Chapter Thirty-Five
walked into the room and dumped everything on the table. I organized everything in a way I liked, ensuring it was visible from the chair and turned to Ronnie. “Is there anything I can use to cover this with?”I “Here.” He walked around the corner and pressed a panel in, causing it to pop out. Hidden behind was a cabinet filled with cleaning supplies and towels. I raised my eyebrow, and he shrugged. “What? It gets messy in here.”
I gave a low single chuckle and grabbed the towel that he was holding and covered my tools. “Have Beck meet you at her cell and bring her down here.” I walked with him out of the room. “I’ll wait out of sight until you mind-link me. Then I will come in.”
“Why do it like that?” Ronnie closed the door behind me and I walked around another corner, leaning against the wall to wait.
“Because. I want her to think she has a chance, and then to have it ripped from her.”
“But why?” Ronnie kept pushing it until I gave an answer.
“Because the faster she loses hope, the less I will have to hurt her.” I stared at Ronnie as he processed what I said.
“Do you think that is really going to work?”
“Nope. But I hope it does.” I leaned my head against the wall and prayed to the Moon Goddess. “Go get her and bring her down.”
“Okay.” Ronnie left me alone to pray to the Goddess, over and over.
Hoping beyond hope she would give in.
I heard her long before she was down here. She was screaming for Beck and Ronnie to let her go, that she was the next Luna, and they would regret ever touching her once my father got loose. She was screaming as they slammed into the interrogation room and strapped her into the chair.
“You won’t fucking touch me. You heard what Gavin said. I’m your Luna,” Aurora screamed over and over. But neither Beck nor Ronnie said anything to her. “Let me go. I’ll mind-link Gavin and he will come running.”
Both men stayed silent as I strolled to the room, my heavy boots echoed on the stone floor. Aurora grew silent as my steps grew closer and I finally entered the room with a small smile on my face. “I’m sorry but my father is currently locked away in a cell, so you unfortunately have to deal with the only other Alpha here. Which is me.” I closed the door and Ronnie leaned against it, while Beck hovered close by, just in case someone got down here. “You see, you are accused of poisoning the Alpha of this pack. And I am in charge of finding out by what.” I smiled as I slowly walked around her.
“You won’t do anything to me. I’ll tell the council.”
I stopped behind her and leaned down over her shoulder to whisper in her ear. “Who do you think allowed me to interrogate you?” I watched her freeze, and I leaned back up and walked slowly in front of her. “I spoke to the King myself. His exact words were to ‘do whatever you have to do to save your father’.” I knelt in front of her so that I was level with her face.
“And Aurora…that is exactly what I plan to do. I plan to do absolutely anything to save my father. Whether you survive is really up to you.” I stood as her breathing grew ragged.
“You can’t mean that.” Her voice was low.
“Oh, but I do.” I walked to the table and pulled back the towel, revealing my tools to her. Once her eyes caught on the silver, she fought the bindings again.
“No. No. No!” she screamed over and over, wiggling against the bindings, her eyes growing wide as panic set in.
“Yes.” I looked back towards her as I slowly slid gloves onto my hands.
Then I grabbed something from the table and made my way back to her.
“You see, I love my father very much. And even if I haven’t been here often, I will do anything to stop him from being hurt, and what you did today crossed my line.”
“Stop.” She stared down at what was in my hands and I just tsked at her.
“I wish I could.”
“You can. You can stop this right now.” Aurora’s eyes wouldn’t move from what was in my hands, and I didn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want this touching me either.
“But you see, I can’t Aurora. You did something to my father, and I won’t stop until you tell me what you did to him.”
“I didn’t do anything to him.” She screamed.
I laughed. “We both know that’s a lie. A wolf would never hurt his pup without magic.” I watched her eyes snap to mine and I smiled. “You thought I wouldn’t realize?” She shook her head. “So why don’t you save yourself the trouble and pain and just tell me what I want to know?”
