Loving Ashlynn (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 49 - Cards On The Table (Ansel Conrad POV) Pt.3

Chapter 49 – Cards On The Table (Ansel Conrad POV) Pt.3

Five wasted minutes.

"I ask now that those that wish to live by new rules, live freer, leave with me now," Nick says outright, unashamed. His wife, daughter, son and Giselle all remain behind him. Eyes wide and focused, those that I know will stand with me, watch those we've called family for twenty years. "Mike?" Liam Moore, a trusted member of my Den says when our friend stands, taking his wife with him.

"We had to leave Bend sometime," Liam says frowning, but Mike, filled with the false promises of a life that Nick has feed him, shakes his head. "Yes, but that was before, we do not need to move every ten to twenty years anymore. Our kind has been revealed; we have lived in this community for nearly twenty years. These humans know us, if we stay here when we reveal our kind they also know that we have caused them no harm-"

"Have you been watching the news Mike?" Willy Francis asks, while I sit back and let the people that are in my favor try to reach those that want to follow Nick. Out of the corner of my eye I watch the gaze happening between Lennon, Nick's only daughter and her boyfriend Deacon, Liam's son.

Deacon was like Brennan in a sense. He may love Lennon, but as he sits still, I know he will not leave his family for her.

Liam nods, "Mike, our kind that have come out, identifying themselves have been hunted, killed, there is a new story almost every week!"

"Yes, but Bend is a smaller town, if we need support," Mike turns to Nick, "Instead of running," he nods once at Nick, "We will call the Elders, work with them to make this world a place where we no longer have to hide," my eyes widen and Kalenah's hand in mine squeezes - ready to cut off circulation.

I use all my restraint to remain silent. Mentally stuck between wanting to laugh hysterically at what I'm assuming Nick's plan to be, and weeping in misery because the people that are following Nick, are signing their own death certificates.

Six wasted minutes.

"And what of your daughters?" Liam demands.

At Liam's question, Mikes' wife stiffens; her heartbeat is the loudest in the room. One glare in her direction and she bows her head looking at her shoe, exhaling deeply forcing her reactions back.

"The Elders can help us, they are willing to work with shifters, they will help us learn why our girls are not shifting," I frown, warning bells going off in my head.

How does he suppose the Elders will learn their information? By using his daughters as test subjects of course. Surely Nick is aware of this unless... with everything happening to our family, and Nick's need to rule, could those two be related? Force me to leave Bend, so he could remain and set his claim?

Could Nick play the long game? Of course, I answer immediately.

Please, Lennon Ramos mouths behind her mother and father to Deacon. Closing his eyes, Deacon looks down at his hands, leaning forward. His decision is made.

Seven wasted minutes.

"We do not need to run, we have the opportunity to make the Elders do our bidding now. Don't you all see that? Before they had no one to answer too, they could behave as such, but now that our existence has been made public," Mike is Nick's spokesman. "We do not have to hide, we have the opening we did not have before."

Those in their rightful mind shake their head at Mike.

In a way it was actually quite genius of Nick. Reaching out to the Elders, doing what none that I knew would be doing. Werecats were a heavily hunted breed, especially our women, and so it was in our nature to keep away from the Elders and most other supernaturals.

As the debacle Nick has brought on us is continued, I feel as though there is an hourglass taunting me as every second is wasted. No doubt when Nick left he would be reaching out to the Elders.

"When you call upon them, and they seek out the rest of us here in this room that do not wish or seek their aid. And they ask you for us will you give trade us," Liam waves his hands at the group, "in exchange?" It's a rhetorical question. I am sure.

Like a flash of lightening, every part of my brain in that very moment works together, forming a new idea from old pieces. While Mike and Liam argue, back and forth – I put Faith's world into perspective.

Eight wasted minutes.

The Elders are the Loyalists. No. Not the Elders per se, the followers. People like Nick. Like Mike.

It's a goddamned leap, but I see it happening right in this room. It's as though the people following Nick right now do not know what I do. Are unaware that this specific decision is what leads to the world that Faith clung too.

Granted I'm sure it will take more than just Nick to end up where we do in Faith's world. Little by little it will happen.

I could not understand why Faith would believe such an insurmountable amount of rubbish. The world divided into two factions.

Loyalist – the wealthy and well connected – and Independents. The rules. The mind games used to trap you on their side.

The poisonous air? A way to rid the earth of Independents, while steadily building an army of Loyalists.

As the images create new narratives that circle my head like water swirling down the drain, I become overly mindful.

Nine wasted minutes.

This is how it happens. One person here and there and eventually sides are chosen.

How on Earth did we not see this sooner? I ask myself, questioning my great leap with an even larger bit of paranoia.

"We wouldn't need to send them your way if you stood with us. Cowards run," Mike says. Shaking my head, bringing myself back to the present, I snort loudly.

"Look, if you're following Nick, be my guest," I shrug in complete nonchalance. He might believe that he will have some type of upper hand over us, give our locations away, but I've kept North Carolina hushed from too many. Hell the land was bought under an untraceable shell corporation.

When we left here, by my mothers enhancement spell, not a single iota of information will prove useful. "I've tried to be the best leader I could possibly be, and I wish you all luck in your attempts," I speak calmly while walking to my office door and opening it for those following Nick to make a prompt exit.

Ten wasted minutes.

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So we see the small shift in Ansel's thinking now.