Alpha's reclaimed mate

Chapter 9

Kiara looked over the conference room, everything was in place. The draft was ready and waiting on the computer, the coffee was almost ready.

Aiden walked into the conference room, his eyes scanning the room. He shook hands with Axel before leaving the file in his hand on the long table. He moved over to Ophelia, giving her a brief hug. Accidentally knocking off the pen from her hand.

"Hey, careful won't you!" She gasped, as Aiden laughed loudly seeing her pouty face. "Don't just f*****g stand there like an i***t, pick that up." She barked at Kiara, motioning her to the pen on the floor.

Kiara gave her the briefest glance before going back to making Bruno's coffee.

Just then Alpha Bruno being the last to arrive joined them in the conference room. Kiara served him his coffee. Shifted the computer closer to him before leaving the room.

Aiden picked up the pen, dropping it in front of her.

"Sometimes they need to be put in place!" She fussed.

When Bruno settled on his seat. He glanced at his wristwatch, then to Axel who sat on his right side. Then to Aiden and Ophelia.

Ophelia's glam team had gone overboard with her face today. Usually perfect, but today her face stood out a different shade from the rest of her body. Her natural face was better. How come Aiden never told her that?

"Thank you all for meeting today. We all know what is at hand..." He paused and regarded Ophelia and continued tactfully, "Aiden let's hear what you've been on lately."

Aiden took out the file he brought with him, took out some sheets of paper, took a sip of his coffee, cleared his throat, and began.

"Securing our pack from a surprise attack has been of major concern to us all lately along with the training, vigilance is also key to security." Aiden glanced across the faces of the occupants of the long conference table, their attention was on him, following him on the subject except Bruno who sat at the head of the table lost in whatever dazed him.

Ophelia was engrossed in what Aiden was saying, her writing pad out, jotting down key points. "Brilliant!" She winked at him.

Aiden cleared his throat in an attempt at snapping Bruno out of his thoughts. When it was futile he continued, "As a means of security, we will assign more securities to assist the preexisting border securities to take day and night shifts. Then we will send spies to search for possible rogue camps and bring back words on their activities if any so an attack could be planned. More Security cameras and alarm systems would be added for extra security..."

Bruno's mind dwelt on Keegan's prophecy, his interest in the meeting seeped through his bored eyes.

If the elementals are borne into the rogues camp, if they are raised and trained as rogues to fight on their team then they are doomed. The Lycans were doomed. Aiden's security measures sounded useless to him. He wanted a smart thinker, someone that could come up with a nice plan to trace and track the last Gaia princess, not long talks on planting CCTV cameras and alarms. There are were more security cameras planted already, doubling them sounded dumb. Aiden was smarter than what he was saying.

"Pointless!" Bruno's voice filled the now quiet conference Hall. Axel seemed to relax in his seat confirming his thoughts aligned with his.

"We have bigger problems here, we need a bigger brain," Axel said, relaxing more in his seat.

"I think it's totally our best plan, we're training more warriors, we're scaling up on everything. That doesn't sound pointless to me!" Ophelia argued.

"Who invited you to this meeting?" Bruno glared at her.

"Excuse me?" Anger tightened on her glammed-up face. Her cherry red painted lips curled to a pout.

"Considering her position as the Gamma female i—" Aiden began but was intercepted by Bruno's contemptuous tone.

"Aiden I'm starting to have my doubts. You joke a lot lately." He looked at the message that popped up on his phone.

"I'll be more discreet next time, pardon, my Alpha." Aiden calmly replied.

"This meeting is over. You can all leave." Bruno dismissed them fifteen minutes into the meeting. He was hoping to have a candid talk about their plans to trace the Gaia princess. Aiden brought Ophelia with the fat mouth. There was no point in continuing the meeting. Walking her out would be rude, the least he wanted was to offend Aiden.

Aiden grew red in the face, his face knotted up. Gathering his computer and the sheets back into the file.

"Babe, let's go have a nice lunch." He said and Ophelia shot him a grateful smile, taking her phone from her purse, she stared into the screen readjusting her hair. Getting up from the table. She turned over to Aiden. Slightly glanced at Bruno. Admiring his nicely brushed hair, and his fresh and clean-shaven face.

If only she knew. If she had the slightest sign he was going to be her fated mate then she would never have made the mistakes she now regretted.

It was never too late to make things right. She was bored with Aiden for her heart was never with him. The only way to stay relevant was to accept him as her mate and become the Pack's strongest female.

She had a plan, and if all went according to plan then that lowly Omega would get rejected by Alpha Bruno. Her sacrifices would please the goddess and if that happened Bruno was hers forever.

She smiled broadly. Aiden misunderstood the smile, smiling even more widely at her.

Draping his arm casually around her shoulders, he led her out of the conference room leaving Bruno alone with Axel in the conference room.

Axel got up to his feet, approaching the head of the table where Bruno sat.

"I know what you're thinking..." He began.

"For f**k sake, get out!" He growled.

"Stop acting like you've got boils on your ass, here," taking out an embossed card from his breast pocket, he slid it to him across the table. Bruno glanced at the card, then at Axel.

"Garry Eden, bookkeeper, and researcher. I think he's the guy we're looking for right now. He wrote an article some thirty-something years ago about Elizabeth Heriam, daughter of Alpha Gur and Luna Bernie, he mentioned in his article Elizabeth had the rarest wolf as a Gaia princess."

"Don't f**k with me right now!" A smile broadened on Bruno's face, relief washing through his eyes.

"I do my homework, squirt!" He grinned.

"How do we find this Garry guy?"

"He lives by the borders of a Pack called Syzygy."

"Syzygy? It's a two-day journey from here."

"What if we summon him here in Crescent?"

"That would mean risking it all, you know the spread of words about our search for the prize."

"Real prize!" Axel chuckled.

"We will travel in a few days. we map a plan to leave and return before anyone notices we're gone." Bruno said, his eyes on the card in his hand.

"But, if you must mate with the last Gaia blood princess you must be without a mate." Axel reasoned.

"I am." He shrugged, smiling smugly at him.

"What about Monica?" Worry etched in Axel's.

"Not if I reject her. The destiny of the Lycans depends on me. I can't f**k this up over some girl." He shuddered at the bitter taste of his words on his tongue.

"We think this through, then we meet and plan it carefully with Aiden." Axel moved towards the door.

"Aiden's out!" Annoyance returned to his tone.

"What? No. He was there when the prophecy was read. We can't just sidestep him now that this whole thing has got a lead." Axel paused at the door.

"You'll understand why as we progress. For now, we find Garry Eden!"

*******

Monica arrived at her small apartment from work while the stars glittered in the night sky.

Once inside the small, darkened bedroom, she turned on the light switch dropping on her bed.

The day, although it was not a typical busy day, was long enough to wear her out. She felt completely worn out inside out. Nagging customers, demanding ones, and then there were the outrightly rude ones were enough to drain the living daylight from her. She didn't perform her best today, she knew certainly it was due to the headache that had persisted throughout the day.

Ray was never a quick healer. It was taking her forever to heal the throbbing headache. She needed to see the pack doctor as soon as possible. Well, that was if the headache was still there after a long night's rest.

She hadn't heard from Bruno since they parted ways after the library fiasco. If she'd moved back to the room he offered then she'd probably run into him but since they were a few buildings apart there were fewer chances of running into him. Especially with his position in the pack.

It was best this way. She believed so. Yet, her heart knew otherwise. Ray begged her to reconsider his offer.

And then what? Get kicked out when he finally figured out what he wanted? That would be way more humiliating than her life already was.