Happy Christmas Folks!
As I would like to remind my readers periodically, all my chapters are unedited, there will be mistakes. Do let me know if you spot any in the comments and I will eventually fix them. Thanks for understanding.
Chapter 10
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She sat alone in the Queens garden, her favorite place in the entire Palace, the garden overlooked the city of Roma. She sat there without a sense of purpose, she did not know for how long. Her mind had shut off...the only way to protect herself, if she started feeling or thinning again, she did not know if she would last. The bottle of grey goose sure did help...now the almost empty bottle. She looked at the bottle placidly and took a sip and grimaced, even though she dumped a bottle of sprite in to it, it was still potent. She leaned back to rest her head on the bench and closed her eyes, her head was spinning at a decent pace, she was very very tipsy.
"Evy" she heard a soft voice behind her.
"Go away Alex" she told him without moving or opening her eyes, she was enjoying the spinning of her head, but it was nauseating as well...she felt like she could empty her guts any moment.
She was in no mood for sympathy or talk or any other nonsense. She wanted to be alone! What did one have to do to be alone in this goddamn place?!
"Evy, what are you doing?" He said stepping closer.
"I am busy..me and my bottle. We are having a little party and YOU are not invited, so get lost."
"Evelyn"
"Fuck of Alex! My god, don't you understand" she opened her eyes and peered at him "I don't want you here, I want to be left alone so go away...shoo!" She waved her hand at him dismissively.
"Evy, don't do this to yourself." He softly said.
She looked at him furiously and mimicked "Don't do this...don't do that...god, I can't even take a damn piss without jumping the hoops with one of you folks. Let me be you miserable prick! Don't you fucking tell me what to do...let me tell you what to do for a change, shut the fuck up and fuck off!"
He gave her a heart broken look but backed off, he turned back and walked away.
She stared at his retreating back for a moment...well what do you know that worked! She chuckled drunkenly and groped for the bottle "Come here you!" she muttered and grabbed it and took a deep gulp and grimaced again, fuck! This was some potent stuff. Her vision started to blur and she blinked hard trying to keep her eyes open. She heard a distant thud of a bottle falling to the ground before the darkness consumed her.
***
"Ug!" She muttered getting up. Her head was pounding away to glory. Where was she?
"Hello sleeping beauty" a voice broke in.
She yelped in surprise, her hand clutching her errant heart. "What the fuck Alex!?" she yelled at him who was sitting across the room in a chair.
"Well, since you conveniently passed out in the garden yesterday night, I got you to your room and put you here and stayed over just in case you might get up and plan to do something stupid?" He said.
"Wh-at?" she said incoherently. What the fuck was he talking about? Her throat was dryer than the Sahara desert and her head was pounding like a drum.
"How are you feeling?" He asked her.
"Like shit" She whispered, she wasn't lying.
"Two bottles of vodka would do that to you" he told her sagely.
As if on que, her stomach rumbled she put her palm across her mouth and dashed wildly in to the bathroom.
Alex hear her loud retching and got up to retrieve some tablets and a bottle of water as she spilled her guts out in the bathroom.
He waited patiently as she walked out after brushing her teeth, she still couldn't walk in a straight line.
"Here" he offered her the pills and the bottle of water "They will help" he told her.
She quickly took the pills and swallowed them down.
"Oh god!" she said, swiping her hand across her mouth, she reeked of alcohol.
"I ordered some hot soup, it should settle your stomach" He told her.
She nodded weakly and collapsed on her bed.
"Thanks" she said meekly.
"No worries" He told her and they stayed in silence for a minute.
"Why are you here Alex" she asked.
"I am worried about you" He told her.
"Yeah well...don't be..." She told him curtly.
"How can I not be? Seeing what you are doing to yourself?" He asked.
"Listen...my parents died! Give me a fucking break will you?!" she spat. The pain she felt inside her was hundred times worst then the throbbing head.
Alex had told her the whole story. Both her mother and Jeff were in their newly open and renovated restaurant closing it up at the end of the day with two additional human staff when they walked in, two shooters, who knew who their targets were, they simply walked in and fired at their respective targets, they emptied the entire cartridges in to them and ensured they shot them in the head. This was an execution. They did not harm the human staff and one of them dropped a note on to her mother's dead body and they walked out as they came. They had disappeared by the time anyone could get there. The Lockbourne's had not even attempted to hide their involvement, in fact the note flaunted it. They wanted her to know it was them, they were giving her a message.
"Evelyn" Alex's voice brought her out of her thoughts "I know what happened I am so sorry but this is not the solution." He told her gently.
She put her arm across her eyes and sighed "I know" she told him "I just wanted to forget everything for a while, loose myself."
"Did it help?" he asked her.
She was silent for a moment "No" she told him finally.
"Alex, give me an hour and then I want you to get Adrian and Sebastian here." Her voice sounded strange to him, something in it he could not point out.
"Ok" he simply said instead and walked out of the room.
The pills were starting to take effect and she took a hot shower in scalding hot water, which further helped. By the time she came out of the bathroom the sour Alex ordered was waiting for her.
She took a paper and pen and sat next to the table where the soup was waiting and wrote on the paper and then put the pen next to it and started drinking the soup.
As she was finishing all the three came in to the room.
"Good morning men" she told them "have a seat."
"It's actually afternoon" Alex told her with a gentle smile "You slept the morning away."
She just nodded at him and picked up the paper she had writer on earlier and walked over to where he was sitting and handed it over to him. She then plopped in to a seat opposite to them.
Alex looked confused "WWRD?" he read out loud what she had written on the paper and looked at her lost and handed the paper over to Adrian who looked equally confused. He gave a look at it and handed it over to Sebastian.
