Word Count: 2897

~Aesira

I follow Maven down her pretty paved garden path, relishing in being out of the manor for the evening.

I'm finally meeting her husband, upon his request. Apparently he's eager to speak to me, which has me on high alert.

A male who works closely with Everin and wants my attention? That's a recipe for bad.

"Your home is lovely," I note.

Maven turns and smiles over her shoulder. She's happy I'm here.

"Isn't it?" She pauses, turning to gaze at the flowers lining the path. "I don't get nearly enough time to tend to the garden, being that I spend weeknights at the manor, but I try."

Her home is a pretty two story building in the village, not far from the beach. Her garden wraps around the place, kept in by a white picket fence and is as tidy and immaculate as she is.

It's quainter than I gave her credit for. She is far more domestic than she portrays herself at work.

"I still can't believe you're married," I say honestly.

She links her arm through mine, smiling. "You'll like my husband. He's a good and discerning male."

I've been contemplating what kind of male would attract Maven, and I haven't been able to land on anything. Discerning seems appropriate — a male with authority, who makes important decisions.

"Is he your mate?" I ask, a cool sea breeze licking up the back of my neck.

"Oh...well, no. Both our mates died. Mine only five years ago, soon after I met him." She walks me to the front door. "His mate died in childhood. They grew up together, but she got terribly ill."

I frown, my chest tightening. The pain they must have experienced...the fact that they were able to survive that is a miracle. No wonder they found each other.

I blink as Maven shoulders open the door, leading me inside. I would have been sad for her before, but suddenly, I'm feeling this hurt like it's my own.

Everin's really getting into my head.

"I'm sorry. For you both," I murmur, taking in her home.

The interior is simple, clean and modern. Just like Maven. I see her in all the furnishings, or lack thereof.

"It is all right. I don't feel an emptiness knowing my mate is gone," Maven tells me, taking the coat I've shrugged off, hanging it next to hers at the door. "Malakai is more than enough for me."

I smile softly. I'm happy she found someone, despite all the grief she endured.

The male in question is found in the living room Maven leads me into. He stands from his chair immediately, striding over to shake my hand.

"Aesira Ashwood. I cannot quite believe I am truly meeting you." His warm brown eyes glisten, his other hand settling over mine.

"I don't seem to be a favourite around here, that is for sure." I tuck my clammy hands behind my back once he's finished shaking one.

Malakai doesn't seem like the kind of male I would have suspected Maven would choose, although perhaps I am being percieved. He seems warm and open, but this could all be an act, a way to lure me into a false sense of security.

Malakai is going to ask something of me, and I need to be prepared to turn him down.

"Ah well, let people have their biases." He cants his head, eyes softening. "You are just another pawn in your fathers game, as so many of us are."

I swallow tightly, glancing at Maven. She's watching out interaction with the slightest smile.

"Shall we sit?" I gesture at the plush ivory couch. The sooner this conversation begins, the sooner I can know what Malakai is going to ask of me.

"Indeed." Him and I both sit next to each other, although he angles his body to face me. "Maven, dear, could you get us some refreshments?"

She dips her head. "Of course."

She slips away, and I watch her go forlornly. Her presence bolsters my confidence.

Glancing back at Malakai, I find him watching me intently. There's fierce intelligence behind his eyes, in the way he poises his body. Nothing goes unmissed by him.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how much I want to say in front of my wife. She seems to like you," he notes, clasping his hands together on his lap.

A chill licks up the back of my neck.

"So this is a murder plot?" I blurt out.

He doesn't laugh to ease my nerves, or to assure me otherwise. He just watches me with an intense set to his dark brows, his body still.

"No, but what I am about to ask of you could endanger your life," he admits solemnly.

My fingers curl up to my palm on my lap. I knew this was coming. Malakai doesn't really care that I am Everin's wife, that I'm here at his behest. He cares that I am an Ashwood, that I have ties to this packs first-most enemy.

"Look, I understand you work closely with Everin. You may not be aware, but our nuptials are hardly traditional, and if I'm honest, I don't like him most of the time," I say lowly. "If you're asking me to do something to benefit you and him, I'm probably going to refuse."

Malakai smiles, his teeth straight and white.

"Naturally." He rests back into the arm of the couch. "I hope you will reconsider, if you hear what I have to say."

I look around, at the small living space, and then out the massive window behind Malakai's head. It shows off a small vegetable garden, a tall fence and the peak of the neighbours roof behind.

