Chapter 212
Chapter 212
+25 Bonus
Concern flowed over me. After all, if the Rogue King decided that Avery was paramount to his plans, that must make Zara and I relatively more expendable. If he decided to do away with one or both of us instead, there would be little I could do to stop him.
Did I need to watch my back?
If Reynaud had lost a powerful ally on the Council, then he would need Zara and I more than ever. I just had to continue to ensure that I was indispensable to him and his plans.
Still, the Rogue King’s fixation on Avery made me feel uneasy, like I had a target on my back. If it came down to saving me or her, it was pretty obvious how he would choose. I had agreed to this plan to try and secure myself a place in a powerful pack, and the way the situation had been presented, it had sounded like it would be the easiest thing in the world. Just seduce Gideon, and manufacture the situation so that Avery was ousted and the Rogue King could snap her up for himself.
But although I had been somewhat successful, Avery was still a thorn in my side. While I had her doing her weeks of punishment, I had thought we were winning. Surely, I thought, Gideon will soon divorce her and we can move on for good.
Now, in a sudden stroke, all that had reversed. Avery was restored to Luna, and it sounded like she had even earned social capital in the eyes of the Wolven elite. Furthermore, I had badly misjudged Gideon’s true feelings towards her.
He had fooled me.
I would not give him another chance to do so again.
As I drove back to Nightwolf pack, I was troubled about the sudden increase in power I had felt from Rogue King. I would have thought that all these setbacks would have caused his aura to diminish, but the exact opposite was true.
So what was the source of this surge in his power? Alphas gained in strength from the number of warriors and powerful wolves in their pack. The most powerful Alphas were strong because their packs were large, but also because they had to be powerful enough to keep all those enormous personalities in check.
When you saw an Alpha of a large pack, you were dealing with a wolf who was orders of magnitude stronger than your average werewolf. They needed to be, to enforce the sort of absolute loyalty and obedience that was required.
By the reckoning of ancient pack laws, someone like the Rogue King shouldn’t even have been able to exist. He didn’t have a traditional pack, or village, or other base of Wolven souls that had pledged obedience to him.
His warriors seemed to be primarily wastrels, vagabonds, and outlaws. Not the sort of crew you would ordinarily associate with organized power.
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Chapter 212
+25 Bonus
As I pulled into the pack driveway, I was so lost in my thoughts that I barely noticed Avery standing under a nearby tree until I was already halfway to the pack house.
“Have a nice meeting with your co-conspirators,” she asked, and it took all I had not to jump out of my skin at the accusation. I schooled my expression into one of haughty non chalance and shrugged.
“My affairs are none of your business,” I said coolly, but I was inwardly cursing that I hadn’t come up with an alibi in advance. The Rogue King had gotten in my head and my thoughts had been focused on the immediate threat from outside, not the enemy within.
Avery’s smile widened, “Are you sure about that? Gideon was looking for you, and seemed upset when you were nowhere to be found. Better watch out, Dierdra, your disguise is slipping p>
“Gideon will never turn on me,” I said with more confidence than I felt, “I have his trust, and more importantly, I am carrying his child.” I ran a hand over my fake baby bump to try and emphasize the ruse but to my disappointment, Avery didn’t so much as flinch at the reminder of what I had that she did not.
“Excellent point,” she followed me as I tried to push past her on my way up to the pack house, “I am sure that Gideon will be doubly interested in where you went with his pup, when you’re supposed to be on bed rest… Shall we go talk to him together p>
“Listen here, bitch,” I whirled on her, “You don’t know who you are messing with p>
For the first time since I had come to this pack, she stepped up to my face in response.
“Neither do you,” Avery said with a quiet menace I had never heard her voice carry before.
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