"I have certainly NOT forgotten how my own SON died." Rage. It was quite an interesting emotion on some one so petite... but then came the agony in her voice. Now I felt bad. "We didn't even get to bury him."
I immediately noted the change her in her voice. The level of emotion was guilt racking... and that was the point; manipulation. No one could change her mind now. No one. She would get what she wanted and I was just going to have to use that in my favour.
"Kylian, have you forgotten that Lucas slaughtered half of the Dumas family? Paris' parents, his sisters, all of them.... he killed ALL of them." There was bitterness and shame in her voice, all I could do was listen. I was back in grade school, being told off by my mom... great.
"And then to make matters worse, he decided to go and kill the Alpha's children and the Luna..." She paused and exhaled sharply, blinking at what she had just said. Tears coated her eyes, but this time, they did not spill. I waited silently as I watched her turn back from the Luna to Mom, there was a difference, I just couldn't explain it.
"Lucas was a monster, he-... he-I... I...I bore and... and... raised one monster. I failed once. And... I won't ever fail again. Not with you, and definitely not with Skylar. There has been enough bloodshed between the Feu and Lupo Casa."
'It's Feu, not 'the Feu',' Gold had to say the most useless things at the most useless times.
I waited staring at the Luna for quite a while, I judged what she had said and after about what felt like years, I blinked waiting for her to tremble under my gaze. Lying to a Luna wasn't the end of the world. And lies were a basic necessity in politics, so why not? No matter how much emotion she poured into this.... this was politics.
I knew that.
"Do what you want with Feu. I won't touch them."
And there it was, the slow shiver... staring bothered everyone at a point.
And now for some truth. "But mom, if you think for even a second that YOU were the reason Lucas failed, don't. You had nothing to do with it. 'HE' does."
And she and I both knew exactly who I was talking about. Daddy dearest was a demon.
The atmosphere grew heavy. Tension. An unspoken agreement rang through the air as she blinked and gulped slowly. She should know the monster she lays with. Or maybe she already did, and she just didn't care. Or maybe that was her type; seething jerks.
"So..." God I hate that I made it awkward. I frowned, looked down at my shoes and back up while I rubbed my creased forehead. "The alliance.... what did you have in mind?"
*******
It was past midnight, and I had no idea why we were even doing this. Mom wanted an alliance, and I agreed to it.... with obviously more violent ulterior motives.
But why the hell was I sacrificing sacred hours of sleep, (or sex) for this? We were planning a beach side dinner at The Clarity, one of the largest hotels owned and run by Garcia Enterprises. It was a 25 storey high end hotel with fifteen penthouses, eight restaurants and an international level swimming pool. It was my hotel, one I had worked my ass off for.
And now ten of the most powerful alphas in the continent were invited to it... and they weren't even going to pay.
They and their families would be provided with facilities to spend two nights at the 7 star luxury hotel, free of charge.
'Waste of money.' Gold yawned. I agreed. This so called peace, was expensive.
".... and because the motive of this is an alliance, we should prepare a mutually beneficial proposal and make sure the other alphas don't oppose it..... well, its not like they have a reason to, anyway."
"Agreed, Luna." Craig nodded as he scrawled a few lines on a notebook and passed it to my mother, as she tapped furiously at the keyboard. Numerous high ranked wolves, elders and warriors had come and gone in the past five hours, they had all given reports and suggestions, and then showed their support to their Luna, but now the library was empty, just the three of us. How I hated it... there was so much I would rather do right now... like a short brunette with big blue eyes, or maybe a redhead for a change.
"Hmm," I sipped from my glass of red wine as I went through a possible business proposal for Dumas Holdings. While we dominated the hotel industry they had a certain hold over health care. "I don't think that's entirely true."
"What do you mean?" Craig raised a dark eyebrow as his olive eyes questioned me.
I took another drag of wine. It was such a fine brew.
"Don't pay attention to him, Romano." My mother tucked a lock of curly blonde hair behind her ear and frowned at me. "He doesn't want this to work."
I shook my head. "I'm serious. Minor packs earned a lot of profit from our rivalry. For example the Lowlands pack in Texas gained a shit ton of protection for taking in Nicolai Dumas and guarding him from us. And Gene's pack prospers because of the armaments they supply us with every season for our Feu border force, and who's to say he doesn't do the same for Feu?"
My mother blinked, bewildered. My point was legit. I smirked, I was the smartest person in the room... they just didn't know it yet.
"You're right." Craig moved to a stack of folders on the bookrack and turned to a few pages. "If the blood feud goes, we'll be saving approximately... five million dollars an year."
I blinked, we were spending that much on Feu... damn it.
"Exactly, so we're going to have to maintain our monetary relations with the other packs while we create the alliance. But buying weapons for the spies at the Feu-Lupo Casa borders doesn't really promote peace. If they find out, it would make the 'friendship' void, and probably result in a war because we told them to lower their guard while we continued to stock up against them." I explained. "Make sense. No?"
"Sort of." Craig nodded. "How about this, we stop the money relations with packs that are honestly against the feud, there are a few. But we maintain business with those who are only making profits? But instead of buying illegal armaments we purchase legal business products?"
"That's a very good idea, Romano. I want you to draw up a proposal for that. Do your research on all ten of the alphas attending." Craig gave a firm nod at the order.
"They're the main ones, the others can be dealt with later."
I personally had done all my research. I knew all the Alpha's attending. Valerie Dumas was the only thing that I wasn't entirely clear on yet.
Robbie Gene of Pack Genesis. Armaments and, hardware and architecture supply. Rainer Dreame of Pack Rue. Spy education and a publishing industry called Dreamer. Simone De Mel of Pack Ames. Donald Free of the Lowland pack.
And I could go on and on... but I wasn't interested in that.
I had more pressing concerns... like the downfall of Feu. Valerie Dumas was doomed.