"Why aren't we doing this at Everin's manor?" I question.

Malakai opens his mouth to respond, but Maven enters the room again. She carries two drinks in her hand.

"Is lemonade fine for you, Aesira? It is Malakai's favourite." She presses a glass of foggy white liquid into my hand, the ice clinking musically against the edges.

"It will be fine, thank you, Maven."

"Thank you wife." He smiles gently up at her as she hands him his glass. "I'm sure there is more enjoyable employment for you elsewhere. This talk between Aesira and I will only bore you."

Her smile falters, before she nods quickly.

"Yes, my roses need tending to."

She gives me a lasting look before she departs again. I'm sure it's not easy for her to have an important husband who cannot share much with her. It must feel even worse that someone she considers her friend is now being tapped into that information.

"You've upset her," I murmur, taking a sip of the lemonade. It's perfectly balanced, both sweet and sour.

"I'll console her later." He sets his glass down on the small table next to us. "The less she knows, the better."

I know what he is implying without him having to say it. He knows what he is about to ask me to do will upset her, and he doesn't want her intervening.

"Answer my question, why are we meeting here?" I demand, tiring off this predatory dance we seem to be doing around each other.

Malakai sighs. "Everin has expressed a...reluctance, to involve you."

"He doesn't trust me."

"That, yes." He grimaces, rubbing his jaw. "More so, he doesn't want to bring you harm. This is a big ask, after all."

Malakai is willing to put his job at risk to ask me this. If Everin knew we were speaking behind his back, it might even cost me my life.

It is why, when he asked this morning where I was heading, I quickly assured him it was to see Maven's garden that she raves on about. He looked suspicious, even though, knowing Malakai would be there, but he didn't push the matter.

"To ask something of me, you're going to have to tell me the plan. How do you know you can trust me?" I ask.

"I don't." His voice is heavy with all the considerations that went into the decision to speak to me. "It is worth the risk, however."

I take another sip of my drink, my hands wet with the condensation from the glass. "Go on then."

Malakai leans forward, suddenly serious.

"I'm sure you know of Silas."

I don't speak for a moment, taking my time to set my drink down, wiping my hands on my pants. I have to compose myself, to not give away how deep my ire for the male Silas goes.

"Yes I know of Silas, my father's advisor." I turn my body to face Malakai. "Bearded fellow, rather pretentious."

"He is vitally important to your fathers politics. He advises on almost all matters, being that your father is ailing," he notes.

I stiffen. "What evidence do you have for this?"

A flame alights in his eyes. He knows he has got me.

"He is old, it's not such a reach to believe he is nearing death," he muses. "And we have intel, of course. Spies, and what not."

My eyes narrow. "How can they be trusted? Fathers spies tell him Everin is five feet tall and only has three fingers on each hand."

It's a lie I believed right up until I saw that newspaper illustration of his face, right before I was to depart to be married to him.

In retrospect, I don't actually doubt the spies intelligence. I doubt their desire to tell my father anything than what would appease his ego.

Malakai leans forward slightly. "Perhaps you can confirm our suspicions here, now."

I frown, an ache building in my chest. His plan is becoming increasingly more clear.

"You want me to kill Silas. You want me to cross over the border, return to my childhood home and slaughter the male in cold blood," I deadpan.

I want him to tell me of course not, that such a notion is ridiculous. I want him to remind me that if I were sent back to my father, as Everin's wife, that something terrible could happen to be within the bounds of his territory.

Instead, he says, "I do."

"That is what you and Everin are planning?" I question breathlessly.

I don't know why I feel hurt. Of course Everin has had plans for me. Why else would he have spared my life when I was first brought here?

Was this his plan all along? Be kind to me, seduce me, gain my trust so he could send me off on a suicide mission?

I must wear my unease on my face, because Malakai's brows crease.

"I must remind you that this was our plan in the beginning, but Everin demanded I cease considering it at all the moment you were attacked in his home. After that, I was advised to build a plan to assassinate your father's advisor without you involved," he explains.

I wrap my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the pleasant temperature in the room.

"Why not go straight for my father's head?" I ask shakily.

"Your father isn't as much of a threat as you might take us to believe. And you must understand that it is not Everin's goal to take your father's pack for his own," Malakai explains.

I frown. What?

"It's every leaders goal to take territory." My father has been lusting after Everin's land before he ever became Alpha.

