Avenging The Triplet Alphas
Chapter 39

Jonathan's

POV

I could barely sleep after Loki dismissed everyone from the little discussion we had in the corridor. I spent the rest of the morning alternating between taking short naps and spending my hours awake staring at the darkness and thinking about possible scenarios on how the meeting would play out and the common theme of all of my thoughts ended in disarray.

Also, I couldn't stop thinking about what Elijah had said, if we were in their shoes, we would have taken them out immediately after they settled in and that would've been done by now already. Despite Loki's insistence that they won't attempt such, I couldn't shake off the niggling feeling from my mind. While I trusted in his judgment, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Coming here had been my idea in the first place, I understood Loki and Elijah's hesitation in taking this route but realistically, we had no other viable options. Scouring the country for possible mates reeked of desperation and news of their outrageous plans to pick a new mate threatened to break through despite our best attempts to keep off from the media, it was only a matter of time before it eventually got through, and after I weighed the possible options we had left, swallowing our pride and trying to get Arielle back seemed like the right choice to make rather than smearing the good name our father had suffered a lot to make it what it is today.

It's been over a month but I couldn't describe how I felt after my plan was successful. Maybe I hadn't let go of her during the past year or maybe my desperation had gotten the best of me. All I wanted wasn't to lose the throne to someone else, it was all I've ever wanted and if it happened, I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

It had taken a lot of convincing but after Loki's grand plan failed, there weren't any more lifelines to try out, the shocking seal of approval had come from our father as well. That was the final nail in the coffin as well as the reports gotten from the investigator, we had to bring Arielle back at all costs, she had become our top priority. Our birthright depended on it and when dawn came, we would kickstart our plans of reaching an agreement with Ethan over bringing her back home. We would need her approval of course but Loki's idea to use our son as leverage was sinister but it would prove effective as well.

It seemed highly unlikely that she would be willing to let go of our son to remain here with Ethan.

Loki was ruthless with his decisions, I had to give him that. He was a lot more invested in this than Elijah and I for reasons best known to him but it was nice to see that we were all on the same page. I hoped that he wouldn't make any other decision without informing us. If we were going to be in this together, we had to be a team and teammates carried each other along.

As soon as my alarm went off, I practically jumped out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom. We were going to leave in an hour and the first impression mattered a lot, we couldn't be a second late on our first meeting. We were going to put on a show, it was expected and we had to live up to the hype.

I made my way downstairs to replace out that Elijah and Loki were already outside the front door, waiting for me. The engine was already running and everything had been prepared for our departure.

"You're all so eager to leave, huh?" I asked as I shook hands with Loki and Elijah.

"Punctuality is the key word here," Loki replied and motioned to the guards standing around to start moving. "We'll be having breakfast at their mansion. We'd discuss our terms and reasons for coming to their home."

I nodded and made my way inside the limousine with Elijah and Loki following suit.

Within a minute, we were pulling out of the driveway en route to the mansion.

I kept on looking out the window, trying to see if I would be able to spot anything out of the ordinary. I would have for anything to happen.

"You don't need to worry about anything, Jonathan," Loki said, forcing me to drag my gaze from the window and towards his voice. "We've scanned the route twice this morning, nothing is stopping us. It's just like I told you, Ethan's a lot smarter than you give him credit for."

I scoffed as I saw the smug face Loki made. He was a little bit full of himself but I couldn't deny that he was rarely ever wrong and his methods were thoroughly effective.

I took one last look through the window, I could see the mansion in sight now. We would be making our way through the gates.

"Knowing you thrive off spontaneous decisions, have you made any changes to our agreed plan?" I asked Loki and Elijah burst out in laughter.

I would hate to be confused and out of sorts when we get in there.

"The plan hasn't changed, trust me. Our motive remains the same." Loki assured me.

"We haven't talked about our son yet," I began and immediately the car fell silent. "It's almost as if we see him as nothing more than a commodity or a bargain to get what we want. A loophole that we will exploit as a means to an end."

"We will have a lot of time for that but not right now, there are more pressing issues to deal with," Loki replied as the car pulled up at the front gate.

"Loki's right, Jonathan." Elijah cut in. "There's only so much we can do right now. If we bring Arielle home with you, we'd have all the time in the world to set things right with our son but we can't do that right now. We have to be brutal if we're to get anything done." As soon as my alarm went off, I practically jumped out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom. We were going to leave in an hour and the first impression mattered a lot, we couldn't be a second late on our first meeting.

The car pulled to a stop in front of the mansion and we made our way out, Loki leading the way and just like I expected, neither Ethan nor Arielle were at the front to welcome us. It was a clear indication that they didn't rate any of us highly enough to be bothered by our presence.

It was a common tactic to get on our nerves, we often employed it but never have we been on the receiving end before. But I had been expecting this to happen so it didn't faze me one bit. I looked over at Loki and Elijah and they both had the same nonplussed look on their faces as I did.

If they wanted to throw us off our game, they had to come up with something better than this.

I looked around, taking in the number of guards positioned at different angles, both in their wolf and human form. They didn't bother to be conspicuous about it, they were rather eager to make a statement.

My first impression of Ethan was he was a rather desperate man tethering on the edge of losing everything he had worked hard for. It was a far cry from what Loki had described the man to be, the fearless tactician who was witty and powerful enough to take down most if given a little bit of chance.

I guess love did bring a man down to his knees. It made one weak and willing to take the unfamiliar path to preserve what the heart wants and more times than not, it left one vulnerable and prone to destruction if capitalized on by an enemy.

Loki had made his way over to the front door where a man was standing with a fixed smile on his face, there was a little entourage behind him.

I signaled to the guards that had accompanied us here to wait outside, there wasn't any need to come inside with us. If there was an ambush lying in wait, it would be better not to get trapped in one place.

"Welcome," The man began, his smile growing larger as he spoke, raising his voice to an unbearable pitch.

Did he have to make it pretty obvious that he loathed our presence? I shared a knowing look with Elijah before we both made our way toward Loki.

"If my memory serves me right which I'm sure it does, I was supposed to meet Alpha Ethan out here in front." I watched on as Loki began, there was a hint of arrogance to his voice the game had already begun. "And from the look of things, you're nothing like Alpha Ethan."

"He expresses his apologies for not being here to welcome you all," The man looked at the three of us. "He'll be downstairs just in time for breakfast, I assure you."

I looked at Loki and we both shared a knowing nod.

"If you don't mind, can you take us inside?" I said on behalf of the three of us. "We'd like to go straight to the business of the day without wasting any more time."