Chapter 159

Colin’s POV

I listened carefully to my sister’s words. I didn’t know if she could tell, but as an outsider looking in, it was easily to see how much she loved Alaric. Given their past, she was likely still afraid to admit those feelings to herself, or to acknowledge them in any way.

For this, she was probably unwilling to say that she wanted to remain in DuskWood, even if that was true in her heart.

Though, I supposed there could be other considerations in her mind. After all, Eamon had not made very secret the fact that he wanted Cara to be the next BloodyMoon Alpha. I, too, thought she would make an exception leader all on her own.

But it would all depend on what Cara wanted, and what kind of future she saw for herself and her kids, and how she wanted Alaric to fit into all of this.

All of these decisions were important, but they could wait. With Mia’s health in question, nothing else really mattered.

“Check on Mia,” I said. “I’ll go downstairs and wait with the others.”

“Thank you, Colin,” she said, but I wasn’t sure what she was thanking me for. I hadn’t truly done anything other than hear her out. Perhaps that had been enough.

Nodding, I turned down the hallway and went downstairs. As I came down, Ethan came running up, wanting to check on his sister. He was a good kid.

In the living room, I found Ryan and Aidan standing around the television. As they were blocking the screen, I couldn’t initially see what was happening.

“What’s going on?” I asked as I came closer.

Ryan stepped to the side, allowing me to see the screen. Melinda Bedford was holding a press conference.

We were all still trying to piece together what had happened with the kidnapping and with the attempts on Cara’s life. Yet, I distinctly remembered going to that hotel lobby with Cara to meet Alaric and finding this woman Melinda with her arms around him.

After, Cara had been certain the two incidents were related. If she was right, it would make sense now for Melinda to be trying to repair her reputation to protect against Alaric’s justice, which I was sure was on the way.

Just because her actions made sense, however, did not mean that they were acceptable, especially as she was using this platform to attack my sister.

“This is disgusting,” Aidan grumbled. “Cara was nearly killed, Mia was held hostage, and yet this Melinda is still coming after our family like we did something wrong.”

“Worse, people are agreeing with her,” Ryan added. “Look at that crowd. They are eating up every single word.”

“We can’t let Cara know about this,” I said.

“She’s going to find out eventually,” Ryan said, looking at me. “Shouldn’t it be from us?”

“She has enough on her plate right now, especially with Mia’s illness. Besides, I don’t think Alaric will let this stand.”

“Can we really trust him to do the right thing?” Aidan asked. “He’s royally screwed things up in the past.”

“If he doesn’t, we’ll handle it ourselves,” Ryan added.

“We don’t have to keep it secret forever,” I said. “Just until Mia is feeling better. If things aren’t handled by then, we’ll discuss next steps.”

That plan seemed to satisfy my brothers. Ryan nodded right away. Aidan’s agreement came slower, but he still agreed.

The mood soured further as our worry for Mia rose once more.

“Do you think she’ll have to go back to the hospital?” Aidan asked, his gaze down on the carpet.

I hated that I did. Ever since I woke up this morning, I had a bad feeling about the day. Now, that feeling had only gotten worse.

“I think we need to be prepared for anything. Cara is going to need our support no matter what happens.”

Hopefully my bad feeling was wrong. Hopefully everything would be fine.

But I wasn’t going to count on hope alone.

Alaric’s POV

As the Bedford’s were a prominent noble family with high-ranking support through the community, they weren’t going to go quietly into exile as those six elders had done.

The elders, even with all their flaws, respected the system and the rights of the Alpha King. Though they hadn’t been pleased about being exiled, of course, they had accepted the punishment and saw to their own affairs, preparing for relocation.

The Bedford’s, however, and those that supported them, wanted this to be a bitter fight to the end.

This was how I ended up in a town hall style meeting in a school gymnasium, filled with nobles and press, all trying to shout at once. It took some doing, with my soldiers and the more level-headed of the group to help arrange the situation into something somewhat organized.

In the end, I stood on one half of the gymnasium, Melinda and her brother on the other half, and all of her supporters in the bleachers.

There was a single microphone set up at the base of the stairs of the bleachers for those with complaints to approach and be heard in an orderly fashion. Already there was a long line standing behind it.

“Melinda has done nothing wrong,” says the middle-aged woman at the microphone. I recognized her from some of the nobility events. She was a former model who retired after marrying a successful investment broker. “To push the Bedford’s from the pack would be to lose a source of class and dignity that the pack is otherwise missing.”

As I had with every other similar complaint to this point, I remained silent. As was my duty as King, I would hear the words of each of my pack members, weighing everything carefully, and then make my final decision.

So far, I had not heard a single thing that was going to change my mind from my original opinion.

These people who were advocating for the Bedford’s seemed only to care about status and reputation. I wondered if any of them knew the Bedford’s truly well enough to know what Melinda especially had taken part in.

The others clapped politely as the woman stepped away from the microphone.

The next person to the microphone had similar words to say, as did the next.

Three people later, another woman approached the microphone. “I believe you only want to remove Melinda because she is speaking the truth.”

My irritation levels spiked. I had nothing but dislike for the hate-filled rhetoric that Melinda spilled toward BloodyMoon and the Auburn family.

“The Auburns need to return to their own pack, and you need to attend to ours,” the woman continued. “A pack is a family, and you’ve been neglecting ours.”

Finally, I had enough. “A pack is a family,” I loudly agreed. “Which is why it hurts so much when one of that family tries to hurt that which you hold most dear.”

“It sounds as if you are accusing me of something, Alpha,” Melinda said. “Perhaps you would like to do so to my face.”

“Very well,” I said, turning to her. Maybe she thought she’d be able to talk her way out of what I was about to ask, but I wasn’t going to allow her.

She is being exiled for reasons more than her vocal and harsh opinions against me. She had true crimes to account for.

I would not allow her to hurt Cara or our children any longer.

So I asked, in front of the entire crowd, “Did you have anything to do with the kidnapping of Mia Auburn?”