After he had left Nora in front of Alpha palace, Ryan knew that he was going to need at least a few hours of fun to forget this torturous day.
After all, he was a playboy by heart and liked to flirt with every second girl of this entire territory, but Nora… Nora would never have been one of them if she were not born as an Alpha.
Why else would he even care to look at someone like her, or even lay a single glance on a timid girl like her?
He was entering his palace while whistling and thinking along the same lines that Nora was too timid to be an Alpha- it was probably her brother who was his real competitor, not her in the first place. And just as he stepped foot inside, he heard his father's voice as Carl called out to him.
"Ryan! Son, wait, I think there are few things that we are supposed to discuss."
"Yes, dad!"
Ryan paused his steps at the command and turned around to face his father while removing the earphones from his ears, thanking his stars for the extraordinary hearing capabilities of the werewolves.
"Son! Although I have agreed to help you in all your plans, it's because I am fed up with the fact that only the Moon pack has been winning the championship and ruling the entire Kingdom. This is why I am currently standing on the first step of desperation, where I might be ready to do anything which will help turn the tide in our favour."
He paused for a second and cross- checked that nobody was present there to hear anything that was going to come out of his mouth next, before he continued.
"But I am still not able to see why you helped that girl in the first place! How in this world you are going to win the competition when you, yourself have invited her to join it-"
"Because I am seeing the things that you are not! Hence I am the only one who deserves to win the competition as well as the throne- nobody else."
Ryan interrupted Carl in the middle of the statement, and made a steep comment himself.
He was aware that the edge of that comment was capable of inflicting deep cuts, but he also knew that some manipulative steps must be taken in order to remove the bullet of unfulfilled and wistful wishes, which always have the possibility of hurting you the most by the poison of regret.
One of the methods is to first describe and propose the most painful method that would be needed to cure it. And then, act on the second most painful method, which would definitely seem more palatable in contrast to the earlier, horrifying one.
Ryan was trying to do the same thing- he had first made himself sound purposefully harsh, so that he could highlight the urgency of the matter and present the facts he had been working on.
After a brief pause, when he was completely confident that his father had put his full attention on Ryan's words, he spoke again, while rubbing his lower lip with his thumb.
"Dad! I don't know why you are not ready to acknowledge this fact that fighting the Matthews constantly and getting territory on our own is an almost- impossible feat. That's why I have something in my hands that could let me have what I really want."
With a nod, Carl raised another doubt.
"I am trying to get your point Ryan, but I am still confused about how helping Nora is going to help you fight the Matthews when she and her brother already pose a great competition for you-"
Riding on a wave of confidence, Ryan interrupted his father's question before he had the chance to complete it and answered with a half- smile, revealing his plan to his father.
"That's where I want to fight… by stealing Nora from David and forming an alliance with her, so that Nora's brother has to step back from the fight."
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The slip that Henry had just passed to David contained a written prescription of a bunch of tranquilisers and other heavy drugs, that were potent enough to make a werewolf sleep till eternity.
As he scanned the list from top to bottom, David's eyes widened and he blurted out, looking at Henry incredulously.
"Where the hell did you get this? You know that these are forbidden in the pack, right? Nobody apart from the Alphas can even get their hands on this prescription, and even then, it is not an easy task to actually obtain these drugs- that too, in such large amounts. Then who has got them prescribed, for whom could they be, and most importantly- why!?"
A drop of sweat appeared on his broad forehead, as the tension evidently rose in his eyes and his veins strained against themselves.
At the aggressive intonation of his Alpha, he tried to answer but found himself incapable of speaking without fumbling the words over.
"N.. No… Nor-"
Rubbing his forehead, David tried to ease his discomfort even while feeling quite tense himself.
"Speak clearly Henry, what is it that you are trying to tell me but are not able to?"
Gulping down his nervousness, Henry uttered the name that would alter their perception of their reality, perhaps for ever.
"Alpha Frederick Rovery has ordered these… in fact, he has been ordering these regularly in past as well-"
"What!?"
David stood up from the couch in shock, as he was still trying to digest what he had just heard, while he was clutching the slip tightly in his hands, almost ripping the paper. The suspicion of Frederick covertly harming any or all of the contenders for the position of the supreme Alpha and thereby clearing the route for his son and daughter had just knocked in his mind, when Henry finally managed to bring up all his courage and spoke the next words.
"All these drugs were ordered for Princess Nora."
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