THE MOST SCANDALOUS FUTURE

The more Future Ben said, the more scandalous the future sounded.

I thought my, ahem, private relationship with Wolfgang sounded bad, Bell took his scandalous relationships to another level - like maybe +10 levels.

Because Bell successfully seduced and mated the Vampire Queen - maybe he figured that if he had to mate a vampire, might as well mate the Queen.

The Vampire Queen wasn't the current queen either.

It was the one Bell had rescued from eternal slumber and left in Lord Edward's care. Conveniently, the Ciara family was related to royalty and the both queens were Edward's aunts. Coincidence? Or did Bell know this?

Whatever plot to assassinate the original queen Edward was telling me about somehow worked out and he was now the Prime Minister.

So now, the Vamp Prime Minister was calling Bell "uncle." O.o

"MINE!" Boo was my first reaction. Like WTH! Bell was MINE. I wasn't sharing with anyone!

"But with a vampire?" Wolfgang was properly shocked. I would have been shocked too, if I wasn't feeling so betrayed by Bell taking another mate.

"The Vampire Queen." Jax waggled his brows, "Our Rebel doesn't do things in halves!"

"Don't worry." Future Ben smirked. I suspect he quite enjoyed dropping the bombs on us like this, "Their honeymoon was short-lived."

At the end of the two week celebrations, Bell murdered her and had her body burned in public.

"You'd think they'd know better than to skip the prenup." Fluffy pointed out.

I know it wasn't the point, but it sounded like the LNC had a very busy future. Like imagine the Lorent PR meetings that would be needed!

But PR was the last thing on Future Ben's mind. There were far more pressing issues - like the army bordering the Snow Moon Kingdom. They were as numerous as the sand, and climbed across the mountain ridges like a roach infestation.

Bell's army was unfathomable - Blue Demons (that's mine), Dark Shadow Warriors (Tyger King's), Combined Lycan-Human Army from every Overlord in the plans and Colored Mountain Prince, and Gargoyle minions (This was a vampire thing. I wouldn't know.)

Actually, I've seen them at Edward's castle, but I just nodded. No point unduly alarming anyone.

I mean, I know the future sounded like Armageddon so it probably wouldn't matter that I was once served steak by a gargoyle personally. But the fact of it was that I was sure I would more likely be able to live past the war than dealing with the bunch of overprotective wolves around me.

Ben had last contact with Sir Wolfgang from the frontlines.

Sir Wolfgang and his army would be Snow Moon's first line of defense. The fire wolf was not expecting to live past this battle. It would be his last stand.

After that, it would just be a matter of time before the resistance would be completely snuffed out. That was why Fluffy had devise a plot to help Ben sneak out in a desperate attempt to contact Ki. They were fighting a losing battle, but at the very least, they were hoping to smuggle Savy, River (and Lizzy and Jonah too) back to the Green Packlands.

The plan was to hide out at the Old Alpha House until the war ran its course, and then regroup. This came with its own risks. Ki might not agree to take Prince River in.

While Bell could not easily uncover the Old Alpha House, he could still do it, and he would very likely try because Bell was dead set on killing River.

When River spared his life, Bell didn't see his mercy. Bell saw a threat that had to be eradicated. The single person who was able to actually kill him. He was NOT going to look the other way and would not stop until River was dead.

But for the same reasons, River was seen as the hope of the resistance. Only he would be able to kill the Great Overlord and free the wolves of the plains.

But the resistance returning to the Green Packlands would also endanger the free wolves and our own pack refugees. Its not like the cursed land was able to grow food, so the only way was to trade with Beta Gerald's refugee settlement in the warlock lands.

Anyway, it wasn't likely to happen now. Bell had somehow saw through Fluffy's elaborate plot and now Ben was being hunted down like a rogue.

Except that he had met Peony by chance.

The cat had just stepped out from a time gate right in front of him. Ben had thought it was another assassination attempt, but he recognized our packhouse kitchen cat and called Peony by name.

Now that they could time travel, the plan was to return back in time to stop Sam from disappearing with Parry.

This would also reunite Peony with Parry and his other cat friends.

Because Ben was convinced that if I hadn't disappeared, Bell wouldn't have gone insane like he did. I personally think that was debatable. Maybe Bell would have mated me and murdered me straight after our honeymoon celebrations too.