She shifted, fur sprouting on her arm with claws slashing through the binding on her hand. But I grabbed her hand and slammed it back down to the arm of the chair and tsked again. “And where do you think you are going?”
“Let me go!” She screamed in my face, trying to shift completely.
“Well, that isn’t going to work for me.” I stood and slammed her struggling arm back on to the arm of the chair and unraveled the rope in my hands. “I was trying to give you an out, Aurora. I really, truly hoped you would have been smart enough to take it. But I guess you want to see how long you can keep up the act.” I wrapped her in the silvered rope, her skin hissing and bubbling from the contact as I wound it around her arm and the chair.
She started to scream, and I hushed her. “Stop. Goddess, stop! You can’t do this to me.”
“Oh, but you are wrong there. You poisoned the Alpha of this pack, and that made you a traitor. Once my father has a clear mind, you will be banished, and if he never recovers, then this pack will fall to Ronnie.”
“Actually, Amy, you will inherit the pack. It’s been approved by the King.” Ronnie tossed out, and Aurora’s eyes widened again at it.
“Well then, no matter what, you will be banished. A rogue has no rights.
But even if that wasn’t true, the King has given me permission to do this, or did you already forget? I know silver burns something fierce.” I smiled as I finished tying her up.
The smell of her skin burning was unpleasant, but I stood and moved back to the table. Her screams tapered off and she was left panting. Sweat
dripped down her temple and off her nose as she slumped over in the chair.
“Let me go.” She looked up with pleading eyes, but I just shook my head.
“I wish I could, Aurora, I do. But you crossed the line today. And now, now you have to pay the price. What did you do to my father?” I grabbed pliers off the table and moved back to her.
“What are you going to do?” She eyed the tool in my hand and she fought to get away.
“I think you know what I’m going to do, if you don’t tell me.” I placed them on the ground, then turned back to the table. I grabbed a pair of scissors and walked back to her. “I’m going to hurt you until you tell me what you did.” I grabbed her shirt and started to cut it away.
“Why are you cutting my shirt?” She screamed and tried to pull back.
I rolled my eyes and crouched down again. “You can’t be this stupid Aurora. I need more skin. Silver does nothing until it is touching the skin.
Now some items I have here aren’t silver, so that I can hurt you, wait for you to heal and then do it again and again until I get bored, I guess, but I want access to your full potential here.”
“Full potential. Are you fucking insane?” She screamed, and I heard both Beck and Ronnie’s intake of breath.
I grabbed her face and made her meet my eyes. “I’m not insane Aurora. I am possibly the most sane person here. But I am also a person who would do anything, and I mean anything, to save her father.” She swallowed audibly and fought to free her face. But I just tightened my grip until I heard her jaw groan. “I won’t allow you, or whoever you are working with or for, to hurt, use, or Goddess forbid, kill my father for this pack. You will be long dead before that ever happens.” I shove her face away and continue cutting her shirt off. I ripped it from her body and then crouched in front of her again. Watching her pant with her hair hanging around her face in just a tank top. “Ronnie? Do you have an elastic band?”
“Um yeah.” He pulled it from his wrist. “I keep one just in case.” I raised my eyebrow and he blushed. “My mate sometimes needs one, and she’s forgetful.” I smile and nod to him about Tina.
“Tina is amazing, but she always borrows mine, which is why I have to ask.” I grabbed the elastic and roughly pulled back Aurora’s hair while she fought. “You know I could just cut it off, if you would prefer no hair?” She froze under my hands and I finished. I trailed my hand along her arm until I wrapped my hand around her index finger and I grabbed the pliers from the
floor. “Now where were we?” I crouched and closed the pliers on her nail. I looked up at Ronnie and saw he was pale, but a pink glow stopped me in my tracks.
Something around Aurora’s neck was glowing a soft pink.
I jerked to face her and the glow was gone, but as soon as I turned my head and faced Ronnie, I could see a faint glow around a chain on her neck.
