Chapter 5

Damien slammed his fist on the arm of his seat. A cup crashed to the floor and shattered.

"Enough!"

He stared at Vera, fury flooding his eyes.

"You're still running your mouth while facing execution!"

"Guards! Take Vera to the Pack Dungeons! Question her thoroughly! Find out if she had any help!"

"Yes, Alpha King!"

The enforcers stepped forward, grabbed Vera's limp body, and dragged her out.

Vera was still screaming as they dragged her — crying that she was innocent, cursing Vivienne, then crying and begging me to save her.

I sat on the bed and watched it all without expression.

When Vera had accused Vivienne, I had caught it — the hand at Vivienne's side had clenched suddenly, knuckles going white. The flash of fear in her eyes had nowhere to hide.

I understood immediately.

From the forged garment to the tampered verification water to Vera's confidence in showing up at the Alpha Heir ceremony, all of it was Vivienne's work.

Vivienne had no children. With my birth of the Alpha Heir, her position as Luna was already threatened.

The hall slowly emptied. I was about to give instructions to have someone watch the Pack Dungeons, when my personal attendant burst in with a white face.

"Serena! This is bad!"

"Vera just entered the Pack Dungeons and she's already been injured — someone arranged for her to hit her head. She's unconscious."

"The guards watching her have all been swapped out with Vivienne's old staff."

My fingers clenched. My heart went cold.

Vivienne was trying to silence her before she could talk. She wanted Vera to die without getting the chance to testify.

The next morning, several of the older Colton family members blocked the entrance to the Eastern Wing and sent in a request to see me.

Aunt Donna led a group of seven or eight older relatives who came in fast, with no manners about waiting to be announced.

I had just finished feeding the Alpha Heir. I wiped my hands and said flatly: "Let them in."

The moment they were inside, Aunt Donna didn't even bother with a proper greeting. She cut straight to the point.

"Serena. You're the Alpha Heir's mother now, very honored. And you're just going to let your own mother rot in that dungeon?"

The older woman next to her immediately chimed in, voice sharp.

"Exactly! Vera may have done wrong, but she's still your mother! She's in the Pack Dungeons and you won't even ask the Alpha King for mercy? That's shameful. When people find out, what will they say about the Alpha Heir?"

I picked up my tea and skimmed the surface.

"Is this visit to teach me about family loyalty?"

"What else?"

Aunt Donna raised her voice.

"Go to the Alpha King right now. Get your mother out. And make sure your father keeps his position. If you don't, you're ungrateful. You're spitting on the Colton bloodline."

I looked up at her.

"Since you put it that way, Aunt Donna, let me ask you something."

"When I was fifteen, my father arranged an engagement for me with a good family. My mother stood in front of everyone and spread rumors that I'd been involved with a household attendant. The engagement fell through. I was locked in the family shrine hall for three months, and gossip spread across the whole territory. Which of you said anything for me?"

"Before I came to the Pack, she joked to the Pack's assessment official that I couldn't bear children. I almost didn't make it through the gate. Where were you then?"

"Yesterday at the Alpha Heir ceremony, she accused me of sleeping with a Guard and nearly got me and the Alpha Heir executed. You're not here to hold her accountable for running her mouth. You're here to pressure me into forgiving her?"

The whole room went quiet. Every face shifted, pale and flushed by turns. No one managed a single word of response.

Aunt Donna's composure broke completely. She slapped her hand down on the table.

"You! Now that you're in a position of power, you think you can talk to your elders this way?!"

The force of it knocked something from her arms. It fell and landed at my feet.

It was a small sachet embroidered with a climbing lotus pattern. The fabric and the fragrance were exclusive to Luna Vivienne's household — an Alpha King's gift, one you couldn't get outside the Pack Manor.

My attendant Calla picked it up immediately and held it in front of me.

"Serena. This is Luna Vivienne's personal gift sachet."

The whole room went dead.

I turned the sachet over in my hands and looked at Aunt Donna's pale face.

"You came to press me about family loyalty, and you're carrying something from Luna Vivienne?"

"You took her gifts and came here to make me do something rash and disloyal. Is this really for the Colton family? Or are you just letting yourself be used as Vivienne's weapon?"

The room fell into confusion immediately. Everyone shifted blame to someone else. Not one of them could put together a proper denial.

While it was still tense, my attendant Wren ran in, gripping a cloth bundle.

"Serena! I have the evidence!"

She spread out the bundle. Inside were sworn statements with handprints pressed in red, and a scrap of a Guard's uniform.

"The day before the Alpha Heir ceremony, I saw Vivienne's enforcer Wade hand over the garment with Luca's name stitched on it to Vera's personal attendant!"

"This is the Pack gate guard's sworn statement, and a full record of Wade's movements when he left the Pack Grounds and met privately with Vera's attendant. It's all here."

I looked at the evidence in the bundle. My fingers tightened slightly.

So from the very beginning, Vera's loose mouth had never been careless at all. It was a trap Vivienne had laid out from the start.