Chapter 210

Alaric’s POV

Cara wasn’t at her desk and no one knew where she’d gone. Worry flooded through me until, after sending her a text, I received one back.

At rehearsal. Will talk after.

I didn’t know if that meant she had seen Lilia, but I hoped not. I wanted to be the one to break the news gently, after Eamon and I had time to formulate a plan.

Now that we knew were Cara was, we relaxed a little. For now, surrounded by so many people, she was safe. But that didn’t mean she would be safe forever. With Lilia in the mix now, nothing was certain anymore.

Eamon stepped aside for a moment while I tried to find more information on the Princess Competition and its rules. Surely, as Melinda had found a loophole to get Lilia into the competition, we could find something to get her out of it.

Yet the rules seemed pretty clear. Even though she had lied to earn the title, Lilia was a former princess. That allowed her entry whether any of us liked it or not.

Eamon returned a few moments later. “The commission will meet us at the hotel,” he said. “I have more than a few choice words to say to their face.”

“Me, too,” I told him.

Half an hour later, we stood in front of the commission, two angry Alphas side by side. They’d set two small chairs in the center of their U shape of desks. If they had wanted to intimidate us, they would find that were wouldn’t be afraid of them even on a regular day, let alone one where we are so angry we both were near shifting.

“I don’t care what the rules say,” Eamon insisted. “Lilia attempted to murder my sister.”

“She kidnapped my child,” I snapped, equally as angry. “If such actions do not make her worth of expulsion, then what does?”

“She has already been punished for these actions,” the chairman said. “You exiled her.”

“She is supposed to be in prison,” I said. “My pack elders betrayed me and –”

“Regardless of the circumstances, her punishment, whether bestowed by you or your pack elders, has been fulfilled,” the chairman said. “You wouldn’t have us also punish her?”

“I would,” I said sharply. “Her crimes are severe enough that they must be brought into consideration. She is a threat.”

“Against Cara especially,” Eamon added. “Who is already a contender in the event, need I remind you.”

The chairman, smug bastard, nearly smirked, the edges of his lips curling upward ever so slightly. “Cara is welcome to withdraw from the competition, if she feels she needs to protect herself. No one would fault her for it. As a wolfless, she’s already unqualified for the contest.”

My hands curled into fists.

Eamon stepped forward. “What the hell did you just say?”

Seeing our rage, the chairman blanched slightly. He cleared his throat. “There is security in place,” he said. “At every event, we have guards and medical professionals on site. There is no reason to believe that even if Lilia wanted to harm Cara, she would be stopped before doing so. Though, honestly, I cannot believe what you two say about her. She seemed a charming girl.”

“She’s a liar,” I said. “She manipulates people.”

“And she has no moral compass,” Eamon added. “She lied to us for years and never repented until we found out the truth on our own. It was all tears and begging after that.”

“Crocodile tears,” I said.

“Yes,” Eamon agreed.

“Be that as it may, you have not provided enough evidence for us to consider Lilia’s expulsion. You want us to is not a good enough reason.”

“You’ll regret this when the entire competition is riddled with controversy,” Eamon said.

The chairman shrugged. “The controversy increases ratings. We could be so lucky.”

Gods, I wanted to punch this guy out, but Eamon turned. Placing a hand on my shoulder, he held me back.

“He’s not worth the trouble you could get into,” he said.

I didn’t know if that was true, but for Cara’s sake, and the sake of the kids, I’d keep myself from getting locked away in jail.

For now.

With Lilia on the loose, I couldn’t afford to be away from them for even a day. Not even an afternoon.

“I could stop this competition entirely,” Eamon said, his last threat to the commission. It was a good one. With the entire competition kicked out, Lilia would be forced to leave as well. Both Eamon and I had exiled her from our packs. Without the protection of the contest, she would be forced to leave.

“If you do that,” the chairman said, “The entire convenient would be furious with you and your little pack here. Imagine all these princesses and how far they’ve come. How big their home packs are, and how angry their home packs would be to see their princesses sent home without the competition not taking place.”

Damn him, he was right. If Eamon canceled the event, he might as well place a target on the back of him and all of BloodyMoon pack. It was bad enough to make an enemy here and there, but to make an enemy of an entire continent? Our partnership wouldn’t be enough to save him. Both our packs would fall.

For diplomacy sake, we had to let this event take place.

Which meant we had to find some other way to protect Cara and stop Lilia.

“We are wasting our time here,” I said to Eamon.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eamon agreed.

Without another word to the commission, we stormed out of the room. In the lobby of the hotel, I spotted Melinda sitting at the hotel bar. Seeing her made my hackles rise, and I walked over to her to give her a piece of my mind, in a way I couldn’t give the commission.

She had helped to facilitate this. She had helped plan for my daughter’s kidnapping and Cara’s near murder.

She shouldn’t be allowed to sit so casually in the bar, sipping her martini.

She smirked as she saw me approach, Eamon behind me.

“Ah, ah,” she said, and gestured to her bodyguard, a beefy wolf who stepped closer as she signaled him.

As an Alpha, I didn’t care how meaty he was, I was sure I could take him. But it would cause a brawl in this hotel, which wasn’t something I wanted to do.

“You and Lilia need to get the hell out of this pack,” I said. “Stay out of Cara’s life.”

Melinda lifted her glass to me as if offering a toast in my honor.

“We’ll back out of the competition, sure, and we’ll leave Cara alone too,” Melinda said. “In return, you have to allow my family and Lilia to be reinstated into the pack.”

“The elders too, I suppose,” I said with disgust.

She shrugged, like they didn’t matter to her at all. This was confirmed a moment later as she spoke, “Those old men are hopeless. I don’t care about them. What I’m offering you is a simple deal. Lilia, my family, and I back in DuskWood, and all of this unpleasantness goes away.”

Cara’s POV

The steps for the performance were fairly simple. What was difficult was remembering where to move to on the stage. Though, with as much as we practiced, I felt as if I had it all down by now.

I knew what I was doing and where I was going.

Yet, Lilia still managed somehow to bump into me.

It was a light tap and nothing more, but Lilia made a show of falling to the ground, making such a scene that the entire rehearsal was thrown off, everyone stopping to watch.

With the eyes of everyone on her, Lilia pointed at me and demanded, “Cara tripped me!”