“Explain this!” Gideon growled at the Beta as he uploaded the video on the bigscreen.Maya watched it calmly, her face vacant of any emotions.“What exactly should I explain?” she asked lazily, only fuelling his anger.He rewound the video back to when she was fighting Roxanne and pointed atRiannon standing not far from them.“She was there! And you saw her!” he was playing those seconds again andagain, making her watch this.

“You didn’t even move to help her.

I want to knowwhy!“I did not notice her!” Maya turned away and he just knew that she was lyingthrough her teeth.“I am not buying this!” he growled.

He could feel how his own Beta, Ried, wastrying to reach him via the mind link.

He was worried sick about his mate, and itwas one of the reasons why he couldn’t kill her on the spot.Yet she was too calm.

A traitor who was just caught couldn’t possibly be thisserene!“Maya,” he said through clenched teeth, “what do you know that I don’t? Youclearly saw each other.

Ria didn’t even fight that damn fox when he caught her!”She averted his gaze and he knew that he was on the right path.“You have to tell me!” he growled and it suddenly became harder to breathe inthe room.

He never used his royal lycan power.

It was dangerous.

And not onlyfor others, for him as well.

Because unleashing that pressing darkness within himcould have consequences beyond repairing.

There was a reason why only themagic

royal lycans had the second battle form now.

Only they could shift into wolf-likeferal beasts whocould walk on their feet.

Common lycians could die if they tried that.The blood of royals was the purest and they were the only ones who had enoughstrength to channel and control true beasts.

Those beasts were giving thempower beyond imaginable, but that came with a price.

The longer they stayed inthat form, the less they wanted to come back to being human.

It was tootempting, toowolf, hence they were saving it for the worst battles.

When they were becomingtrue lycans, all emotions were gone.

Only instincts stayed.

And every timeGideon had to use any part of his feral powers, he knew that once he reached acertain point, he had to stop and go back to being human.That form was making him stronger and any other shifter could sense his powerfrom afar.

Right now he only let it out a bit but Maya already lowered her headin submission.

This was something out of her control now.“What.

Happened.

There?” Gideon demanded in a firm menacing tone and shegulped, trying to fight it.

But it was useless.“I can’t,” she whispered desperately.“I am your king,” Gideon insisted, letting her know that he would make her if shedidn’t do it herself.“You might be my king but she is my Alpha,” Maya’s voice was faint but shefaced him with a determination which he couldn’t not respect.He didn’t even need more details.

It was clear what had happened back in thewoods now.

And he wanted to crush things, break them, destroy...“Just tell me why she did it,” he used all his strength to get the beast to backdown, so that he could return to his senses and so that the girl in front of him

could stop suffocating.

It was her first time experiencing something like this.

Mostwould probably have already fainted.Maya took a deep breath as soon as the power stopped pressing down on her.She hesitated...

but looking at him panting as well, she gave up.

There was nopoint hiding anything anymore.

She stalled him as much as she could.

Just likeher friendwanted.“She said that he would not hurt her.

She was certain of it.” The Beta sighed,her voice bleak, as he snapped his head in her direction.“He drugged her to make her pass out!” the king growled.

“He could do anythingto her while she is helpless.”“Riannon is blessed by the Moon Goddess.” The Beta said firmly.

“She is never“When?” Gideon stopped her with a gesture, because he did not want to hearthose explanations.

He just needed facts.

“When did she make the decision?”“Right before all this,” Maya confessed.

“She told me via the mind link and thenshe rejected my every protest.

She was sure that we would be able to win thewar only if we got enough intel.

And the only way to get it was to get inside theirlair.

Ria said that there were too many secrets and no way to find out whom wecan trust.

She wanted to fix that problem.

She was sure that Castiel would beco.cky enough to try and get her.

And she told me to make sure that it happens ifhe tries.”“And what about her?” Gideon pointed at the siren/fox behind the glass.“It was my initiative,” Maya admitted, “I thought everything was over.

I sawRiannon and Castiel behind Roxanne.

But when he attacked and covered herface with that cloth, I knew that it was exactly what she wanted.

This was why I

played with Roxy longer and waited for him to be gone.

As a Beta, I cannotdisobey my Alpha.”“You could have followed them!” He reproached her.“I would be noticed,” the woman stated honestly and firmly.

“She ordered not todo it.

And also...”She went to her little cross-body bag and got out a little note.

Riannon’s scent hithis nostrils and he got instantly calmer.

Maya handed him the little folded piece ofpaper and he secretly took another breath just to feel closer to her.“She left this for you,” the girl stepped away to give him space.He unfolded the note carefully as if it was some kind of treasure.

Trust me.

I trustyou to find me.He was really hoping to see more.

But these words...

these words were exactlywhat he needed right now.

She trusted him.

She needed him to trust her.

Andshe needed him to find a way to get her back.

All while she was risking her life tohelp him win the war.Gideon closed his eyes, pain rippling through his body, tearing him apart.But she needed him.His gaze met Maya’s and there was this silent understanding between the two ofthem now.

He knew that she would do anything to get her best friend and Alphaback.

All they needed was the location.“So, what’s the plan?” the Beta girl asked, and he turned to look at the glass.Behind it the tiny fox was weeping again, trying to fill the air around her withpheromones.“For a start, make sure only females guard her,” Gideon said coldly.

“We need tomake sure that she loses any hope of ever getting out of here.

And when shedoes, we will break her.

Part by part.

Until she tells us what we want to know.”

Roxanne sat alone in that white room for goddess knew how long.

She knew thatthey had not forgotten about her.

She knew that she was their only chance to getthe information they needed.

She knew a lot indeed.

But weighing her options, she was not going to shareanything.

