War of the Roses [Book 1]

Albertine Rose

Let’s get this story finished :)

Chapter Quote:
“Ansel, I'm not the sun, stop orbiting and get in here.”
~Calla Tor
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Chapter 14: Albertine Rose

Shay 

The anger radiating off of Calla wasn’t normal, and Shay could feel every ounce of it.  She didn’t like following Arya’s orders, much less following Arya to find Calla’s old flame.  Thinking of Ren made Shay want to growl.  Did the alpha even know how much grief and sorrow he’d brought upon the Nightshade pack?  For weeks they’d tried to call him, trying to reach him and tell him to come back so they could talk.  But he never picked up, and finally Calla ordered everyone to stop contacting him.  Shay blamed himself for the Bane alpha’s departure.  Ren and Calla had had a bond that couldn’t be broken, even if the love was only one way.  But now Shay began to think that Ren had moved on, at least according to the massive diamond Arya was rocking on her finger.

At the moment, Arya paced up and down the living room of Calla and Shay’s house while Connor, Sabine, Ethan, and Adne worked their magic in locating Lumine’s house.  It wasn’t that difficult to find truthfully.  Because of the Keepers’ failure of keeping their powers, they didn’t have the ability to hide their names on tax records, and within the hour, the Searchers found her address.  It was about an hour outside of Vail in the middle of nowhere.

“Guys, one thing, how do we know he’ll even be there?” Neville piped up.

“Damn, and we were on a roll,” Connor muttered.

“We need a trap.  We need to actually see Ren so one of us can follow him,” Sabine said.

“What kind of trap would lure Ren out of a two-month hiding spree?” Ethan asked.

The group fell silent, all trying to come up with an idea.  It was Shay who spoke. “We find his weak spot and exploit it.”

“Well what’s his weak spot?  Even when he was our alpha, we were never able to figure it out,” Neville replied.  He turned to Arya, giving her a questioning, hopeful look.

“I got nothing,” she admitted.

“We use something he loves against him,” Calla declared.  Everyone stared at her, waiting for an explanation.

“Well he loves his pack but he hasn’t been picking up for us so I don’t think love has anything to do with it.  He’s just being an obstinate son of a bitch,” Shiloh grumbled.

“This is only about love,” Calla said firmly. “Ren’s weak spot is the girl he loves.  It used to be me, but now that’s shifted to Arya.  Arya is his weak spot.  She has been ever since she rescued him.”

“But I’ve tried calling him and-” Arya began.

“We need a new tactic.  Something that he won’t be able to resist.  Shay, if you were in Ren’s position, what’s something that would get you to come to me?”

“If I heard someone was about to kill you,” Shay replied, wondering where his girlfriend was going with this.

“That’s too risky.  We can’t have someone trying to kill Arya.”

“Wow, I thought you’d be gung-ho for that option,” Arya commented.

Calla gave her a wry smile but didn’t comment on it. “What’s another way, Shay?”

“If I saw you with another guy.  If there’s anything Ren and I share in common, it’s that we’re both protective of our girls.”

“I don’t want to get with another guy,” Arya said, shifting uneasily from foot to foot.

“Maybe you don’t have to actually get with him, but maybe some dirty dancing-” Bryn began.

“The club downtown.  We get dressed up, go partying, and we send a pic of Arya dancing with another guy to him,” Sabine offered.

“The plan sounds good but I don’t want to lead on a guy, nor do I want a guy to get the wrong impression,” the Lightwood alpha argued.

“Maybe we can get a few Searchers out here, and one can be your partner.  Ren didn’t know many so he won’t suspect anything.  Another thing, who’s going to send the text?  If it’s one of Arya’s pack, he’s going to think it’s a trap, which it is.  If it’s one of Calla’s pack, he’ll definitely know it’s a trap,” Adne pointed out.

“Not necessarily,” Ansel said.  Everyone turned to look at him. “I met Arya before she came here.  If I send him something about her, he won’t think it’s weird because I know who she is and I know what she looks like.  I’ll be the one to send the text.  He surely still has the same cell number.”

“He never changed it when he came to us that I know of,” Arya said.

“Good.  Another thing, Ren would know that we’d never let her do this, so it has to look like she went alone,” Shiloh remarked. “I recommend that we sit this one out, meaning if anything bad happens to her, we’ll rip your throats out.  Understand?”

“Understood,” Shay confirmed. “Okay, anything else we need to do to make it seem more authentic?”

“We need to get ready.  The club is open until three but it’ll take us an hour to get ready and it’s already ten.  Come on, Arya, I have the perfect dress for you.  We need something that will make Ren want to kill somebody,” Calla said.

“Make sure he doesn’t.  I don’t want to be visiting him in jail,” Arya groaned.  She followed the Nightshade alpha up the stairs; the girls of both packs followed.  Shiloh came to stand next to Shay and said, “Why do I get the feeling my alpha is really going to hate what Calla is going to make her wear?”

“Because she is,” Shay confessed. “Especially if it’s the dress I think she has in mind.”

“What do you mean?”

The corner of Shay’s mouth lifted into a half-smile. “On Calla, it’s a dress.  But with Arya being so much taller, it’s going to look like a shirt on her.”

Shiloh groaned.
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So what do you think of the plan?  Think it’s going to work?  Review! :)