“Do you Liana Rodgers solemnly swear that the testimony you will give to this court will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth under the all seeing eye of the goddess?” Kelvin asks Liana with both their right hands up as he stands by the podium. It is the day of the second hearing and Justin has called her to the stand to prove that she was indeed on the scene of Henry’s murder and the first discoverer. “I solemnly swear,” Liana replies. Kelvin nods and they both take their seat before Justin steps forward. “You just took an oath before everyone present here in the name of the goddess and I hope you can honour that oath,” he says, “tell us, according to you, what happened that day?” Liana glances at Leila who gives her a reassuring nod despite the way Leila’s own heart hammers with a nervous fear. Kelvin has prepared Liana for this, he has told her how to answer the questions, prepped her on how Justin would go low and try to rile up her emotions, twist his que
Kelvin grits his teeth in annoyance as Justin smirks at him, returning to his seat. Justin currently has one up on them. Liana never mentioned that she was carrying a weapon that day, maybe she didn't think it was relevant but as long as he can prove she wasn’t on the scene, things would still go well for them.“It’s going to be okay, you did great,” He says calmly to Liana, patting her shoulders as she takes her seat beside him.“Is the defence ready to call its witness?” Judge Bruce asks.“Yes,” Kelvin replies and stands up. “Defence calls Beta Trent Easton.”The door to the courtroom opens and Trent saunters down the aisle with a smug look on his face, his shoulders held high in pride, his steps pompous and full of confidence.He stops in front of Liana and looks at her for some seconds before he scoffs, shakes his head and proceeds to the witness box.After Justin gets him to take the oath of truth, Kelvin steps forward.“You were with Henry and his wife on the day of the murder,
Judge Bruce sighs. “Very well.” “The defence calls on Gareth Thomas, the chairman and CEO of Bane Technologies,” Kelvin says as Trent steps down from the box, glaring at him before he sits down behind Justin. A tall lanky man with grey bits, dressed in an obviously expensive black designer suit with round transparent glasses sitting on his nose steps into the courtroom and murmurs fill the air, every eye watching him in awe. Even Judge Bruce looks a bit taken back. Trent sneers and Carmela taps him, shock and worry evident in her eyes. “What is he doing here father? I thought this man was a myth.” “Well he fucking isn’t as you can see,” Trent slaps her hand away from in irritation, rage boiling in his chest. Gareth Thomas is not just any werewolf, he is the richest one in all of the country. Even the elites of the elites cannot get a meeting with him and he agrees to testify as a witness in a murder case for people who he has no business with? What kind of testimony does he eve
“In light of new evidence that has appeared, this court hearing will be adjourned by two weeks and we will reconvene at exactly 11am,” Judge Bruce slams his gavel.“All rise,” The clerk announces as he leaves and everyone begins to file out.Trent storms out of the courtroom in fury, muttering curses and Carmela runs after him, reaching him in the corridor of the courtroom.“Father, wait.”“You bloody fool,” Trent snarls at her. “I thought you said you and that incapable bastard went through everything that they could use against us today, why didn’t you know about the bloody masts?”“I’m sorry, I thought we had it all covered, but don’t worry, we will still get them, they’re not going to win this,” Carmela replies in a petrified tone.Trent scoffs coldly. “I shouldn’t worry?” He grabs her chin and shoves her against the wall, squeezing it painfully, his eyes cold and deadly as he narrows them at her.“I made a fool of myself today and I don’t like making a fool of myself. I’ve worked
“Lithoha, are you sure this spell will work?” Carmela frowns as Lithoha stokes a fire in the backyard of Trent’s house. “His wolf will go into a haze, even if the human fights the urge, his wolf will not be able to resist his mate, so be rest assured, he will be yours tonight – if you have been taking the medicine I gave you to keep up the temp mate bond?. Did you bring what I asked for?” Lithoha replies, not looking away from the fire. Carmela smiles to herself. After tonight, Tatum will have slept with her. Whether he or Leila likes it or not, either his child or Matt’s child will be inside her and Tatum will think either one is his. She reaches into her purse and stretches a ring towards Lithoha. “His ring, it’s the only personal item I could get my hands on.” Lithoha has been working on this spell for weeks and this is the final day. Tatum’s personal item has been the only thing missing but she was able to nick his ring when she visited him the last time. “It will do,” Litho
Adaline goes upstairs to Darren’s room and she looks at her husband lying lifeless on his bed, several drips connected to his pale and thin body. The vibrant energetic man she once used to know is but a shadow of himself now.She is sad that he is in this condition but even more sad that despite his illness, he has maintained his stand to not speak a word to her or Tatum because of what happened to Leila.He firmly believes that Leila did not commit any of the crimes she is accused of as Leila is a kindhearted woman and a good person. She never knew that what happened to Leila could make him so bitter towards them but to not have spoken to his fated mate and wife for over five years is enough proof of that.It is the more reason she is unhappy with Carmela, she hoped that Carmela would have given them another heir by now to soften Darren’s anger but it is obvious that despite Carmela being Tatum’s fated mate, his heart is still with Leila.She often wonders if she did the right thing,
