Tangled Hearts - The Alpha's Baby Mama-Chapter 180: I am Selene Thorne Carrell...

Selene POV

I paced the room with my phone in my hand ringing Xavier’s number and Lucius’s number for the hundredth time in the past five minutes. Kurtis was on the couch in my room pouring through some documents and I was tensed that Noah would show up any minute from now and... I didn’t want to imagine the scene.

"Hurry up will you!" I called out to him again, still pacing the room with my phone in my hand. "You don’t want Noah to show up here, he’s banned you from entering the pack house. He’ll go ballistic and I told you we would meet later today in the woods... why are you risking it?"

"I’m not afraid of Noah, Selene," he grunted without looking up "Noah is just another mythical creature filled with emotions that weakens him. I think one of the reasons his father hates you is that he has made you his weakness and made it so obvious. His acts, his behaviour, his conduct everything is always about you. Perfect Kings have weakness but they do not wear it like a fucking neon sign,".

"Why are you here exactly?" I asked folding my hands across my chest.

"Well, isn’t it a good thing I showed up when you needed me the most? Well..." he pulled out a paper from the stack he had "I think this is our guy," he sighed and stretched the paper in my direction. "He’s a fox that can hold the shape of any mythical creature for long. Comes from a mixed family of shapeshifters, werefoxs and werewolves and they’re not easy to deal with too. It’s always the highest bidder and they’re dumb,".

"This one didn’t seem dumb to me, Kurtis," I rolled my eyes "I nearly fell for his antics but then I remembered that you’ll never climb a wall more than 6ft high, scratch yourself and look untidy because you want to see me and the questions were very funny. If the Grand Lycan was after me, you wouldn’t be here to cause panic... you’ll look for a solution and come tell me,".

"Right!" he straightened and leaned on the couch watching me with amusement in his eyes "I’m so glad you know me so much to be able to know when there’s a fake me. Anyway, we’re going to let the guy be in the meantime. The only thing I want you to do is to inform the others – Xavier... you know the others and let them know who we have on the prowl. I’m guessing that Leonard might ask him to go to Greyhound but, in the meantime, thank you for making my job easy,".

"Making your job easy?" I arched my brow in his direction "What do you mean?"

"Well, now the Grand Lycan would be anticipating that we will infiltrate the cabinet with our men and we will but they’ll all be his men, so to speak. I don’t know when there will be a hearing but I need you to convince Noah to let his father do the picking. To choose loyal men, stating that he knows these people more than him,".

"Noah will not accept that wholly. Besides, he would ask me if this isn’t what I wanted. For him to start afresh with men he can trust,".

"Yeah!" Kurtis nodded "So, we will split the men into two halves. One half on Noah’s side and the other on his fathers’. All you need do is to concentrate on performing your duty as the Luna. You know... get busy, organize rallies or things that will make the Grand Lycan tired of watching you. He’s not a very patient man by the way. So, with our men in their bosoms, the plan will keep moving,".

"What if it doesn’t work? What if Leonard insists that we should choose by ourselves?"

"Then we pick his men. Everyone that you know is loyal to him, wing them and put them under your wings and then we put them to use. Post them all over the province, make sure they report everything you speak and do pack to the Grand Lycan. Little by little, we will introduce the men. It might take longer who knows but...".

"Time is not a luxury I have, Kurtis," I swallowed, trying to fight the momentary weakness I felt in my heart. "I need things to speed for me and you need to have the platform you so crave to change a lot of things. I don’t know how urgent it is for you but... my life is hanging on a thread if I don’t move up with this. It’s so important for me, very much,".

Kurtis regarded me blankly for a few seconds before he rose to his feet and came to stand in front of me. "Does it have anything to do with that god, Kragen? You know, after the last time we met and he told me a lot of things, I thought he was a regular person who just dabbled into things and all that but then he’s the fucking King of the Dead, Selene. What agreement did you enter with him? Why do you need to take...".

