BELL'S INSIDIOUS PLOT

23 FEBRUARY, TUESDAY, CONTINUED

If nothing else in my diary convinces you, then this account has to be the irrevocable proof that my mate is a villainous tyrant.

I mean, I've had the misfortune to meet the late Beta Lorent, Bell's evil uncle. And let's not forget the late Lord Ciara, Bell's evil vamp master. Oh, and there was also the late Jewel of Ciara, Ruby... Arguably Bell's evil former lover - at least I had gotten this impression from something someone had said about them being close while in the fight cages.

Actually, come to think of it, all the evil villains I had to face was rather cloesly related to Bell. And now, lo and behold, the real villain in this world turned out to be none other than Bell himself.

Who'd have thunk it?

Anyway, Bell proceeded to divulge his plan to mess with the Black Forest Pack all the way home. It was very ingenious, I had to admit, but seriously! I feel like I should be doing something to stop him! His plan went like this:

Bell and Trevor had been friends for a long time. They both studied at the same private fencing school and although Bell was never one to waste any time in inter-school competitions or whatnot, he took great pleasure in waiting for Trevor to take home the championship medal and then besting him in a match.

Trevor was very much the main reason why Bell bothered to learn the art of fencing. It was just too fun. Every year, he would tell Trevor that he would only fence seriously with him if Trevor could bring back the gold medal. Trevor would passionately practice and return with the win to claim the "real prize" of fencing seriously against Bell.

"This year, I've improved a lot. I will definitely defeat you!" Trevor would announce at the beginning of the match.

And Bell would take great pleasure in crushing him. Sometimes he would even pretend that Trevor had the upper hand before turning the tables on him at the end.

Yes, Bell was that kind of friend. But Trevor only took it as motivation to work harder. He was a good guy like that.

So Bell was forced to practice seriously in secret because Trevor got really good at it, and Bell really hated losing.

The other fun thing Bell liked to do with Trevor was to tempt him to the dark side. Trevor was the kind of straight laced guy, even from a young age. He like to play by the book, keep the peace, got upset at injustice, and had childhood heroes like Alpha Solomon.

He had been overjoyed when Alpha Solomon announced him as his protégé.

"Congrats. Now you're officially his puppet." Bell had told Trevor.

Trevor was used to his old friend's cynicanism by now, "Come on, Rebel. Be happy for me."

"I'd rather become a fightdog and die in a cage." Bell retorted. And ironically that was exactly what happened, except that when he did become a fightdog, he realized that he didn't really want to die there afterall.

One of Bell's little pleasures in life was causing Trevor no small amount of internal conflict.

"Why would you do that?" I felt upset on Trevor's behalf. Trevor sounded like a really peaceable good guy.

"Because he's my friend." Bell smiled stroking my hair.

If that's how Bell treated the people he liked, I hate to think how he would treat the people he hated... Oh wait, I knew pretty well by now. I've seen how he was with the Lorents... And the whole world in general.

"So what's the deal now, Luna?" Ben didn't have all that much patience with backstories.

"Wouldn't it be interesting to watch Alpha Solomon's loyal protégé stab him in the back?" Bell smirked.

I felt myself flare. No! Don't go messing with other people's packs!

But that would only spur Bell on, so I said instead, "Why waste your time messing with other packs?"

To which Bell answered, "Those who won't run with us, would eventually run against us."

Which, might I just point out, was really the kind of dogmatic thing evil masterminds would believe in. I mean, maybe everyone would just run happily in their own territories and mind their own business if you left them alone.

But no... Bell could not let this opportunity slip by. He would "grab it by its forlocks" (his words, not mine).

Rewind back to earlier tonight, when I had dream travelled over to the Black Forest lands. Ki had used Bell's personal number to contact Trevor who immediately made arrangements to help Bell retrieve his princess. The specialist team of warriors were at the ready to move out anyway, since they were planning to hunt down the vampires in the Dark Woods tonight.

It was supposed to be a C-class level hunt, meant for new specialist warriors. Our trainers had thought it would be a good opportunity to bring us along. Nothing like real experience to train us within the short 10 sessions we were supposed to have with them.

But now with the added urgency of the Alpha Princess lost in these woods, Trevor brought more his elite warriors out for the hunt too.

No one knew where my dream travel would drop me so they had to rely on Bell's mating bond to guide us, and then when the vampires were in range, just Ben's hunting instincts.

After navigating the traps and vamps, Trevor and my wolves found themselves facing the exact cave I had hidden in.

"Oh no." Trevor had breathed.

This cave was the infamous underground stronghold use by the first vampire resistance.

Every now and then the vamps would reoccupy it to restart a new coven, so Alpha Solomon regularly sent specialist teams to clear them out. After a while, the vampires stopped breeding there.

But the curious thing was that Trevor, who had been in charge of thankless tasks like monitoring pre-loved vampire breeding grounds, noticed how every now and then, vampires would come prodding. And more recently, Silver Mountain spies. There was something about this cave which was unlike the other breeding grounds.

Trevor had managed to capture some of the Silver Mountain wolves, they had charged them for trespass, but Silver Mountain eventually won the right of way since the cave was technically borderline to Black Forest territory and the No-mans land between the Gold Packlands and the Black Packlands.

But by the time Black Forest returned the Silver Mountain spies, they had already obtained two particularly important information from them. The first, was that there was treasure in the cave. The second, was that these caves used to belong to the Donovan Coven.

This name meant nothing to me, but Ki seemed to immediately link it, "Do you mean the vampire queen's sister?"

Bell nodded gravely.

Actually, what I wanted to know was why Trevor would tell so much to Bell.

"Do you trust this Trevor dude, Luna?" Ben asked.

"So you keep asking." Bell drawled, "I trust Trevor as much as I trust any of my friends."

Which didn't answer the question at all if you asked me, but Ben nodded his understanding.

"He does have a natural tendency to blabber though." Bell added as an afterthought.

"Alright." Ben allowed, "So assuming what Trevor had told you was the whole truth, what has that got to do with your plan?"

Ben was the kind of Beta who liked to get to the point. But unfortunately for him, he was dealing with two Lorent Princes right now, so everything would be steeped and poured out in measured cups because that was how tea was served in the Lorent Pack.

"It would not be the whole truth." Bell corrected, "Trevor is not entirely stupid, he would know better than to spill all the beans to me. And Trevor is nothing but loyal, so he would not ever knowingly jeapardize his pack. He only dares speak these things because he thinks it would be of little consequences. He has no idea about the extent of my information network through Henry, or how much intel a popular fight dog might glean when entertaining coven lords and blue bloods."

It wasn't just Trevor who had no idea. I had no idea either. I nodded anyway, "Go on."

"Do you know the story of the Donovan Coven, Princess?" Bell asked me.

Of course not. I shook my head. Before tonight, I hadn't even known it's existence.

So now it was Ki's turn to tell us about the strange tale behind the Donovan Coven.