Chapter 100 – Lydia Gets Desperate
3rd Person
Sinclair watched Ella like a hawk as his words landed. A riot of emotions flashed across her beautiful features, first relief, then happiness and finally worry and confusion. “We didn’t even sleep together.” He continued soberly. “She tried, but apparently I wasn’t interested – even drugged.”
“Oh.” The same progression of tangled feelings flitted across Ella’s expression, one which the Alpha understood only too well. He didn’t want a child with Lydia either, and he was beyond relieved he hadn’t actually been intimate with the conniving she-wolf – but there was no denying it would have solved a number of their problems. “So, we’re right back where we started, then.” Ella assessed softly.
“Yes, but I can still try to find another Luna.” Sinclair assured her. “I know it will take longer now, but it’s better this way. Lydia isn’t the mother I want for one of my pups, and she’s definitely not the woman I want for my queen.”
“I know.” Ella replied, leaning into his warmth. “I didn’t want her in our lives either, I’m just … overwhelmed.”
“I know,” Sinclair sympathized, tucking her against his broad chest. “I’m going to find a way to make it better, Ella. I promise.”
“You better.” She grumbled, snuggling closer and breathing in his scent. As his comforting aroma filled her senses, she closed her eyes and sighed with pleasure, suddenly feeling the strangest compulsion to bite the big wolf. It was almost as if she wanted to mark him again, now that her scent had washed off in the shower now that she knew Lydia hadn’t succeeded. in her efforts to steal him.
Ella nuzzled Sinclair’s pec, nudging his shirt aside and hesitantly parting her lips. She experimentally pressed her teeth into his flesh, but before she could give in to the instinct completely, Sinclair tangled one large fist in her hair and formed a handhold, pulling her head back.
“You bite me, I bite you back, baby.” He purred, looking as though he didn’t have any problem with this idea at all.
Something deep in Ella’s bones melted at this thought, writhing with defiance and lust, eager to make him do just that. However her well-honed instincts for self-preservation forced down those strange feelings, and she blushed. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”
“I do.” Sinclair rumbled, moving his free hand to the curve of her belly. The baby kicked, as if confirming his guilt for influencing his mother’s wolfish behavior. “But we have more to talk about, I promised I’d tell you about the driver from the accident.”
Ella’s dilated pupils sharpened then, as reason returned to her brain. “What did you find out?”
“He was hired by the Prince.” Sinclair explained, “No surprise there. He was only supposed to be doing recon, but he also had orders to kill you if he saw an opening to do so.”
“So when I walked into the street near his car…” Ella reasoned, piecing together this information with her memories.
“Exactly.” Sinclair confirmed. “He thought it was the perfect opportunity.”
“Did he know anything else about the Prince’s plans?” Ella questioned, any hint of her earlier mischief gone now.
“He was supposed to be on the team of rogues the Prince hired for the attack Roger warned us about.” Sinclair shared, offering Ella another carrot.
She took it, but frowned. “Why haven’t we heard anything more about that? My bed rest isn’t public knowledge, is it?”
“No.” Sinclair confirmed, “but Roger said it would be a few weeks. The invitation could come any day now. Of course, now we have a valid excuse to refuse it.”
“But do we want people to know I’m on bed rest?” Ella asked, worry obvious in her voice.
“I think it’s our best option. No one will question your absence from the event, and I’ve already increased security here threefold. This house is basically a fortress at this point.” Sinclair assured her.
“Well I suppose that deals with the Prince for the time being, but what about Lydia? What if she tries something else?” Ella wondered aloud.
“Lydia isn’t going to be a problem anymore.” Sinclair proclaimed. “I exiled her, and if she wants to live, she’ll leave Moon Valley, and never come back.”
Across town, Lydia was fuming.
She’d been striving to become queen since she was a child. Her parents always told her she was meant for great things, so it hadn’t been hard to convince them to bring her to Moon Valley as a teenager. She’d sidled up to Henry Sinclair’s presumed heir, only to suffer the severe bad luck of choosing the wrong brother twice.
