CH 15

Rydge He sat back down and brought up the footage of Jess and Eve having words before Jess left the building on her regularly scheduled lunch break. There was no audio there on that one, but Eve actually lashed out at Jess after they had words. “She shoved you?” he asked, turning to look at Jess. “Yes.” She nodded. “I fell on purpose, as if you say they’ll investigate my disappearance. They should start with me arriving at the office and track my every move to see who was tracking me right, with a view to k********g me.” Rydge nodded. “Yes, that is what I would do or have my team do.” He smiled. She’d planned that all on her own. Was good at thinking on the spot, he realized. “That message you showed her, who was it to and what was on it?” She was quiet for a minute as she thought about it. “It was to the Luna and read ‘I’d like a new warrior to watch over me, Eve just told me my own Mates don’t want me. They hope I’ll be snatched by traffickers and killed. So, she’ll get to go back to sleeping with them when it happens’.” She chuckled softly. “Now I guess that has happened.” “Did you get to send it?” he asked curiously. “No, I did not. That’s why she shoved me, crushed my phone too.” Jess looked at him now. “Why?” Rydge smiled as he checked for another camera angel, one that was further away, and he got what he wanted: a distance shot of them clearly having words, and he sent it to his tech team in an e-mail ‘Macca, make this look like it’s captured from a mobile phone, and not security footage.’ He could use that to play a little game of his own. “Eve’s got that phone now, but they are going to track it, retrieve it and hand it over to their tech team, then get the security footage from your workplace, only to see Eve shoving you about. Now if she's tossed it away to try and get rid of it, the security footage will show she's the one that had it last. Took it from you. She’s going to look guilty and in cahoots with the rogues, and is trying to hide the fact she was involved in your k********g. “If she hands your phone over to them willingly, either she's erased the message to cover her tracks but will then have to explain how she got the phone and why it's in that state, she'll have to lie, likely state the rogues crushed it and tossed it away, and she collected it. When they check all the security footage at the auction house, and their tech team should, they'll see your altercation. "The Alpha and Luna are going to want to know what you showed her that set her off. Then they are again going to think you were set up to be kidn*pped. If the message can be retrieved, they'll think not only by her, but… by your own Mates.” He leaned back in his chair. “Absolutely brilliant, Jess.” He smiled at her. “I didn’t think that far ahead.” She was just staring at him. That just amused him even more, “It doesn’t matter, that is how it’s going to come across. You didn’t hit the send button, but she crushed that phone without deleting it. Likely it’ll still be there as unsent, a draft waiting to be sent if it can be retrieved by the tech team. Those very words I understand you were looking to get her into trouble but… “That will see your Mates be Alpha Ordered if they haven’t already been, see them being ordered and of all the horrible things they’ve done to you come out. Including them looking for a replacement, which means getting rid of you. That’s treason of the highest.” She was just staring at him now, and he chuckled and looked at his phone as an alarm went off, “Ah, it’s time.” He stated, “It’s an hour after you were taken, is now about the time things should be moving down there outside in the human world, if Eve reported your k********g. If not… they should still turn up to find out who the hell is touching you. “The shows about to begin.” He motioned for her to come to him and place a fine silver bangle around her wrist and tightened it so it fit neatly. “Now you’re cut off from those that will be hunting you, but the filigree is still intact on those twins. Does it hurt too much?” he asked. She was looking at it. “I doubt there will be one,” she stated, “and no, it doesn’t really hurt. Guess being truly wolf-less has some perks. Itchy but that’s about it,” she told him. He was relieved to hear that, because she was going to have to wear it until tomorrow. He motioned for her to follow him out onto the balcony and she did. “Oh, there will be a hunt for you, I assure you of that. Not only have those two been getting hit with pains of betrayal on and off, all over their bodies, but they’ve also seen you now as pretty as a picture. I dare say even before all the pains they’ve been getting hit with, they’d have been thinking about treating you better.” “No, they wouldn’t have been.” Jess shook her head as she stepped out onto that balcony and pulled her sunglasses on. “They’d only be looking to humiliate me and punish me for outing them to their parents. Nothing more,” she stated. “It’s actually why they claimed me, to teach me a lesson and humiliate me. “Because I tried to play it off as I didn’t scent them out, and stated I’d accept a rejection…” she smiled just a little “In front of all the unmated she-wolves in the pack, their own mother called for all the unmated she-wolves to attend that full moon after they came home from Alpha College, she was