Chapter 17

---------------

Adrian opened his mouth, closed it again. Opened it again but no words came out.

It was a stunning revelation and now thinking about it, there was certainly that possibility.

"Do you mean, one of them..." he couldn't even formulate a sentence, his mind was racing a mile a minute

"It's just a theory, a possibility and it always happened when we had room service." She said and added "Adrian I don't have to tell you, keep this to yourself. Don't even tell Alex, let's not get riled about something that might not even be there."

He nodded readily agreeing "I will Roma" he promised.

"Thank you Adrian, Good night" She dismissed him.

"Good night Roma" he responded and walked out of the suite closing the door behind him as two guards on night duty were standing outside the door and nodded their acknowledgement to Adrian.

Adrian walked out with his thoughts in disarray, sleep would not come so easily.

***

Roma was about to sleep when her hotel phone rang "Yes?" she asked curtly.

She listened to the information from the front desk operator and said "All right, put him through"

"Alpha Nick" She greeted once she was connected to the caller "What can I do for you?"

Nick explained about his call that he received a little while ago.

She listened and said "And what did you say?"

She again listened to his response and nodded her head in satisfaction. Nick was no fool.

"Good. I don't see a reason to worry now and they can't do anything about it. It's a little too late for that. We will handle it from our end Alpha, you did exactly what I would have done. Thank you for letting me know. Do you think they suspect the extent of our deal?"

"All right then, let's catch up tomorrow. I will ask Adrian to set up some time" she responded to him.

She hung up the phone and contemplated, the pieces were moving fast, faster than she anticipated. She sighed, she couldn't do anything about it now so she put it on the list to worry about tomorrow and catch up on some sleep.

***

Evelyn mumbled in her sleep as she heard the familiar alarm of her cellphone, she got up groggily and squinted in to the phone which read it was 6:00 AM, she grumbled and dismissed her alarm and fell back on to the bed. She was supposed to be on morning duty today, however Ria had again request to swap her shift. Evelyn had readily agreed since she was not a morning person to begin with and if she had any say in the shift schedule she would have ensured she would never get a morning shift. Unfortunately she did not. So instead of early morning she would now do the night shift that Ria had which suited her just fine. She had forgotten to switch off that stupid alarm last night. She pulled the duvet around her tightly and promptly fell back to sleep.

***

Alex, Adrian, Max and Roma were seated at the breakfast table. She had called for a meeting and everyone was there. As usual the breakfast was laid out by room service when no one was around and once breakfast was set. Roma had called for the meeting.

"Nick called me last Night" Roma started off without preamble.

Everyone was listening to her while helping themselves to the breakfast.

"What about?" Maxwell asked.

"He had a phone call from an enforcer" She stated.

"Crap!" Alex blurted.

"He requested a meeting with Nick"

"An enforcer wants to meet Nick?" Maxwell questioned.

"No, not an enforcer....David" Roma answered.

"Double Crap!" Alex muttered and everyone stared at him.

"What?" Alex asked defensively "Shit's going to hit the fan!" he said.

David was the leader of enforcers. The enforcers were a policing force of the World Council, similar to the UN peace keeping force, they helped oversee disputes and reign in rough Alphas or manage conflicts from escalating. While they reported in to the council leader they were fairly autonomous with them making their own decisions. That way it was ensured that they were free from any political intervention. However the council chair had oversight influence on the goings of the enforcers, he could review and look in to and question their operations at any given time.

The only true way you could reign in the enforces was through a majority vote in the council. If a majority vote went against what the enforcers were up to, they would seize their operations immediately that was one absolute law they were bound to.

David was the head of enforcers. Enforcers had their own selection process and they selected their leader for lifetime and post death of one leader the next leader would be selected. So the enforcer's leader reported to the council and was the liaison between the council and the enforcers.

They were a force to reckon with and David was a sharp one. They had to tread carefully with him.