"So now, give me back my cat and I'll be on my way." Ben concluded.

"Wait, wait!" Neil stepped forward to block Ben, "Wait, Beta... How did I? You know, how did I die?"

"You were just unlucky." Ben shrugged.

I felt bad for Neil, "Explain properly, Ben!"

I didn't say it aloud because I thought Ben would probably start lecturing me on space time continuum and what not, but I think if he were going back in time to stop me from disappearing, I was allowed to stop Neil from dying.

"Alright, fine." Ben sighed, "It was Jude..."

"Jude killed him?" Jax cut in, "That b*****! After all you did for him too!"

"No, Bell killed him." Ben corrected, "Listen properly."

"Rebel? Rebel killed him?" And then Jax stopped for a moment, "Oh, well... I KNEW IT!"

He spun around and pointed at Neil, "I told you Rebel will kill us one day! And you said we'd die as cannon folder. Huh! I was right! We'd die in Rebel's hands. I TOLD YOU SO!"

"Why would Bell kill Neil?" It didn't make sense. I mean he wasn't an Evil Overlord yet.

Ben sighed again, "That's what I'm trying to tell you. Can you all just shut up and listen?"

So we all shut up and Ben told us about how Jude's great escape. (This was what Ben's pieced together based on CCTV footages and investigation reports.)

Neil and Jax were visiting Jude as usual. They were just hanging outside his cell while he say miserably on the floor of his cell. Every now and then Ron from the next cell would yell some vulgarities at their visitors, but Neil would ignore it. Jax for most part too, although at one point he did kick Ron's cell bars and yelled at him to shut the f*** up.

Overall, this was the "normal" visitation routine so the guards watching didn't interfere.

"I don't know why we still do it." Jax said, "Why's Ron even there? Jude's the one going to trial."

Neil shrugged, "Who knows? But we promised Mimi that we'd check on them everyday."

"What do you guys talk about?" I asked.

"Nothing much, you know." Neil shrugged again, "I try to tell him is not too late to change. Sometimes I tell him to disown Ron. Ron's only still here because of his loyalty to his alpha. I mean, we all know Jude's gonna hang, but Ron could still be saved. If Jude owed up to all the war crimes..."

"Selfish bastard wants Ron to fess up to everything and take the rap." Jax snorted.

Ron's furious but because he had swore loyalty to Jude, he's playing his part. It was messing up the interrogations. Ron was trying to take the rap, but their testimonies never matched up. Ron's claims went against all the evidence anyway.

For example, Ron would lie (cos my Dad and Bell obviously could sense the lies) that he was the one who signed the supply contracts with the hidden rogue village. But the contracts that we recovered all had Jude's signatures and seal. Do note, that earlier, Jude did admit to signing them. But now Jude had changed his song and was claiming that he only admitted guilt under duress and Ron was the one who signed them. Jude had NO IDEA what his beta had done behind his back.

In the same way, Ron changed his story too. Now he claimed to be the one who signed the contracts.

"Oh really? Then why were they Jude's signatures?" Gamma Endo was the head interrogator.

"I meant I signed them with Jude's signature." Ron said.

"You realize you are confessing to forging your alpha's signature?" Gamma Endo asked.

Ron scowled and gave a jerky nod, "So what?"

"Just the signature?" Gamma Endo had asked, "You sure, boy?"

Ron didn't look sure at all, but gave a tentative nod.

"So, there was no seal on the contracts?" Gamma Endo asked.

Ron took a long pause, and then he said, "I don't remember. I could've stolen his seal too. How the hell would I know?"

Which was true. How the hell would Ron know? Jude had done most of it behind his back because he knew Ron would have been on his case about it.

Most of the wolves witnessing the interrogations from the viewing room were convinced that Ron had never seen these contracts. He had no idea what was on it, or even how many Jude had signed.

Anyway, while Neil and Jax were visiting, Jude had a meltdown. Again, this was "normal", and although the guards kept an eye on the visitation, no one felt it was any cause for alarm. Jude often had meltdowns because he wasn't used to not getting his way.

This time, Jax got fed up and left.

Neil tried to coax Jude to calm down and listen to reason.

But then Jude suddenly produced a dagger and tried to kill himself.

"Why was the prisoner armed?" Wolfgang demanded.

Ben sighed because now he would have to explain some more.