Rescued By The Beta

Chapter 14

CLAIRE

With Hunter and Jet gone, along with the trackers. I pace around the room, going through the document I had taken from Hunter’s study when a knock came through the door. Snapping my head up, I shut the file and dropped it on the bed.

“Trisha…” I said, stepping out of the way for her to come inside. “What’s wrong?”

Her eyes wandered around the room briefly before looking back at me. “I thought you would be moving back to your old bedroom? Anywho, Freya isn’t around to attend the women council meeting so I was hoping… that is, if you’re feeling up to it, you can go in place of her.”

“Why not? Just let me know when it is.”

She nodded, turning to leave only to pause again. “I’m about to mediate, care to join?”

“Perhaps some other time but there’s something I wanted to ask you. You mentioned that Sophie is kept at the dungeon, how are you sure she won’t cause any troubles there? Unless you restricted her with magic?” I asked, trying to paint my question as purely curiosity.

“We were hoping to use her to track Heather when she took you and Hunter through that portal but she refused to cooperate with us. Sophie had made it distinctly clear that she would rather die than betray the council.” There was a note of bitterness in her voice.

While I don’t know much about Trisha because she doesn’t talk about it much except that she grew up in the same coven with Sophie. It must no doubt be upsetting to her that she was quick to betray the coven, but refused to betray the council.

“And you just let her be?” I inquired, unable to believe that Jet didn’t resort to torture to get her to cooperate.

“Yes,” she conforms. “Also we didn’t see the need to waste time on her when we have Asher and Killian to help out. Jet still thinks she will be useful, until then, we are keeping her in a state of weakness.”

“That makes sense.” I lied, waving her goodbye after our conversation. Long after she was gone, I went over the conversation in my head with resentment.

The fact that Sophie is still alive is a testament to how weak Jet has become all thanks to the fact that he’s mated to a human. Humans are weak minded people, fragile and prone to emotions, she’s probably the only thing holding him back from killing Sophie because I fail to see what use she could have when she has refused to betray the council.

However, realizing how well this could help me, I smiled with satisfaction, walking to the closet to select an outfit for the council of women meeting. Fortunately, her current absence from the Pack gives me the opportunity to carry out my plans before she comes and disrupts it.

Hearing a commotion outside my bedroom, I hurried out of the room, seeing the servants run in one particular direction. Pulling one aside, I gestured toward the crowd, asking her what’s going on.

“A fire,” she cried out breathlessly. “The Beta mansion is on fire!”

What? Letting go of her, I followed the rest of the servant outside, stopping at the sight of smoke emerging from one of the windows. I joined Trisha outside the bedroom where the fire was being put out.

A few minutes later, a guard carried a coughing woman out. By now, the fire was completely put out, leaving only traces of burn out smoke. I stepped into the room, I gaze hardening on the aftermath of the fire.

“What were you thinking?” I sneered, spuning around to glare at her. “How did the place go up in smoke?”

“Claire…” Trisha cautioned, stepping between me and the woman. “I’m sure we can ask her questions as soon as she stops coughing. We need to make certain she’s alright.”

“I’m so sorry…” the woman whispered with watered eyes. “I wanted to light up a candle and something startled me, which caused me to drop it.”

“What? Who lights up a candle during the day? Are you listening to how stupid her excuse sounds? And why do you need a candle? What happened to the bedside lamp?” I demanded, even though I’m trying to tell myself to calm down.

The woman stopped coughing all together and straightened up. “I wanted to help, I have been helping around the place ever since we heard there’s a shortage in staff and we know not a lot of people will be open to helping us so I was hand sewing a top, I wanted to burn the edge off…”

“I don’t understand, what could have startled you?” Trisha wandered aloud, instead of focusing on how responsible the stupid human had been.

“Something dark… like a shadow, I felt cold.”

Mentally rolling myself, I turned on my heels and left the house because the longer I stood there, the more I felt I would explode with anger. As the day dragged into noon, I was expecting Trisha in my room after what happened at the Beta mansion.

When a knock first came through the door, I believed it was her until the familiar scent of Camille filled the place as I opened the door. She seemed far too excited for my comfort.

“I will be coming with you to the Council meeting, Freya usually goes with her maid but Trisha said you are not comfortable with having a maid around and suggest I come with you.”

“So she’s asking you to keep an eye on me?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

“What? No. I think Trisha knows I want to go out badly which is why she suggested I come with you. Since Kale went with Freya, this place has been less fun.”

“Give me a few minutes to change them.” I slammed the door in her face before she could respond. I thought going to the meeting was something I would have to do alone but with her coming with me, I’d have to be extra careful.

Half an hour later, we departed from the Pack house and drove to Lady Caroline Estate. It wasn’t huge or anything but it was big enough for her comfort. A home given to her by Jet after her mate passed away fighting the council men.

Sean was one of the higher ranked men in Rosewood warriors and I have met him a couple of times. People often wonder how he came to be mated to Caroline due to the fact he’s more introverted while she was the opposite of him.

Kind of like Hunter and I… at least before. No one could have suspected we were soul mates because we were the polar opposite of one another. Growing up, I was considered weird, loud and troublesome.

Hunter on the other hand prefers to be on his own, explaining why Jet and him only started getting close after Sophie’s betrayal. The dynamics changed, at first it was Jet, me and Morgana, with me being the odd one out.

Not because I was a weird teen but because they were older than I am and Morgana didn’t want me interfering in case Jet decided to kiss her one day and he wouldn’t want to do that with me around. The memory made me smile a bit, then after Sophie’s secret was revealed the dynamics became Hunter, Jet and Morgana.

She became the odd one out cause Hunter and Jet seemed to get along better. They become more obsessed with revenge on Sophie and the council. When Morgana finally returned to her pack, it shifted back to Jet, Hunter, me, and Kale, mainly because I baby-sat him.

“What are you thinking about? You look lost in thought.” Camille’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

Looking away from the window, I let out a sigh. “I was just thinking about the past. When Morgana was still here…”

Her entire demeanor shifted at the mention of her aunt. “You shouldn’t be thinking of her, she doesn’t deserve to have a fond memory in your heart.”

Her reply left me stunned. “She was your Aunt, Camille.”

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears when I pointed that out. “Which is why it hurts to think of her, after everything she did to us, I don’t acknowledge her as such.”

What? I couldn’t comment further because the driver announced we’ve arrived at Caroline’s estate. The fact that Freya has made her turn her back against Morgana was disheartening. Yes, Morgana was wrong for what she did but Jet killing her, after everything we went through together is something I would never forgive them both for.

Pushing the upsetting thought aside, I got down from the car. As Camille began the walk up to the front steps of the house, I held her back.

“No one should tell you what you should and shouldn’t feel. You can be upset at what she did and still grief her. She loved you very much, and only did what she did because of her anger toward humans. They have taken a lot from her, from every one of us as well…”

She blinked, pulling her arm free. “Except that isn’t the truth. You must have forgotten, she mistreated all in the process because Jet didn’t want to be with her. Her actions didn’t only hurt the humans but us as well, I will never forgive her for that.”

Watching her go, I was forced to admit she was right but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Jet killed her. He killed one of our own because of his human mate!