Chapter 92
No one spoke and no one moved. They all looked at me with mixed expressions, unsure which were appropriate.
But finally, a voice spoke out from the back, a woman pushing her way to the front of the crowd.
“Saintess,” she said, kneeling before me.
Panic gripped me. This wasn’t the response I had wanted or asked for. If anything this made things more awkward for my current predicament.
“What? No… Please, don’t do th=”
My voice was cut off as another person came forward, addressing me also as Saintess before they, too, were
kneeling beside the woman. And then another… and another… and another. And soon the entire crowd of unranked were kneeling before me.
“Please stand up,” I begged desperately. “There’s no need for this.”
The few Elders present were watching me with wary expressions that I knew would be accompanied by thoughts that were not in my favour. I couldn’t think of a worse situation to find myself in given the events that would soon be taking place.
“You are blessed by the Goddess’ hand. May she keep you safe,” the first woman said. “For it is within your presence, guided by our Great Mother, that we must ask of you to keep
us safe. Praise be our Saintess.”
“No, plea-.”
“Praise be our Saintess,” the crowd began to echo around her.
I was about to ask them once more to stand but suddenly I could feel the sensation of eyes burning into me, different from the people already here. And, instinctively, I looked up to the door.
To the door where Benjamin stood, watching as the people knelt before me.
He held my gaze only a moment though, walking across the room towards where the meeting hall was instead, without glancing back.
Shit.
“Uhh.. rise and be blessed. Return to your families in peace,” I awkwardly said to the crowd, hoping it sounded devout enough for them to be finally satisfied and leave already.
However, I didn’t wait to check. Quickly, I spun on my heel without another word and walked off in the direction I saw Benjamin go. I had bigger issues now.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I frantically kept whispering to myself while I walked as fast as I could.
I’d thought things couldn’t have been worse with the Elders present, but I’d obviously been wrong. Benjamin showing up at that exact moment was a thousand times worse, only second to if Leo himself had seen. I couldn’t do anything though, the people didn’t listen to me when I’d asked them to
stand. I didn’t want or ask for that.
I walked down a hallway in the direction of the main meeting hall and finally found Benjamin standing at the end, his face completely unreadable. Somehow that was infinitely more disconcerting than if he was showing anger, irritation… anything. Literally showing any emotion right then would have been nice.
He pointed towards a room on the side, indicating for me to enter, and I did so without complaint. It was a room usually used for dignitaries of foreign territories to allow them a private place to wait before a meeting.
“I don’t… I didn’t…,” I fumbled. “I just tried to get them to calm down. I didn’t ask-.”
He held a hand up to indicate I should stop and I immediately shut my mouth.
“We don’t have time for that,” he said, his tone not betraying how he felt on the topic in the slightest. “…Jonathan is missing.”
All the air I’d been clutching onto inside my chest instantly escaped me as it felt as though a blow had been struck.
“…He didn’t show up at the packhouse today,” he continued. “I was waiting there for over an hour. When he didn’t turn up on time, I went by his house but no one had seen him since he left to go on duty this morning.”
“… Has anyone been by to check on Isabella yet?” I asked.
“…Yes.” He turned his face, averting his eyes from me. “She’s gone, Winona. I’m sorry. We found her scent trail travelling
over the border.”
My hand shot out towards the table next to me as I used it to support myself from falling over.
This was it. My last lifeline was gone. And yet I couldn’t help the bubble of laughter that left my lips. First just a slow chuckle, breathy and barely audible, before finally increasing to an eruption of full laughter.
“…Winona?” Benjamin asked concerned, watching me like I was insane.
He was probably right. I was about to lose my entire freedom… and yet it was the small victory that pushed me on.
“Winona, we’ll try and find Jonathan,” he said, trying to reassure me. “We can postpone the meeting for a little longer and have everyone working on the search. Maybe we can prove he was involved still.”
“Don’t bother looking for him,” I said, smiling. “He was working with Isabella. She just confirmed it.”
“What? How do you know?”
“Isabella likes to boast, she likes to do things to prove that she’s one step ahead of me. Like how she left Ava’s body with a note. If he really were an innocent in all of this, she would have taken the added risk to leave his body somewhere I would find it so I’d know it was my fault.”
Her frantic response of running over the border meant only one thing; she was unprepared for what I’d done.
He frowned, trying to understand where I was coming from.
“You think he’s dead? How do you know he didn’t just run with her? That he’s just hiding out somewhere until it’s safe to cross the border?”
“Because he’s too much of a liability to be left alive. If we got our hands on him then there’s no way she would trust him enough to remain silent. She knows better than to leave someone like that alive, especially if he knows the names of others involved with all of this.”
“…So why are you happy? We’ve lost. We’re out of time. That was your last chance of freedom gone now, Winona.”
I met his gaze and held it as tears formed in my eyes. “Well, it’s bittersweet, isn’t it? I finally figured something out that Isabella underestimated me on. I presented one of her spies to her in a public check-mate and she got spooked. She killed a pack member and ran. Once they finally find his body in a few days, she won’t ever be able to show her face here again. She’s gone… she’s really gone. She’s never coming back to the Lock Heart.”
I was sure that if I hadn’t already lived a prior life, it would have been almost impossible to know Jonathan was a spy. They would have covered his tracks well. Isabella knew what I was trying to tell her by sending him; that I knew about his secret. She probably ran in complete confusion over how I figured it out. There was no investigation, no warning, it would look as though I plucked his name out of thin air. And not knowing how I did would be eating at her.
“…But there will still be rogues… still be maybe others infiltrated inside the pack.”
A tear fell down my face. “Oh, I know… but it’s the small
victories, I suppose. Need something to be optimistic about when you’re about to confess treason to your Alpha. And Isabella publicly recognised as an enemy to the pack? Well… that’s the best damn thing I’ve heard in months.”
I swatted the tear off my face quickly before raising my head up with confidence. The meeting would be starting soon and Goddess knew I needed every ounce of strength inside of me to get through these next few hours… possibly next few years. If I was lucky.
Though I suppose… such is life.
I pushed myself upright, squaring my shoulders and walked to the door. But, as I reached out to the handle, I felt Benjamin’s hand touch mine, pausing me.
“Winona,” he whispered, his face closer to mine than I realised. “…Don’t do this. Please.”
I stared into his green eyes. So different to the ones I once knew, but still hiding things I’d probably never know. Did seeing me with the unranked earlier spark thoughts of possible insurrection again? Did he mistrust me now? From his perspective, it looked as though I was gathering followers. Any convincing I’d managed to do earlier was probably completely down the drain now.
I pulled my hand away, clearing my throat before I spoke.
“There will be no war with the Black Alder pack announced today,” I said, repeating the words from earlier.
It was the vow I’d made to the innocent pack members, the silent promise I’d made to Bash years ago when I’d discovered who he really was.
There will be no war with the Black Alder pack.
Not today. Not ever.
And so, when I finally found myself looking into the eyes of Alpha Leo himself, surrounded by every Elder and ranked member of our pack, I knew there was only one way out.
“Alpha,” I greeted, bowing my head in respect. “I’ve requested your presence here today so that I may help prevent a needless war. What I bring to you is evidence that Sebastian Williams is innocent.”
I took a shaky breath in, meeting his eyes that were full of cold curiosity. The eyes that always made me want to squirm
away.
“Alpha… I am here today to confess my crimes of treason.”
Yes, treason again.
