This is it. He's going to die, and I'll be free.
At the last second, he moved, and I was suddenly pinned up against the wall, the silver dagger now in his hand. He pressed the blade to my throat, a sadistic grin creeping across his face.
"Oh, Reese...
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"Would you stop pacing?"
Evangeline's annoyed voice snapped across the room and through my thoughts, forcing my legs to freeze mid-step. Irritation rushed through me for the blue-headed werewolf, along with violent fantasies of my taking my silver dagger and shoving it down her throat.
Ah, if only wishes became reality.
I turned to face her, allowing an overly-sweet sarcastic smile to spread across my face. "I'm sorry, was I distracting you from creating half-baked plans?" To punctuate my point, I batted my eyelashes. I don't think I looked as cool as book characters did, though, since I got a lash stuck in my eye and had to blink rapidly to remove it, my eyelid twitching against the intruder.
Evangeline raised an eyebrow. "Are you done making a fool out of yourself?"
Bitch. I smirked, flourished my arm, bowed, and seated myself on the edge of Opal's bed. The witch herself was lying against the headboard, idly picking at her nails, a nervous habit. "Now I'm done."
"Reese is right, though," Opal said. "There's still a bunch of holes in your brilliant plan to overthrow Elijah and make Rebecca the Alpha. Like, have you thought about the pack rebelling against her? Refusing to accept her as their leader? Things could be worse off than they are now."
"This is a fabulous example of how little you know about werewolves." Evangeline sniffed. "They won't be able to rebel against her. That the point."
"What Evie is trying to say, however rudely," Rebecca interjected. "Is that werewolves are utterly loyal to their Alpha - present company excluded, of course, though since Evie and I are related to him, his authority has less of an effect on us." She glanced at Opal. "So while I appreciate your concerns and know you're coming from a place of experience, werewolf politics are different from that of a human government. Most of us are physically unable to disobey our Alpha. If Evie were to be given a direct order, even she, our cousin, would be forced to follow through."
"Oh." Opal frowned. "What about you, being his sister?"
"Would I be forced to obey him? I've heard that close relatives - siblings, parents, and children - follow orders based on loyalty alone because they have the same blood, but I'm not completely sure how accurate that is. It could be that orders have even less impact on them. But since I'm not a shifter, me listening to his word would be the same as Reese obeying orders from a human authority figure." With a shrug, Rebecca leaned back against the sofa. She nodded in my direction. "Even if Reese was able to shift, as Elijah's mate, his orders wouldn't have any impact on her, either."
"I take it the same goes for him, then." It was somewhat disappointing that I wasn't able to boss Elijah around endlessly, but expected. "How many people know that we're... mates?" As usual, I said the word with the same tone one might use to convey disgust. Even though the thought still sent up a thrill of delight through the not-so-sane part of me.
