Chapter 37
Tanner’s POV
I am shaking with fury at what Taylor said to me and Gabi. How dare she endanger our brand new bond? Gabi immediately got up and Heath did too and came over to me. I told him the truth and he sent Alan and Hudson over to the restroom as we both saw that vicious troll waiting for her to come out to mess with her again. My father came with me, and Heath, to speak to Alpha Wilson. I will not stand for this at all, he had better do something, or we are leaving, with Gabi and her family, and I will not be an ally to them anymore.
We have had good relations with them for a very long time, but I will throw it all away to make sure that they know that, for my Gabi, that will no longer be the case, and I will void and tear up our treaty. I let him know that right off the bat, and unfortunately for him, he had not been aware of Taylor’s ugly little speech at our table. He and Luna Wilson were probably too shocked at her dress to see what she had done, as I could tell they both were going to have a conversation about that as well. I could care less about her outfit. It was her evil personality that was working on my nerves. If she thinks that she is going to be my Luna, she has lost her mind. It will only be Gabi for me, Taylor will never be Luna for my pack.
We entered Alpha Wilsons Office and there is really a lack of chairs here. I suddenly realized that I needed to grab a chair quickly and get Gabi to sit on my lap, as she would need a seat too. I grab a seat in front of the desk and pat my lap for Gabi. She looks at me mistrustfully at first and then she sees Heath sitting down on the seat next to mine and pats his lap for Von to sit on. After she takes her seat, Gabi slowly steps forward to sit on my lap when Taylor steps forward and blocks her, and sits down on my lap. I stood up quickly and looked at Alpha Wilson, who told Tylor to come to the side of his desk and sit in her mother’s chair, as he sat down and patted his lap for Luna Everly to sit down. My parents are on the couch and even though there is a spot on the couch for mom to sit on between my dad and Luna Liz to sit on, she sat on my dad’s lap. I looked up imploringly to Gabi and patted my lap again.
Gabi sat on my lap, and I put my arm around her to hold her securely. I leaned in to smell her neck and I calmed myself down by that simple act. I was no longer willing to kill Taylor, right now, but I was still ready to go to war with their pack if they didn’t get this straightened out, and right now.
A knock sounded on the door, and Alpha Wilson told me that I could open it from where I was sitting next to it, to let Stone in. Stone was an ally to me, and I reached over and unlocked it to let him in, and he relocked it after he entered and headed for the last spot on the couch.
“Taylor, first of all, what the hell did you say to Tanner and Gabi at their table? They are mates, and you need to leave them alone. Second of all, what did you do to your dress? That is not the dress that you tried on for us two weeks ago. Why would you have this totally inappropriate outfit on? You do not look respectable in it at all. We will be discussing this after we get the first issue of business done. Why did you lie to Gabi, about Tanner? Alpha Wilson said.
“I didn’t lie, I was in bed with Tanner, and I was naked, wasn’t I, Tanner?” Taylor said and then looked smugly at me, and I was back to wanting to kill her again.
“You said for me to reject my mate, or you would go to your parents about us sleeping together. We never slept together, and we will never sleep together. Nothing that you do could possess me to do that with you, Taylor. You are an entitled, spoiled brat, who only cares for herself, and I really feel bad for whomever your mate is, because I can’t see you changing to ever try to be a better person. You want everything just handed to you, and you have never had to work hard for anything in your life. I have been looking for my mate for over three years now, and I will not let you tell her lies to try to break us up, Taylor. If I need to, I will tear up the treaty between our packs, and your pack will lose us as an ally. I will go to war for my mate, do not think I won’t, Taylor” I told her.
She seemed a little surprised, but then that smug smile returned and said, “But Baby, I have pictures of us together. I am not lying; you are lying to safe face in front of her. Besides, I am so much better than her. Yes, she looks better right now, but tomorrow she will be back to her old regular self with no makeup and ugly clothes and shoes. I would be the better Luna for you. I don’t know why you don’t see it and acknowledge it”, Taylor tells me with a smirk on her face and gets her phone out and hands it to her dad.
Her dad looks at the pictures on her phone and, from the look on his face, he is shocked. Alpha Wilson looked up at me and said, “Tanner, she was 16 in these pictures. She is just 17 today. Did you sleep with my daughter in our own packhouse?” Alpha Wilson said and was clearly angry.
