Bruce finds a hideout and Jean changes strategy

Bruce drove up the hill slowly. It was a remote area out of town. The hills were few, but there was supposed to be a valley on the other end of this one and this was where Jean's aunt and Theresa reportedly got their powers from. This was from where they actually spied on people before following them around physically.

Graham had confided in Bruce about this when Bruce had lost his cool in the dressing room after Jean's provocations on the phone the other day.

"Do you know that she actually said that her aunt would help her get me?" Bruce had mentioned while he and Graham had waited for the other models on the balcony.

"She actually told you that?" Graham had asked in surprise.

"No, one of the maids here was visiting a friend of hers at Jean's home on that day. She overheard Jean while Jean was busy ranting and raving. The maid was looking for her friend when she heard Jean talking to herself in her bedroom," Bruce had explained.

"So, when did the maid tell you all this?" Graham had asked.

"She felt guilty and eventually feared for my safety because she heard somewhere that witchcraft can also kill someone. So, she confided in me yesterday," Bruce had explained.

Now he was on his way in an unrecognizable vehicle so that he could see the house which the witches of this area visited and where they held their rituals, according to Graham.

"How do you know about a place like this?" Bruce had asked when Graham had told him about the house amongst the hills.

"One of the non-wolf models told me one night when we were at a party," Graham had replied. We were all drunk and so chatted without reserve, but I somehow I remembered this and went to check the place out for myself one day," Graham had replied.

So, today Bruce felt like checking out the place for himself.

"Let me see exactly what kind of people come to a place like this," he remarked to himself as he slowed down when he reached the top of the hill. It was the only one with a road.

"If anyone asks what I'm looking for, I will just tell them that I'm a tourist," Bruce told himself. He had a gun in the glove compartment of the vehicle, just in case someone tried to attack him for trespassing.

"Not that I'm going in there to spy on them. I will only observe from the outside as a tourist, but if someone there can detect my motives and come after me, I will speed away.

But, I will also shoot to keep them away from me," Bruce said as he turned off the road and parked behind a big rock.

"That should be the house. The big, orange-coloured one with pillars on the outskirts," Bruce mumbled to himself as he took out his set of binoculars.

"It's really outstanding. Victorian style build. I wonder who it belongs to," Bruce asked into the silence.

Pretty soon there were people coming out of the house.

Bruce decided to take photos of them with his phone.

"Just in case I see some of them again somewhere else. Let me take photos and study them later on with Graham," he muttered to himself as he began to click away.

Later at his own home, Bruce was very pleased with himself.

"Now I can even recognize them if they come to that party on Saturday night," he told himself as he strutted around in his own dressing room.

"It's a pity I didn't see Jean's aunt today, but I will go there again. And I will find someone here who knows someone there. That model who told on them by mistake is not supposed to be loyal to them unless he's one of them," Bruce told himself. He walked out of his bedroom then.

"I definitely need to find someone to spy for me on the inside of that witches society. Or maybe I should go there in disguise and pretend to be in need of a fortune-teller for advice?" Bruce asked himself.

He stood still at the top of the staircase, thinking.

Maybe I should tell Lyle about this. Then I can tell him that Graham has advised me about this, so that I could be ahead of Jean's aunt and her witchcraft. Then I won't only expose Jean to the pack, but I will also spoil her plans of bewitching me into her life," Bruce told himself.

"Now, for that meeting about the clothes that we need to showcase with Mishka here on Saturday," he mumbled to himself.

"This is so bad. I will have to tell her that I'm a wolf and I will have to tell her that I'm out to catch witches red-handed. What will she think about all this bizarre behaviour?" Bruce asked himself as he walked out to get his vehicle.

***

Jean was more upset than when she left her mother's house.

"How can he speak to me like that after everything we've experienced and seen together in one lifetime? That girl will be too innocent and naïve to deal with the bigger things in life," she blurted out while her aunt watched her from the open doorway of her bedroom.

"You shouldn't lose your temper. I keep telling you. A mate cannot be won by showing him your worst behaviour. You keep saying that you have the advantage of knowing him for ages, but do you realize that he also knows your bad attitude for ages?" Belle, Jean's aunt asked with her hands on her hips as she stared at her stubborn niece.

"He knows my strengths and my weaknesses. He also knows that I'm wealthy enough to be proud of who I am," Jean remarked with her arms folded across her chest cheekily.

"You can't act victorious while you're still fighting for him. That only makes him think that you don't need him or anyone else," Belle responded.

"So, should I start acting weak and scared like that blonde whom he was with in the forest?" Jean asked with a smirk around her mouth.

"Exactly that. Then you can be sure to keep him for always. But if you keep boasting about your wealth and power then of course you're saying that you don't need a mate," Belle responded with a loud sigh as she shook her head in defeat.

"Aunt Belle, are you gonna make me the mixture to put into his drink on Saturday or are you gonna cast a spell over him to make him compliant?" Jean asked with her eyes fixed on Belle's face with enormous hope.

"You have to follow my advice on correct behaviour or nothing will work. Why don't you start by practicing on someone else first?" Belle suggested with her head to the side as she looked at Jean through narrowed eyes. 

"Should I practice being weak with some other guy and make him fall for me?" Jean asked with her eyes stretched wide in disbelief.

"It will be well worth the trouble to find out that you do have some charm after all before you take on the big guns," Belle responded, looking at Jean with her chin raised defiantly.

"Are you saying that I've never managed to attract anyone before?" Jean asked with her brows raised and a mocking smile on her lips. 

"You may have attracted guys in the past, but with time you've become arrogant. Too full of yourself for your own good.

The trick is to look vulnerable because every great wolf wants to be seen as a hero," Belle remarked before turning around and walking away from the bedroom which Jean was using while she lived there.

"I suppose I have to listen to her since I'm under her roof and since I don't have any plans of my own. But, I'm not gonna date any losers, just for experience," Jean muttered to herself. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and nodded her head.

"I won't stoop low. I will simply play with his mind, so that he can think that I'm really interested in him, whoever he turns out to be," she told herself in a low tone of voice.

"Yes, maybe I can even use him to make Bruce jealous. He will see that I've changed for someone else's sake and become really envious," she added with a slow, confident smile spreading over her face.