My Personal Hell, D. Richardson [ebook reader browser txt] 📗

was that she was doing.

When I pulled up the back parking lot was almost full. I recognized several of the vehicles from the student parking lot. There wasn’t anyone to stop me in the lobby, and I made it to the large auditorium before anyone noticed me.

The students were everywhere. Some were sweeping, others were using hammer and nails on this project or another. And then there was a group on the stage, standing together and talking. Where Jake finally noticed me. He swallowed hard, but met me at the third row of seats closest to the stage.

“Where’s Ailith?” I asked, and he swallowed again, before looking up. And up, and up. I could see her at the top of a fifty foot drop. Next thing I know my heart was in my throat as she let herself fall off backwards.

A few feet from the ground she stopped for half a second before she was jerked back up. Though she used the momentum to twist, turn, and flip around in the air. After a minute or so she used her own movements to catch the rope, and the guys at the top hauled her up. When she had her feet on steady ground I finally breathed.

“Uh, Ailith!” Jake yelled. I thought he was warning her about me, but when she caught the direction of his gaze it was behind me. I could see her lips as she spoke too lowly for me to hear. ‘Shit!’ I turned to see Jaeger, Stephan, and several of his men walk in, closely followed by Bastion and Drake’s main enforcers. Her eyes met mine as I turned back around, and she said something to the men up there with her. The platform started it’s decent.

When she reached the floor, Jake and Christine started unhooking her from the bungee rope. When that was done, she gestured for us to follow her. Her friends did as well. By the time we got up the stairs and into a balcony there were over a dozen of us. The balcony was surprisingly large, holding a wall full of complicated sound boards that overlooked the stage. In the back was an office like space, complete with desk and filing cabinets. As soon as we walked in, a group of students walked out, eyeing us with curiosity.

“You guys don’t have to stay,” she murmured to Jake and Christine.

“We’re not going to leave you alone.”

“You’re stuck with us,” Christine snapped. But both of them grabbed a spot on the outside wall. Ailith stood behind the desk, taking us all in.

“So, how can we help,” Dalton asked and she looked at him, shocked. As did I.

“What?”

“You didn’t think we’d let you do all of this alone did you?” Macon asked, offended that she would think such a thing.

“I can’t ask you to go against your alpha.”

“It doesn’t look like you’re doing any harm,” Alex answered.

“Yeah, organizing a bunch of students in a rebellious function doesn’t exactly inspire danger to the pack.” She gave a mix between an ironic scoff and a snort. The other two echoed her.

“What’s going on Ailith?” Bastion asked, she met his eyes, but instead looked at Stephan and his men.

“What are you doing here?” Stephan shrugged.

“Your reaction to Drake last week inspired some curiosity on my part.”

“Well, is your curiosity satisfied?” she asked, and he gave her a calculating look.

“No.” She sighed.

“Then what do you want?”

“To know why you feel the need for all of this.”

“They’re selling the school to a man so he can build a night club. We set up this benefit so that we could get the city council’s attention, and tell the people why they really want to sell it.”

“And that would be?” he asked.

“They want the money. The school is in some serious disrepair. They plan on using the money for it to do some work around the town, and pad the treasury so that Markus can get reelected. We believe our education is more important.” I watched as she spoke. It was mostly the truth, but there was more, just under the surface.

“Cut the crap and tell us exactly what’s going on,” Bastion snapped. She met his eyes, clearly unwilling to do what he wanted in front of the rival pack. “It can’t hurt anything. It’s not likely that he could do anything with the information. You obviously tried to warn Drake of something.” She kept his gaze for a moment before reaching into the middle drawer of the desk and tossed a folder onto the surface.

“The man buying the school is under an alias. Collin Dragger. His real name is Van, the alpha set up to take over the Crudelus pack.” Stunned silence met her words, so she decided to continue. “Once he has the property he plans on challenging Drake for the territory.”

“How do you know this?” Jaeger asked, it was the first time I’d ever seen him look serious.

“It’s the only reason for buying it. The old laws are still in effect.”

“Well, that’s fine, Drake can take him,” Nevin jumped in.

“No, he can’t.”

“Okay, now that’s treason,” Justin snapped. She placed both hands flat on the desk, one on either side of the folder.

“No, it’s fact. Drake is a good man, and that’s why he’ll lose.”

“What do you mean?” Bastion asked, stepping forward.

“Just what I said, Drake is a good man. He’ll fight fair, with honor. Van isn’t a sadist like the rest of them. He’s cold in his cruelty. Calculating. He won’t fight fair. He’ll kill Drake, and the pack will fall.”

“So what’s the point of all this?” Stephan asked, his own calculated look in place.

“To get Drake’s attention. He’s the only one that can actually put a stop to the sale.”

“What if he goes after you for defying him instead?” Jaeger asked, and she smiled at him.

“I’m counting on it.”

“Why?” Bastion asked.

