Hailey's P. O. V
Tim and I stood at the edge of our territory, waiting.
The air was tense. Tim had done a good job of preparing all our members for our incoming visitors. He'd explained that they would most likely try to harm and sabotage us, but Ari's plan was for us to let them do as they pleased in order to lull them into a false sense of security and hopefully careless pride.
Standing here, waiting to meet my sister's former tormentors, I prickled. The thought of Ari downtrodden and abused made me want to go feral. I couldn't even imagine her like that, and I was going to meet two of the people responsible for keeping her in such a state for most of her life.
I wanted to tear into them on sight, but also huddle up with Ari in her office.
Unfortunately, I had a job to do.
Ari had called me to her office a few days ago, and I'd arrived to find her and Kaesha waiting for me.
After taking my seat, I'd asked what was going on.
"If I know anything about Brittany," Ari had said from across her desk, "It's that she loves two things: power, and taking what doesn't belong to her."
I'd nodded slowly, a growing pit in my stomach making me wonder where she was going with this.
She'd sighed, "There's no other way for me to say this, Hailey... If Brittany is one of the people sent, which I'm almost certain she will be, one of her sabotage tactics will undoubtedly be to seduce whoever is highest on our totem pole. Since they already know the Alpha is a woman, that means Timothy will be the target."
I bristled and my eyes narrowed, "Why are you telling me this, Ari?"
She gave me a sorry look, "The fact that he has a mate he's happy with will probably make him that much more attractive to her as a target."
"That doesn't matter, he'll never go for her!" I yelled, then caught myself.
She'd given me some seconds to compose myself before continuing, "I'm gonna need him to flirt with her a little, and I'm gonna need you to talk about how great he is while playing dumb."
"What?!"
Opelene growled.
She reached a hand across the table, "I'm sorry Hailey, I-"
I jumped from my seat, my heart racing and fists clenched, "How could you ask that of me, Ari? Of us? You know what we went through to be together and you know how much he hates them."
"I know."
"So why would-"
"He already agreed."
I blinked, "What?"
She sighed again and looked at me. There was less sympathy in her eyes now.
"I asked him if he would be willing to flirt with her as part of the plan, and he said yes. It won't even get to kissing, I promise. You have nothing to worry about. He hates the very idea of having to even be in the same room as her, but it's a necessary evil. We need her to think she's winning while we wait."
"I don't even want him to touch her." I snarled.
Kaesha spoke up, "That might not be possible."
I turned to her and she continued, "As you know, I was able to create a spell that bonds me to the mind link you guys have as a pack."
"Yeah?"
"Well, I used that spell to work on one that lets us eavesdrop on a mind link without anyone's knowledge. The only thing I need is to make physical contact with someone in the mind link. I'm not a Werewolf, so I don't want to risk being near them. Because of that, I'll need a conduit to touch them, and since Timmy's gonna have to flirt with her, I figured making him the conduit would kill two birds with one stone."
"So not only is he gonna have to flirt with the bitch, but he's going to have to touch her for the spell?"
Kaesha nodded, "Unfortunately... But Hailey, it's not that terrible. He's made physical contact with other women before, even me. And we all know that he's mad about you."
I sat back down and grumbled in a small voice, "It's not the same..."
Everyone on the territory, even Penelope, was just a friend. None of them had any desire to make moves on either of us. But this was someone that not only took pleasure in breaking people up, but was also someone he despised.
But he'd agreed to this, so for the sake of the plan, I could reign my jealousy in for a few days.
"Fine," I'd said, "But it'd better not go farther than that."
Since reconciling, Tim and I had been almost blissfully happy.
But here I was, waiting to meet the bitch that would throw herself at my mate so I could hype him up in her eyes. The very thought of it had me sick to my stomach, but there was nothing I could do.
Their car eventually pulled up and two people got out.
I'd decided that I couldn't be too angry at Ari for this. I could only imagine how she felt, her plans finally starting to come to a head after two years of preparation.
'She just wants everything to go according to plan.' I told myself.
Still, knowing that didn't help my mood much.
Next to me, Tim noticed my cloudy expression and took my hand in his, squeezing it.
'I'm sorry, this is only temporary. I love you, Sunshine.'
I mustered a smile, 'I love you too.'
He brought my hand to his lips for a kiss that made my heart flutter, then we approached.
"Welcome to Vengar Sanguine." He was using the diplomatic tone he'd developed from all those pack visits.
They approached, a guy and a girl.
The guy was unfamiliar, he hadn't been at the Mate Ball. He was tall, with long black hair that his blue eyes peeked out from behind. He looked bored, almost unassuming, but he was one of them and we weren't going to forget.
My attention moved to Brittany as she spoke, "Thank you."
It was her.
