Chapter 86
“Damn it!”
I yelled in frustration as I threw yet another folder of files to the ground. “It’s been months now, Benjamin, and we’re still no better off than when we started.”
Benjamin was seated by the windowsill of our small office area, papers of his own in hand that he’d been reviewing. He seemed used to my small occasional outbursts these days and usually ignored them, but today he just turned his face to me, raising a sole eyebrow as if to silently ask ‘really?’.
I buried my face in my hands, utterly exhausted and not needing his further judgment. When was the last time I’d slept peacefully? Before Ava’s death?
After Bash was taken in, days had turned into weeks, which had turned into months, all with little change.
My seventeenth birthday had passed without celebration, or even with any sort of acknowledgement. How could I while Bash remained imprisoned when I’d promised to quickly clear
his name?
The allegations had ended up being a lot worse than we first anticipated. It soon became known that he wasn’t just under investigation for the weapon theft and warrior attack; he was also under suspicion of working with the rogues. Something that, if proven true, would possibly link him to the death of Ava as well.
Apparently back when Benjamin and I were ambushed, an independent internal review began into how the information might have leaked to give our exact whereabouts. The case ran for a while and was even almost dropped as being a coincidence when the rogues were discovered living in the cave on our territory. Their extensive knowledge of our river systems and their ability to establish themselves without being found, all in addition to the already suspicious Golden Blade pack attack, meant that a case was being made to suggest inside help.
And right now they were all pointing fingers at Bash. Someone who had extensive knowledge of the territory having lived here for a year on exchange, who would have connections to ranked members he’d befriended during that time, and who would benefit from the downfall of our pack in the future. After all, in my previous life, it was because of Bash’s father asking for a reduction in tax that ended in his beheading. The Black Alder was already rising in power now and soon would be almost on par with the Lock Heart as equals. It would just be a matter of time before they’d be asking for that reduction.
As for the silver dagger, no one had been able to provide a clear motive as to why Bash tried to steal it back, but the running theory currently was revolving around how the dagger originated from the rogues. Some were even speculating that there was missed evidence on the dagger linking the murder of Ava to Bash; one of the most ridiculous things I’d ever heard.
The only reason Bash hadn’t gone to trial yet was due to both Benjamin and I petitioning Alpha Leo for an extension in order to uncover further evidence. Or more so because I had been harassing Leo so frequently it was almost to the point of
being banned from meetings.
And so, after months of filtering through reports, files and alibis as to where Bash had been and what he’d been doing, we were getting to the end of our sources to continue the investigation. Tracking down reliable witnesses to confirm his presence was difficult since the Golden Blade attack took place back when Bash had been travelling. Even Bash was unsure exactly where he was at certain dates and times.
All the while this was going on, tensions between the Black Alder pack and the Lock Heart continued to rise. Alpha Tobias, Bash’s father, was furious his only son was currently locked up under false allegations; allegations Leo was standing strong on until proven innocent. Letters had been going back and forth for some months between the territories and everyone could tell that negotiations were finally getting to breaking point. Soon, the one thing we had all been trying to avoid would possibly be coming to fruition…
War.
But it was something I was still determined to prevent at all
costs.
And, as for Isabella? Well, there was almost an unspoken ceasefire between us for now. For whatever reason, she hadn’t ended up telling anyone that I’d attempted to murder her or that I had been the one to possess the dagger. In fact, she had been living under pack protection all these months due to her ‘rogue attack, as if she were too scared to go back to her home. She wasn’t formally one of us, but it was more. like a visa of sorts granting her permission to stay for her safety.
In exchange for her silence, I hadn’t pursued any further investigation into her yet. The information she possessed could have easily been used against me to create the very scenario we were currently avoiding; something I was sure she knew. Somehow I had a feeling that if I pushed her the wrong way right now, she would be taking me down with her. Whatever she was planning though, evidently it wasn’t time urgent since she hadn’t made a move. In fact, it seemed more like she was enjoying herself as watched me scrambling to fix what I’d done; as if I were her biggest form of entertainment right now.
“Well, with that,” Benjamin said suddenly, breaking me from my thoughts, “It’s time to get going. We’ve got errands to run, remember? Are you coming today?”
I stared at the piles of documents overcrowding my small desk with resignation. Though most of them I’d already sifted through, I knew I should begin looking through them again in case I’d missed anything the first time.
“Ah, I can’t…,” I said. “Are you able to take Alexander instead?”
He rubbed at his eyes as he stood up to stretch. We’d been at this for hours already and I knew he was just as tired as me.
“Your cousin is starting to drive me insane, I hope you know that. He thinks we’re best friends now because I’ve been giving so many of your shifts to him. Barely gives me space to breathe. I wonder if he realises that I can’t actually interfere with the results of the Beta heir trial once you’re eighteen.”
I gave him a small apologetic half-smile. “I’m sorry… I just feel like maybe I’m still missing something here.”
“Yeah, yeah, do what you have to,” he muttered, grabbing his
things to go. “If I murder your cousin though it’s on you.”
He left after that, leaving me alone in the office.
There hadn’t been any more rogue sightings recently but that was both a good and bad thing. Whilst I didn’t like the idea of anyone getting hurt, any new information on them would have been nice to help build this case for Bash.
But I did find it odd how quiet everything was suddenly. It was almost as if they were waiting for something or someone to give them instructions. A someone I was sure was Isabella.
Her presence around here was stressful enough without the possibility of there being an inside spy within the pack. A spy that I knew at least couldn’t be Isabella since she wasn’t in the pack during the original events. This meant that it had to be someone else feeding her that information.
…And I realised then that instead of proving Bash’s
innocence, maybe I should have been focusing on finding a culprit for the mole.
It would be easy enough to also pin the missing dagger on them if they were proven to be working with the rogues.
My mind instantly went to the memory of the Doctor who proved that I drugged the beast.
How did he end up joining the pack if he was originally a rogue? If he had somehow managed to infiltrate us, then didn’t that mean there could be others? Others who maybe were associated with the rogues without my knowledge?