looking to see them mate off and wanted to witness it I guess.” Rydge smiled now, he’d not known that little bit of information, and it made him happy to hear it. Jess had the balls to challenge the heirs to the pack in front of the entire pack. That was a Luna quality that meant she was strong-willed. Though those boys hadn’t seen it that way, but he was betting that Luna herself had smiled at seeing Jess do that very thing. “Out of curiosity, just how long did you get away with that?” he asked as he leaned on the railing and turned his eyes to the street down there. The hotel was on the next block up, but from way up here on the 15th floor, he could see where it had all gone down with his wolfen sight. “Hmm, for about 15 or 20 minutes I played at not knowing what they were to me. The Gamma of the pack picked it up and outed me.” She answered. “I glared at him and he kind of smiled. “Ah, he was likely amused by your stubbornness. I dare say he knew long before he outed you, played at not doing so until his Luna, who also likely understood what you were doing, told him to out you. She was testing your resolve, I dare say.” “What?” Jess frowned at him. “Hmm, to see just how much you’d stand up to the twins, basically, if you were Luna material, so to speak, and what you did, what she saw in you that very day, is why she wouldn’t let you reject her boys. She thought you’d make for a good Luna, strong and capable if given the chance. All she needed to do was have her sons bond with you and let that bond grow and flourish and then everything would fall into place.” “Only that never happened,” Jess muttered as she leaned on the railing much the same way he was doing. “They didn’t want me, and I didn’t want them,” “That very thing is why it didn’t work as well. It’s a double-edged sword, so to speak,” Rydge nodded. “Likely your Luna would have been better off allowing the rejection and acceptance. It would have seen both her boys have to see you inside the pack all the time, know you were their Mate and that would have probably seen them change their attitude around you over time. “Come to want their Fated Mate who they would know could handle them and their needs, and see them be nice to you, learn all on their own that a Mate is precious, and should be loved and treated right.” Jess turned and looked at him with a frown as she listened to him, “I doubt that very much.” She shook her head. “I don’t,” he stated simply, “having to see one's Mate that was gifted to you, all the time inside the pack, knowing that they could have had what it was they enjoyed; that being one between the two of them all the time. Having to think about it even, knowing that you could handle that, could well have seen you go out and do that with others bed two wolves at the same time anytime you wanted to. “That to them would have been more than bothersome. Ticked them off the moment anyone paid you any attention at all. It would only have taken one man, human or wolfen to pay you the slightest bit of attention after that realization dawned, and they’d have realized what they’d lost. Wanted to have it for themselves. “That very thing would have them regretting rejecting you, and they’d have either tried to sway you into being their Mate, only after a rejection. Something like that would have to be done in front of the entire pack, so everyone knew they wanted you for their Luna. And all males were to stay the hell away from you. In private and out of sight… “That wouldn’t be seen as they wanted you, just that they wanted to have s*x with you, and that wouldn’t see you stop flirting with others or sway you in the slightest. You’re not dumb and they know that. So, it would have to be done publicly, so everyone in the pack would start showing you respect, because that would likely be the only way you’d believe them. “Maybe come around to allowing the mate bond to be regrown between the three of you. It also wouldn’t happen overnight. Take months of them trying to sway you into dating them. They can’t force themselves on you, that would see you never agree and likely leave altogether. “The other option for them, if you refused their attempts on their own, or they wanted to go a safer route to trying to regrow your bond, would be to go back to their parents and tell them they’d changed their mind, “Wanted to have you for their Luna and ask for advice on how to go about claiming you once more, and getting you to accept them back. Again, that would see you get respect in the pack. The Alpha would likely have made an announcement to the pack, so as to stop any others from having designs on you, then they’d have brought you in themselves “For a formalized sit-down chat with their own sons, who would be the ones to tell you what they wanted. Have to apologize for the rejection, and then you’d be asked to please give them a second chance, not expected to just accept them. “If the leadership of the pack is good, they’d only ask that you trial a few dates with the heirs to the pack, and those two wouldn’t be allowed to touch you in any way. If they did against your will, again it would ruin everything and you’d never accept them. This, Jess, would see the mate bond grow and flourish for the twins, which is what that Luna was likely trying to do. Bring about a healthy bond between the three of you.”