Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 278

Ch.48

Noah

Donovan Reeves is officially a pak in my ass. The whole situation has stopped being a nuisance and started being a Goddess- damned pattern.

That’s a different thing entirely. The nuisances, when he was just filing official complaints, were easy to address. Sure, it was a headache and took time I really could’ve used for other things. But it basically boiled down to a written response to the council and his claim was always dismissed.

The ugly truth is, it’s not all that uncommon for Alphas, especially power hungry ones, to try expanding their territory through border disputes. If they lose, no big deal. If they win, even better. And unfortunately, some new Alphas or even older ones, don’t want the hassle of fighting the dispute

But this-a relentless assault on my borders-goes way beyond dipping a toe inthe water to test the temperature and it takes a lot more than time I don’t have. It takes manpower, tactical plans and strategy, not to mention the risk to my men every time they’re forced to engage.

And, as much as I’d like to unleash hell on the man, it requires caution. Because patterns have to be understood before they can be answered. Answer the wrong part of a pattern and you’ve solved nothing; you’ve just given your opponent new information about you. Information to be used against you.

Someone is testing Ironwood. Someone is testing me specifically. I know who it is. What I want is to know exactly what he’s looking for. Until I know that, I can’t afford to give anything away by showing him my hand.

“Fuuuccck!” I roar, slamming my hand on the desk when Cole brings me the news. “This is the third skirmish in six weeks. What the hell is he playing at?”

“They hit the eastern boundary again,” Cole delivers the news with a stoic calm, already thinking three steps ahead, trying to figure out what we’re missing.

“Always the eastern boundary, always the same forty-mile stretch, always just significant enough to require a response and just small enough to make that response look disproportionate.” I talk through the information out loud, hoping it will spark some idea of what we’re dealing with. “The escalation curve is clear to anyone who’s been paying attention, and he has to know we’re looking for it. He wants us to see it. I just don’t understand why.”

“Each incident is slightly more deliberate than the last. Not necessarily more aggressive-more deliberate.” Cole points out.” There’s a difference. Aggression is emotion. Deliberate is a strategy.”

We’re both quiet for a moment, turning that over in our minds. My thoughts grasp out something that feels just out of reach, something I know is there but can’t quite latch onto.

“But what strategy? And why?” Cole eventually voices the questions we still don’t have answers to.

“Fuck if I know.” I growl in frustration. “All the border disputes he’s filed have been for a very specific area on the eastern border. Is there something about that piece of land in particular? Or is all this just the beginning of a larger take over attempt?”

“I don’t know man.” Cole shakes his head. “But we’re definitely missing something. A piece of the bigger picture we don’t see yet. And I’m starting to get the ominous feeling we won’t see it until it’s too late.”

“Yeah, me too.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “Guess it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”

I clear my schedule and we shut ourselves in my office at the Alpha house. Every piece of information I can find on Donovan Reeves, his pack history, and Ironwood’s is spread out in front of us. Somehow, some way, we need to find what we’re missing. And I’m convinced it has to be here somewhere.

“Okay, let’s divide and conquer,” I tell Cole, shoving a stack of documents at him. “I want to know what happened, where, who was involved, what they engaged with, what they didn’t engage with. Everything.”

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+15 Bonus

Right.” Cole takes the stack and starts organizing it by date. “And remember, the pattern of what Reeves’s wolves don’t do tells us as much as what they do. They’ve never pressed an advantage when they had one. They test and they pull back. Test and pull back. Which means they’re not trying to win a skirmish. They’re trying to learn something. But what? I think if we can figure that out, we’ll have the answers we’re looking for.”

Hours later, when pouring through every ounce of information we possess produces no more than a headache, Cole pushes away from the desk, the scrape of his chair gaining my attention.

“Let’s take a break man. This is getting us nowhere and starving ourselves doesn’t help. I’m gonna grab some dinner.”

“Go on ahead.” I wave him on. “I’ll be right behind you. Just wanna clean up here first.”

He tosses me a wave over his shoulder and heads out. But I don’t follow and I don’t clean up. Instead, I turn my attention to protecting my pack from repercussions.

If it should come down to a real fight, I want everything on record. I want a paper trail that establishes the pattern of provocation clearly enough that when I do respond with something proportional, it can’t be characterized as aggression on my end.

I’m giving Reeves nothing he didn’t come looking for. But I’ll be damned if I sit back and let him take anything from me or my pack.

Cara Anderson

Author

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