LIMERENCE

Chapter Four

Shame washed over Amelia as she headed back home, still dressed in ridiculous Woodville fashion. Instead of stopping by Nikki’s to brief her, she went straight home.

“Miss Stone, would you like to be part of the decoration committee for the new moon festivals coming up?” A beta flanked her the moment she stepped into the Alpha residence.

It was Aliyah, one of the few female betas the pack had, and Amelia realized she was almost relegated to mundane things like parties and decorations—but then, she was old, almost sixty, so fair enough.

“Miss Stone?” the woman persisted. There was a kind smile on her face and a quiet look of authority about her. Perhaps Amelia had underestimated her.

“No,” she replied finally, with an answering smile. “I have some matters of the state to see to—with my father.”

The woman nodded, understanding dawning as she stepped aside. Yet when Amelia started to leave, she caught her hand.

“There are tear streaks on your face. I can tell you’ve been crying. Wash your face before you go speak with your father. If you want to tread the more dangerous waters of pack politics, then don’t show anyone weakness—not even your father, the Alpha, and definitely not me.”

She looked like she would have said more, but suddenly, she shut her mouth, and the genial, grandmotherly expression Amelia now realized was a ruse was back in place.

“Have a nice day,” she offered finally, then turned and was gone.

Amelia sucked in a breath, missing her mother for the first time in her life. What would Hyde Pack’s Luna have advised?

It was close to midnight when Amelia went to see her father. Her eyes were dry, her face expressionless, and she’d freshened up and changed out of enemy fashion.

He stood with his back to her, staring at an abstract painting of the moon, his night robe draping around him in a way that made him look even more dowdy than he was.

“It’s not even up to a week. Are you sure you don’t need more time to try and convince Tristan to love you?” he offered kindly without turning around.

Amelia scoffed. “I came to tell you that you were wrong. You and the Gamma. Men do fall in love that quickly, but Tristan would never love me,” she finished, congratulating herself on how steady her voice was.

When Ehli turned to face her, there was none of the fatherly kindness that had been in his voice earlier. His expression was cold—every inch the Alpha. “Very well then, let’s get down to business. But first, I’ve sent for the Gamma—”

“Did you know I’d be coming? Is that why you sent for him?” Amelia asked, a question that sounded stupid at face value, but her father always showed an uncanny ability to predict the future.

He merely shook his head. “I mind-linked. There’s a lot you do not know about being Alpha, a lot I must teach you—if you are to succeed me. An Alpha, if he gets lucky, can bind a Gamma to himself. This man would live only to straighten out tough knots for his Alpha, be it by killing, blackmail, or other nefarious acts.”

And why was he telling her this now? As though there was a message hidden within that she should decode. Amelia shivered slightly, hugging herself as the door opened and the Gamma stepped in.

She stared at him, as though transfixed. He was dressed in loose-fitting pants and a tank top this time around, yet it did nothing to hide the sheer power he exuded.

How could this magnificently powerful man be tied to a man such as her father?

If he noticed her scrutiny, he did not acknowledge it. “You called,” he said with a bow to Ehli, and an unspoken message passed between both men.

“Are you mind-linking now?” She had to ask.

The Gamma finally turned to look at her, and there was a brief flicker of surprise in those cool, gray eyes, but it was her father who spoke next.

“If you want to be Alpha, Amelia, you must learn to—how did you put it, Gamma? Wait a while and have your questions answered without having to ask. My Gamma here did not know I told you we could mind-link. You’ve just given him the information now.”

Amelia drew in a breath, telling herself it was foolishness to want her father to simply hug her and let her cry on his shoulders after an epic heartbreak. She was future Alpha, not some peasant girl. There was no place for such in her life.

“I’m here so you can tell me all about my heritage and how I can use this Moonbane to destroy Tristan.”

“The first thing you need to learn is that revenge is useless. If you’re here because you want revenge, then you better get out now—”

“I don’t want revenge! I just want to be cold, ruthless, every inch the Alpha you are, every inch the Alpha Tristan is—”

“Ah! Admiration for your opponent. That’s a lovely thing. It would ensure you don’t underestimate him. But tell her, Gamma—tell her she needs to bury any childish feelings she has if she would work with us.”

For some reason, the hairs on her neck raised as she turned to stare at the Gamma. He merely grunted, but then he turned to her and said the oddest thing.

“Warmth is a strength too—warmth, beauty, vulnerability, and love. It’s something men like your father and I are not capable of. If that’s your own superpower, maybe you should learn to hone it.”

Amelia shook her head before he could finish speaking. “I don’t want it. I want to learn to be ruthless.”

Her father smiled. “You must learn that whatever pull you feel towards Tristan doesn’t matter. Learn how to ignore it. But know that whatever you feel, he feels it double—that’s how the Moonbane works.”

And yet he had treated her so shabbily… What superpower did these men have to turn their hearts to stone? Amelia wanted it.

“My spies tell me he has married Charlotte, the daughter of a Lycan diplomat, so you cannot be his Luna again. You’ll have to seduce him, sleep with him, keep pretending you’re infatuated with him, get him to lower his guard, to get addicted to you—and that’s when you strike.”

Amelia sucked in a breath. No, she must not start feeling emotional now. “C-can’t I destroy him from afar?”

Ehli laughed. “Of what use would the Moonbane be then? Look, you’ve been given just one target, and you can’t handle it. What would happen when the Moonbane picks an entire harem for you, and you have to destroy all of them through seduction?”

“What?” Amelia swallowed. “It’s possible this—Moonbane points out other people to me as my mate?”

“And you can’t fall for them. You must remember—it’s a tool to use for the destruction of your enemies. I’m sorry, is this too much for you?” Ehli asked, a sarcastic inflection in his tone. “Do you need more time to cry and moon over a man that doesn’t want you?”

“No. I’m ready if you’re ready,” Amelia snapped, hating her father at that moment.

He nodded. “Wait in the library then. I need to talk to my Gamma. He’ll be with you shortly.”

The biting cold outside the coziness of her father’s study was a welcome distraction, and Amelia had to remind herself not to cry as she walked into the library.

It was already around 1 a.m. before the door opened, and the scent of the Gamma filled the room.

“I’ll teach you only one thing because it’s all I know—how to destroy, how to use everything within you to destroy your target,” his gruff voice reached her.

She whirled around to face him, and his face was cast in shadows, making it impossible to see his expression.

His scent engulfed her, touching her emotions in places she did not know existed.

She knew, even before her wolf roared, “Mate.”

Amelia stared wide-eyed at the Gamma, and though she could not read his expression, she knew that he knew as well. He too had been marked by her Moonbane for destruction.

But this was no courtly Alpha. This was a dangerous man, a man who had lived his life by killing and destroying people, and Amelia knew—he would destroy her first without a second thought before he even let her harm him.

The look on his face frightened her as he stepped out of the shadows. “This,” he said calmly, “is an unexpected twist.”

Without waiting to hear what he would say next, Amelia turned and fled.