Chapter 19 - What’s he up to?

Author POV - 

Brian had been right, Ace was not the type of person to allow others any control when he was present, in fact at the moment that Maddie instructed Mark to be let out of the cage for questioning Ace was out on a scouting mission of his own and this time he had learnt from his previous mistakes. This time he had a witch helping him. The witch in question was one he had stumbled upon and saved one night while out trying to gather wolves for his army. For he had decided that if Alpha Sven could replace him as the new heir then he would form his own pack and he would take back Twin Lakes and Cassie, and anything else that he desired. To that end, he had stumbled upon the witch, in a weakened state and she had convinced him that if he helped her, she would in return offer her services. Ace had been reluctant, he hated the weak, he hated their dependency on others, but having a witch on his side could only be a good thing. He took her back to the area he had set up for anyone he managed to bring to his side and after a couple of days of rest she was able to prove her worth, she cast spells on the surrounding area which made it virtually impossible to locate, she also gave Ace a tonic that would make rogues susceptible to him desires which in turn allowed Ace to inflate his camp exponentially. He currently had over 50 rogues all willing to work for him, he had them divided into teams to cover everything that needed doing, he had cooks, he had guards, he had hunters and he had personally selected a group of 5 rogues who are to escort him anywhere he chooses to go. Thanks to the tonic he had the cooks slipping into every meal they were all willing to die for him. Which was just how he wanted them. 

Ace had never seen pack members as anything other than beings made specifically to serve him and his every whim. Their willingness to die in his place just made them handy. He had been growing his pack since he ran, since Alpha Sven had passed his Aura on to the Beta of the Rival River pack, he had known when the power changed that he would be hunted, he had found the caves in his youth and he had known that that was where they had to go, he had brought Maddie and her father with him simply because he knew that Maddie's father would try to align himself with the new Alpha and losing his backing would make taking the pack back more difficult that if they were together. So he kept Maddie close, he let her think she had control in the pack when he was around and when he was not there he allowed her to control the wolves knowing that their desires were aligned. He would not have trusted her with the control of their 'pack' if she was not also ingesting the tonic, the only people immune to the tonic were Ace himself and the witch who had brewed it. Finding the witch mere days after having to run had been a goddess given sign that he was destined to rule, there was no doubt in his mind that she had been sent to him for this purpose alone and he had wasted no time using her spells for his own gain. 

Right at this moment, while Maddie drooled over the Delta and the warriors held the spies prisoner, Ace was drinking a potion the witch had just handed him, that would grant him access to Twin Lake's pack lands without detection. He would not be seen or heard or smelt by anyone which would give him the chance to see just what changes had been made since the usurper took his position as Alpha. His plan was to find out what he could about the new routines that were no doubt in place, he also hoped to get some news of his mate while he was there, he knew that the Beta still spoke to his old Alpha daily and hoped to happen upon anything he could use to help him get to her. His next stop after this was to go to the Rival River Pack and see for himself. His spies had filled him in on some of what had been happening and he knew his witches spells had been working, Cassie had been hallucinating, from what he had been told she was seeing her dead family which worked well for him, the witch had explained that her spell would cause hallucinations but that she had no control over the topics they would turn into. Seeing the dead could only help his cause, if she saw him in her 'visions' she would think he was also dead, maybe she would let her guard down, maybe they all would if they thought he was dead. Then he would be able to attack. He needed to destroy the Alpha who had stolen Cassie from him, he needed to kill the usurper and he needed to fulfil his destiny as the Alpha of Twin Lakes. He would see his dreams come to fruition, of this he was certain.

For now, he was content with spending his time recruiting rogues, Maddie was still wearing the perfume he had bought her, thinking it was a generous gift from a loved one when in reality it allowed Ace to envision Cassie while they were together. She was still slaking his lust and willing to share him with any of the rogues that seemed to catch his eye at any given time. But soon… soon he would act, he couldn't wait much longer.

Meanwhile, Maddie had brought Mark into her tent, she had been insistent when they were allocating tents, that she as a woman, needed her own space where she could 'beautify' herself for her man, she had demanded a tent of her own, away from Ace and his sadistic proclivities, this way she had been able to entertain some of the stronger wolves without Ace discovering her wandering. Ace never entered her space, and her father was busy with training the warriors so that they could take the pack back. As she entered her tent with the guards following closely behind her dragging Mark into her space, she thought ruefully of the luxury of a hot bath, of truly clean clothes, of shopping, but she pushed those thoughts aside as she had for days now, she needed to grit her teeth and get through this rough patch as her father had instructed, she knew this was temporary and she was determined to see this through to the end and get her just desserts when the time was right.

She had used all of her considerable charms on Mark but nothing seemed to work, he didn't seem interested in her at all, not even a flicker of desire had been seen when she had disrobed in front of him to change, nothing, he didn't look away, he didn't skim her body with his gaze, he just watched her with a detached kind of disinterest. Maddie was beginning to lose her temper, convinced that he was interested in her but refusing to show it when Mark suddenly began reciprocating. He started answering her questions and watching her move about her tent. What Maddie didn't realise is that Mark was faking it, he was answering the questions wrong and forcing himself to watch her since that was obviously what she wanted. He needed her to let her guard down, he needed to be convincing enough that she would want to be alone with him, then he could make his move to escape and alert the packs. So after watching her antics for the first 10 minutes inside the tent he had managed to garner what it was she desired and had decided to let her think she was getting her way so that he could make a run for it. He just hoped that whatever it was he needed to do would be forgiven by his mate when this was all over. Based on the conversation they had had earlier when Mark had confessed the truth to Brian about who he really was and what he was willing to do to save those who needed saving, he believed that Brian would understand that Mark was simply doing what needed to be done.