32

DAMIAN’S VIEW

Jack, Connor, Lerhome, Drokor, Ethan, Alina and I gathered in the living room of my house. We had placed a table in the middle of the room and on it was a map of our surroundings and a sketch by Connor of how the organization's presumed headquarters was set up according to his information.

Samuel and Eriens and their people gathered in camps around our village. I had actually wanted to discuss my plan with them, but when I realized how many people would have to attend this gathering, how many alphas and betas were currently in my home, I decided to construct a plan with my closest confidants first and then to present it later to the others.

They still had some work to do in their own ranks anyway, and when we got together they were able to say what they thought of our plan. At least that was my explanation to Alina and Co. when I explained to them why I wanted to go home so quickly.

I didn't mention that another important factor in this decision was Samuel. It was clear that Alina and he had a common past. But I didn't know exactly what had happened or how close they had been. Because that was apparently one of the things Alina hadn't told me yet.

She would explain when the time was right, I knew that. But knowing that he called her Linchen and not knowing what their relationship was, I didn't find it particularly amusing. Mainly because I kept telling myself that I was imagining things that weren't there.

I took a deep breath and shut those feelings out. They really weren't helpful in what was about to happen to me. "Holy cow shit, you could have mentioned how huge this house really is." Connor gave Jack an evil look, which Jack didn't notice, as he bent over the map again and meanwhile also inspected the sketch.

"The wisest thing would be if we scouted the area first. Find out where there are entrances and how many guards are posted where." "No, we don't have time for that," suddenly came from the other side of the room and everyone - except for Alina - lifted their heads and looked surprised at Niklas, who now stood next to Alina.

"What exactly are you doing here? As far as I know, you weren't invited to our little meeting," I said. I really didn't have the nerve to deal with Niklas as well. "Well then you are not well informed," he replied pointedly. That was one of the problems of accepting a young, independent werewolf into your pack. He mostly had no respect for his alpha.

"What do you mean, Niklas?" I asked. "Your soulmate summoned me." I looked at Alina in disbelief. "Why that?" "I think he's important. He's smart, as you can see, and that can help us a lot. Apart from that, I trust him." I raised both eyebrows.

“Why exactly do you trust him? Because he saved his soul mate's best friend? Or because he's got the weird feeling he's been watching you lately?”

Alina now raised her head and stood up straight. She rested her hands on her hips. “I trust Niklas because I trust my feelings. Nature has decided to tell Niklas where I am and that speaks for itself.”

“I understand that you feel like you can trust him. But he's doing it all for himself and his reputation with Amelia. He doesn't care about you at all.”

It hit her, more than I expected. “Now I understand why you warned me about this day, you're really acting like an ass.”

Damn, I knew that. But I just wanted to protect Alina from any disappointments. And even though I was very grateful to Niklas for saving her, that didn't change my view of him. All his friends had integrated perfectly, but Niklas always had to interfere in something.

“I know exactly what you're thinking. In case you forgot, I even feel it. Let me tell you one thing: I know Niklas says he would only do this for Amelia. That doesn't make sense, though, because she probably doesn't know anything about anything he's doing. Niklas does it because he wants it that way. And I think that these emotions that you have bottled up in you actually have nothing to do with Niklas.”

“And then with what?”

“With Sam.”

My mouth twisted instantly. Yes, it was up to Sam. I couldn't judge the guy and that bothered me. “You're right. It has something to do with Samuel. I would just like to know what happened between you guys.”

Alina looked at me thoughtfully. Then I felt her determination, and shortly after I heard: “Do you trust me?”

‘What?’

“Do you trust me, Damian.”

“Yes I do.”

“Well then trust me when I say it won't destroy anything between us. And that I will tell you soon. But not now, because we have more important things to do.”

Now it was me who had to think. Of course I trusted Alina, but I was surprised that she postponed this conversation. But maybe whatever happened was too present now and she needed time to process it again.

Besides, she was right. I really behaved like a total ass, not only towards Alina, but also towards Niklas. And if Alina thought Niklas had good intentions, then I would hope she was right about that too and trust her instincts.

So I nodded. “OK.”

