Thelma's POV
The tension in the hallway was suffocating. Every face around me held suspicion, fear, or both. Someone here—someone Xavier trusted—had been betraying us all along.
I can sense deception, Thalia whispered in my mind. Let me scan their emotions. The guilty one will have a different scent—fear mixed with guilt and desperation.
I nodded subtly and let my enhanced senses expand, feeling Thalia's power flow through me as I examined each person present. Xavier's other companion—a woman with auburn hair and calculating green eyes—stood slightly apart from the group. Something about her posture seemed wrong.
Before we address this new development, I said, my voice carrying alpha authority, "we need to secure the confessed traitors.
I gestured toward Thomas, Margaret, Yvonne, and
