Chapter 105

Grace

I got to Wolfe Medical earlier than most of the staff. The news was still going on about what everyone in the States had to say about my decision not to step down. It didn't seem like anyone agreed that I should be in my position.

"Hey, boss," Amira greeted as she came in with a smile. "I just wanted to check in with you before I got started. You alright?"

I glanced up at the screen. Amira did as well and walked in, taking the remote and turning off the television.

"Don't listen to stupid people," Amira said with a kid smile. "You're doing the right thing."

"Thanks, Amira... I don't have anything for now."

Amira nodded. "Give me a shout if you think of anything."

She left, leaving me in the quiet of my office again. I tried to sit down and work on any of the reports, but I couldn't focus. My email count kept going up, and reminders and reports kept running, but all I could think about was Charles' ultimatum.

Take it or leave it, Grace.

My hands clenched. I could hear the firmness in Charles' tone. There was no mocking in his tone, but it felt grating.

And if I just give you the answer, you'll never learn to stand on your own. Isn't that what you want?

It sounded so much like things Devin would say to me--accusing and mocking.

You wanted to be a mother. Devin's voice trickled through my mind. You wanted to be my wife, and now you're complaining?

You're not working, so it's my decision. Isn't that what you wanted? Devin told me as he gave me barely enough money to buy everything I needed. Take it or leave it, Grace. Maybe you should learn to cook like a decent wife.

Then, I heard Eason's voice sneering as he packed his bag to leave the house for the last time.

You learn how to cook while you were fucking around, or are you just going to raise your kid on takeout, housewife?

I set my jaw. In the beginning, before the money in my account had started to run out and after Eason left, I had just hired someone to cook our meals. I remembered the way Devin would scoff every time he decided to sit at the table with me.

At least the sex is decent.

I shut my eyes, trying to block it out and breathe through it. There was so much I didn't want to remember, so much I didn't need to remember, so much that I had purposefully forgotten. It felt like every step down this road was pulling at all the locks I had placed on my memories.

Take it or leave it, Grace. Devin told me as he looked down at the divorce papers that would leave me with nothing but our children and let him walk away freely. Isn't this what you want?

I set my jaw.

Take it or leave it.

Rash, ill-considered, willful... Charles had said, his tone sounded more like there was more that he wanted to say.

Chiding, scolding, berating--it made me grind my teeth. I was a grown-ass woman with two children. I had survived a bad marriage and was pulling myself out of the gutter that his son put me in. Maybe he should have been more worried about the rash, ill-considered, willful behavior of his own son than trying to scold me for mine.

You gave Devin control over the entirety of your family's legacy because he was your husband and majored in business.

It stung even more as I could hear Eason's voice again.

You're a fucking idiot if you think that idiot knows the first thing about running a pack just because he has a degree but go ahead. Just don't expect me to stick around to watch.

"It's better if he runs it," I'd told Eason. My stomach clenched as I mouthed the words I'd said to Eason then. "The people will be happier with a real alpha leading them."

I had meant those words. In some ways, I still did because they were true. It was obvious, wasn't it? The people of Mooncrest wanted a real alpha. A man in charge just like always. I could see Eason sitting there with Michael and Frank like he was alpha, like he knew what he was doing and had their respect when we all knew that Eason was the last person anyone in this city would respect willingly. He didn't have a degree or any more of a clue than I did. Dad hadn't even been teaching him the ins and outs of Mooncrest before he died, and yet, Eason, as a man had more standing with them than me, even though Frank, Michael, and most of their colleagues didn't even see Eason as a real man. The fact was that he was a man, and that alone got him more respect from them than me. I ground my teeth, remembering how Frank had spoken to me like I was still that wild teenager flashing the police and doing as she pleased.

Eason wasn't better than me because he'd stuck around. If he'd had anything really going for him in college he would have left after our father's funeral, too.

I sipped my cold coffee, feeling my mood darkening as more of Eason's stupid little speech started to wash through my mind. The city hated him? Bullshit. He hadn't been here, by his account, for years after I came back with Devin, and they still deferred to him while I was getting picketed. Frank and Michael's generation were staunch traditionalists and as prejudiced as any werewolf, but they listened to Eason and practically blew me off. He hadn't even had a real position for the year he'd been here alone, and I was alpha of Mooncrest by right and by blood.Something wasn't right.

How much of what Eason said was the truth?

I frowned at the thought as I started to think about it. Devin was a lycan, and everyone knew it, but he had never complained of them pushing against him. He'd never been picketed. Sure, he was closer to the alpha they wanted: a man raising a family, but he was still a lycan. If anything, he should have had at least a few issues when he took over, but he never mentioned a thing. I had never heard a thing about it.

And I had never heard anything about complaints during Eason's time as interim either until now.

Had Eason lied to me just to make me feel worse? Was he still carrying a grudge about Devin? Maybe he had wanted to be alpha. Maybe he had been happy to let me go to college, drowning in my grief, because it gave him a chance to be alpha he wouldn't have had otherwise. Me coming back with Devin had thrown a wrench in his plan.

Eason was ambitious and cunning in a way I never was. I could see it. I could believe it. It made sense in a way that made my blood boil. And I could see him taking this issue with Blood Moon as a chance to take back the position he'd held and more, proving to the people that he was a better fit to be alpha, even though I am the eldest. My stomach churned. My heart raced. I didn't want to believe it, but it made sense.

Chess, not checkers.

After all, had Eason ever called to defer to me in all that time I was in college? He wasn't even deferring to me now, and we were in the same city!

The more I thought about it, the timing of it all just felt too coincidental. His issues with Jackson and the fact that he had never said anything, the thing with the WSU? What if Eason was involved with this all? What if he was still seeing Ethan Darrow, and this was all part of it?

I set my jaw at the thought. My mood grew darker as the doubt started to take hold, fester, and boil. I clenched my fist around my cup. A part of me wanted to believe that Eason was my brother and would never betray me, but Eason was a man, just like Devin was, with a grudge against me and everything to gain by pushing me out of the way.

Just like Devin, and he knew me in a way that Devin hadn't.

And Charles? Devin was his son. Mooncrest was vulnerable, and he had everything to gain by getting a firm hold on Mooncrest through me. Holding Mooncrest hostage would be basically holding the health of the States hostage. The doubt started to twist and morph into anger, sliding through me like a hot brand as I thought about it more.

Why had Eason sent me to that bar in particular?

Eason had spent time in lycan territories before. Had he met Charles before?

Had this just been a long-form game?

I blinked back the tears and pushed to my feet.

"Amira," I called.

"Yes?" Amira asked, leaning into my office.

"Let me know when Eason gets here."

She blinked. "He's been here for the past hour."

I looked at her. "Where?"

"The conference room."