"Anyways" Roma brought the discussion back "Nick agreed, He should be here within a week, the enforcer would keep Nick informed on the dates once they get finalized"

"Any idea what they want?" Adrian asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine. With Gordon heading the chair, he will be using enforcers to try keep us in line"

Gordon Lockbourne, was the current head of the world council and was an American. He was the leader of the US council before he got elected as the chair of the world council. He was also a bitter opponent of Roma for one simple reason he was fundamentally against monarchy and with Roma being the last monarchy in business, he would do anything to ensure that they did not gain an inch of power.

And now with them sweeping an entire state under his nose, he sure would be livid. But he didn't know that yet. He would go ballistic once he knew what Roma did.

"Do you think Gordon or David know?" Maxwell asked.

"I don't think so" Roma responded "Sure, they know we are here to help Nick also possibly we won him over to our side, but they must not yet have an idea of the extent."

"Gordon would froth at his mouth once he finds out" Adrian said, predicting how he would take the news.

"And what good that would be? He is worried, that's for sure. That is why he is sending David with such haste. I don't see why David would get involved until Gordon was breathing down his neck" Roma added.

"So, how do we deal with him?" Alex asked about David.

"We will not. His meeting is with Nick and Nick will deal with him. Of course we would prep him up. But honestly, there is nothing David can do but get the bad news to his boss. So Gordon will know a little sooner, I really don't care. Sure, he will call an emergency council meeting and rave and rant on how we plan world domination and he will threaten us and will want us off US soil. We will be ready"

"We will?" Maxwell asked.

"Yes, by the time he puts the council in session, all of us will be off US soil, but with Nick under Roma rule, it wouldn't make a difference"

"He won't give up easily" Adrian warned.

"Of course he won't" Roma said "Would you? If you were in his place? But understand this. I really don't care. Remember what Drake had told me? That Charles promised him safe haven in Colorado, he had promised he could set up his pack here, take over the existing packs and the American council would not intervene and they did not. It only means one thing, he was working for someone in the American council, someone who had enough influence to convince the others not to intervene when things got bad, when Nick pleaded with them. As far as I am concerned, American council and Gordon Lockbourne are our enemies" She added with steely determination.

Everyone absorbed the news and a grim atmosphere settled around the breakfast table. After the meeting was done they broke up to re-convene a few hours later. It was also determined that they would call Nick over in the evening to go through the plan on how to deal with David.

Roma walked over to one of the coffee tables where she kept the print out Adrian had given her previous night and looked at it.

The first line item printed was – Evelyn breakfast duty

She took a pen and struck that line out. Maxwell acted normal this morning so who ever served the breakfast had no effect on him.

One down. Two more to go.

***

Somewhere in a bar in Montana.

The lone wolf was nursing his drink, it was a little early to drink but he had nothing better to do, he thought bitterly. He gulped his drink in one go and indicated to the bartender to fill it up.

A man walked up and sat next to him

"Drinking does not solve your problems, you know" the man next to him said.

He didn't even bother looking at this guy, he was simply not interested.

"Neither do strangers, so, fuck off!" he said dismissed him.

"Sometimes, they just might" The stranger added.

For the first time he looked at the stranger. Old, wrinkly face, mostly grey hair and eyes, this old goat was close to his expiry date.

"Listen grandpa!" He said "You don't know me. I don't know you. You don't know what my problems are and I don't give a shit what your problem is. So, if you think we can sit and exchange sob stories well you can try for the next looser you see in the bar down the road. This one is simply not interested"

The old man just smiled, it was more of a smirk "I know who you are Beta Crawford or...should I say ex-beta."

The beta froze, realization dawning on him, he again took a close look at the old man and his surroundings, he realized that the old man was not alone. There were two guys near the door. They looked like typical guard dogs. But as he analyzed them he realized they were anything but typical and he had a feeling he would have a hard time taking them down. Of course they were wolves and so was this old goat.

"Who are you?" he asked, this time cautiously, he as such was in shitload of trouble. He didn't want more to be added to his pile.

"A stranger, who can help you" he extended his hand.

"You can call me" he said with a small smirk. A trademark of his.

" Charles"