The truth about Amara is sure to cheer his old sick heart up but what if she tells him and Tatum finds out from him, that could ruin all her plans. Before she can decide, Darren’s grip tightens around her hand and his deep sad eyes look up at hers. “Forgive him, he was naive. This pack needs you. Forgive us,” his voice dry and weak. Forgiveness? After all they made her go through? How does she even forgive them? What does she even forgive? Where does she start from? The torture, the torment, the abuse? Or perhaps the beating, the neglect, the humiliation, starvation? He doesn’t need to know that she is not capable of forgiving them, so she holds his hands and smiles down at him. “Do not worry about me father, I will do the right thing.” “Is the right thing taking my son–” Darren coughs violently and blood spills out of his mouth. “Will you take him back if he comes to his senses and begs your forgiveness?” Leila takes one of the warm napkins on the counter and wipes his l
“Are you okay?” Her voice comes out hurried and she is shocked at the fear she feels for him.“Never been better,” he closes the distance between them in a flash.There is something off about him and the close proximity between their bodies immediately sends heat through Leila, pooling in her core. His scent dazzles and intoxicates her as well, like a drug, a strong pull towards him takes over and she wants nothing more right now than to—No, it’s not her, these are not her feelings, it’s her wolf, it’s reacting to something inside Tatum or his wolf perhaps.She takes a quick step back, looking at his ripped abs that are torn open but healing. “You’re bleeding, is everything okay?”Without warning, Tatum cups the back of her head and kisses her deeply in response, devouring her lips with a passion that he has never kissed her with before.Her body is set on fire from the kiss that sends a pang of pleasure to her core but her skin crawls from it and she wants to push him away when she
Later that evening, after deciding on the date and time to execute Trent, Leila goes to visit her mother and is surprised to see an even larger crowd than the one that gathered at the packhouse outside her mother’s house.She steps out of her car and immediately she is approached by a group.“What’s going on?” She asks, scanning the crowd and seeing her mother in the middle with tears falling from her eyes. Leila’s heart immediately races, fearing the worst. She dashes towards the crowd, not waiting for a reply to her initial question, ignoring the greetings of people until she gets to her mother.“Mom, what’s wrong? What’s going on?”Her mom sweeps her into a tight hug, sobbing hard, “thank you Leila, thank you.”The tension in Leila’s heart deflates but the confusion in it lingers even though she hugs her mom back.“We are so happy that the truth came out Luna. For so long, many believed the lies of that traitor Trent that your mother killed your father, we can’t imagine how hard it
Leila’s men drag Trent out of the house, two of them holding him tight. Another one immediately lodges two syringes full of wolfsbane into his neck, both to weaken him and to stop him from mindlinking anyone. The fourth one opens the car door but one of them holding Trent frowns, “we should parade him round the pack before throwing his ass in jail.” “Sounds like a good idea to me,” the other replies, slamming handcuffs on Trent’s hand behind his back before he kicks him down. “You imbeciles, you’ll pay for this,” Trent says, groaning in pain, the wolfsbane having immediate effect on him. “Shut up,” one of the men throws a hard fist at Trent's face and splits his lip open and blood gushes. Another one yanks Trent up by his collar and gives him a cold stare, “if anyone is going to pay for anything, it’s you who will pay for your crimes,” he drives his fist into Trent’s torso making Trent squirm in pain before pushing him forward, leading away from the old Alpha house. A crowd start
“How is this possible?” Trent asks in shock, unwilling to believe what his eyes just witnessed. Adaline has been laying in a pool of her own blood with wounds all over. How is she fucking healed? And Darren has him pinned to the floor. Did he suddenly recover from his illness? He looks sharply at Leila, getting a thought as the blue aura emanating from her slowly starts to dim. Is she the one behind this? Does she have some kind of healing power? “Are you okay, Father?” Leila asks Darren, slowly walking towards him, her heart full of relief and gratitude. She has no idea what happened or why that powerful aura burst forth from her but something tells her that it has something to do with Trent’s recovery. “Never been better,” Darren applies more pressure to keeping Trent in place, “I think whatever happened with you just now healed me, I feel so young and strong.” Leila blinks and tears roll down the corner of her eyes. She immediately mindlinks some of her trusted warriors and fo
