My question shocks her
"What!? Spy on you!? No! Why would I want to spy on you?– For what!? For who!? I'm just..."
"You're just here to know every one of my plans, right!?" I cut her off mid-sentence. You want to find out my plans so you can do your best to thwart them before they even begin to take shape? Isn't that what you're doing right now?"
"No, it's not! Alpha, you're mistaken. I'm just trying to..."
"You're just trying to do what? You think you're irresistible huh? Is that why you offered your body to me? Do you think I'll suddenly be your bitch? Someone who will do everything you tell him to do the moment he has a taste of you?"
She looks panic-stricken now
"What!?..." She says in a whisper and adds hastily, "You're getting this all wrong! Please, if you would just let me explain. I swear to the goddess that I— I mean we, my mother and I, we're not here to spy on you, please believe me..."
Even though I didn't allow her to finish her sentence earlier, I realized where she was going with it. She was trying to sway me from killing her friends who blatantly disrespected me. I wonder what gave her the guts to think she now has that power over me? Even though I have the mind to throw her out of the car, I decide not to interrupt her this time and listen to her explanations.
"The truth is, I didn't actually mean to pledge my body to you. I–I just wanted to pledge my wolf to fight for you and beside you like a true disciple, you know, just that my mother..." She says in exasperation and loudly exhales
"My mother, she always wants to be the one that is right in everything, and most of the time she is, you see. And even in a few situations when she was not right, she would make sure to push her opinion on me, making me feel like a child who can't make her own decision.
She pushed me too far this time and made me say what I was not supposed to say. I pledged my body so she would know I'm no longer a little girl. I'm old enough to make decisions on my own and she can't stop me simply because she gave birth to me. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have involved you like that." She softly finished her statement, her fingers nervously clutching around each other.
I must confess that she indeed grabs my attention as she pleads her reasons to me. She is a beautiful girl, and very persuasive too with her big gray eyes. As I listened to her talk, I don't know why the image of a cute doe with big soulful eyes that Kane once hunted down but couldn't bear to kill suddenly came to my mind
"Please don't be angry with me, I'll take it back..." Her statement brought me out of my reverie
"No! You will do no such thing!" I rush to say without thinking.
"Excuse me?"
"Do I look like the kind of person you can use and play with? I accept your offer and I'll fix the date for the blood oath."
"What!?..." She says wide-eyed.
'No, General! You can't do that! You can't take a concubine, what about your mate!' Ella's voice resounds angrily in our mind link
I slightly turn in my seat and look at the foolish girl in disbelief.
"Excuse me!?..." I say out loud with a raised brow. "I can't do what?... Are you telling me what to do!? Giving me orders now, Ella!?" I ask coldly
She recoils
"Oh no! No, no, no, General! I wouldn't dare do that!" Her eyes widened, darting from me to Eric's before bowing her head in submission.
"Please pardon my outburst. It was a slip of tongue and I'll gladly accept whatever punishment you dim fit for me."
'Of course, you will! I'll revisit this matter later at the team's meeting!' I revert back to talking through our mind link before turning back to Victoria who is now looking between Ella and me in confusion, I guess wondering what had just gone down
"You said your mother was always right? Can you tell me, in what situation was she right and where was she not?" I asked this out of curiosity. I want to know more about the kind of person Carol is from her daughter. That was the main reason I separated them in the first place.
"Well... Ummm... Take what happened a few minutes ago for example. Ummm... What I'm saying is, she was right about the crush but she was not entirely right about male shifters not willing to move into their mate's pack, you know. I've seen it happen with a guy I know in college..." She rushes through her words, her face red with embarrassment as she admits to having a crush on me.
Even though I was hoping she would tell me about the issues that she had in the past with her mother, it's still interesting to watch her admit she indeed has a crush on me. And I must admit, I am also entranced by her. So much so I wasn't aware of the moment she changed from answering my current question to the matter of her friends' disobedience that she was discussed with me before.
"And about my friends..." She says and sighs heavily.
"Yes, Alpha, I admit that I was hoping I could dissuade you from killing them– not because I think I have some influence over you, sir, far from it!... I– I just want you to understand that they are not bad people. Yes, they should be punished for what they did but death!?...
She bows her head in respect and continues talking in that posture,
"With all due respect, Alpha, I don't think they deserve death. They're good shifters who have now become unfortunate just because they were fed with wrong information. Good shifters whose crime was following their superior's orders. Good shifters who have faithfully served this pack all their lives.
If you kill them then you're proving all the lies Evelyn, Justin, and Cyrus told them about you to be true...
Ben, one of the Gammas you're about to kill, just discovered he and his mate are having a pup. They were so happy we celebrated it.
Liam's brother died in a fatal auto crash earlier this year. He's the only one his aged parents now have left...
Let me not bore you with these stories anymore. I'm sorry for speaking out of order and I'll gladly accept any punishment for my offense." She finished her statement
Her head remains bowed as thick silence follows her statement.
'Eric?' I call through our mind link. He was silent when I accepted Victoria, the woman that we both agreed we didn't trust yet to be my concubine and it's weighing on my conscience.
I value his opinion a lot and since we'll be arriving at the second gate in about three to four minutes then it's important if I hear his point of view.
'Inasmuch as I know that she's right about what she said. You can't let them get away with openly disrespecting you like that. News travels fast. What do you think will happen to your reputation when folks get to know how your pack members defy you and you didn't do anything?
They will start to think you're soft. The pack will then be a target to all and sundry who would think they can wage war and take away our territory bit by bit. Even if we don't kill them, we can't just show mercy.'
'I get you...' I say with a nod before adding 'So what about the concubinage? Don't you have anything to say about it?'
'Let's discuss that later. We'll soon be at the gate anyway.' He simply replies
Judging by his cold countenance. I don't need a seer to tell me before I realize that he will never support the idea of me keeping Victoria as my concubine. I wonder why though. Ella was also angry about that idea to the point of opposing me, something she had never done.
Why don't they support me having a concubine when I know for a fact that they all don't like my mate? Could it be because they don't trust Victoria yet?
"I think we should pack right here..." Victoria's voice interrupts my thoughts.
"Why?" I raise my eyes to catch hers through the rearview mirror
"We need to have a plan before we drive any further. If Cyrus gave the order for the Gamma not to allow your men inside the pack then I can bet my life on it that he already had a plan in place to ambush you."