"I cannot speak for Everin's motivations entirely. From what I know of him, he does not believe a single sovereign of the land is a good thing," Malakai says. "If Everin took your father's land, it would not take much more effort to take all the other packs as his own, but that is not what he wants. He wants several packs, all working together."

I look out the window, my throat tight.

When Everin took me to the border his pack and my father's, I was confused as to why he did not have more soliders there than necessary. I pressed him on why he wasn't working on the front line, why he wasn't pushing the border back...

He told me, even then, that commandeering land may not be his objective.

I thought he was trying to steer me from his true goals. I figured it must be a lie, a misrepresentation of the truth, because all my father ever wanted was more land, more money, more notoriety. He has been working toward the collapse of Everin's pack since before I was born.

Yet Everin remains steadfast, unbreakable. His pack, his people, protected by his lack of lofty, unattainable goals for constant expansion.

"So why kill Silas?" I ask, a little dazed.

"Your father's advisor is behind many of his most insidious plots. He pushes his own motives onto your ailing father, targeting churches, town squares and trade routes in an attempt to weaken us. All it does it hurt innocent civilians."

I shift uneasily. I know it to be true.

"If we eliminate Silas, we eliminate half the problem," Malakai continues. "Your father will pass away soon enough, and there may be an opportunity for peace in the future."

"What of my sister? She despises Silas. She won't use him once she gains power," I say.

All of us siblings hate Silas. He attempted to gain my sisters favour, knowing she was the heir, but my no nonsense sister saw through his manipulation.

Malakai pauses for a moment. He's crawled back into the recesses in his mind, deciding what he can and cannot tell me.

"We have another heir in mind," he eventually chooses to say. "We believe Silas will take care of your sister."

I flinch.

He's so casually spoken about disrupting the line of succession, implying Silas is willing to take out my sister for his own benefit. It is so shocking I can barely absorb it.

"Who is your other heir?" I ask warily.

"It does not matter now. Tell me, will you do this?" His tone is sturdy, demanding.

My mind is reeling. There is so much more I wish to ask, but I doubt he will entertain me. I want to know why he believes Silas will take out my sister. I want to know more about this other heir.

There is so much Everin has been keeping from me...

"If I do this for you, what do I get?" I question.

The corner of Malakai's mouth tilts upward. "Freedom."

"From?"

"Everything. Everin, your father...everything."

"Ah, now I understand why Everin isn't here," I say bitterly. "You know he could never convince me. You, however, are going behind his back, willing to free his wife to get what you want."

Maybe he still thinks he can convince Everin to get me to do this. What he knows he cannot convince Everin of, is ending our marriage and setting me off free.

"I care about this pack before all else. I will free you, help you obtain a new identity. I will keep him from you," he insist, desperation forming in tight lines around his mouth.

"Who says I need your help for that?" I have my own plan out of here, with Lincoln.

"Everin is more powerful than you know," he says gravelly. "You cannot escape him without me."

His offer isn't even a little bit tempting. I will not put my life at risk for this male, or for this pack. I am going to free Lincoln, and I am going to make my escape.

"I won't do it." I rise from the couch, stepping away from him.

"Aesira—"

"I won't," I snap. "You're asking me to turn my back against my home, my own family."

"Everin has thwarted the attack your father planned. It would have killed hundreds of innocent people." Malakai stands, his body poised like he is approaching an unpredictable animal. "You must be aware of the cruelty infecting the ranks there."

Of course I am aware of it, but it is not my problem any longer. I was not abused in that household just to be returned there.

"My father has his own motivations. People must die if we wish this land to be free," I force myself to say, taking a shuddering step back. Let him believe I am corrupt, that I can't be trusted with such a sensitive mission.

"I know you don't believe that. Not when Everin has achieved so much without such bloodshed." Malakai pauses, knowing his approach is chasing me off. "He doesn't want your fathers land, he wants peace. He wants to protect his people."

I turn to go. "I'm leaving."

"Aesira." There's enough anguish in the males voice that I pause, looking back over my shoulder.

"What?

"Think about it," he pleads.

I don't respond, my mind heavy, a massive pit in my stomach. Instead, I walk out, knowing that even though I want to, there is no getting what he has told me out of my head.

❤️••❤️

If you want to read more, you can read 10-15 chapters ahead on Inkitt! Search my profile and find the work under stories!

If you want to check out more of my work, ready The Last Alpha out now on Wattpad!

Thank you all for supporting me! (:

~Midika 💜🐈‍⬛