“He’ll come after me as soon as he finds out I was behind the whole thing. But he’s not blinded by anger, he’ll give me the chance to explain myself. After that I just give him some proof.”

“You’re betting a lot on the anger management of an alpha male,” Stephan replied. But she shook her head.

“No, I’m betting a lot on him taking a moment to think. Regardless, what I have to tell him will be cause enough for him to look into it himself, even if he won’t admit it. He‘s not the type to completely dismiss a threat like that just for the sake of hurt pride.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Stephan asked.

“Why do you care?,” Dalton asked him, but Stephan was looking at Ailith. It was like they were having a moment of silent communication.

“He cares, because if Van gets his claws into this territory, his might be next. It’s in his best interest to put a stop to it now,” she answered, and Stephan gave her a small bow. “It just so happens that we have had an oversight to our plans,” she continued.

“That would be?”

“Security. Someone broke in a few nights ago and trashed half of our sets.”

“So you need someone to guard the place,” Bastion announced and she nodded.

“We can’t afford to have to rebuild a second time.”

“Consider it done,” Bastion said and turned to Stephan. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to set up a guard schedule. We can’t risk you coming during the day again, and if you ask for permission it will cause some suspicion.”

“Then my men will take the night shift.”

“Agreed.”

“Have all of you lost your minds?” I asked, the entire room went quiet. Ailith leveled her gaze at me. But that was it, I’d had enough. “I’ll go tell Drake what’s going on, no one has to go against pack law, no one has to go against him at all.”

“And when he asks where your information came from?” she asked, as though I was missing some big piece of the puzzle.

“It won’t matter.”

“Yes, it will. You’ll have no choice but to tell him that I gave you the information. And as soon as you say my name he will immediately tune you out. He doesn’t find anything that comes from me to be trustworthy.”

“Of course he does.”

“No he doesn’t. I’m female, Sadler, add in my age and I’m negligible at best. A simple teenage girl doing what she can to stop something she doesn’t like from happening. You can‘t afford to lose your credibility by being seen as my enabler.” I didn’t want to believe her, but she had a point. It didn’t do anything to deter my anger.

“And what you’re doing here is better? I just watched you fall fifty feet, you nearly crushed your head on the floor!” She rolled her eyes.

“It was a stunt, we have a bag to catch us just in case the measurements are off.”

“And what happens when something goes faulty and someone gets seriously hurt?”

“It hasn’t happened yet, we’re being careful.” Both of our voices were starting to rise, and everyone kind of backed off until they were lined along three walls. Watching us like a tennis match.

“Not yet, but there’s no way you can account for every possibility.”

“Actually, we have several people that can, and are. We’re not simple minded children, Sadler, believe it or not some of us know what we’re doing.”

“You realize that what you’re doing is considered treason right? Hiding a plot to kill the alpha? Directly going against him? This is an exiling offense, Ailith!”

“I’m risk it.”

“For a school?!”

“For the pack! You’ve forgotten, I know Van, if Drake dies Jen will be lucky to end up as someone’s maid. Becca will be open to any male who wants a piece of her. The enforcers will be executed, as will Asher. The pack will fall, completely! Why are you pushing this?”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“I never asked for your protection!”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t need it. You can’t protect everyone!”

“No I can’t, but I’m sure as hell not going to stand back and watch!” I continued on as though she hadn’t said anything.

“You can’t even protect yourself,” I growled, she stood straight, her expression going blank as she took a step back.

“Stop,” her voice was dead and it only pushed me further.

“What do you thinks going to happen if you’re exiled? No one will be there to advocate for you. You’ll be nothing, just like when you came here. Bloodied and bruised with two girls hanging on your arms.”

“Stop it!” she gritted her teeth.

“You couldn’t even protect them!.” A glass sphere flew by my head, it shattered on the wall about a foot from Dalton’s head.

“Stop it!” she yelled at me. I didn’t want to say any of this, I didn’t even believe any of it. But I just couldn’t stop.

“That was nice, you realize that you could have hit him?” I sneered, she spun on me.

“I had faith in his abilities.”

“Why? Because he beat the hell out of you?” I yelled at her face. She walked away, and started to chuckle.

“What do you just spend all of your free time following me?” she spun back to me, her eyes slightly wild. “Is that it? Are you under orders? Because that’s all you do! Follow orders.” I opened my mouth to reply, but Jake picked the wrong time to try to intervene.

“Hey, guys, come on…,” both of us spun on him.

“Back off!” we snapped in unison and he held up both hands and took up his spot on the wall again.

“Fuck!” she yelled as she turned and kicked a chair against a wall, breaking off one arm and two legs.

“That was nice, I’m sure your mom would be real proud of that show,” I sneered, she froze her back to me. A growl started from deep in her chest. “Oh wait, you have no way of knowing that do you? Because she died, leaving you with an abusive monster you called Daddy.” That was it, she snapped, kicking the end of the desk so hard it slid across the floor and hit