attend this
very formal, lavish dinner. The banquet is held at Thunderfalls
Manor, their pack's headquarters and the residence of their Alpha,
Andrew Clark,” Deadra said with a slow smile. “If an
assassination attempt is made...”
Mason read the rest of her
plan in her smile.
“You're proposing to
let the Thunderfalls pack do the killing for us,” he said,
lounging back in his leather chair. He smiled back at his counselor
without showing his teeth.
“Yes, Alpha. We won't
get our hands dirty. And we'll have a legitimate reason to declare
war on the Thunderfalls pack.”
His counselors began
murmuring furiously, and he saw Deadra bask in the awed glances of
her fellow counselors.
Mason decided he could be
generous with his praise. Words cost nothing, but they could
accomplish a lot.
“That is fucking
brilliant, Deadra. We'll go ahead with your plan. I'll put you in
charge of this, Deadra.” He pushed back from the table and
stood behind her. “Inform the Thunderfalls pack that the Dark
Moon pack is pleased to send Leah Miller as our representative to
attend their centennial anniversary banquet.”
He clapped his large hand on
her shoulder, letting her feel his strength and power over her. The
veiled threat was not lost on her. She stiffened, but kept her head
bowed in submission. “I'm counting on you, Deadra. Serve me
well.”
“Don't I always,
Alpha.”
CHAPTER
TWO
Leah smoothed her clammy
palms down her black gown and adjusted her shawl. As she passed one of the full
length mirrors in the hallway, she glanced at her reflection. She
looked presentable enough. Her strawberry blond hair was pulled back
into a bun and her makeup was artfully applied. Her strapless
evening gown showed off her generous cleavage beautifully. It
had been bought in a hurry in a second-hand store, but it looked good
on her. Under her
gown, she wore thigh high boots. And strapped to the
inside of her right
boot was a silver knife.
Her nice gown and makeup did
nothing to hide the panic in her wide, green eyes. Leah blinked
rapidly and forced herself to take a steadying breath.
She could do this.
She had to.
It
was the only way to prove herself to the Dark Moon pack. She
had always been the outcast, the freak, the lowest of the low in the
pack. But she was a member of the Dark Moon pack, even if she wasn't
a full werewolf. Her mother was human but her father was a Dark Moon
wolf. When her mom died, her father had brought her into the pack.
He had tried to protect her while he was alive, but he wasn't a very
high-ranking wolf. While her father was alive, she was tolerated in
the pack, but after his death, she was completely ignored. And
when she wasn't being ignored, she was being picked on, laughed at,
kicked around. She was bullied and beaten, and the few times she had
tried to fight back, she had sustained even more vicious injuries for
her trouble. She had learned to keep her head down an d
just keep mum.
She
still trained with the Dark
Moon wolves, but she hated and dreaded the sparring sessions with them. The other
trainees ganged up on her and used her as a punching bag. And the
trainers never stopped them. Some
of the trainers even goaded them and egged them on, exhorting them to
use more force.
She
was allowed to live in
the tiny apartment that her father left her. The apartment belonged
to the Dark Moon pack. And she was given
a job as a lowly kitchen assistant in
one of the restaurants owned by the pack. She was still part of the pack, but she was never made to feel like
she truly belonged.
But
just last week, she had been called in to meet the Alpha. The Alpha! Imagine that. She
had seen Mason and his inner circle of wolves on a few occasions, but
always from a distance. The
Alpha and his counselors had ordered that she present herself before
them for a top secret
briefing . They had a
task for her, a highly
dangerous, secret mission. It was a chance for her to prove her
worth to the pack. Her success would