–
It hadn’t been easy to resist her fated mate, but she was never going to settle for a second son. Then, when Henry named Dominic his heir instead of Roger, she thought that the Goddess must have been right after all. Lydia dumped Roger and happily gave herself to Dominic, only to suffer one misfortune after another.
First Henry had been attacked in the middle of his campaign, preventing her from becoming a Princess. Then she hadn’t been able to conceive an heir, which meant Sinclair would never get elected as King on his own merit. She’d blamed him for their infertility and decided to try and move on to greener pastures, but her new husband hadn’t been amused when she couldn’t give him an heir either.
At last Lydia thought her problems were solved when Sinclair found that little whore to be his surrogate, but for some reason she hadn’t been able to waltz back into his life as if nothing had changed. He’d seemed genuinely angry about her departure, even though it’s what any rational woman would have done in her shoes. She’d experience a quick flash of hope when she realized that his sperm was fertile after all, but then he’d ruined her plan to steal it.
Everything had fallen apart, and Lydia was sick of watching all her dreams slip away She had to do something desperate times called for desperate measures, and she had to find a way to claim her rightful place in society without letting Sinclair know she hadn’t left town.
Her first thought was to kill Ella, but without his heir, Sinclair wouldn’t be King. Her second
thought was to wait until the baby was born and then kill the infuriatingly beautiful she-wolf, but after his reaction that afternoon, Lydia had a sneaking suspicion the Alpha wouldn’t take too kindly to the bitch’s murder.
In the end, she realized there was only one thing to do. Sinclair wasn’t going to take her back, but he wasn’t the only wolf in the running to rule the Kingdom. The Prince already had an heir, and though he also had a mate, he didn’t seem nearly as attached to her as Sinclair was to Ella. Besides, if Lydia played her cards right, he wouldn’t ever know that she had anything to do with the Princess’s untimely passing.
Yes, Lydia decided. With the Princess out of the way, the road would be clear for her to swoop in and take her place. She could tell the Prince all of Sinclair’s weak spots, and help him win the election. Together they could rule the realm and lead the united packs into a whole new era. The Prince’s ideology was much more in line with Lydia’s anyway. She and Sinclair had never really seen eye to eye about things like charity or free speech.
The hard part was figuring out how to get to the Princess when she was frequently surrounded by guards. However, Lydia’s experiences with Ella ended up helping there too. She remembered how easy it had been to approach the other she-wolf in the women’s restroom where male guards couldn’t follow.
Lydia scoured the internet for news about the Princess’s planned campaign events and outings in the coming week, eventually discovering that she was going to be the guest of honor at a ribbon cutting for a new primary school in two days time. She spent the better part of the first day trying to figure out how she should go about taking the other woman’s life, knowing it would be best if she could find a poison or something with a delayed effect. It would be much easier to get away with the crime if she wasn’t present when the Princess actually took her last breath.
Finally Lydia settled on an aerosol toxin which she could hide in a perfume bottle, especially since everyone knew the reigning Luna’s signature scent. The Princess had been a model before marrying the Prince, and she starred in multiple beauty ads to this day, but none of which were so famous as her Moonkissed fragrance ads. The perfume was the best selling scent in the realm because of her endorsement.
Thankfully Lydia had the foresight to have the poison she ordered online shipped to a random address, arriving to intercept the overnight delivery before it ever reached the actual resident. From there it was smooth sailing. She bought a fresh bottle of Moonkissed, emptied the contents and replaced it with her toxin. She went to the ribbon cutting and laid in wait in the bathroom, then accidentally crashed into the Princess when she entered, ensuring the Luna dropped her bag.
The contents spilled out over the floor, and then it was a simple slide of hand to switch the perfume bottles. Lydia left immediately afterwards, then waited for the news to break. It took all of 24 hours, until the next time the Princess applied her perfume right in the safety of the Royal Palace. Her death was instantaneous and for once, at long last, Lydia’s plans actually paid off. There were no hiccups or unintended consequences, no unfortunate turns of fate. The Princess died just like she was supposed to, and Lydia’s path to the Prince was clear. Now all that was left to do was make sure Sinclair lost the election then her future would
finally be secure.
