Sold To The Billionaire Alpha
Chapter 58

Orion

I did not know how to say this. I was not sure whose reaction I was more nervous about: that of my fiancee or that of my little brother. In Orchid’s case, I had never really gotten over the sight of her limp body floating facedown in the pool after she had jumped from the balcony. I doubted I would ever get over it. I did not know if Orchid had gotten over those dark feelings herself yet and I did not ever want a repeat of anything remotely similar to that. As for Perseus, he loved our mother dearly as did I but he was aware of her…unscrupulous past. She had done a few un-Luna-like things over the years that my father had swept under the rug out of love for his mate. I could not say that I blamed him. Had Orchid behaved that way I would probably do the same, cleaning up her mess and concealing her crimes.

When I was a little boy and Perseus was just a baby, Mother had tried to strangle a nursemaid on whom she thought we were getting too reliant. She had flown into a jealous rage. I remembered only vague snippets of the ordeal. Perseus knew of the story even though he had been too young to recall the events of that day. Father had pulled Mother off of the nursemaid just in the nick of time. The nursemaid was given a large sum of money and sent away. After that incident, nursemaids, nannies and the like were made to wear semi-opaque veils in the presence of my mother, father, brother and me so that we could not grow attached. This cooled Mother’s jealousy. The women assisting in our care became nameless, faceless entities. We did not call them “Aunty” or “Nurse” or even by their titles. They were addressed by the colour of their veils and they did not even get to choose which veils would obscure their faces. Mother chose. There were four of them as far as I remember: Green Veil who taught reading, writing and arithmetic, Yellow Veil who prepared our meals and did light chores like the dishes, the laundry and the bed making, Red Veil who took us on excursions or simply watched us during leisure time at home and Black Veil who was the night nurse should any of us wake at night in need of something. Perseus and I were terrified of Black Veil as children. We would shut our eyes so tightly whenever she came into our room to check that we were sleeping soundly. Thankfully, she never lingered. She merely glanced at each of us and then she was gone. As an adult, when rummaging through my father’s old office on the day it became my office, I found the gag order the original nursemaid had signed.

When I was teenager and Perseus was a boy, Mother broke a bottle over the head of Yellow Veil. This was my second most upsetting memory after Orchid face-down in the pool. I had liked Yellow Veil. I remembered her lying in a pool of b***d. Her veil was soaked. Mother had laughed hysterically saying now we had two Red Veils. Yellow Veil lived to my utter relief but she left with an even larger sum of money than the original nursemaid. The very next day, I had been horrified to replace another woman cooking breakfast wearing a yellow veil. The new Yellow Veil behaved as though she had always been here and there had been no change. I had been furious. Did Mother think we were stupid? The new Yellow Veil’s voice was deeper and she did not sing. The old Yellow Veil used to sing while she flipped pancakes. Her voice had been beautiful and haunting. It used to echo through the huge house.

One day, Green Veil disappeared and she was not replaced. After this, Red Veil taught us lessons instead of taking us on excursions. We did not have any excursions for almost six months. Once we were both teenagers, there was no longer a need for Black Veil and she vanished too. I would like to assume they both resigned. Red Veil and the new Yellow Veil took jobs in the kitchens so they no longer worked closely with the family and did not require veils. Naturally, as we grew up, Mother realised the threat of us mistaking another woman for our mother was gone so the idea of the veils was put to rest.

“Perseus, I am sorry to have to tell you this…” I began.

“What has she done now?” Demanded Perseus, interrupting me.

“Pardon,” I said.

“Mother. What has she done?” He grumbled.

Rose was sitting in Perseus’ lap with her arms around his neck. I took a deep breath. I reached across the desk and held Orchid’s hand in one of mine. I stretched across with my other hand to grasp Perseus’ hand.

“I have confined her to her room for the time being. She was named as the ringleader in the false paternity plot against Orchid and Talus. She wired one million dollars to the lab tech to use my hair from her brush so that the test would be negative. She had asked to brush my hair shortly before the results so she could provide DNA guaranteed to not be a match as mates cannot be biologically related,” I explained.

“Why didn’t she just use her own hair?” Asked Perseus, furrowing his brow. “She would not be related to Orchid either,” reasoned Perseus.

I shrugged.

“When has Mother ever made sense?” I asked offhandedly.

Perseus took a slow deep breath and then sighed just as deeply. Rose was nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. Orchid was silent. Her expression was hard to read.

“Who named her?” said Perseus after a long moment of silence.

“Mavis Burnside, the lab technician. Mary-Beth and Mary-Sue also alluded to her involvement before they backtracked,” I said, looking at Fox who nodded.

“Have you confronted Mother?” Asked Perseus.

