Chapter 55
(Isabella’s POV)
I hold my head, trying my best to stave off the massive headache that I feel forming beneath my furrowed eyebrows. The desk is covered in paper, no longer divided neatly into file folders. Endless receipts that don’t match expenditure reports and expenditure reports that list countless items not accounted for anywhere in the documentation pile high in front of me.
In organizing the three years of my pack’s assets, it is becoming alarmingly clear that Jesse has squandered away everything.
Thousands of dollars are literally missing, and there are expenses listed for multiple real estate projects and a boat. I find corresponding insurance policies on these items, yet there are no actual addresses or physical proof of them, let alone a boat.
Ariana walks in. She cocks her head to the side, studying me. “Hey, Alpha Isabella, have you been able to make any sense out of all of this?” she asks, gesturing to my piles of paper.
I lean forward and take a deep breath before speaking. “No, and the more I try to make it make sense, the more confused I become.”
“Damn, you think Jesse spent all our pack money?”
“Not just that, Beta Ariana,” I say, motioning my hand through the air at all the documents in front of me. “He spent my inheritance and overdrafted the pack budget. He has our pack in credit debt that appears to total at least $10,000 and a case could be made against us for fraud as we have several large ticket items purchased and insured without proof. I can’t find a paper trail at all.”
“What are we going to do?” Ariana asks. “Perhaps, filing with the court is the appropriate next move?”
I shake my head. “No, there are at least three people from the Elder Council against me who report to the courts.”
Ariana lifts her chin, “Santiago then? Perhaps he can help to sift through or…”
I shake my head again. “We can’t expect him to rush in and rescue us,” I say picking up the phone. “I’m calling Jesse.”
He picks up on the first ring, “Isabella, my love, I am so happy to hear from you. What’s up?”
“Save your crazy,” I tell him. “We need to meet to discuss your bookkeeping.”
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“What’s wrong is you’ve not only spent all of my pack’s money, but money that we don’t have! I need you to agree to take responsibility for this.”
“Of course, Isabella. You will be granted safe entry into my pack territory. Come to the pack house in a couple of hours. We can talk about everything, including a plan for compensation.”
Ariana and I get ready and head over to the Crimson Claw territory. I walk into the pack house fully prepared to confront Jesse about everything. Instead of offering compensation or even a basic apology for everything he has done, I walk into some sort of grand ceremony.
Rose petals greet me at the front door. I yell for Jesse. He rushes out from the ballroom in a tux.
“Darling! You’ve arrived!”
“Darling? Jesse, have you sustained a head injury?”
He laughs and takes my hand. “Come this way, sweetheart.” Then he begins leading me toward the ballroom.
“Sweetheart? Drinking…you’ve…been drinking?” I ask.
He scoffs, “Nope. You’ll see…”
“Why are you wearing a tux?”
Ariana trails behind us, stunned into silence by the sheer weirdness that is my ex-husband.
Then we enter the lavish ballroom with high ceilings, large cream-colored curtains pulled back, allowing the moon to shine in. Red and white floral arrangements decorate the vast areas between rows of chairs with seated patrons, while large swags of roses and greenery hang from the ceiling and multiple crystal chandeliers.
Jesse leads me up the steps of a round stage with a minister waiting at a podium.
“Jesse! What the hell is this?” I say.
“We are reconciling my love and this,” he says gesturing across the entirety of the room, “is to make it official.”
My face heats at his words. I can feel the eyes of over a hundred people staring at me as my anger bubbles in my stomach and rage attempts to escape my chest.
“No,” I say through gritted teeth. “We were supposed to meet to discuss how you squandered away my assets.”
He wraps his arms around me and whispers in my ear. “Once we are married, I will take care of everything for you…I promise.”
From behind my back, I hear the husky voice of a Greek god, my Greek god. “Congratulations.”
I jump and turn to face him with furrowed brows. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m a friend attending your engagement ceremony,” he says in a tone with a face completely void of any emotion.
“You’re a prick,” I say as my face flushes.
“What, Isabella? I’m here supporting your engagement,” he says flatly.
I slap him across his smug face.
Jesse has the audacity to chuckle.
My fist closes then tightens. I spin around and punch him in the stomach with a low growl.
My wolf growls inside my mind, claws extend from my clenched fists at my side. My fangs elongate, slicing through my tongue. The bitter metallic fluid trickles down my throat as my wolf vies to take over and shift.
I’m pretty sure the mood she’s in she’d kill them both.
“We could be the first female alpha to take over outside packs by force,” she says, foaming at the mouth within the depths of my mind.
“No. It’s tempting to kill Jesse. But, no. We are leaving. Now.”
Jesse doubled over pleases me and my wolf more than I care to admit. “Listen very carefully, Jesse. You are the most pigheaded, sorry excuse for a male on this planet. We are never reconciling. And, don’t think for a fucking second, I am falling for your narcissistic, two-faced manipulation. You have ulterior motives for doing all of this! From here on out—stay the hell away from me, or I swear to the moon goddess I’ll shift and kill you!”
I shoot Santiago and eat dirt look and tell Ariana, “Let’s go.”
She nods and heads toward the door.
I stomp past Santiago.
Out of the corner of my eye I see him roll his icy blue orbs.
I try to suppress a growl. Failed.
He follows after me and grabs my arm in the courtyard. “I want to talk.”
“Yeah, well I do not.”
“Bella, please?”
“Oh, I’m back to Bella now? It's considered rude to attend an engagement ceremony without a gift! Where the hell is my soup ladle, Santiago?”
He smirks. “You’re being sarcastic.”
“Gee, Super Alpha, how’d you connect those dots?
“Stay. Talk to me. I’ll take you home.”
“I don’t want my Beta walking home alone through the woods, genius.”
He rolls his eyes. “Levi, he says.”
Levi walks over, “Yes, Alpha?” he asks. His eyes scan from the ground to hold my gaze. “Hey, Alpha Isabella.”
Santiago clears his throat, effectively redirecting Levi’s attention. “Do you mind walking Beta Ariana home?”
Levi smiles the biggest grin I’ve ever seen. Without answering his Alpha, he hollers, “Hey, Ariana! Wait up! Can I walk you home?”
She turns, smiles at him. “Sure, as long as Alpha Isabella is good here.”
I smile.
“I’ll bring Bella home,” Santiago says to Ariana.
She just nods and her and Levi disappear in the trees.
Santiago turns to me. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry? I’m your mate, you showed up to this cluster fuck and helped our shared enemy try to railroad me into marriage!”