Alina nodded back and went back to the table and our approach. Then the feeling of love and affection flooded me. I smiled. That was good. We could have our problems with each other, but it wouldn't destroy anything between us. I took a deep breath. Now I finally had to put aside my teenage behavior and act like who I needed to be.

"Well," Niklas began. Apparently the others had waited until we had finished our conversation. "Like I said, we don't have time to look around and scout the area." Alina nodded in agreement. "That's right. We have the element of surprise on our side. The organization knows we're up to something, but they won't expect us to act so quickly."

"In addition, we are well prepared. We have the best warriors and also an alliance with four other packs," I added. "What exactly is our plan? We can't really kill them all." "We could," answered Drokor Jack. "It just wouldn't be morally acceptable."

"Besides, we would then be exactly like them. We don't get involved in conversations and just believe firmly in our ideas." Alina was visibly disturbed by this thought. "No, it's just as much our fault that it got to this point as the organization." She had wanted to tell you that it was your fault as well. I didn't blame her, though, because I knew she was right.

"So what are we going to do?" Ethan interjected. "We could conduct negotiations and conclude contracts. Allow them areas that they use completely alone. Or determine peaceful coexistence. That still has to be considered." "I don't think Egbert will vote for it," Ethan mused.

And according to my current impressions, maybe not Samuel either. "But Eriens will definitely do it, as will Zabrina. Apart from that, it's all a consideration for the future. We have to get there first." Alina looked at me, apparently knowing that I had already thought of something.

"Here's the rough plan: rush in, surprise, overwhelm, win." Jack laughed. "I like the plan." Niklas, on the other hand, didn't seem very convinced and threw a strange look at Alina again. "And how exactly do you imagine that?"

I grinned and began to explain my plan: "As I said before, we have the element of surprise on our side. So we rush into the entrances with all our warriors and hope that they will be too overwhelmed by the situation to react adequately. Which they probably can't do, since they don't expect us."

So far my idea seems to have been well received. "We will kill as little as possible, regardless of the fact that they hurt our people. We do not know who exactly was to blame for this action and we will not just start slaughtering random people for revenge. Then we will make sure that they realize how hopeless their situation is, so they agree to negotiate." No one reacted, except for Niklas, who laughed softly and said: "I like the way you think."

ALINA’S VIEW

After we finished our briefing - the plan had been further tweaked and completed, Damian and Jack would then present it to the others - I headed off to spend time with Amelia again. We hadn't really had a chance to speak to each other since I was kidnapped, and we were going to do that now. I also felt the urgent need to talk to her about Niklas.

Also because I had come to appreciate Niklas and I wanted to convince her to give him a chance. I wouldn't push her into something she didn't want, but maybe Amelia could try. I knocked on her front door and Aurora opened it. She looked at me skeptically and said: "It's nice that you stop by here too." to the fact that she had made it pretty clear that she didn't like me and it was kind of confusing when she said that, I didn't go into it.

Instead I asked, "Is your daughter there?" Aurora wrinkled her nose. "She is, but I'm not sure if she wants to see you. After all, you haven't seen her in a long time and you weren't there for her after her grandmother died." Yes, I had heard about that. But this loss didn't bother me as much as it did for others. I knew that Delia was better off now and that she had spent her time with us wisely.

"You may not realize it, but the world doesn't revolve around you. I haven't had the opportunity to have a private conversation with your daughter and I deeply regret it. Which is why why i am here now Amelia and I have some catching up to do and I won't let you stop me." She eyed me blankly. I really had no idea what I had done to this woman.

She looked at me as if I had caused her some pain, every time , when she looked at me, she would be reminded. Finally, Aurora admitted, "She asked me to let you see her if you ever came over. I just wanted to make sure you had the right intentions.” With that, she stepped aside and let me in. “How nice,” I murmured, well aware that she could hear me. Because I stuck with it. This woman had something against me and instead of just telling me, she showed it with her behavior. But that didn't interest me much, after all I clearly had better things to do at the moment.

I knocked on Amelia's door and after a soft "Come in" I entered the room. It was quite small with yellow walls. Only a bed, a small closet and a sofa fit in. But Amelia had an eye for interior design and had managed to make the room look bigger and nicer with decorations and all sorts of knick-knacks. I was pulled into a long hug, which I was only too happy to return.

