ELDER MIRIAM'S COTTAGE, AFTERNOON
Aria's POV
The difference between Grandfather Ragnar's cold mansion and Elder Miriam's warm cottage was like night and day. The moment I walked through her door, I was hit with the smell of lavender and honey, those same comforting scents that had wrapped around me like a blanket when I was a child visiting with my grandmother.
Elder Miriam pulled me into a hug the second she saw me and her small arms were surprisingly strong for someone her age. "Oh child, I'm so glad you finally chose yourself because I've been watching you suffer for years and it was breaking my old heart."
"You knew?" I asked as we pulled apart and I followed her into the cozy living room where she had tea already prepared like she'd been expecting me.
"I've known for years that boy didn't deserve you," she said and settled into her favorite rocking chair that creaked with every movement. "But you had to come to that realization on your own because if I'd told you, you would've just defended him and made excuses like you always did."
We sat there for a moment in comfortable silence while she poured tea into delicate cups that looked older than both of us combined.
"I need your help at the Council meeting," I said and decided to get straight to the point because I didn't have time to dance around the subject. "Mateo's going to fight the rejection with everything he has and I need to know where I stand."
"I already figured as much," Elder Miriam said and pulled out this worn notebook from beside her chair, flipping through pages filled with notes in her careful handwriting. "I've been doing some groundwork for you, talking to the other Council members and seeing where their loyalties lie."
She drew a rough diagram on a piece of paper and started explaining. "There are seven of us on the Council including myself and right now, the situation is this… three members are firmly in Mateo's corner, including his uncle who would vote for him even if he burned down the pack house, two are neutral and waiting to see which way the wind blows before they commit to either side, and two of us, myself included, are sympathetic to your cause."
"So I need to win over the neutral ones," I said and my mind was already working through strategies and possibilities.
"Or you need to get enough evidence against Mateo that even his supporters can't ignore it," Miriam said and there was something almost mischievous in her old eyes. "Tell me, have you spoken to the pack accountant recently? Because I've been hearing some very interesting whispers about irregularities in the books."
I thought about the USB drive Lucian had given me and the evidence of embezzlement he'd uncovered. "I might have access to something like that."
Miriam nodded knowingly like she'd expected that answer. "Good, because the Council respects strength and they respect power, but more than anything, they respect cold hard evidence that can't be argued away."
We spent the next hour going over strategies and she told me exactly how each Council member operated, what they valued, what would sway them and what wouldn't. By the time I left her cottage, I had a much clearer picture of what I was walking into.
HOTEL SUITE, EVENING
Leah was waiting when I got back to the hotel and her face told me she had news before she even opened her mouth.
"Spill it," I said as I dropped my bag on the couch and kicked off my heels because my feet were killing me.
"I managed to get more intel from the pack house and you're not gonna believe this sh*t," she said and pulled out her laptop with hands that were shaking slightly. "I've been doing some digging into Bella's background like you asked and what I found is… well, see for yourself."
She pulled up a series of photos on her screen and my blood ran cold as I looked at them. The first photo showed Bella on the phone and her face had this calculating expression that was nothing like the sweet innocent act she put on around Mateo.
"I managed to bug her room," Leah said and I could hear the pride in her voice. "It wasn't easy because she's paranoid as hell but I got this recording from last night."
She hit play and Bella's voice came through crystal clear.
"He actually thinks I love him, can you believe that? The fool is so starved for genuine emotion that he can't tell the difference between real feelings and a business transaction, once we have control of the northern territories, we can phase him out completely and install Jonas as alpha instead since he's already agreed to cooperate in exchange for the position."
The recording stopped and I just sat there staring at the laptop screen while my mind raced through the implications.
"It gets worse," Leah said and pulled up more documents. "I found the preliminary merger agreement that Mateo signed three months ago and he probably thought it was just a standard alliance contract but if you read the fine print here …" She pointed to a section buried in legal jargon. "It basically gives Alpha Marcus controlling interest in Silvermoon's northern territories and access to all pack resources the moment Bella becomes official Luna."
"He's been planning a hostile takeover this entire time," I said slowly as everything clicked into place. "Using his daughter as a weapon to get inside Silvermoon's defenses and Mateo was too busy thinking with his d*ck to see it coming."
"Exactly," Leah confirmed. "And there's more … Alpha Marcus is bankrupt, his pack is failing financially because of bad investments and corruption, he needs Silvermoon's wealth to save his own pack and Bella was the trojan horse."
I stood up and started pacing because I couldn't sit still anymore, my mind was going a million miles an hour trying to process this information and figure out what to do with it.