“No…” Trent’s voice is filled with terror upon seeing Leila, “you shouldn’t be here, you should be dead.” Leila sneers at him, “you think you’re one step ahead of me with your plotting and scheming to have me sent to the palace so you could get rid of me but the problem with being a step ahead is that you leave steps behind and you never know what’s going on behind you.” “Bullshit!” Trent growls, his eyes red and full of murderous intent as he stares at Leila. “You made a very foolish decision coming back here, your plan should have included you running for your dear life just like your cowardly husband because now I’m going to kill you myself, then I’ll kill this old fool and his wife. Nothing will stop me from my destiny.” Leila grinds her teeth, feeling so much anger inside of her from Trent’s words but she manages to keep the anger away from her eyes and her voice becomes sullen like someone riddled with fear from Trent’s threat. “Why? Why are you doing all of this?” She backs
Trent quickly tries to move out of the way but he’s not fast enough and her claws tear into his cheek, making him yell in pain. She’s been behind the door the whole time listening to the conversation between him and her husband and the more Trent revealed the depth and treachery of his schemes, the more she hated herself. She was Carmela’s number one supporter. All those things she did to Leila, all the many times that she made the poor girl’s life hell, it was because of this man and his evil deeds. “You bastard,” Adaline growls, charging at him again, taking another swipe at his face but this time, Trent blocks her attack and shoves her back. He wipes the speck of blood on his already healing face and rubs it on his finger. “I’d ask your husband to put you under control but seeing as he is not fit to carry out his manly duties, I’ll do it myself.” He throws a punch at Adaline but she ducks underneath it and kicks the back of his leg, making him stagger forward. “You don’t dese
Darren already knows this so it does not come as much of a surprise to him but he never thought Trent would openly admit his atrocity, which makes him gaze at Trent with a bit of surprise in his eyes. Trent scoffs, reading the look on Darren’s face and he smirks. “I’ll admit that I had a little bit of luck with the drunk old witch, finding out what the phoenix mark was going to look like from the prophecy before anyone else. After consulting with my own witch, it wasn’t hard to discover who was most likely to be the real phoenix Luna. Imagine my anger when I found out it could be Henry’s daughter. I was livid. “I wanted to wipe out the entire family that day when I killed him but he wounded my wolf before I could take his life. Leila wasn’t even there and I was too weak to take out his wife but I figured I’d spare them and let his family watch as I stole their destiny, just like he stole mine. All I had to do was put the beautiful mark on my daughter and present her to you all. Oh,
Trent watches from a distance as Leila’s car drives out of the pack and he picks up his phone and dials a number. “She’s enroute, make it look like an accident.” He ends the call and licks his lips, still staring as the car becomes as tiny as a dot in the distance and an evil smirk adorns his lips. It’s time to take what should have belonged to him all these years. “Take me to the old Alpha’s house,” he instructs his driver, cracking his knuckles and his neck like a fighter getting ready for some action. “How art the mighty fallen,” Trent mocks Darren who is lying in bed, shivering and covered with two thick blankets, his eyes pale and as red as blood and he can even barely keep them open. “The once great Alpha Darren the ruthless,” he shakes his head pitifully, “look at how pathetic you have become. This is what you get from deciding to surround yourself with weaklings!” He yanks the top blanket of Darren’s body. “No Trent, stop…” Darren weakly reaches out to grab the blanket b
“Darren told me the king summoned you?” Adaline sobs, wiping her face with the back of her hand. Leila squints at her, confused at why she’s crying. “Yes,I’ll be leaving at dawn. Is everything okay?” “Yeah…” Adaline sniffs, “I just wanted to thank you Leila, for everything. Since you became Luna, even if it’s only been a short while, the pack has prospered.” Leila keeps the look on her face blank. She’s always put her best into being Luna no matter what and made sure things progressed. She can even say she did more back then when everyone treated her terribly than she is doing right now. It only seems like a lot because she is wrestling with an opposing tyrannical power and this time, instead of seeing her as an usurper, the people are seeing her as a Saviour. “We all have duties we have to carry out, you don’t have to thank me for doing what I have to do,” Leila replies, glancing through the mess of things she has scattered on her bed. Her mind is continually hassled by what th
Leila’s newfound revelation of Tatum’s long lasting love for her somehow just happened to be the boost that her mind and spirit needed. Rather than spend time wallowing in worry and fear, she now catches herself fantasizing about her future with him. Knowing that he has always loved her and seeing how they have been through so much together, she believes their love can only grow stronger. She takes a day off from her Luna duties for the first time in a while to have a spa date with Amanda and some other women that were pivotal in helping her stabilize the pack. Things are running more smoothly now, Trent has been quiet, not stirring up much trouble with more and more people offering her their support over him. She doesn’t worry but she also cannot wait to be reunited with her family. Whatever Tatum is planning, she hopes it works out soon because she is sure that his plan includes them being together, she just has to be patient and make sure that he returns back to the pack better