“While we were searching for Orchid, I had Cerberus question her,” I said, my expression grave. “She denies it. There’s more…”

Perseus leant back in his chair, letting go of my hand. Orchid tightened her hold on my other hand and I gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“The Marys were more than likely involved in the plot to kidnap Orchid,” I said. “Which would imply…”

Orchid

I had not had a chance to elaborate on what had happened in the park yet. In the last twenty-four hours, I had been crushed by negative paternity test results, stalked at the park, set up by Mary-Sue who was after my man, kidnapped by my abusive ex, put in a cage for the second time in the past couple months, terrorised by my ex who was was apparently even more evil than originally thought, pursued by a hateful mob and shot in the calf by my ex who later shot my Dad in the chest.

All that being said, I was honestly…happy. The paternity test had been a false negative meaning Talus was in fact my biological Dad. My stalker ex unwittingly led me to discovering a power I never knew I had. Mary-Sue and Mary-Beth were in custody and though Orion had initially used them to make me jealous, he finally saw what I had seen all along which was that they were vapid evil shady bitches. I escaped that cage my ex had put me in with my newfound plant power. I got to mangle my ex’s arm. I kicked that mob’s butt. My ex again led me to becoming more powerful because him shooting my Dad made me angry enough to finally shift. My ex could no longer scam, hurt or kill any more girls. My Dad had pulled through and was getting better every minute. He had also reconnected with his family who had come to my rescue along with him and my Orion. Nothing made to take me down had achieved its purpose. I rose each and every time and I would rise above this too.

“Orion, I should have explained everything that happened to me in detail but I forgot with Talus being…” I trailed off, wanting to state the facts as quickly as possible.

“Rose and I had a long talk and I begged her to let me go to the park to clear my head. I kind of guilt-tripped her. Then, I used the portal and ran into Salvia in Gregoire. She dropped me off at that park I used to swing at when I was little. Mary-Sue came out of nowhere and basically set me up. She put a silver bangle on me to help restrain me,” I said, showing the marks on my wrist. “And then Jaack kidnapped me, but before that I managed to use the silver bangle to graze Mary’s face. Didn’t you notice?” I wondered, looking at Orion.

“I questioned her myself but like I told you before Orchid, many times actually, I don’t care about the Marys,” he said. “For all I know, her face was always like that,” he said with a shrug.

Rose snorted with laughter but quickly composed herself.

I rolled my eyes.

“Did you make a definite scratch?” Said Orion, stroking his chin, seemingly wracking his brain.

“No, I just made her face a bit red and puffy,” I said.

“She could have covered that easily with some concealer,” said Rose. “The Marys bathe in concealer.”

Perseus was silent through all of this. My heart went out to him.

“Perseus, I…it’s not the same situation but…if it makes you feel any better, I know what it’s to be let down by your parents. Mine sold me,” I said, feeling the dull ache of betrayal all over again.

It was less debilitating now. Every burden became lighter and easier to carry or maybe I just became stronger.

“It’s not the same,” said Perseus curtly under his breath.

His body language told me to leave it be. He was not looking at any of us, not even Rose.

“Mother has not admitted to it yet but it’s very likely Mother conspired with the Marys to have Orchid removed from the situation,” said Orion in his business-like manner. “Fox and Bisa have informed me that Mother is under the impression that Bisa and Mavis Burnside are dead and that she killed them when Fox and Bisa began unraveling her…misdeeds.”

“What?!” Asked Perseus sharply, looking around at Fox and Bisa.

I had almost forgotten they were back there. Fox looked really uncomfortable.

“Perseus, I am so sorry to have to tell you something like this…about someone you love, someone you thought was good and pure and it turns out they were deceiving you, plotting evil things and…” Fox stopped himself.

“Are you okay?” Asked Bisa softly, under her breath.

Fox seemed to snap out of it. For a second there, I did not think he had been talking about Orla.

“I’m so sorry. Um…what I meant to say was that after Mavis revealed former Luna Orla’s involvement in a plot to keep Orchid from uniting with the Hawthornes, Orla herself showed up. She was angry because Mavis was supposed to have done her part with the switched DNA and then left immediately. Orla thought she was tying up loose ends so she shot Mavis after she…she…she…” said Fox, swaying on the spot a little.

“Fox looks like he could use a break,” I said, feeling very worried for him. “We all could. Everything doesn’t have to be settled in one day.”

“Orla shot Mavis after she slit my throat,” continued Bisa. “But what she didn’t know was that Fox replaced me and Mavis with scarecrows. He put Glamour Spells on the scarecrows so they looked completely real, just like me and Mavis.”

“Orla let me go under the condition that I would keep quiet for hush money but obviously I was after the truth,” said Fox, finally able to finish his story.

Orla had really gone off the deep end and it did not surprise me one bit.

“Do you see?” Said Perseus, looking at Orion.

