Frank struggled with writing the formal letter to McDonnell. He wants to be clear that McDonnell overstepped his place, kidnapping his niece and giving her a safe haven. She belonged with her pack, where they could keep her silent about their pack business. He knew for sure that Sapphire couldn’t keep her mouth shut. She was far too simple to understand what to stay silent about. So, he sat there and assured McDonnell that if he returned her unharmed, he’d reopen negotiations for a non-aggression treaty. That he was sure it was a misunderstanding and anything she said was dramatized for attention.             But if McDonnell chose not to return her, he, as her Alpha, would see this as a sign of aggression and an act of war. No one would be foolish enough to keep that stupid woman. Even if she played off McDonnell’s white knig

Magnus and Sapphire sat waiting for Hayden to arrive. He’d messaged him about the letter and they would speak to the pack. Get the information out there so that they would be aware and stay safe. The last thing he needed was some poor unsuspecting fool trusting a stranger. This was war that he was dragging them into and that alone wasn’t something he did lightly. But the red flags he’d seen weren’t imaginary now. His mate sat here worrying that it was all her fault and it wasn’t. Her uncle didn’t care about the why or how of it all. Magnus couldn’t let her go back to that. Mate or not, no one deserved that treatment. Now finding out that there were ulterior motives made it harder to ignore. “I can’t believe my uncle would do this. No that’s not entirely true. I can believe that he’s capable of doing this. But I d

             Ivory got away from her father successfully and prayed he listened enough to do what needed to be done. Sapphire was ruining everything by being so selfish. Next stop was to put a bug in her mother’s ear so she could work on her husband too. If things didn’t go back to the way, they were, others would start noticing there was something wrong here and then people would start asking questions.             No, that wasn’t true. Some people realized Sapphire wasn’t here, and they were asking questions about where she was. Lizzie was telling them she was busy or out running errands. But some were getting upset with her excuses. What Ivory couldn’t understand was why these people were so concerned with talking with Sapphire. What did she have to say that was so important? She was a nobody. The only reason she was around

             Magnus couldn’t understand how this worked, but he wasn’t happy to let Sapphire out of his sight for this business. “Fine. In that case, April, Hayden, it will be the two of you discussing this between each other. I and Sapphire will take on setting up for the pack gathering to discuss the pending war. We expect you both to be there and we’ll leave the questions to the last so that Sapphire can be there to hear most of it. Hayden, you’ll take notes of the questions and leave them on my desk.”             “Sounds like a plan. What are we discussing before the meeting? April and I, that is.” Hayden wasn’t sure what was happening, other than the letter was vague and full of threats that meant little to them.             “

             Magnus needed to hear what was going on at the meeting. He couldn’t wait to hear it secondhand. But he didn’t want to abandon Sapphire to herself. He didn’t know if he could trust her not to run while he was gone, and he couldn’t bear for her to be locked away again. No, she needed to have a reason to stay and if he couldn’t mate with her, then there must be another reason beyond him to keep her here.             Learning to be his Luna was not a one day crash course. She needed people she could trust to have her back and be there to guide her along the way. Sarah Ann appeared to adore her and had expressed an interest in befriending Sapphire. She knew the workings of the pack inside and out. He was pretty confident that she would assist with this.