She had two tasks now – to save her baby and to get back to Castiel.Roxy hoped that he would send someone to save her.

He also knew that shewas a valuable asset.

So, she needed to hold on until then.

She could still playon Brayden’s fatherly feelings.

It could still work if she tried hard enough...She heard the sound of the lock and turned to see the doors opening.

The abilityto cry was lost to her as she had already drained all the liquid out of herself.

Butthe pheromones were in the air, all she needed now was to add some goodacting to that.But when she saw two women in black leather looking down at her, she couldn’tbelieve her eyes.Women.

Not men.

This was bad.

The worst-case scenario, no less.

Herpheromones only worked on males!“Seriously?” one of them chuckled, bringing in the tray with a paper plate andsome food on it, as well as a water bottle.

“This ginger hobbit is the big badcriminal they asked us to guard? Couldn’t they do it themselves?”on her chest.

“They say she is vicious and can easily get under your skin.”“Eat,” the one with bushy curly hair ordered and pointed to the chair.

Roxydecided not to cause a scene and obeyed quietly.“You are not wolves,” she stated calmly to test her theory.

“Neither are you,” the other one, with straight black hair reaching her shoulderspointed out.“Who are you?” Roxy asked, prying for information.“Werecats,” the first one answered, “Now, eat.

We are not staying here forever.And nothing will be left for you in this room”She started eating slowly, listening to their every word.“I hope our Alpha arrives soon.

I don’t want to hang here when the lycan king isthis furious.” The two women whispered to each other, not bothered with herpresence.“Yeah, I mean, I get it.

He lost his queen and now she is captive.

Who knowswhat the fox king is doing to her this very moment? He did not contact the Union,he did not demand anything.

It looks like he only wanted her and now he gotthat.”Roxanne slammed her fist on the table, not caring that she attracted theirattention.“What’s up?” one of the girls asked her with an indifferent expression.“I am not hungry anymore,” the fox replied.Without saying anything else, they gathered everything that they had brought andleft her alone, locking her again.Roxanne sat in the same place for a while, keeping her composure.

But theimages of Castiel and Riannon were flooding her mind.

She knew him the bestand she knew far too well when he wanted a woman.

He always had a harem,yes.

But he had consent from every girl inside of it, herself included.

They allwanted to be there, craved it.

And as far as she knew, it was the first time that hehad taken someone there against their will.

She had no doubt that he would take Riannon to his personal house and thespend his first night with her? Did he like it?The perfect Luna would be fighting it, there was no doubt about that as well.

Anddeep inside she was really scared that he would like her even more because ofthat.Roxy tried to get rid of these thoughts.

There were millions of perfectly saneexplanations as to why he needed Riannon.

She was the lycan king’s mate and itwould make so much sense to use her to weaken him.She chose to believe in this one.

It was easier and more comfortable this way.She prohibited herself from going into the dangerous territory of imaginingRiannon in his bed, of thinking about what he would do to her and how he wouldtake her.

She knew everything that he liked, so imagining this scenario was easy.But it was so painful.

Too painful for her to bear.

Hell, now she would gladly agreeto Bridgit, her oldest rival, warming up Castiel’s bed while she was absent.

Atleast she knew that he wasn’t in love with her.

She wasn’t so sure aboutRiannon.

Could Castiel even love? Just like that?Her whole body was aching from sitting on the firm surfaces for hours and shedecided to lie down on the floor to try and stretch her sore muscles a bit.Did it hurt Riannon that much when she was with her husband? To her, Braydenwas never the prize and she took their mating as a part of her job.

It helped thathe was good looking and could bring pleasure to a woman when he wanted to.But for Roxanne, he wasn’t Castiel.

All that she wished now was that she hadnever stepped her foot in this wretched place.Hugging herself, she tried to rock herself to sleep.***

Gideon wasn’t happy.

Everything was going slowly.

Too slowly for his liking.

Heknew he couldn’t push the fake omega too early.

And now, sadly, she was theonly one who could give him any information.

He sent Brayden in again to makeit seem like this was their plan – interrogation after interrogation.

Of course, theAlpha was returning with no news.

But this was something that they expected.he invited were already there.“Are you sure that they can all be trusted?” Alpha Ramina asked him as shejoined him earlier than others.

She was the first one he called from the Union.“No,” Gideon replied honestly, “I can never be sure.

But these ones seem to bethe most reliable.”They went to the conference hall and greeted each Alpha as they came in andtook their place.

They would have to act as a united front from now on.

After all, itwas their common war and their common enemy.

The Summit helped them tounderstand that.“Looking gorgeous as always, Ramina,” Zack Morgan winked at the Alpha whowas sitting opposite of him at the table.“I know,” the cat flicked her long sleek hair to the back, looking clearlyunimpressed with the compliment.

“My Luna says it all the time.”“She has good taste,” Zack smirked and the woman rolled her eyes.“Are we waiting for someone?” Alpha Caleb asked impatiently.“My sister will be joining us too,” Gideon took his seat at the head of the table.Maya, Reid and Ash stayed behind him.“What for?” Alpha Maddox knitted his brows.

Not every pack even loved seeingfemales at such gatherings.

“She is bringing my warriors from the kingdom.

And she will stay because shechose to take part in this fight,” the lycan king replied emotionlessly.He could already hear the cars pulling down right next to the mansion.

In just afew seconds the doors opened, revealing Savannah dressed in black head totoe, something that was unusual for her.“I am sorry I am late,” she looked only at her brother when she felt it...

This warmfeeling, the scent, the myriads of overwhelming sensations.

She couldn’t take itfor anything else as she looked around the room full of alphas.“Mate!” a loud growl echoed through the house as everyone gasped indisbelief.