I pulled the pliers, and she screamed and passed out. Ronnie rushed over, but I slapped a hand over my mouth. “What’s wrong?” Ronnie started to hover, and I doubled over and started howling in laughter. “What?”
“Is she really insane?” Beck whispered to Ronnie, which just made me laugh harder. Tears were streaming down my face when I looked up at Ronnie, who was still hovering over me and Aurora.
“Amy, talk to me.” Ronnie knelt and grabbed my face, but I was still trying to catch my breath.
“She.” I started, but I coughed as more laughter bubbled up. “She fainted.”
“We see that. Most she-wolves can’t stand torture Amy.” Ronnie grimaced.
“She probably passed out because of the pain of you ripping out her nail.”
Beck tossed out.
“But I didn’t.” I raised the empty pliers and her untouched hand. “She just fainted. From fear.”
Both men froze and looked from the pliers to her hand and then to the passed out Aurora. They both started chuckling as I replaced the pliers on the table and then came back to the unconscious woman. I pushed her head back so that I could look at her neck. I pulled her necklaces from her tank top. I picked through them until one caught my eye.
It was a white gold chain and charm of a wolf howling in front of a jeweled moon that looked familiar. The one in my hand, that was around Aurora’s neck, was an emerald. I pulled my own necklace from under my shirt and compared them side by side. One was emerald, and one was a soft pearl.
My birthday was in June. My mom made this necklace for me for my sixteenth birthday and I haven’t taken it off since. She kept the tradition going from when her parents gave her hers, on her sixteenth birthday, in May.
“What are you doing?” Beck’s voice jolted me back.
“This is my mother’s.” I whispered softly as I unclipped the necklaces around Aurora’s neck and dropped the rest into her lap.
“How can you be so sure?” Ronnie came over and froze. “You are right.
That necklace is your mother’s.”
“How do you know?” Beck came over and looked at the necklace in my hand. “Just because they both match doesn’t mean it’s your mother’s.”
“That necklace never left Ainsley’s neck.” Ronnie grabbed it from my hand and flipped it over. “Until the day your father took it from her.”
“My dad took it?” I looked from the necklace to his face.
“Right before their anniversary. He wanted to engrave it, but then he came back and you know what happened. He kept it and added it to the engraving.” Ronnie flipped it over and handed the necklace back to me.
“I love you to the moon and back in this life and the rest. Forgive me.” I looked up and I knew my face was confused.
“That’s what they used to say to each other. ‘I love you to the moon and back’. They thought it was funny because they are wolves.” Ronnie shook his head. “They thought they were hilarious. Stupid. But when your dad lived his second life and came back, he knew he would love your mother in all of his lives. So he added the last part. And he thought once he explained everything, he would beg her for her forgiveness. But…” Ronnie looked back down at the necklace.
“But he never went back.” I finished, and Ronnie nodded. “How did Aurora get this necklace?”
“I honestly don’t know. Your dad left it in her office. He would stare at it for hours as he sat at that desk, breathing in her scent. He always ended up there after one of the nights your mother…”
“Right.” I felt my eyes fill. “This is a mess.” Ronnie and Beck nodded.
“This is going to break him.”
“What do you mean?” Ronnie handed me back the necklace, and I clenched my fist around it.
“If this is the-” I darted my eyes to Beck.
“He knows your dad has power, too. We all grew up together.” Beck nodded.
“If this is the spell, I think it is. I have to destroy this necklace to release him from it.”
“Oh, shit.” Ronnie and Beck mumbled at the same time. I let out a small laugh and then turned back to Aurora. I wrapped my hand around her finger
and bent it up and applied a slow pressure until she woke, screaming.
“My nail. You stupid bitch, my nail!” I smiled as I dropped the necklace from my hand to swing in front of her face and I watched as she paled.
“Give that back. That’s mine.”
“I think we both know that’s a lie, Aurora.”
“Give it back.” She screamed and leaned in trying to bite me since her hands were tied. But I just pulled my hand back.