Amelia hugged me tightly, apparently she missed me as much as I missed her. There was a sniffle and I pushed her away worriedly. "What's the matter? Are you alright?" She laughed and wiped a few tears from her face. "I'm just glad to finally see you. I knew you were back and fine, but actually seeing you is even better."

We had seen each other briefly right after I got back, but that didn't seem to matter to her any more than it did to me. Her motioned to the sofa and asked me to sit down. Amelia wrung her hands and asked uncertainly, "Do you want anything to drink or maybe something to eat? I think it's the first time you're in my room with me." "I think so too," I replied. "I don't want anything, thanks. Except maybe we're not pretending to be meeting each other for the first time. After all, I have some things to report and I need my gossip-loving friend to do that."

Amelia smiled and sat down in front of me. Somehow her smile got pretty creepy while she just said, "Yesterday was a full moon." Now I grinned too, because I could definitely understand her happiness. "Yeah right." "And how was?" "Was good." "Really?! Was it good? I want some more details." I sighed in surrender. I certainly wouldn't tell her the details of the sex, but I could calm her curiosity with something else.

"I told him I love him." Amelia's mouth fell open and she stared at me in surprise. A short, high-pitched scream escaped her and she clapped her hands to her mouth.

"How now? I... What? But I didn't know that! What did he answer? Do I have to kill him?" I spluttered imagining her charging at her Alpha. "You don't have to kill him, don't worry." "Phew, okay, I'm relieved. Don't get me wrong, I would have done it, but I think my plan would have been a bit difficult." I smiled. Yes, I thought so too. "I never really thought about loving him. I just knew and in that one moment I just had to say it." I smiled lightly. "And it definitely didn't fail to have an impact." She giggled hysterically. "Oh god, that's so exciting. Finally something positive after grandma's death."

Immediately my mood changed and I said cautiously, "I'm sorry I wasn't there." "Oh, I'm fine. And please don't be depressed or anything, because I don't want that. Mum is, after all. I was very sad too, but I know she's happy now." Amelia shrugged, and I knew she believed her words firmly. "Besides, she wouldn't want us to be so sad." She crawled even closer to me and placed his hands on my knees." So tell me, how is he acting?" I grimaced. "It's complicated. He's very much in control and probably knows that I like it better that way, but it's still difficult for him. Surely you know about the arrival of the Alphas?" She nodded affirmatively.

"Well, I have a history with one of them, but it's not like we loved each other or anything. We were close friends. But then there were some complications along with betrayals, lies and more betrayals. I know that Damian really wants to know what happened back then, but I can't be specific about it. My attention must now be on our preparation and I must not dwell too much on the past."

"I'm sure he understands that. Damian loves you, I know that. And he wouldn't do anything to make you unhappy." She sighed, looking pained and happy at the same time. "I wish I could have something like that too." So there was the topic I was dying to talk to her about. Me just couldn't screw it up.

"You know," I said casually, "you could have it." Amelia raised an eyebrow. "With who? Nicholas? I beg you. I don't even like him. At least he's stopped wanting to talk to me all the time." So Niklas followed my advice. It probably didn't do much good. "I know I shouldn't interfere, but I think you're doing him an injustice. He just wants to spend some time with you. Maybe you should just try it." She snorted.

"No thanks. He gets on my nerves and he's also rude." I knew I was walking a tightrope now. I should stick with Amelia because she was my friend. But I really liked Niklas and he didn't have those words deserves."You want to know what I believe? I think you're just afraid of the changes that are coming your way. You don't want to get involved with Niklas, because you didn't expect that he would be your soul mate. And you don't like that. You don't even want to try because you're too stubborn and keep holding on to your opinions.

Niklas is a good guy and just trying to do the best. It's logical that it doesn't always work out, and you'd know that if you gave him a chance to explain himself." Those were harsh words. But I thought they were true and I wholeheartedly endorsed them.

But Amelia did I didn't expect such a reaction. She looked at me angrily and said: "You're right, that's none of your business. If you want Niklas, then take him." I shook my head. We wouldn't get anywhere like that. We would get more and more stuck and wouldn't want to approach the other. So I did that, what I thought was right. I walked.