Chapter 5
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Evy had trouble recognizing herself in the mirror.
The back breaking regime that Sebastian followed was changing her body, her muscles were getting toned and tuned to the intense workout and she had remarkably improved in her fighting skills. Sebastian taught her tact on how to attach her enemies, her wolf did not engage mindlessly anymore like it did before with the slightest provocation, she studied her opponent, looked for weaknesses to exploit, studied her surroundings to see what can be utilized to influence the outcome to her benefit, she was getting extremely cunning, she still had not defeated Sebastian but was getting closer.
What Evy was scared that one day her wolf would exceed her master, she was an excellent student and Sebastian an outstanding teacher.
But in this lessons of physical fight were also lessons on psyche of wolf, lessons on governance, lessons on domination and making a statement to everyone around. You don't always fight to kill. And one day he said she would have no need to fight at all for everyone would be so sure of the outcome that there would be no need to.
She sighed, giving one more glance to her image on the mirror, every day she felt more and more that the person she was looking in the mirror was a stranger.
She walked away to the meeting she had to attend to now, they called it the council meeting. Which included Alex, Adrian, herself and Sebastian. The idea was to create an action plan for her rule to run smoothly.
The rest of them were waiting for her.
"I have made a list of alphas you need to meet, I would suggest we start with the troublesome ones, we can negotiate with them to make sure they fall in line." Alex started once she had settled.
Evelyn looked at the list carelessly "negotiate?" She asked.
"More like compromise." Adrian added bluntly "But right now we need to have unity in the ranks, and avoid alphas rabble rousing."
"What would the compromise involve?" she asked softly.
"More land, more money...the usual stuff...." Alex added "Mostly, I and Adrian or Sebastian can chalk out the deal and you can close it over a meeting with the alphas."
"How many alphas are we talking about?" She asked.
"Twenty five to thirty" Alex said.
"Ok" She said rubbing her temple.
Alex and Adrian looked at each other and then to Sebastian uncertainly not sure what she meant.
"So...you want us to set this up?" Alex asked.
"Yes...but not immediately...I want to learn about these guys....so you can start your negotiations and maybe in a few weeks we can set up the meeting" She added hesitantly.
That was not the answer they were looking for but a few weeks did not sound bad.
"Sure, we will start our negotiations" Adrian added helpfully. He understood she was not ready yet.
"Anything else?" She asked.
"I think it's enough for the day" Sebastian spoke for the first time. "Let's meet again tomorrow, I am sure we have a lot of agenda items, so let's prioritize" Sebastian said dismissing the twins. They both got up and left. Leaving Sebastian and Evelyn alone in the room.
There was silence for a few minutes with both Evelyn and Sebastian in their own thoughts.
"So" Evelyn finally broke the silence "What do you think about this plan?" She asked him.
He had been playing with a pen in his hands and when she spoke he paused and looked at her.
He leaned forward in his chair towards her and spoke "The question is, what do you think?" he asked looking at her, his gaze was steady and eager to listen to what she had to say, she felt as if he was going to evaluate her based on her response.
She took a deep breath "I am not sure...I am not convinced this is the best course of action...but maybe..." she was rambling.
"Talk to your wolf, see what she says..." He nudged her.
She closed her eyes and leaned back, resting her neck on the top of the chair she was sitting on.
"She says, we are showing a sign of weakness, everyone else will view this comprise as a sign of weakness." Evelyn said, her eyes still closed.
"Do you agree?" Sebastian asked.
Evelyn stayed still with her eyes closed, it looked like she was having an internal conversation with her wolf.
After a few minutes she opened her eyes and looked at him.
"I agree" She said with absolute certainty.
"I agree, as well" Sebastian said.
"But what do we do about it?" she asked.
"Let's define the problem first shall we? Do you think the alphas are an immediate threat?" He asked her.
"No. Not Immediate. I think" she said.
"Good" Sebastian nodded "You are right. But at the same time doing nothing is for sure going to escalate this situation."
"Well, the question remains what do we do about it?"
"Lets the twins start negotiation" Sebastian started "That should keep their adventurism in check, as long as they see the situation in their favor the alphas will not create problems."
"I sense a 'but' there..." Evelyn said.
He gave her a sly smile "But..."he said smiling "We will not be giving them what they want...will we?"
"How is that going to solve this problem?" she asked confused.
"Roma" Sebastian said "The questions is not what they want, the question is what we want."
"And what do we want?" She asked.
"We want to make a statement that dissent is not tolerated, after all we are not a democracy are we?" he grinned.
"We have our loyalists, I believe it's time we reward them for their loyalty to the crown."
"You mean..." she asked her eyes widening.
"The alpha's need to go Roma" Sebastian stated with absolute certainty "they are like a tumor, if not remove surgically promptly, they will spread and before you know this tumor will spread and become life threatening."