“Why would I do that?” I flipped it around in my hand. “It’s beautiful,
honestly. Where did you get it?”
“I got it from my mom.”
“Really? Why was she sorry?”
“What?” Aurora looked confused and shook her head. “She wasn’t. She got it for my birthday this year. Give it back.”
“When is your birthday?”
“What?” Aurora shook her head. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Her birthday is December.” Beck answered me and I tilted my head.
“I’m a Gamma. My primary job is to protect the Luna, and since we don’t have one, I keep track of the wolves trying to become the Luna. That includes their birthdays.”
“Why?” Ronnie looked back at Beck and he shrugged.
“I want to be a few steps ahead with the next Luna.”
Ronnie faced him fully. “Beck, you know he won’t be with anyone else.”
The man just shrugged.
“Just in case.”
Ronnie shook his head and turned back to me. “Why did you ask when her birthday is?”
I turned back to the necklace and Aurora. “Because I wanted to know what her birthstone was. You see Aurora, Decembers’ birthstone is turquoise. But emerald is May’s birthstone. Now, why would your mother get you May’s birthstone when you were born in December?”
I swung the necklace in her face. “It’s my favourite gem. Give it back to me now!”
“No. I think I will keep it.” Her eyes bugged out of her head.
“You can’t take it.” She fought harder, tearing her skin, and burning the silvered rope deeper into her skin.
I pulled my necklace out and held them together. “Why not? We both know this is my mothers, and not yours.” I held the matching necklaces side by side. “My mother’s birth stone and mine. Now, why would my mother buy a matching necklace with your mother? I mean, it’s identical right down to the wolf.” I watched her breathing pick up. “What is more likely, one that has already been confirmed, so don’t lie, is that you found this necklace in my mother’s office, you know, the one that you liked to break into. You stole it, and you are using it to manipulate my father.” I crouched down and watched her face. “Am I close?”
Her face paled even more, and she shook her head. “No. It’s mine.”
“We both know that’s a lie. I’m going to keep it. And I’m going to go see my father. Maybe I’ll get lucky and find something on him that has a matching glow.” I smiled as she lunged at me, screaming. “Oh, and Aurora?” I punched her in the face, breaking her nose. “That’s for using a spell against my father.” I turned and stood. “Take her back to her cell and don’t let anyone else around her.” Beck nodded.
“What are you going to do now?” Ronnie led me out of the interrogation room that Aurora was still screaming in.
“Amy, you stupid bitch, you think you won? I’ll kill you.” She screamed as Beck dragged her out, but I just let out a chuckle.
“You couldn’t hurt me if you fucking tried.” I snarled and released my aura, causing all three wolves around me to drop to their knees. I walked over to Aurora, who had dropped to the floor. “You are a weak wolf that resorts to lying and spell work to steal a wolf that doesn’t belong to you.
And after everything, you failed.”
“Amy…can you tuck your aura away? It’s painful.” Ronnie’s voice was strained, and I snarled one last time before I tucked my aura away.
Beck staggered to his feet, scooping Aurora from the ground. “What the fuck was that?”
Ronnie pushed himself from the ground. “That, was Amy.”
Beck’s eyes widened and snapped to me. “There is no way. She’s just a pup.”
“An Alpha pup.” Ronnie patted my shoulder. “I’m assuming you want to go see your father now?”
I glared down at Aurora. “Yes. Let’s finish this.”
“You won’t find anything.” She laughed. “You won’t change anything.
Because you are as weak as your pathetic excuse of a father.” I snapped
back and punched her again, her nose shifting on her face, completely shattered.
“Get her out of my eyesight before I make sure her nose heals that way and ruins that perfect little face.”
She howled in pain as Beck dragged her away. “Amy.”
“What?” I whirled on Ronnie.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Nothing. Just wanted to know if you had your wolfs bane today?”
“Yes. Why?” I snarled again, still riled.
“Because your hands are shifted.” Ronnie nodded down and I looked to see my arms covered in black fur.