“May I see the pictures?” I asked Alpha Wilson. He hands over the phone and Gabi tenses up as she can see them too, but I am clearly asleep in the pictures, and Taylor is clearly sitting on the opposite side of the bed, and at the angle, she just cut her breasts out of the picture, but you can tell she is naked. But her hair and makeup are flawless. She hadn’t been sleeping in bed with me, she got up and got ready and went to my room like I said she did.
“Please look at the pictures again. She has just done her hair and makeup and it is flawless, not smudged off her face, or hair out of place, which it really would be if we had entered into relations. Secondly, she is perched on the far side of the bed to take these pictures, so she would not wake me up. I woke up immediately when she got into bed with me and I immediately got out of bed and told her to get out of my bed, get dressed, and get out of my room. I did not sleep with her, even though she offered several times, I turned her down. I find her attitude to be repulsive. She is obviously beautiful on the outside, but her inside is a whole other matter. She is the reason I showed up with my whole family in tow, so I would have a witness if she tried it again. She came onto me, not the other way around”, I told Alpha Wilson who, after looking at the pictures again with Luna Everly, both realized that Taylor had in fact been lying.
“Taylor, why would you do that? Why did you go into his room? How did you get into his room without waking him? Tanner is right, you can tell you are freshly made up, and not a hair out of place. Why would you lie about this? Do you not realize how serious this is, for the whole pack? Are you willing for us to go to war over your immature stunt?” Alpha Wilson said to Taylor, but she is just looking at me, with Gabi in my lap, and she is angry.
“Daddy, please. I did sleep with Tanner. We did have sex, he told me that he would make me his Luna if I did”, Taylor said, and very convincingly, with tears running down her face and even sobbing. If I didn’t know for a fact that I didn’t sleep with her, I would doubt it too. Gabi is very stiff in my lap, and I can tell this whole thing is stressing her out. I go to speak again to defend myself, but Alpha Heath cuts me off.
“I am sorry, but you both need to realize that it won’t just be Tanner that you lose as an Ally, you will lose the treaty we have as well. We consider Gabrielle to be our daughter in EVERY sense of the word and will not allow her to be hurt by an obviously spiteful and vindictive child. I know that you two are her biological parents, but we love her and will protect her ourselves. Taylor is noted as being very accomplished at getting her way. She has shown this several times while we have been here. She has obviously worked on you for maximum effect for years, but I can tell that she is lying to you both. She has besmirched the character of a very well-intentioned Alpha right now and has implied at even having relations with him to his brand new mate, and she went right to them to break them up as soon as she saw them together. She is a real piece of work, and I may not be your closest neighbor, but I am one of the strongest. So, we can all play around with the game that Taylor obviously has an agenda for, or we can get down to business and you Alpha command her to tell us all the truth. Because I cannot watch her play you both like this and not say something about it. She had just propositioned earlier today, my lead trainer, in the hallway just outside the door, and she also offered to have sex with him. She showed an interest in Hudson as well. She was asked to stop and continued on with sexually harassing Alan until your son had to step in and threaten to tell you both what she was doing to get her to stop. I will ask you now to Alpha command her to answer your questions honestly, or this meeting is over, and we will be leaving as soon as we can get packed”, Heath finished, and I can see how serious he is about it.
He believed me and knew that Taylor was lying. I am so glad that he backed me up. I owe him one, and I will take the best care of his daughter. I cannot believe that Alpha Wilson would take Taylor’s word with her track record, or maybe he just buries his head in the sand to not have to deal with her. Regardless, I am thankful for the support I got from him, and I hugged Gabi tighter to me. She has relaxed more into me after hearing what her dad had said to Alpha Wilson. I sniffed her neck again to calm down and I saw Taylor glaring at me like she would like nothing more than to assault me right now, but that wouldn’t happen.
Alpha Wilson turns back to Taylor and when she turns to look at him, she blinks so more tears fall down her face. Alpha Wilson said, “Taylor, I will ask you one more time, did you have sex with Tanner?”
“Yes, daddy, I did have sex with Tanner. I don’t know why he is lying about it, other than to trick her into thinking he didn’t?” Taylor answered back and continued to let tears fall down her face.
“OK, Taylor, you leave me no choice. Taylor Wilson, of the Crimson Shadow pack. I, Alpha Wyatt Wilson, Alpha command you to tell me the truth as you are being questioned”. Alpha Wilson told her and the tears immediately stopped, and Taylor nodded in answer and said, “I will answer your questions”.