Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Marabelle

Asher

“Belle,” I whisper as I pull her into a tight hug, her short, bobbed blonde hair neatly pulled back in a small ponytail that tickles my face as she buries her face in my shoulder, her arms wound tightly around my neck.

“Asher, I’ve been so worried about you,” she laments, rubbing my back gently. “Are you sure this cabin is safe?”

“Yes,” I answer. “Gen doesn’t know about it, as far as I know.”

“How’s your back?” She asks, wincing.

“Healed,” I answer. “Margaery found someone to help me, and he did a damn good job.”

“Thank the Goddess for that,” she murmurs, shaking her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe Gen has been hurting you for so long, and you…” She trails off.

“Never told you?”

She bites her lip, sitting at the round table, and I sit next to her.

“It’s not an unfair question to ask,” I soothe. “It’s a complicated situation, though. It took me a long time to realize what she was doing to me was wrong and that I didn’t deserve it.”

We have Rose to thank for that.

“Still, I should’ve known,” she replies. “You were barely seeing the family anymore, and I thought it was because you were busy or moving on to your new life. I should have known something was wrong, and you’d never leave us on your own volition.”

I frown, my heart aching. Is that what they thought? That I no longer loved them or wanted to see them?

“Never mind that, though,” she brushes off, probably seeing the discomfort on my face. “We probably don’t have much time, so I want to talk about what we need to, even if I would love to catch up.”

“How is everyone holding up, though?” I ask, my brows furrowed with concern.

“Mom is worried sick, and so is Dad. They’re paranoid, too. Someone’s always following us. Took me a while to lose the guy on my tail before I came here. The boys are facing some bullying at school after what happened, but Cassie and Landon are there to help them out. I’ve also been home a lot more after losing my rank.”

“I’m so sorry, Belle,” I apologize sincerely. “I wish it never came to this. I never wanted what she did to me to affect you guys.”

“I don’t give a shit,” she seethes. “I wouldn’t want to fight for a woman so vile, anyway. I would have resigned voluntarily if she hadn’t told them to kick me out. Why would I ever want to operate in a military that supports a woman who has treated my brother so horrifically?”

I smile, resting my hand on hers. “I appreciate the sentiment. And I promise you’ll get your job back once all this is over. I know you loved it up until now.”

“So you do have a plan to get rid of her?” She asks, leaning forward.

“A tentative one,” I answer. “There is a lot to do before then. That’s why I need to speak with you. I need your help.”

“What can I do?” She asks eagerly.

I smile, my heart swelling with her enthusiasm. Not that I expected anything less. She’s fierce when protecting her family; she took the big sister role on with pride. It’s one of the many things I admire about her. Even though she’s younger than me, I’ve always felt like sometimes she’s my older sister.

“Well, first things first: Do you still have positive connections with your friends in the military?”

“Yes,” she answers quickly. “They all know I was railroaded. They have to be careful about being seen with me because they don’t want to lose their jobs or be fucking flogged, but at least the people I was close with, I still have good relationships with.”

“Good,” I reply. “We’ll need their help—the ones you can trust. We need to sway people’s opinions of me and Genevieve. More positive in my direction, negative in hers, obviously. A big part of that is getting the military on my side so that in the event something does happen-”

“-She won’t be able to seize power back.”

“Precisely.”

“I can help with that. I’ll admit, their opinion of you has never been stellar. But I can work some magic to fix that. However, not much work needs to be done to make them distrust Gen.”

“That so?” I ask, intrigued. “They already don’t like her?”

“Haven’t for a while,” she answers. “She is stirring up a pointless war with River Run. We’re the ones who will die in that battle, and we can’t see any reason we should be threatening them or gearing up for a fight. Especially since they vastly outnumber us and they are blessed by the Goddess. Seems like an all-around bad idea.”

“That seems to be the sentiment among many people,” I reply. “However, that hasn’t invigorated anyone to rise against her yet.”

“Well, there’s more,” she continues. “For the last month, random members of our military have vanished. Into thin air. Poof!”

“What?” I ask, confused. “Why? What do you mean?”

“Nobody knows!” She exclaims. “There’s only been a handful of cases, so it could be deserters or people leaving the pack. But you and I know leaving this pack alive is nearly impossible.”

“So, did they grow wary of her and try to leave? And she retaliated by killing them quietly? Or they were forced to become rogues?”

“No,” she answers. “The rumor is that she’s running experiments on them.”

“Experiments?”

“Yeah,” she replies. “People claim that she’s been seen with a powerful warlock that exudes dark magic. They think she’s trying to create a super soldier using his power and testing it on us.”

“How did that rumor start? That seems like a big logical leap…”

“I haven’t seen anything myself besides knowing a few people who have randomly disappeared. But it sounds like someone accidentally saw her with this warlock and one of the missing soldiers, and what they were doing to him looked sketchy. Then, they made that conclusion because it would make sense for us to fight against River Run. We'd need an advantage if we go up against a vastly more powerful opponent. Maybe she’s serious about the war and is trying to use some unsavory means to get it? Either way, people are talking, and people are scared. They don’t want to be the next one to go missing.”

“That is…” I pause, trailing off as I stroke my chin, my mind racing a million miles per second. “Very useful information.”

Margaery said a while back that she saw Genevive with a strange man, who she thought exuded dark magic, too. I wonder if this is the same person?

We didn’t have any idea then what she could be doing with someone like that, but if Marabelle is correct, that could be the missing piece.

If that’s the case, the timeline for this war may be a lot sooner than we expected. Or she’s preparing to rule this pack with a brainwashed military that would never disobey her.

And, if this magic works, there’s no reason she wouldn’t enhance herself, too, which would make challenging her a deadly feat.

“You okay, Ash?” Marabelle asks, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I answer, scratching my hair. “Just got a lot to think about.”

“That is the understatement of the century.”

I scoff, nodding in agreement.

“But I believe in you,” she encourages. “And I trust you.”

I smile, resting my hand on her shoulder and squeezing lightly.

“That’s all I need.”