"Twenty five alphas" she whispered. She knew what he was telling her, the life of twenty five alphas would be forfeit with their decision here. How could one make such a decision? Twenty five lives!
"Today it is twenty five, sit on it and take no action and tomorrow it will be one hundred and twenty five." Sebastian stated. "Will that be an easier decision then?"
"What do you want to do?" She asked him after a minute of contemplation.
Sebastian looked at the list of alphas that Alex had left on the table and scanned through it. Yep, all of the troublemakers were here. As long as the old Roma was alive, they did not dare to do anything and now they were flexing their muscles.
"We have other loyal packs surrounding most of these packs, we can have them merged." Sebastian suggested.
"Just like that?" she asked incredulously.
"Of course not. We will invite the alphas here to finish sign off on the negotiations with the twins and once they are her away from the packs...The rest is timing and messaging."
"You assume the packs will quietly merge?" She asked skeptically.
"An average wolf follows rules, knows hierarchy and know what he or she can do. That is how harmony in a pack is maintained and that is how one alpha can have hundreds of wolves in line. What chance do you think an alpha would have if all wolves revolted simultaneously?" Sebastian said.
"So when the alphas come here to close the deal, with them most of the top leadership will tag along, like the betas and gammas. Which leaves the lower rung of the leadership to run the pack and one thing these guys are good at will be following orders and one phone call from me informing me that there is a change in their leadership with immediate effect and at my signal the surround alphas will walk in to these packs with their warriors." Sebastian explained.
"I am sure some of them would like to call and check with their alphas." Evelyn stated, it couldn't be that easy.
"I am sure they will try, but they can't reach them will they?"
She looked at him confused.
"Cell phone jammers, my dear. Every world leader is surrounded by them, especially while travelling. It's a precaution to avoid remote detonation of bombs using cellphones and we have more than enough surrounding our palace. I will activate the jammers and the landlines....well, you know who will be manning the landlines, don't you?" Their people would ensure that calls don't get forwarded from the switchboard.
"What about Alex and Adrian, when do we loop them in?" she asked.
"We don't. We want the negotiations to be genuine and none of the alphas should smell anything in them, which they won't because the twins will be negotiating genuinely." Sebastian stated.
"Wont we betraying their trust? I feel uncomfortable keeping them in the dark." Evelyn stated.
"They are negotiating on behalf of you and let's say if you were to change your mind in the last minute who are they to say otherwise." He paused and added "Besides, it will teach them a lesson a little overdue."
"Which is?" Evelyn asked raising an eyebrow.
"There is a new Roma in town and it's time they realize that" he stated.
Evelyn silently contemplated and added "You make it sound so easy" she said.
"It is anything but easy, and there are a hundred things that can go wrong. But, this is a plan and as a plan it can work with some careful planning...so what do you say?" he asked her.
She waited for a moment and nodded.
"Good" he smiled at her and leaned back in to his chair relaxing "That takes care of the domestic problem, which is an easy one. But, the other problem we have is more important and more difficult to address." He was talking about Gordon Lockbourne.
"And any ideas what we want to do?" she asked him.
"Nothing concrete." He said and added "We had send in a ten member team in to Montana, for them to hunt for intelligence...They are due to report in, I will wait for that before we do any sort of panning."
Evelyn nodded.
"And one more thing" Sebastian said pulling out something from a stack of papers and handing it over to her. It was a letter, she took it from his hands curiously and her eyes moved taking in the content.
"The world council wants to meet, mostly to ensure Roma is not taking any hasty decisions and disturbing world peace and all that" He stated while she was going through the letter.
He got up and collected his paper work "one more thing to figure out how to play this one out."
He turned and started walking away "get some rest Roma, you will need it, we meet tomorrow morning again."
He heard a low growl from behind him and the corner of his lip twitched in to a small smile.
***
Evelyn was sitting next to Max's bed and was re-telling the whole day events, this had become a sort of ritual for her. Every day she would come here and tell him everything, her thoughts and fears, something she did not let anyone else see.
"I feel I am being torn apart from so many sides, Max" She confessed. "Sebastian, Adrian, Alex, my wolf and my own concise. I know Sebastian is right" She sighed and added "he usually is, but I just came out of that room agreeing in principle to kill twenty five alphas. Twenty five lives, Max! How can I live with myself with a decision like that! I can't... I am not that person..." She whispered to him.
"I miss you Max, I miss you so much! Every day is a torture, I don't know what I would do without Sebastian's torture training sessions that don't even leave me in a capacity to think...maybe that's why he is doing it. It's not fair Max, I didn't sign up for this." She broke down confessing to him.
She drew closer and put her head on his chest and heard his heartbeat. It re-assured her and had a calming effect on her, she closed her eyes and let the exhaustion take over as she fell asleep on Max.