During the Mate Ball. I'd spent most of my time with Tim, and we hadn't needed to get too close, so this was my first time meeting her face to face.
She was pretty, with her blonde hair and blue eyes. I'd heard Clark's eyes were green, so I guess he'd still mated with someone that had eyes like our mom's. The resemblance wasn't very strong, but I still couldn't help but feel like I was looking at Keily.
She'd been the main instigator of the violence against Ari when she was still with them. Perhaps it was because I already knew what sort of person she was, or maybe she was truly that bad at hiding her rottenness, but her smile looked cruel to me.
"Could you help me get the rest of my bags...?" She cocked her head, leaving her sentence open ended in a question for his name.
"Timothy, I'm the Beta of this pack." He gestured to me, pulling me close with a sweet smile, "And this is my mate, Hailey."
I offered a smile, "Hi, it's nice to meet you."
"Likewise." She said shortly and returned her attention to Tim, "I'm Brittany and this is James. So you're the Beta... I think I saw you at the Mate Ball, you looked so good."
He chuckled, "Thank you. You also caught my attention."
She placed a hand on her cheek, coy, "Really?"
"Of course."
She grinned at him.
I blinked. I almost couldn't believe it.
'Is this bitch seriously flirting with him right in front of us?' Opelene growled and I had to keep from emanating one of my own.
I knew it was going to happen, Ari had prepared me for it. But somehow, I didn't account for the fact that anyone could be so brazen as to flirt with someone's mate right in front of said mate.
They finished their little exchange and Timothy went with James to get their bags. Without him around, she finally turned her attention to me.
"You've got such a nice mate." She remarked.
I gave her my dreamiest smile, "Yeah, I don't know how I got so lucky with him. He's so doting, I never have to worry about him with anyone else. And it doesn't hurt that he's the Beta too."
Her eyes scanned me. Briefly, but intently, like she was determining whether I was worthy of such love, "I'm sure it doesn't." She looked around, at the main house in the distance and all the smaller ones closer to us, "Your Alpha didn't come. Is she not around?"
"Oh, she is." I chirped, "She's just busy."
Irritation crossed her face, and was gone as quickly as it came, "I see. I'm sure it must be hard for her, being a new Alpha and all. Leadership doesn't come that easily to everyone, after all. She must have her hands full with trying to keep you all happy."
I smothered the desire to rattle off the list of things Ari had done since forming our pack, and instead gave her a blank stare, "I'm not quite sure what you mean."
She gave me the look one would give a naïve child, "I guess you don't..."
"Why don't I show you around while Tim helps James?" I said, then started walking before she could give her go ahead.
I led her around the territory. I made sure to pass all the structures: the training grounds, the houses, the greenhouse, the farms and fields and all. As I'd been instructed to, I yammered on about non-details in my explanation, saying a lot without actually giving any real information. At every point, she looked around with concealed calculated observation and listened like I was telling her fortunes.
Finally, we got to the main house where she and James would be staying. I took my sweet time leading her to the guests' floor. On our way to her room, we passed the open door of the best bedroom, with Linda, one of the new members, fritting around like she was cleaning.
"And this is your room, we hope you'll enjoy your stay with us." I said, ushering her in with a butler-ly flourish.
"This is my room?" She looked around with her nose in the air.
The bed was a simple double, with a plain frame and wardrobe to match. There was a small desk and wooden chair in the corner of the room by the window, and a modest adjourning bathroom. Her bags had already been dropped off on the carpet by the bed. By all accounts, it wasn't a bad room.
It just wasn't our best.
And she'd seen that.
"Yes, this is the room you'll be staying in for the duration of your visit."
She turned to me, "Really?"
I nodded.
"Oh, I get it. You're having me stay here while that girl cleans the other one for me." She concluded.
I held the laugh in my throat as I shook my head, "No, this is your room."
"You can't be serious, I-" She began, full of smoke then caught herself, "Hailey, right? I think you might have made a mistake when preparing the rooms."
I cocked my head, "Oh, there's no mistake. Alpha Ari assigned these rooms herself."
Her mouth tensed as she spoke through a poorly subdued glare, "She did?"
"Mhmm." I shrugged, "I'm not sure why though. If you want to switch rooms, can tell her you don't like this one."
She debated with herself for a second, before shaking her head and forcing a smile, "It's okay, I'm sure we'll have other things to talk about when I see her. When will that be again?"
"Unfortunately, Alpha Ari is very busy so I'm not sure, but I'll let you know as soon as she's available. In the meantime, I'm sure my Tim will be happy to keep you company." I told her, barely keeping myself from stressing the 'my' in 'my Tim'.
"Right." She said through clenched teeth, "I'll get settled."
"Excellent idea." I said with a nod, then left her in the room to fume about it.
The welcome carpet was out.