Cassius POV
It seems like I might have underestimated Scarlet a bit, I keep forgetting that I should not expect the same humbleness that one would get from other slaves from her.
I gave my watch another glance.
“They’ll be here soon,” I see the first word of exchange between the two of us after 5 minutes of stretched silence.
She was appearing then disappearing into other rooms of the annex, I said there’s just that she was entering the living area.
“Who is the person?” She asked and you could tell how the guardedness slipped right into her voice like a cloth it was wearing over.
“Just someone to help with our plans,”
Her lip curved downward.
“What? Are you displeased that you are not my only partner? Don’t worry the person that is coming is not barely as attractive as you are,”
She gave me a cutting look.
“I’m just worried… The more people that get involved in this more likely it could leak out to your brother aren’t you worried about that?”
I shook my head.
“No, he is someone that has always been loyal to me from the start. You won’t have to worry. In fact I think there is somebody else in this room that has questionable loyalty,” I looked straight at her when I said it to knowing that she wouldn’t miss the hint.
She scoffed; “I’m not loyal to you…. Rather I am to what you’re offering,”
“Of course,” I said, “I’ve gotten reports from my spies that the alpha does not look as energetic as usual. He seems to be very lukewarm,”
She paused for a beat too long then said, “so the poison is working, good for us right?”
I nodded.
“Yes, but I thought about it and decided that I should have a backup as I always do like I told you….” The doors of the living room creaked open and with my eye still on her i said, “I’m always a man with a plan b,”
“Cassius I’m here,” Eugene, a middle age member of the Grand alpha’s council that always knew that the seat was meant to be mine and unlike the others he did not allow himself to be swayed by the crowd that stepped behind my brother once he returned from the war.
“Good timing… Scarlet…”I looked towards her and she was staring intensely at Eugene as if she was trying to place his face somewhere.
Well it’s possible she’s seen him before, moving about the pack house. Get faster updates on g.com.
That was nothing to worry about.
“… Scarlet…”I called again this time her attention snapped over to me as if she just remembered that I was in the room and she folded her lips together.
“It’s Selena,” she tried to correct me and it just brought a chuckle out of me instead.
“I prefer Scarlet,” I tell her honestly.
She sighs, “… But it’s Selena,” doesn’t look like she’s going to really bother about it more than this.
Eugene sees her and his shoulders immediately knots.
“Is this the redhead slave that your brother brought from Clawsbane?” He said with annoyance in his voice, continuing to speak before I could confirm it but it’s not like we had many redheads around here in the North, “Dismiss her Cassius we have important things to talk about,”
“You don’t have to worry about her…”then I tapped Scarlet by the side of her arm.
“She’s working with me, remember that poison I told you to source? She has been feeding it to my brother everyday and it has already slowly taking effect,”
Eugene’s eyes widened.
“But I thought you were going to leave that to me, I would have found a way…”
“There is no way you could have possibly gotten enough assets to my brother to give him this every other day, but she does…”I pointed out to him Eugene was not pleased with this.
“… But what if the poison works too quickly since he’s taken it back to back like this? It might arouse suspicion.”
I tapped my fingers against the arm of the sofa.
“I’ll take my chances without but it’s very unlikely if I had waited for the few occasions that you might have been able to slip it’s into his drinks I might be all gray in the head before I take over my rightful position,”
Eugene settles on the other end of the sofa, then he says that Scarlet is sitting across from us.
“Isn’t the slave to a comfortable? Yes, she’s helping you but..”
“If you want to say something then you can see to my face directly,” she spoke for the first time that Eugene arrived..
Eugene whose greatest flaw was his fragile pride looked at her as if she had punched him straight in the gut.
“How dare you speak to me that way?
Do you know who I am?
Other than the grand Alpha very few wolves can raise their eyes up to me…
Much less you…”he gestured at her, “…
A mere slave…
How dare you have such audacity to speak to me like that?”
“You’re very-very loud has anybody ever told you that before?” She said not flinching, he raised his hand ready to strike her but I called out to him.
“Relax, Eugene, why are you letting yourself get so worked up?”
He looked at me words but sputtering out of his mouth.
“She shouldn’t be speaking to me that way… She’s just a slave!”
“She’s now one of my people, at least she’ll become one if she fulfills the mission I gave to her. I can’t have you bruising her face, if she loses the appeal of her appearance my brother might not want to see her anymore,”
Eugene stood with the agitation of his wounded pride for a while before finally sitting down.
We talk more, hours passed and it was finally time for us to leave of course to avoid traces Eugene left first, then as I waited a few minutes to also leave Scarlet asked me something.
“Cassius…”that was the first time she said my name, “… If I succeed, do I still have your word that you will give me my home back?”
“Of course,”I lied through my teeth, “I always keep my word.”
It’s too bad Scarlet, you shouldn’t have been so amusing.
Now I’ll have to keep the south.
And you too.