The Captain's Forbidden Mate

Episode 36: WHAT AIDEN KNOWS

COLE

"Explain," I said.

Aiden studied me for a moment, as if gauging how much I could take.

"Your grandfather," he said finally, "was not the one that ordered the massacre." (My stomach lurched.) "It was someone else who took advantage of his position and later placed the blame for it on him."

"That's preposterous," I said. "My father would know."

"Would he? Wouldn't he just see what he's been led to believe his whole life, just as you did until this week?" Aiden's voice was calm and patient. "I have documents. Letters, things that should have been discarded long ago that prove the order for the m******e came from a third party, someone that wanted to see both Corwin and Silverclaw decimated at the same time so that a third power could rise from the ruins."

"Thorne," Lena said.

"No, he's not the one." Aiden shook his head. "Elias Thorne is exactly what he seems, a survivor that wanted to right an old wrong. He's not your enemy, and I understand why you might not trust him yet." Aiden paused. "The one who ordered the m******e, however, is alive and well. They are still active and continuing to push forward with what they started twenty-two years ago."

"Who?" I demanded.

"I don't have a name yet," Aiden said, his expression darkening. "I've been chasing ghosts for the last two decades trying to find out who it is that stands to benefit from two packs tearing each other apart piece by piece and generation by generation. I have theories but no proof."

"They haven't even given us a name yet," Damien muttered, frustration creeping into his voice. "I'm sorry, Aiden, but what's the point in bringing us out here if you're just going to tell us everything we thought we knew was false and can't even give us the name of the one who's making all of this happen?"

"I can give you a warning," Aiden said. "The meeting of the council in three days is exactly the kind of event they'd use to get both packs together in one place, with tensions already high. The claiming ceremony could be taken advantage of, twisted around to seem as if one pack is attacking the other when all it would take is a nudge in the right direction to stoke the flames of war." He looked at me. "Someone has been waiting for twenty-two years for a chance like that council meeting, and they're not wasting another opportunity like this."

There was a heavy pause in the warehouse, the group of us silent as somewhere far away a car alarm went off and then, just as suddenly, stopped, making all four of us tense up with the sound before realizing it meant nothing.

"How do you know about any of this?" Cole asked, some suspicion creeping back into his voice. "If you've been hiding for twenty-two years, how do you have current information about a council meeting that was only set this week?"

"I have people," Aiden said simply. "Not a lot of them. Not in numbers like Thorne does, but enough eyes and ears spread out among the packs to know when something happens, even if I don't know the reason. It's how I survive and it's how I continue to stay one step ahead of whoever, or whatever, is really behind all of this, even if you don't have a name to put to them yet."

"We need to warn my father," I said. "Tell him to cancel the meeting and reschedule it until we know more."

"You can try," Aiden said. "But I'd imagine whoever is behind all of this already knows that you're having this conversation right now."

True to his words, my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, the blood draining from my face as I read what was on the screen.

A text message from my father, thirty seconds ago.

Council moved up again. Tomorrow night, not three days from now. No more delays. Something's forcing my hand, Cole, and I don't fully understand what yet. Bring her. Whatever happens tomorrow, we face it together.

I read it twice, my hands shaking slightly, before passing my phone to Lena so she could read it too.

"Tomorrow," she said quietly.

"That's barely any time at all," Aiden said again, his voice grim. "Someone wanted this rushed, someone wanted all of you to walk blindly into that council room without the chance to prepare or know what was waiting for you, and it's not just incompetence on your father's part, Cole, but pressure coming from somewhere above him that he clearly doesn't fully understand."

Damien had gone very quiet, staring at nothing as he held his phone tightly. "My father hasn't called me all night," he said. "Not once since I went to ask him about you." He looked up at Aiden. "That's not like him. He always calls back. Always."

"Then perhaps he already knows what we're discussing right now," Aiden said. "Perhaps someone told him before any of us had the chance."

The thought hung over the group of us like a lead weight, and Damien tucked his phone back away, his jaw set firmly in place, and he said nothing for a long moment, staring at the floor like he was willing himself to stay composed.

"I need answers from him," he finally muttered, more to himself than anyone. "Real ones."

"You'll have your chance," Aiden said gently. "Just not tonight. Tonight we plan for tomorrow. That's what's most important right now."

Lena came closer to me and found my hand again, for a moment none of us said anything at all, and the weight of everything Aiden had told us hung over the warehouse like dust.

"What do we actually do between now and tomorrow night?" I finally asked. "Besides what? Wait until we've learned enough to survive whatever's waiting for us?"

"You prepare," Aiden said simply. "You gather up whoever you trust. You make sure Lena's control over her shift is as good as it can be in the time you have left. And you pay close attention to everyone tomorrow night, especially the people who seem the most sure of how the evening is going to go. Certainty, for me, is usually a good sign to suspect those who are most certain of already knowing the most."