Karenina tapped her fingers on the table and was deep in thoughts. So much information suddenly flooded from an unlikely source. She felt the goddess of luck was on her side.
Fuck Riga and fuck Nicholas. Right now, she was engulfed in so much hatred that even she could feel her heart turn black. She just wanted to see the world burn.
"So, the king's wife is the Alpha's mate?" Karenina chuckled. However, she was not smiling. It was the opposite, she pursed her lips in hatred but she could see the irony in the current situation.
Nicholas, the king of Riga had his wife and children under the protection of his biggest enemy, the Alpha of a werewolf pack that seemed to have their own mission by coming to Livstad.
Were they coming here to topple the Hannenbergh family from power? As an outsider, Karenina felt this was an exciting shit show that would soon unfold. She felt giddy, knowing so much in such a short amount of time.
Maybe she could sell the information to a powerful noble family who wanted to get rid of Nicholas from the throne? They could choose to work together with the Blood River Pack and then divide the kingdom after they topple Nicholas Hannenbergh.
Wait... no. Karenina decided immediately that supporting the Blood River Pack would mean giving her support to Sophia Hansley to become the queen of Riga, even if they would only rule half of this kingdom.
She hated Sophie so much, and would never want to see her leading a happy life. No. She had to support another party that would want to see Sophie suffer.
Witch Eloise. She had her husband's werewolf pack that could take care of the Blood River Pack and...
Karenina tapped her fingers faster on the table.
Her father was quite cunning. Even though he was just a lowly nobleman, he had built a good network for himself in the past five years since many people tried to suck up to the Verhoven for being the king's future inlaws.
If he played his card right, he could exert some power from within Riga to work together with the Obsidian Sand Pack. They would attack from outside and then deal with the Blood River Pack, and the rebellious nobles from Riga would weaken the kingdom's security from inside.
"Gwen, how can I meet Witch Eloise?" Karenina turned to Gwen and looked at her intently. "I think I have an offer that she couldn't refuse."
"I am not telling you my plan, jeez..." Karenina scoffed mockingly. "Tell me the price and I will pay, as long as you can arrange for me to meet Eloise. I need to talk to her."
She thought Eloise would agree with her that the enemy of her enemy was their friend. She could tell Eloise must be holding such a deep grudge toward Sophie because Sophie took the man she loved, Leland.
On the other hand, Sophie also had taken Nicholas from Karenina. This made Karenina think she understood what Eloise was feeling.
"Hmm... Grand Witch Eloise is not easy to meet, but I will try," Gwen said. She liked money too much and would never say no to any opportunity to earn.
"Okay. Do it as soon as possible. I will only pay you if you can get me a meeting."
Gwen thought of an idea. She explained it to Karenina. "Maybe you can write a letter telling her who you are and what you want from her... also what's in it for her."
"Hm... good idea."
Karenina followed Gwen's words. She took a quill and paper from the cabinet and immediately wrote a letter containing an offer of cooperation to bring down the Riga Kingdom and destroy Sophia.
She intentionally let Eloise know that Sophie was pregnant with Leland's child and they looked so happy together. When she folded the letter, she couldn't help but imagine the other woman would be seething in anger.
Karenina was pretty sure that Elois wouldn't refuse to meet her. After folding the letter nicely, she handed the letter to Gwen.
"I'll see you after Elois makes a decision," Gwen said taking the letter and getting up from her seat.
"How long should I wait do you think? I need reassurance," said Karenina. She didn't want to waste too much time. She had wasted a lot of time waiting for Nicholas to marry her. Now she didn't want to waste any more time, she wanted to see the king destroyed as soon as possible.
"One week from now," Gwen said and then disappeared.
After Gwen was gone, Karenina stared intently at the small bottle in her hand. She was a little sad that she had to abort her child but that sadness was far less than her anger at King Nicholas.
After all, from the start, the child was just a tool to get King Nicholas to marry her. Now the tool was useless so she was going to get rid of it.
***
In his study, Nicholas was standing by the window looking at some of the Riga soldiers who were training on the ground below. He was thinking of a way to prevent the war between Riga and the Blood River Pack from happening.
He had already told Sophie that he would stop the war but it seemed that Leland had absolutely no intention of doing that.
If Leland mobilized his pack to attack Riga then inevitably Riga would have to fight them to defend their land and war would be inevitable. Nicholas didn't want Sophie and their children to be trapped in the middle of an ongoing war.
What must he do to save them? Even if he had to give away his throne to make it happen, he would. However, he was smart and knew that it wouldn't solve a problem.
Leland's goal didn't seem to be power, but revenge. Didn't he mention that Nicholas' family was responsible for Sophie's parents' deaths?
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