Once Upon A Rejection
Part 3 Chapter 8

Grayson Ward’s POV

When Molly opened a mindlink with me I was excited to hear from her so soon. That was until I sensed her emotions, I could feel panic and frustration though our bond and she also seemed slightly breathless.

‘Something weird happened at the Davies pack and we are worried that the council are behind it.’ She told me.

‘What happened? You sound like you have been running.’

‘That’s because I have. Someone turned alpha Davies against his own mate and we almost got caught in the crossfire.’ She replied.

That was unexpected to say the least. I knew that alpha Davies was missing but I didn’t expect him to do anything like this. He had been struggling to cope with being so easily overpowered by the lycans. I had put his disappearance down to pride. I had thought that he would be drowning his sorrows in a bottle and once he got sick of that he would come home to his mate.

Someone must have really gotten into his head if they managed to turn him against his own mate. Normally there was hardly anything that would turn mates against each other. Well at least nothing short of black magic ona stronger alpha’s compulsion. I could see why Molly thought that the council was involved and I agreed with her assessment.

‘Did you hear what I asked you?’ She sounded concerned, I had probably missed something important.

She didn’t like it when I got distracted like that but I would replace a way to make it up to her when I saw her.

‘I’m sorry sweetheart, I got distracted.’ I told her in the sweetest tone I could manage.

‘I asked if it was still safe for you to stay there.’

I did my best to reassure her that I was still safe here but if I was honest with myself I didn’t know how true that was. I no longer knew how far the council would gain order to get rid of me. It was clear that they weren’t going to let the law get in their way. In the face of that, how could anyone claim to be safe?

If Molly was right then it wouldn’t be safe for me to stay here. Not wanting to take chances with my own life, I set out in search of my brother. I was meant to be staying away from him so the council didn’t suspect us of doing anything but this was important.

After checking a few rooms it became clear that he wasn’t anywhere in the house, that shouldn’t have been a surprise. Dinner would be served in a few minutes and Leyton preferred to eat his dinner privately with his mate.

I descended the main staircase, maybe if I was quick I could speak to him before he started eating.

“Alpha Ward, where are you going in such a hurry?”

I was only a few metres away from gripping the door handle and now I was being slowly surrounded by the council’s representatives. Were they waiting for me or was I just having the worst possible luck today?

I had to keep moving, if I stopped then they would fully surround me and I would never make it out of here. I had to remember that no matter how harmless and frait they looked, they were really dangerous and they probably wanted me dead.

“I am having dinner with my brother.” I said without stopping or turning my body towards them.

“Hmmmm, you’re not sneaking off to meet that delicious looking mate of yours, are you?” one of them asked.

“Of course he is. He thinks he can hide her from me . but it isn’t going to work, I will be f***** her before the week is out.” Alpha Lancaster said, looking me straight in the eyes.

Anger shot through my body and my wolf growled in my head. He was eager to be let loose so he could make sure this man never laid so much as a finger on her. It was alwavs like this when I was around them, a constant war with my wolf for control.

“He can only hide her for so long.” One of the other alphas said, he had a smug look on his face that I would love to punch.

Before I could follow through on that desire, I turned away and pushed past them to reach the door. As I left the building I could hear them shouting something after me but I didn’t stop to listen to what they were saying.

The walk to Thomas’ house wasn’t long enough to calm my temper, so when he answered the door I could only manage a grunt by way of acknowledgement.

My brother took one look at my face as I entered the house and scowled. “What did they do now?” He asked, as he followed me into the living room. He knew I wasn’t the kind of alpha to lose my temper easily, so he had an idea how serious this must be.

I sat down on the sofa and explained to him everything that had been going on. Starting with what Molly had told me and concluding with the interaction I had just had. He waited patiently for me to finish before reacting even though the seriousness of my situation was written all over his face.

“You need to leave.”

I looked at him, completely puzzled by his response.

Was he kicking me out of the house? What had I done to upset him? Or, was he scared that the council would see him as tainted by his association with me and have him killed too.

“I know it seems extreme but leaving the pack is the only way to save your life now.”

The alpha in me didn’t like that at all. I know my brother was trying to help me but there had to be something we could do that wouldn’t involve leaving my pack or giving up my position.

“That seems a little extreme, we don’t even know what they are planning yet. I don’t see why I have to give up my pack.” I growled.

Carly was sitting beside my brother on the sofa and she flinched as I accidentally used too much of my alpha tone. The tension must have been getting to me more than I thought because that wasn’t a mistake I usually made. In fact, I hadn’t done it since shortly after my first shift.

“Calm down alpha. I wasn’t suggesting that you give up your pack, just that you make yourself scarce for a few days. I have seen this happen a few times and the mistake that all the other alphas make is to stay in the pack until the council decides to arrest them.” His voice was calming but he still moved so that his body was between me and his mate. I couldn’t really blame him after the way I had just growled at her.

“How would that solve anything?” I asked, trying to keep the tone of my voice level.

It wasn’t as though me not being physically in the pack would make them forget about me. If anything, it would give them more fuel to use against me. There was a good chance that if I left then I wouldn’t be able to come back.

“It wouldn’t, but it would buy us some time. There is a lot more you can do from outside of the pack anyway.”

I stared at him, completely confused. Perhaps I had missed part of the conversation because I had no clue how I could help my pack from outside of it. My father could rule the pack in my absence but that wouldn’t get us any closer to getting the council out of the pack. I don’t think they liked him much more than they liked me at the moment.

“I will continue to look for a way to take them down but it would be so much easier if our luna was also the lycan queen.” He concluded.

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, he was right. If we could somehow get the other lycans to accept Molly as their queen, then she would have the backing of the whole lycan kingdom. The council wouldn’t dare to go against our pack anymore.

“You’re a damn genius.” I exclaimed, wrappig my arms around my brother and pulling him in for a tight hug. He started laughing as he playfully tried to push me away from him.

He was still laughing when he managed to pry my arms off him. “I will remember you said that next time you question my life choices.” He shifted backward to put some distance between us and get closer to his mate.

“One more thing, can I stay for dinner?”

The last thing I wanted to do was go back to my house and have dinner with those assholes. Ideally I wouldn’t have to see them again before I left the pack. I just hoped they wouldn’t do too much damage in my absence.