“Who?” Asked Orion.

Orion stiffened in his chair.

“Do you?!” Hissed Perseus.

“I really don’t know what’s going on,” I said, looking back and forth between Orion and his brother.

Perseus stood up abruptly. Even Rose had not been expecting it. She stumbled a little as she was removed from his lap suddenly. She quickly sat back down in the now empty seat while Perseus remained standing.

“I told you! I begged you!” Said Perseus through gritted teeth.

Orion was staring at the desk.

“You and Dad sided against me…and what…now you’re gonna what…execute Mom?!” Bellowed Perseus incredulously.

“No,” hissed Orion, his eyes black with emotion. “No, of course not! I take responsibility for the part I had to play in this. When have I ever not taken responsibility?” Demanded Orion.

“I wanted her in an institution years ago and you and Dad said NO,” hissed Perseus through gritted teeth.

Orion looked away. He looked truly guilt-stricken.

“I didn’t want to do that to Dad,” said Orion, his voice cracking a little. “I didn’t want to side against him when it came to his mate because I know…” said Orion, his eyes replaceing me. “…that losing one’s mate is the worst pain that any wolf can feel, and it’s even worse for an Alpha and his Luna,” said Orion, his eyes fixated on me.

“She would have been better by now had she went where I wanted her to go,” said Perseus imperiously. “You and Dad did this! You dropped the ball! This is on your shoulders!”

Orion put his head in his hands, his elbows on the desk. His breathing was heavy. I went over to stand behind him. I put my hands on his shoulders and he was trembling a bit so I held him from behind.

“It’s just hard to imagine…she would…want to hurt me this much. I kept her around so Dad would never be without his mate…but she…she wanted me to lose mine,” whispered Orion who was clearly holding back the floodgates of his bottled-up emotions.

“If it’s any reconciliation,” I said softly, while I rubbed his back. It was hard to watch my big alpha break down. We were all little boys and little girls where our parents were concerned. “Jaack said he double-crossed the Marys. His plan was to use me as the bait to lure you and the others to him so he could collect the bounty the wolf hunter council offers for killing an Alpha. The Marys and possibly your mother via the Marys never meant to conspire with wolf hunters. The Marys are obsessed with you and your Mother is possessive over you. Plus, they’re not that…”

I stopped myself. I had been about to say they’re not that crazy but the word crazy was probably a sore spot where his mother was concerned. It seemed she had a history of violent behaviour.

“They wanted me gone but they thought my ex was just…an ex. No one could have guessed how horrible he really was and the fact that he’s a wolf hunter who has done this before. He would replace she-wolves who were separated from their packs and didn’t even know they were wolves,” I explained softly.

Orion looked up. His face was wet. I wiped his cheeks.

“He referred to them as strays and he would kill them and any other wolves he could manage to lure into his scheme along with them,” I said, meeting Orion’s eyes. “There’s a girl doing it too. Rounding up the stray guys who don’t know they have wolf b***d.”

“We have to replace her,” said Orion. “After we deal with Mother,” he said sadly.

“And how do you propose we deal with Mother?” Snarled Perseus.

“With your original plan,” I said to Perseus, before Orion could speak.

“What?” Said Orion and Perseus in unison, shocked.

“Send her to the institution. Let’s see if there’s a normal person deep down somewhere,” I said, making the decision for them.

I would not let Orion harm his mother to appease me. This was the kindest way.

“Well…she’ll have to be on the forensic ward. Disturbed or not, she’s still a criminal,” said Orion.

“She can serve her sentence in there,” I said.

I did not know how wolf law worked. Did they give life sentences? They were immortal. Did a life sentence imply eternity or could they let you out after seventy-five to one hundred years for good behaviour? I pictured Orla one hundred years from now showing up with a duffel bag. I would deal with that bridge when or if I had to cross it.

“Are you sure about this?” Asked Orion, cupping my face and searching my eyes for any shadow of doubt.

I nodded.

“I am sure,” I said clearly and slowly. “I love you and I even love Perseus kinda,” I said.

Perseus snorted with laughter. He rolled his eyes. Rose coaxed him back into his seat.

“She’s uninvited to the wedding but I don’t want her…gone forever. She probably should have gone to get help a long time ago long before you were even old enough to realise it,” I said, caressing his face and trying to lighten the conversation.

He stared at me. He put his forehead against mine and the tips of our noses touched.

“You are as strong as you are merciful, Orchid,” said Orion.

I smiled mischievously.

“You don’t even know the half of it yet,” I said slyly.

He did not know about my extra ability yet. I was saving it for later.

“I have another person who was involved in the plot and could probably use some time in the institution too,” I admitted, hoping for a lighter sentence for the person I was talking about.

She was more of an accessory to kidnapping.

“Who?” Asked Orion.