Lauchlan The Betrayed (book 2 of Hell in the Realm series)

Ch 5

Franco

He made sure to hold his conversation with Ryder in private, so no one knew what he was doing when the day came. He’d told his Beta it was just a regular conversation about her future, and what she wanted to do with herself. Nothing that Mal needed to be in the room for.

It wasn’t at all necessary for any of his unit to be in his office for any meetings about what university degrees a pack member was looking at studying, when they had finished school, unless it was, of course, for their own family members. So it was just her and him in his office which aroused no suspicion at all.

Ryder had been in here many times with him and his Beta, Mal, or just him on his own. She was no stranger to coming in here and greeted him as she normally would, though her smile was small and only brief. But that was to be expected. She already knew that she was mate-less.

Him dropping on her that she should become a member of the pack's brothel he knew would horrify her. He knew she’d never had a boyfriend. He had been watching her for the past five years now. Knew everything about her. It was something he didn’t think she was going to opt for and was actually counting on it.

Then offering up the Royal Military to her as her only other option. He got the reaction that he was expecting. She looked utterly horrified to hear him explain the options that he saw fit for her. As a mate-less she-wolf, with no prospects of helping to grow the pack. He told her she was useless to him to help her feel that bit more demoralised.

He also knew that her father had visited that pack brothel himself, and had told her to stay away from it. She’d promised him she would. Just something that was also going to go in his favour. He sat and listened to her try and tell him she could be a good warrior for the pack, and that was something he didn’t want. He needed her gone from this pack, and to a place that Lauchlan wouldn’t ever come across her.

He also had to have her make this decision herself, so it wouldn’t be seen that it was him sending her away. Everything had to be all her decision. Just in case, by some freakish miracle, she came back to this pack, or Lauchlan, by some very slim chance, came across her on a full moon within the Wolfen Realm.

Or within scenting range and hunted her out, and she told him that she had been sent away by his own father. Then he could not only state it was the truth, but could be alpha ordered to state the truth, which would be it was her choice, not his. That she willingly chose to go to the realm and serve the king for the rest of her life.

All he had to do was make sure that no one inside this pack knew about the deal he was making, not even Amora herself. He also didn’t think that Ryder was about to go and tell her friends about the brothel option. He was certain she didn’t want anyone to know she was entertaining the idea.

He’d seen that the blind faith and trust that she had in him, as her Alpha, was being torn apart right before his very eyes, as he dished out the options to her. Also, something that he wanted because if she could no longer trust him, then she wouldn’t want to be inside this pack either; which would push her towards the Kings Military.

Which meant that leaving was the only option given to her really. Though he had a back-up plan in case, she opted for the pack brothel. If that somehow was her choice, he would simply have her sedated and cuffed, press her bloodied thumbprint onto the scroll he had waiting for her and then have her transported to the wolfen realm anyway.

Though he would make up some story that she had harmed one of his kin, and therefore she was a full traitor to the pack, and was being sent to the kingdom’s military as punishment. No admissions officer would even ask her questions when reading something like that, likely to just stare at her and be disappointed in her for attacking her own Alpha’s family, and tell her to shut the hell up.

Though if they did opt to check, they’d see he had two sons and a daughter and one of his sons was in the military currently, which only left his other son, who was 17 currently and likely to out muscle her. So that harm was going to have to be against his daughter Celine, and though she was alpha-blooded she didn’t have a wolf yet, so it was plausible.

He watched Ryder all month long, and she threw herself into warrior training just like he’d hoped she would. It showed him that his plan had worked, and she was indeed going to choose to go off to the kingdom.

A simple written scroll was all it would take to get rid of her. Her friends had come to him about her 18th birthday, and wanted to celebrate it with her by having a bonfire down at the lake. They wanted to throw it for her because it was something that they knew her dad would have done for her.

Franco told her friends that he thought it was a good idea, and he smiled and encouraged them to plan it, and even offered to send down some alcohol for them to really party it up. Told them he thought that she deserved to have a nice birthday after all that she’d lost in the past year.

Though he already knew that Ryder wasn’t going to be able to be there for her birthday party, he was having her removed from this pack as soon as she turned 18. There would be no risking his son coming across her at all. Not even for a split second, because sometimes Alpha Wolves could scent out their Mate’s early at times.

But he kept everything in the pack normal when speaking with her friends and even nodded to Ryder as he walked past her when moving about the pack, making sure that no one here inside the pack noticed anything different between her and him. Though he noted she was avoiding him, that she would turn and walk away from him. It was to be expected, and he pretended that he didn’t notice it.

That scroll he’d written hadn’t been addressed to any war general in particular, like he’d told her. Because he didn’t really care what war camp she went to. He only made sure to write in it that if they could see to her being placed somewhere on the western war front, as far from the human realm portal that was closest to the pack, if it was possible.

That it was also completely possible due to a Matchmaker foreseeing she was maybe the future ruler's mate of this pack and to treat her accordingly. Just in case, his son changed his mind about not wanting her and went to the kingdom to claim her at some point. That his son saw no potential in the she-wolf, and she wouldn’t make for a good mate from all he’d seen.

Then it was the day of her decision, and he could see just how much she’d changed in her opinion of him and this pack. He had her verbalise her choice and burned that brothel offer, so no one would see it, and know what had gone on inside this office. She walked out of his office with that scroll. He called two of his best elite warriors, who walked to and from the kingdom portal all the time, to transport other wolves going there, and gave them the order to collect her at the set time of her birth.

That under no circumstances were they to let her run from them, and they were to deliver her directly to the king's military admission officer that dealt with war camp admissions, not nightingale admission. That it was possible that Lauchlan could come across them on their travels as he was now on his way home himself.

He handed them a hooded cloak and told them to have her wear it and keep her safe, but keep her away from his son, to tell him they were transporting a she-wolf for study or a Mate, not for military deployment, because he knew Lauchlan wouldn’t appreciate it and would likely try to stop it. But the girl, Ryder was her name, had opted for this herself and they going and collecting her from her house and then taking her there; they would see no trouble coming from her, because she was willingly going. But to protect her at all times on the way there. She was to come to no harm while still a pack member, that they were to treat her as a full loyal pack member.