"WWRD?" Alex said "What is this?" he was totally lost and looking at Adrian and Sebastian's faces he was not alone.
"Max's mother...my Mother in law, the woman you considered a mother...the previous Roma, she was someone you all looked up to right?" she asked them, they all nodded at her, they still weren't sure what was happening.
"So let me ask you a question Adrian... What would she do to the errant Alphas who have been demanding stuff from us instead of standing with us in the time of need?" She said looking at Adrian.
Adrian looked at Alex and Sebastian uncomfortably "um..ah" He floundered.
"Adrian, you considered her as your mother right?" she asked him.
"Yes" he answered without hesitation, for all practical purposes she was his mother.
"Good...then tell me what would she have done?" She asked him.
"I guess..." he said thinking out loud "She would have made an example of one of them so the others would fall in line." He told her, Roma would have done that, he knew.
"Good" she nodded at him, satisfied at his answer.
She then turned her attention to Alex "Alex, what would she have done if it was me and Max in that attack on the convoy and not her and Max...let's say both Max and me ended up in a coma...what would she have done?"
"What is this all about Evy?" Alex asked her.
"I will tell you in a moment, answer my question first Alex?" she told him with steel in her voice.
"She would have hunted every single one responsible and killed them...publicly...shown the world what would happen if someone was stupid enough to attack her kin" Alex responded.
"Good" she said to him and then turned her attention to Sebastian.
"If the Lockbourne's killed Roma's parents like they killed mine, what would she have done?" she asked him.
"She would destroy their packs and would kill every wolf that responded to the name Lockbourne, she would ensure that the Lockbourne family was wiped off the face of the earth and would not rest until it was done" He responded without a moment of hesitation.
She nodded at him and then looked at Alex "You asked me what 'WWRD?' Meant? It means what would Roma do?"
"The better question is we all know what she would have done if she was here but we have not done the same thing, why?" She said looking at each one of them.
"When Roma sacrificed herself she trusted us to save her family... are we doing that?" She asked them.
Silence.
"We have been going about it the wrong way entire time and if we want any hope of coming out of this alive we need to work together." She paused and looked at Alex "Alex, I know you don't see past the girl from Colorado but Roma left me in charge...she passed her title to me...a burden to carry...The girl from Colorado is not here anymore...you need to understand that and get over trying to protect me all the time and start to work with me."
"Adrian, I know you see me as a clueless teen wolf...but this clueless teen wolf is Max's mate and now the only hope of continuing the Roma line, you might think that is the more reason to protect me....protect me by all means but don't try to mollycoddle me like a baby..."
"Sebastian, I know you swore to Roma to keep me safe, to get her revenge. But I am not her, stop pushing in to trying to get me be like her...I am not her and I am not a tool for your vengeance, I am not a means to an end. I am Evelyn...You need to deal with that. I am my own person."
"But finally...My name is Evelyn Roma" She said looking at the three of them "Roma" she repeated the last part.
"All of you told me what the old Roma would have done in these circumstances, tell me what I should not do the same?" She asked them.
They sat in shocked silence.
"I am going to America for my parent's funeral" she told them calmly.
All three of them opened their mouths in protest.
She put her hand up and told firmly, she knew what they were going to say, that it was not safe, that the Lockbourne's would be expecting that and would be lying in wait.
"This is not up for discussion! I trust you to keep me safe while I am there and will comply with any security precaution." She told them leaving no room for argument.
"Adrian" She looked at him "How quickly can we get all our troublesome alphas here?"
"By tomorrow evening" He told her.
"Do it. Tell them we agree to their terms or demands, whatever it is, get them here and then we will do what Roma would have done...but with a slight change...we make an example out of them all."
Adrian and Alex looked shocked.
"What guarantee do I have that the others would not stir up trouble once they get a chance? And I am most certain they will...I want you to get rid of them all. Make an example out of them. Divide their packs and lands to wolves loyal to us, show that we reward loyalty and betrayal and show them the price of betraying Roma. We will have enough fights in front of us...we can't keep looking over our back to see who is going to stab us in the back when we are not looking. We don't have that luxury. It's time for some housekeeping activity."
"I agree" Sebastian said.
"Thanks Sebastian." She told him for voicing his support.
"Adrian. Can I trust you to do this?" She asked him.
He looked a little unsure. Alex stayed silent.
"If you can't do it..I can always..."
That did the trick.
"I will do it" he cut her off firmly.
"Good" she told him. "I will fly out tomorrow, I am trusting you with this and you will stay here and let me know once it's done."
He nodded to her.
"Alex, you...I want you to head the investigation in to the attack on Roma's and Max's convoy. How did so many wolves get under our radar? How did they get the weapons? That must have had some help..I want you to connect every single dot of this..I want to know about every single one who was involved in this and I want to know what they know. Can I trust you with this?" she asked him.
"Of course you can!" he told her vehemently "But, I am coming with you to America and once we are back I will make this my top priority."
She gave him a curt nod and added "all right but assemble a team of people you absolutely trust and get them going before we leave, I don't want to waste a single moment."
She finally looked at Sebastian "The Lockbourne have sent me a message, I trust you to help me send out an appropriate response."
"Consider it done" He responded calmly to her.
"Good, also let Nick know we are coming down and hold the funeral till I am there." She told him.
"Sure Roma" he responded.
"And Sebastian. She said leaning towards him...The Lockbourne's, they should receive my message by the time I burry my parents...do you understand?"
"Yes Roma, I understand."
She let out a deep breath "Leave me alone for the rest of the day, I will reach out to you if I need anything."
All of them got up and left, leaving her alone.
She sat there for a few minutes and got up and walked to the mirror and looked at it.
An absolute stranger stared back at her.
The old Evelyn was dead.