"It’s none of your business, Kurtis," I interrupted him. "You don’t see me asking why you’re wasting your life’s work chasing after something that might be impossible. So, if you want us to remain in business, you don’t ask me stupid questions, please,".

"He’s dangerous, Selene. The King of the Dead is not someone you can mess with. When you enter into a pact with him, you must meet the deadline or else he will destroy you. Do you know how powerful he is? C’mon, Selene, tell me and maybe I can help you. it will be a shame that you lose all of these at the end of the day and I know you wouldn’t want the girls to grow up without a mother,".

"Mind your business!" I told him again and reached for my phone which I had discarded on the table a while ago "And you should really leave now, Noah might pop in anytime soon,".

"Selene, please..." he begged coming closer to me "Tell me what you did because the more I think about it, the more a lot of things do not march. You survived the plane with the girls and I don’t know how long you stayed before my mom found you and a whole lot of things that I cannot say right now but the more I think about it, the more it gets clearer that I wasn’t the only one that helped you. When I found you, you were looking clean... your cuts and bruises were not as fresh..."

"Is there any reason you’re doing this?" I spun around to face him "Why are you dragging me into that messy past. You know how much I hate to revisit it. So... why? What are you trying to achieve from doing this?".

"I need answers too, Selene..." his jaw twitched "I need to know what the fuck you’re doing. This is more than just securing the future of your daughters, right? There is a whole grand scheme of things that you don’t want to let anyone know and you will tell me or else..." he paused "I’ll go. I cannot be partners with someone who is not as open as I am with them. I have laid bare my plans and how I intend to execute them. Are you really just trying to...".

"Fine!" I stopped him mid-sentence again "You can walk, Kurtis. I won’t stop you. You’re not indispensable.... Honestly because so far, it’s just been me pushing everything. You don’t understand how exhausted I am. How violated I feel most times and what I’ve had to put up with. I’ve gotten this far because of my resilience and not because of you so please do me a favour and ... LEAVE!"

"You need me, Selene.," he scoffed and clasped my jaw in my hands "Sooner or later, you’ll slip just like how you’ve been doing lately. You’ve fallen in love with Noah, there’s a part of you that still yearns for Xavier and who knows maybe you love me somehow,".

"What!" I pushed him away from me, "What are you talking about, Kurtis?"

"You’re too emotional to do anything, my love. To take on the Carrells and the Steeles you have to be them but you’re not. If I walk away, I give you max, three days and everyone will know what you’re trying to do and it’s not because I will them... but it’s you... everyone will get to know and your grand schemes will be revealed,".

"Really?" I laughed "But you’ve known me for three years now and yet you don’t know what this grand scheme is...Isn’t it concerning? Aren’t you worried that perhaps you’re losing your touch? I know you share a similar fate with me and Xavier but the only person your powers can work on is Xavier... you cannot see inside of me, Kurtis. The only things you see are the things I allow you to,".

I watched as clarity dawned on him.

"You..." he pointed at me "Who the fuck are you?"

"I am Selene Thorne Carrell," I said with a smile "Formerly known as Selene Thorne Steele. That’s all there is to me, nothing more, I promise darling,".

A soft swoosh from the curtain made me look away from Kurtis for a second... my breath caught in my throat as I saw Kragen standing by my window, he had a displeased look on his face.

"Kragen!" I ran to him "Is that you? You..." my eyes roamed his body "Look different,".

"Yeah," he nodded to me barely glancing at me "We’ll talk later but for now, I came to pick up Kurtis... Noah is on his way here and we wouldn’t want to cause a scene. C’mon, Kurtis... let’s go," he stretched his hand towards him.

"And why would I want to go with you?" Kurtis huffed then turned to me "Did you do this? Did you call him? Is that how much you have a god on a speed dial? Wow, Selene... you’re...".

The words were barely out of his mouth when I heard another soft swoosh and the room was empty except me. Trying to understand what must have happened, the door to my bedroom opened and Noah’s head peaked in ...

"Good morning, Luna, may I come in?"