“I’ve heard enough,” I said, turning my back on the cell. “Jasper, keep questioning him. Let me know if he says anything useful.”

“That’s it?” Chad taunted as I walked away. “You’re even weaker than I thought.”

“We’ll see about that,” were my parting words as I left the cell with Troy close behind me. Chad might think he had already won, but I was just getting started.