Chapter 115
Claire’s POV
Returning to Gideon’s pack was dangerous, I could acknowledge that. Now that Gideon knew Claire was still around, he might connect dots that I wished would otherwise remain unconnected. But I felt confident that my identity as Raven was still protected.
But even if he did harbor some suspicions, I still needed to return for Leo’s sake. I was duty bound as his mother and as his bodyguard to protect him.
Nova and I packed our bags. As the car was being loaded, with Neva ‘helping‘ by securing her plush animals in the backseat, I stepped aside to speak with Ivan.
“You will have to be extremely diligent now to maintain your secret identity,” Ivan said. “Gideon will be suspicious of you. He will be looking for cracks in your story. He will be persistent and try to chip away at you until you reveal the truth to him.”
“I understand,” I said. “I can withstand whatever suspicions he tries to throw at me.”
Ivan looked at me blankly, and I knew he had some doubts.
“I’ll be alright,” I promised.
“You could stay…”
“No,” I said firmly. “Leo needs me. I’d already spent too many years without him. Never again.”
I held Ivan’s gaze so that he could see my seriousness and my determination. After a long moment, he nodded.
Meanwhile, Nova had just finished up putting away her toys and came bouncing over. “Uncle Ivan! Can’t you come with us?”
She asked some variation of this every time we had to leave.
Ivan knelt down to address her directly. “My place is here,” he told her, as he did every other time. “But I will be here if you ever want to return.”
“Okay.” Nova went in for a hug and Ivan returned it. After they parted, Ivan stood and looked at me. In the past, I might have given him a quick hug as well, but right now, things felt too strange still between us. So I offered him my hand instead for a shake.
He accepted my hand, but to my surprise, rather than shake it, he brought it up to his lips and placed a soft kiss on the back of it. Then he let me go.
We didn’t say a word more. I turned, and Nova and I got into the car, which drove us away.
Nova glanced at me but didn’t say anything.
I was glad, because I wouldn’t have known how to answer any questions she might have about what just happened.
When we reached Gideon’s pack house, Gideon met us by the car. After a quick hug to Nova, he looked at me. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”
“I finished my business in my home pack and am now available to protect Leo once again,” I said. “I didn’t want to leave him unprotected for long.”
Peter was still here, and I trusted him. But the others under Gideon’s employ, I wasn’t as sure about. There were still many traitors in Gideon’s midst. Now that I was here again, I felt some relief, knowing I could help protect Leo against them.
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10:51 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 115
炒肉72%
Gideon hummed but continued to watch me. “Curious that you absence took place at the same time as the Alpha King’s banquet.”
“Coincidence,” Tlied.
“So you didn’t attend the banquet?“.
“No.”
Gideon narrowed his eyes slightly, studying me. “Tell me. You must know of Leo’s mother, Claire, so you also likely know that she has been hiding in Ivan’s pack these past few years. Have you seen her?”
The heat in my cheeks started to rise. I expected questions, but not for him to be quite so direct. He was likely trying to catch me off guard, and I hated that it was working, my face turning red.
I wouldn’t let him win this discussion, however. I had to maintain my secrets, no matter what. I couldn’t let him know about my embarrassment here, but I could turn it into anger.
“No,” I said flatly, adding some chill to my voice. It wasn’t difficult to generate anger with Gideon, given our past. That was going to save me here. “The matter is part of my pack’s internal business and is no concern of yours.”
“I meant no offense,” Gideon said. “But I feel like I have a right to know.”
“You do not,” I said bluntly. “The question is wildly inappropriate.”
anger
Gideon stared at me, but his expression was unreadable. I guessed he was still suspicious, but I didn’t know what else to say to dismiss those concerns. I felt like saying anything more would have me admitting too much.
So instead, I moved to the back of the car to grab my and Nova’s luggage. “If you will excuse us, I need to get Nova settled in and return to my duties.”
Gideon stepped to the side, allowing me to pass, but he watched me the entire way until I disappeared through the front door.
Gideon’s POV
I watched the way that Raven moved, making connections to how I knew Claire had moved, and to how I had seen her move at the banquet. There were similarities certainly, which did nothing to ease my suspicions.
But Raven was jumpy about this, and seemed willing to put pack alliances on the line. That meant that I couldn’t accuse her of anything without proof. Unfortunately, at present, I didn’t have that proof.
With a sigh, I returned to my office and my work. I hoped the proof would present itself to me in time, but for now, I had to concentrate on my present problems.
One of my lawyers, Dawson, stepped into my office not long after I had entered it myself. I had hired him to lead the team to represent me in the lawsuit Justin was trying to push on me, and we’d had a scheduled meeting.
We both sat down, and Dawson opened his briefcase.
“I’ve gone over the documents and the evidence you have provided. Their case is flimsy at best,” Dawson said. “I’m confident that we shouldn’t have any trouble winning this case.”
We started combing through the documents together, with Dawson providing his lawyerly input. We were about halfway through the case files when Xavier knocked on my office door.
“Forgive the intrusion,” he said. “But there has been an issue with Darius.”
That halted our meeting at once.
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10:51 Fri, Jan 23
Chapter 113
“What kind of issue?” I asked.
“He refuses to eat.”
1 cursed under my breath and stood.
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Together, Dawson, Xavier, and I walked to the prison and to Darts’s cell. A guard was there, holding a tray of soup and some bread. Other trays were scattered about, all likely cold now.
“You have to cat,” I told Darius, who had crossed his arms and was looking down his nose at us through the bars.
“The food is poisoned, I’m sure of it,” Darius said.
“It isn’t,” I said, with total confidence. To prove it, I took a spoon and sipped the soup. It tasted fine. A bit bland, but fine.
Darius huffed. “I don’t trust you. You are a liar and a deceiver.”
“You have to eat,” I said.
“I don’t have to do anything,” Darius snapped back.
Dawson pulled me aside. Quietly, for my ears only, he told me, “It will be much more difficult to win the case if Darius looks as if he’s been mistreated. Our evidence might not be taken seriously.”
That added complication, sure, but, “I’m not giving in. We’ll just have to prove that he’s going hungry of his own accord. We could put in cameras.”
“That might not be enough,” Dawson said.
“I don’t care. I’m not giving in.”
Daphne was not going to win this fight, after everything she had done. She might have personally escaped me, but her father, who I suspected might be the mastermind behind it all, never would.
“He stays here, and we keep fighting this case.”
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