MATED TO MY EX’S UNCLE

CHAPTER 4

Elder Rowan cleared his throat.

"Mara Nichole. You stand accused of adultery against your Alpha and treason against this pack. Do you deny the charge?"

She was on her knees in the center of the hall with her hands bound behind her back. Above her, arranged on an elevated platform sat the elders of the Wellington pack. Caleb sat among them, positioned at the center.

"... Disgraceful."

"... Little wonder why she couldn't conceive."

"... You never know with them."

Elder Rowan cleared his throat again and the rowdiness came to order.

"Aren't you going to say anything? Mara?"

There was a tightness around her throat that refused to release her.

"I… I uh, while I do not deny that I woke up beside Derick Wellington this morning," The harsh murmuring rose. "It wasn't intentional. I—"

"Not intentional?" Elder Ama, seated to Elder Rowan's left, scoffed. "This girl genuinely believes she can play on our intelligence." They bursted into laughter.

"What? No, I'm not playing on anyone's intelligence. After Caleb gave me a drink last night my senses began to dull and I could neither think nor see clearly. When someone entered my room I believed it was my husband. Who else would walk into our room at night? I had no reason to think otherwise."

"Caleb and Derick look nothing alike," another elder said flatly. "They may be uncle and nephew but there is no resemblance. Are you telling this council that a small amount of alcohol, a quarter of a glass in fact, was enough to make you open your legs to any man who walked through your door?"

Her lips parted. "No. Of course not, my senses were completely gone, I am telling you the truth. The moment I woke up and realized what had happened, I went immediately to find Caleb. That was my first instinct. To tell him everything and to be honest with him." She paused. "When I got there, I found him in bed with—"

"Enough." Caleb's eyes finally met hers and what was in them made her stomach turn. "Shut your mouth."

"Caleb—"

"I said shut your mouth, Mara." He rose from his seat, "I told you all. I told every one of you that this trial was unnecessary. She has a lying mouth and an unrepentant heart and she will sit there and insult this council with her excuses until someone stops her." He looked at the guards flanking the doors. "Take her to the execution grounds. Now."

She scrambled to her feet before they could reach her, pulling against the bindings at her wrists. "He is lying. He is the one who cheated. He is the one who has been putting things in my food for years, he told his mistress himself that he has been—"

"Take her."

"Listen to me! I didn't cheat! I caught Caleb in bed with Mira Wellington!"

"I'm so disappointed in you, Mara." Caleb's voice turned nimble and piteous. "That you would lie against me in this manner just to save your face? This is a cruel part of you I had never known existed."

"Caleb…"

"Take her away, now!"

The guards were one second away from hoisting her outside to meet her fate when the doors to the council were shoved open.

"Do not touch her."

The voice came from the entrance and the entire chamber turned as one. His amber eyes moved over the scene in a single sweep and came to rest on the guards still holding her arms. He had not attended council in years.

They released her.

She did not think they even decided to. Their hands simply opened.

"Derick." Elder Rowan rose halfway from his seat. "It's been so long since you were present in council. Why did you stop the guards?"

"Sit down Rowan. I'm not here to exchange pleasantries or explain myself to you." He paused at the door. "Do not execute her."

Elder Ama scoffed. "The law of this pack is very clear on the matter of an adulterous Luna."

"The law? Fine, let us discuss the law." He reached behind him and pulled Mira who was cowering at the doorway. She stumbled onto the floor, falling beside Mara. "My wife is pregnant, and the pup belongs to your Alpha here." He gestured to Caleb who had an expression of horror in his features.

It was either he hadn't known.

Or he did and didn't expect anyone else to.

Elder Rowan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "What?"

"You heard me, Rowan."

"That is a lie!" Caleb shouted back.

Derick ignored him completely. "Furthermore, Mira has already confessed to me that she and Caleb intended to drug us both last night by putting sleeping powder in our drinks so they could continue their affair undisturbed. She mixed up the sachets and what she gave us was a strong, mind numbing aphrodisiac and that is why Mara behaved as she did, so did I. Neither of us were in our right minds when it happened."

Elder Culen, who had been watching from the far end of the platform, leaned forward in his seat. He was Elder Ama's younger brother. He turned to Caleb and shook his head. "Alpha, is this true?"

Caleb looked at Mira weeping on the ground like she was a piece of paper dipped in oil and ruined. He rolled his tongue against his inner cheek and refused to provide an answer to Elder Culen.

"Alpha Caleb, is this true?"

Caleb's refusal to answer again told them all they needed to know. Especially Ama who had ruled out that Mara was the rotten egg from the start.

"Derick speaks the truth, that is what I have been trying to explain. We caught Caleb red-handed with Mira, meanwhile we were confused as to why we woke up beside each other. For a second I had accused him of taking advantage of me." It had become very clear to her that the Khoal powder was the aphrodisiac. She didn't even know how she didn't think of it before.

She didn't know why Derick was saying anything on her behalf though. Why was he helping her? Was he doing this to spite Caleb?

"Banish her instead."

The question stopped halfway in her head. What?

"What did you say?"

He didn't look at her.

"It's either all adulterers die today, which is Caleb and Mira, or…" He turned to the council. "You spare her life and banish her instead. Caleb will take responsibility for whatever Mira's womb will bring forth and Mara should be properly relieved of her title of Luna."

Their eyes met for a second and she couldn't say a word.

His reasoning and ideology behind everything he had said in her favour was a mystery, a mystery she didn't have time to figure out because Caleb suddenly grabbed a pen and proceeded to announce his decision.