Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 118: Someone Has to Do Something

*Tristan*

Barbara is up to something, and I know it. I put her in the dungeon, hoping that she would be able to keep herself from stirring up things too much while she’s down there, but I know I can’t prevent her from using the mind-link.

Not even if I put a foil hat on her head.

I pull the Alphas together in Eli’s room. “We need to be ready for anything,” I tell them. “I think Barbara really might be plotting with Alpha Kane. Since I’m temporary king, I’m temporarily in charge of the scouts for the castle guards as well, and I’ve told them to let me know if they see anything strange.”

“And… have they seen anything strange?” Mark asks as he pours a drink of whatever booze we are all passing around today. It’s too bad it’s hard for any of us to even get tipsy since we’re all shifters and larger than most human men.

“They have,” I reply as I pour my own drink.

“What’s that exactly?” Eli asks as he takes the bottle out of my hand to top himself off.

“Well, they are organizing on the outskirts of the forest near the north of the castle again, and I can’t be sure, but I do think that Barbara’s helping them one way or another,” I explain to them.

“Helping them how?” Reece asks. “Do you think she intends to tell him when we are all distracted and have him attack then?”

“Maybe she’ll wait until we’re all in the bathroom,” Eli jokes, and they all laugh.

“Alphas!” I shout. “Be serious! We need to get our acts together. We can’t keep acting like a bunch of fumbling idiots! Rose had false labor not long ago. That means we’re all on the verge of being fathers.”

They all sober up quite a bit after that. I’ve been trying to be more of a grown-up lately… and while I’m not batting a perfect record just yet, I am batting over three hundred.

That’s good, isn’t it?

“Sorry,” Mark says on behalf of all of them. ‘So what are we going to do?”

“We are going to get ready for an attack,” Tristan says. “And I think we should consider sending Barbara out of the castle while King Gene is away. She’s causing all kinds of issues, and if she’s gone, things will be a lot more calm.”

“And Emily?” Eli asks, dragging his hand down his chin.

That makes me sigh. I want to say let her die in the hospital, or I’ll put her to death for what she’s done, but the honest truth is, I don’t want to answer to King Gene for her death. She is his cousin, after all, and for the moment, I’m only temporary king.

“I think we should wait until she’s well and then send her back to Stephen. Maybe that will distract him from attacking us, and we can focus on the true enemy, which is Kane.” Those are my thoughts on the issue anyway.

“As I see it,” Reece begins, leaning forward on the couch, his hands folded between his knees. “This is our chance to get things cleaned up around here while Gene is gone. We can send Barbara off, send Emily away or kill her off, and we need to do something about that ridiculous Morris.”

“Morris is a good guy now,” I remind him. “He’s doing my bidding.”

“Yeah, until he’s not,” Mark says with a scowl.

I glare back at him, but he does have a point. So far, Morris has done what I’ve ordered him to do. “Let’s just leave Morris out of this for now.”

“Is that by order of the king, or just Tristan talking?” Eli snickers like he’s trying to be funny, but I don’t find it humorous. It is irritating to me.

“Who’s with Rose right now?” Reece asks, looking either puzzled, worried… or constipated.

“Shelby, Adam, and Kelly are in there,” Mark assures him. “Rose is sleeping.”

“That’s good. I don’t like it when all of us are away from her,” Reece explained. “It makes me nervous.”

“She’s fine,” I assure him. “Can we stay focused on the matter at hand, please? This is what I want to do. There’s a secret prison in the north, near that large snow-covered mountain range in Snowfall pack.”

“Everything is covered in snow in Snowfall pack,” Mark says in an irritating voice.

“Yes, I know, but the mountains are large, and the prison is secret, so that will make it all the harder for her to escape,” I reply.

“But how the hell would we even get her there?” Mark wants to know. “We’d have to go right through Kane’s line of soldiers in order to get her to prison, and there’s a good chance that he’d attack whoever is transporting her.”

“That’s a good thing,” I remind him. “It could potentially draw Kane away from here. Not to mention, I have it on good authority that Barbara’s own army is beginning to form lines as well. They’re situated to the west of the castle.”

“And Stephen’s coming from the southeast?” Eli asks.

I nod. ‘We are essentially surrounded–almost. So we have to do something. With Gene gone, we have a small window of opportunity to act. We need to take advantage of it. He’ll figure out soon enough that no one is reading his mind, and if Kane and Barbara really are working together, he’ll think he needs to be here to do something about it. So, let’s act while we have a chance to do it.” I try to sound convincing, calling on all of my inner-king skills.

They look at me like they think I’ve lost my mind. Or maybe they think all of this power has gone to my head.

“Maybe we just need to see what it is that Barbara wants,” Eli says with a shrug. “I don’t think she actually wants us, like Emily. I think she wants something else. Like power.”

“Ha!” Mark scoffs. “I don’t think you’d feel that way if you’d been drugged and nearly… taken advantage of!”

I do feel bad for him about that. “But the only reason she’s here is because Gene wanted her help! So why would we support that by leaving her here?”

“He’s going to come back and wonder what we did, and when he finds out, he’ll just bring her back!” Reece exclaims.

“Well, we’re out of options, aren’t we?” I ask. “We can’t leave her here, and now you’re saying we can’t send her away! What else can we possibly do?” I am exasperated.

Mark doesn’t miss a beat. “Kill her.”

We all turn and look at him. Normally, Mark is passionate but fair. At the moment, he seems so angry about what Barbara did to him, what she intended to do with him, that he’s not thinking straight.

“That’s a bit… drastic, don’t you think?” Eli asks, but Mark immediately shakes his head.

“No, I don't think so. I’m tired of women taking advantage of me. And I’m not going to stand around and pretend it didn’t happen!”

“Emily didn’t take advantage of you,” Reece says. “You spanked her. So instead of women, you should say woman.”

“Emily was trying to take advantage of me.” Mark’s piercing eyes are narrowed in anger.

I’m not sure what to say. I think killing Barbara is a bad idea, even though she tried to take advantage of Mark–and she also tried to take advantage of me.

I think it will backfire on us, and when Gene shows up, he’ll be angry.

Not to mention, her pack may very well attack us, and we’ll have even more enemies wheeling in on the castle.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m not going to do that. We can keep her in prison here or transfer her to Snowfall pack, but we’re not going to kill her, not for that.”

Mark’s gaze narrows even more. “Maybe you don’t mind when women try to drug you and force you to do things you wouldn’t normally do. Or maybe you would normally do them, but I wouldn’t, and I am offended. I want justice!”

With that, Mark gets up and walks out of the room. All I can do is stare after him for a few moments, not sure what to do or say.

Once he’s gone, I clear my throat and say, “Well… that went well.”

Eli and Reece only stare at me.

Being king is harder than I thought it would be. Maybe I’m not very good at it…. Maybe I shouldn’t have thrown my hat in the ring for this.

But I’m king now, and there are at least three packs amassing outside of our gates, so someone has to do something.

And in my experience, generally speaking, when someone has to do something, it’s usually me.

“Let’s start small,” I say. “Let’s get rid of one of these bitches. That’s easy enough.”

“Emily?” Reece asks.

I nod. “Who wants to return the bride to the bridegroom?”

Eli replies, “I’ll do it.”