Elsewhere in the castle of the late Lord Ferdinand, an older pack member, one of the elders who swore loyalty to the Alpha's mother, hid away from Leland and the rest of his pack. He would take a small mirror out of his pocket and activate the magic within it.
He was hiding properly to ensure that no other lycan would hear this meeting.
The beautiful face of a woman would appear and it would turn out to be Leland's mother. She had a narrow face and very thin lips. At a glance, she would remind people of an arrogant bird, like a peacock.
She didn't resemble her son at all. The only thing she passed on to Leland was her skin which had darker shades than most people in the kingdom because of her gypsy background. And perhaps the coldness she exuded.
"What news do you have about my dear son?" Isolde Salazar narrowed her eyes at the pack member. She received the news that Leland saved Sophie from last night and immediately asked for confirmation. "Is that wench still there? Is it true that she is Anne's daughter?"
The lycan sighed and shook his head. "It looks like your son is interested in that woman, your grace. He said it openly just now."
"Well you better come up with something soon or else I will personally ensure that the witches will eat your heart, elder." Isolde smiled coldly at the elder werewolf council member. "They do that."
The elder narrowed his eyes at the previous Luna but did not say anything else for a moment. "What if your son chose to make Anne's daughter his mate? I cannot attack the woman if she has the Alpha's mark on her."
"We cannot allow that to happen, Brin." Isolde hissed at him. "The witches have not chosen to help us simply because of my friendship with the Grand Witch Elaine at all. Even if we are best of friends, witches do not move without anything in exchange."
The elder's face scrunched up and he concentrated on the lycan in the mirror. "You mean to say that the Alpha will have to become the mate of one of the witches so both the lycan and witches can rule side by side without any betrayal?"
"Naturally." Isolde smiled at him. "Why else do you think I allowed little Leland to play and become friends with Eloise when he finally returned after playing pretend house with my husband's lost love?"
The elder frowned. "I do not think that Leland will simply agree to marry the witch even if they are friends."
"He has no choice in this matter," Isolde said. "He will do what I have to say because I am his mother. If he has every intention to win the war against the humans, he will make the witch his mate."
She added, "Do what you must, Brin. Kill that wench in her sleep, I do not care. If you are scared of my son, do it when he is away. I will summon him to return home soon and you can kill Anne's daughter when Leland is gone."
"You ask for a difficult thing," the elder narrowed his eyes. "Leland will kill me if I touch even a single hair on that half-Lycan's head. I cannot overpower him by myself alone."
"Then assassinate Anne's daughter and then start running all the way back here in the pack." Isolde rolled her eyes. "It is a necessary task, Brin. What do you think will happen if Leland got swayed from his mission because of that woman?"
"Then it is at that point where I can ask Leland to be removed as Alpha," the old lycan muttered to himself.
"My son will still be the Alpha," Isolde's eyes flashed. "Anyone else cannot become the Alpha. Leland is as strong, no, even stronger than his father, Leon. I will do my best to shape and lead him to the right path, but remove that half-lycan from the picture."
"Yes, I will continue to find a way to eliminate her," the older lycan said and sighed inwardly. It was so obvious to him that Isolde was only doing this not only because she wanted to retain power but because of hatred.
The elders in the pack remembered everything that happened.
Leland's father truly fell in love with the charming Anne and had set his eyes on making her his mate, but the werewolf king's daughter fell for a regular human. It was Isolde who loved Leon and did her best to become his mate.
"Good." Isolde nodded in satisfaction. "That bitch and her daughter will not seduce and steal the hearts of the men that truly belong to me. Alpha Leon was my husband and Leland is my beloved son."
"Yes, Lady Isolde." The old lycan soon disappeared and cut off the connection from the magic mirror.
Isolde's expression immediately turned cold and hateful. Even though it was already years since Anne was out of the picture, she was still hateful of the woman and especially now of the daughter.
Isolde did everything to become Leon's mate and yet Leon's heart was stone.
So, she had no choice but to ask for help from her best friend. Isolde who once saved Grand Witch Elaine when she was younger became steady friends and the witch promised to pay the debt.
Grand Witch Elaine concocted a temporary love aphrodisiac drug and a fertility charm for Isolde who used it to successfully become pregnant and forced Leon to take her as his wife. And thus he and Isolde were connected through the mate bond.
But even after Alpha Leon realized that he had a son, it did nothing to earn Isolde his love. It made her hate Anne so much who by then was happily married to Jack Hansley, unlike her.
Isolde was so frustrated that her son meant nothing to even gain even a little love from Leon that she hated seeing Leland and knowing that it was useless to have him.
It was true that she was married to Leon who was the Alpha but it was loveless. She thought once they were mated she would have him to herself.
To her surprise though, the mate bond apparently didn't work if the alpha didn't want to love his mate. Even if they were mated, her husband could still put up the walls so Isolde would never truly have his heart.
In her desperation, Isolde lashed out all her anger and frustration on her firstborn, abusing him so badly that he ran away from home, only to be found and saved by Anne Hansley. That traitor.
***
Every day, Dinah visited Sophie and did her best to not make the woman become suspicious as to why she was not receiving any kind of tasks or responsibilities around the house. The female lycan served her instead.
"While Duke Romanov has every intention of hiring you since you asked him for a job, I cannot ask you to do any job or responsibilities that belong to me or other maids and servants," Dinah explained. "We do not want to risk angering him."
"Duke Romanov will never know if I do anything in this house." Sophie frowned and crossed her arms. "He's never around."
"Oh, his grace has eyes and ears everywhere. He will know.." Dinah said and tried to ignore the sight of Duncan trying to climb up the window.