"There's something else you should know," Leah said hesitantly. "Marcus has done this before with other packs and I found records of three other alphas he tried to marry Bella off to in the last five years alone."
"What happened to them?" I asked even though part of me already knew the answer wasn't going to be good.
"One rejected her and mysteriously died in a hunting accident three months later, one went through with the marriage and his pack was absorbed into Darkmoon within a year while he was stripped of his alpha title and is now basically a prisoner in his own territory, and one discovered the plot before it was too late and went to war with Darkmoon … that conflict is still ongoing."
I felt sick to my stomach. "So Bella's a professional Luna-replacer and her father is using her to commit pack theft on a massive scale."
"Pretty much," Leah said. "The question is, what are you gonna do with this information?"
Before I could answer, there was a knock at the door and Leah immediately went on alert, moving to check the peephole.
"It's Lucian," she said and looked back at me for permission.
"Let him in."
Lucian walked in carrying a thick folder and the expression on his face told me he had his own bombshell to drop. "We need to talk right now because I just uncovered something that changes everything."
He spread documents across the coffee table and I recognized financial records mixed with what looked like text message transcripts.
"I've been digging deeper into the Darkmoon connection and what I found goes beyond just embezzlement," he said and his jaw was tight with anger. "Mateo's been transferring pack funds to support Bella's family business for three months like I told you before, but what I didn't realize until now is that those funds are being funneled into a shell company that Marcus controls and from there, the money's being used to buy up properties in Silvermoon territory."
"He's been buying our own land from under us," I said and the full scope of the betrayal hit me like a physical blow.
"Exactly, and if this merger goes through with Bella as Luna, Marcus will own nearly forty percent of Silvermoon's territory outright plus have controlling interest in the pack's resources and financial assets," Lucian explained. "Mateo essentially signed away his entire pack without realizing it."
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked him quietly and met his intense blue eyes. "You're his best friend and his lawyer, giving me this information could destroy him completely at the Council hearing and everyone will know it came from you."
Lucian was quiet for a long moment and something shifted in his expression, something raw and honest that I'd never seen before. "Because I've spent fifteen years watching him take everything good in his life for granted and you were the best thing that ever happened to him, Aria, and he threw you away like you meant nothing, I can't stand by and watch him sell out the entire pack just because he was too blind to see what was right in front of him."
He stepped closer and I could feel the heat radiating off his body. "And if I'm being completely honest, part of me is doing this because watching you suffer for years while pretending everything was fine destroyed something inside me and I couldn't do anything about it because of the friendship and the professional relationship, but now? Now I don't give a f**k about either of those things anymore."
Kira was going absolutely wild in my head screaming 'MATE' over and over but I pushed her voice down because this wasn't the time.
"If I use this evidence at the hearing," I said slowly and tried to think through the implications logically, "it won't just end my marriage to Mateo, it'll humiliate him in front of the entire Council and every pack in the region will see Silvermoon as weak and vulnerable."
"And if you don't use it," Lucian countered, "Marcus will complete his takeover, Mateo will lose everything anyway, and you'll be forced back into a marriage where you'll always be second place to his ambitions and his mistakes."
He was right and I hated that he was right.
My phone buzzed and I looked down to see another message from Mateo.
'Please, Aria, just give me a chance to explain everything and I know I've f**ked up but we can fix this if you just come back, I need you.'
I stared at that message for a long time while Leah and Lucian watched me in silence.
"He has no idea how bad this really is," I said quietly. "He thinks this is just about me being angry over Bella but he doesn't realize he's been played this entire time and his whole pack is about to be stolen from under him."
"Do you still care about him?" Lucian asked and his voice was carefully neutral but I could see the tension in his shoulders.
Did I? That was the million dollar question, wasn't it? Part of me wanted to say no, wanted to claim that I was completely over him and didn't give a damn what happened, but that would be a lie.
"I care about the pack," I said finally. "I care about the people I've worked with for four years, the families who've trusted me, the territory I've helped protect and I won't let some outsider destroy everything just because Mateo was too stupid to see he was being manipulated."
I looked up at both of them and made my decision. "We're going to expose Marcus at the Council hearing and destroy his takeover attempt completely, but we're going to do it in a way that protects Silvermoon's reputation and once that's done, once the pack is safe from Marcus, then Mateo and I will settle our divorce."
Lucian smiled slowly. "You're going to save his pack even after everything he's done to you."
"I'm not doing it for him," I corrected. "I'm doing it because those people don't deserve to suffer because their alpha was thinking with his d*ck instead of his brain."
Leah let out a low whistle. "This is gonna be one hell of a Council meeting."