Mated To My Bullies

Chapter 25: “The Perfect Scapegoat”

Maya's POV

"Let me understand this," he said. "You think Seraphina, our Luna, is deliberately poisoning her own pack? The pack she's worked so hard to integrate into and improve?"

"Look at the evidence," I pleaded, waving the paper. "The pattern of illness, the symptoms, this note.."

"What note?" Elijah asked, squinting at the crumpled paper. "All I see is a piece of trash with some illegible scribbles on it."

I looked down at the paper in my hands and felt my heart sink. In the lamplight, I could see that the ink had smudged badly, making most of the writing impossible to read. The few words I'd been able to make out clearly were now just blurred marks.

"It was clearer before," I said desperately. "The ink must have smudged, but I swear it mentioned the well system and eliminating weak members."

"Maya," Stephen's voice was carefully patient, like he was talking to a child having a tantrum. "Do you hear yourself right now? You're standing in our private study, accusing our Luna of mass murder, based on a piece of illegible trash you claim to have found."

"I know how it sounds, but.."

"It sounds like you're having some kind of breakdown," Karl interrupted. "Which, frankly, isn't surprising given everything you've been through."

Seraphina moved to stand beside Stephen, slipping her arm through his. "I'm worried about her," she said softly. "The isolation, the trauma, the guilt over what happened with Marcus Wells, it's clearly affecting her mental state."

"I'm not having a breakdown!" I snapped, frustration making my voice rise. "I'm trying to save lives! Those children are dying because of her!"

"Those children are dying because of a mysterious illness that our best doctors are working to cure," Nathan said firmly. "Not because of some conspiracy theory cooked up by a servant with delusions of importance."

I looked from face to face, seeing nothing but skepticism, pity, and growing irritation. They weren't going to believe me. Nothing I said would convince them that their perfect Luna was capable of something so monstrous.

"Just test the water," I begged, playing my last card. "If I'm wrong, testing will prove it. If I'm right, you'll save lives."

"We're not wasting resources on your paranoid fantasies," Karl said coldly.

"Please," I whispered, but I could see in their faces that it was hopeless.

"I think," Seraphina said gently, "that Maya needs help. Professional help. Perhaps Dr. Harrison should evaluate her mental state along with treating the sick children."

The suggestion hung in the air like a threat. If they decided I was mentally unstable, they could have me committed, locked away somewhere even more isolated than the servants' quarters.

"That won't be necessary," I said quickly, backing toward the door. "I'll go back to my duties."

"See that you do," Stephen said. "And Maya? Don't let us hear about any more wild accusations. It would be... unfortunate... if we had to take more drastic measures to ensure pack stability."

I fled the study, my heart pounding and my hands shaking. They wouldn't listen. Worse, they were starting to see me as a threat to be contained rather than a person trying to help.

But the children were still getting sick. And now I was the only one who knew the truth.

Over the next two days, the situation got worse. Four more children fell ill, and one of the elderly pack members died. The pack was starting to panic, with parents keeping their children inside and everyone demanding answers that the doctors couldn't provide.

And then someone remembered that I'd been alone in the meeting hall where I claimed to have found "evidence" of poisoning.

"She was in there for hours," I heard one of the pack members telling Dr. Harrison as I cleaned nearby. "Alone with access to all the meeting notes and pack records. What if she saw something about our water system? What if she's the one who poisoned it?"

The accusation spread through the pack like wildfire. By evening, half the pack was convinced that the disgraced former mate had poisoned their water supply out of revenge for losing her position to Seraphina.

"It makes perfect sense," Rebecca Martinez was saying to a group of other pack wives as I served dinner in the main hall. "She's been acting unstable for weeks. She has access to all the areas of the castle as a servant. And she certainly has motive to hurt the pack that rejected her."

"But why target children?" another woman asked.

"To cause the maximum pain," Rebecca replied with conviction. "What hurts a pack more than sick children? It's exactly the kind of twisted revenge someone like her would plan."

I wanted to scream that I was trying to help, that I'd risked everything to warn them. But I knew it would only make things worse. So I kept my head down, did my work, and watched as the pack turned against me even more completely than before.

The final blow came the next morning. I was scrubbing the kitchen floors when Mrs. Harrow burst in, her face flushed with anger and something like fear.

"Maya Rodriguez," she announced loudly enough for every servant in the kitchen to hear. "You're to report to the pack council immediately. You've been formally accused of poisoning the pack's water supply and causing the death of Elder Marcus Thornton."

The other servants gasped and backed away from me like I was diseased. I dropped my scrub brush, my hands numb with shock.

"That's impossible," I whispered. "I would never.."

"Tell it to the council," Mrs. Harrow snapped. "Though I doubt they'll believe anything that comes out of your lying mouth."

As guards appeared to escort me to what would undoubtedly be my trial, I caught a glimpse of Seraphina watching from the kitchen doorway. She was smiling, a small, satisfied expression that she quickly hid when she noticed me looking.

She had won again. Not only had she successfully poisoned the pack while making me the scapegoat, but she'd also ensured that any future accusations I made would be dismissed as the desperate lies of a convicted criminal. The children were still dying, and now I was going to be punished for trying to save them..