My Alpha Betrayed Me, I Exposed Her Lie

Chapter 4

"How dare you curse me!" Alpha Ryan exploded, the red of an Alpha at the edge of shifting flickering in his eyes.

A warning sign. He was about to lose control.

Cindy wiped the black blood from her lips. Far from being scared, her expression turned manic, almost gleeful. "It was her! She must've poisoned me just now! Alpha Ryan, you have to defend me!"

Her finger jabbed at me. The skin of that finger was already going black at the tip. The black magic was claiming her.

"Arrest her!" Alpha Ryan had lost the plot completely. He bellowed at the Warriors at the door. "Aria is suspected of attempting to murder the future heir of this pack! Throw her in the dungeons immediately!"

The Warriors at the door hesitated. They glanced at each other.

I was the most respected Healer in this pack. I'd saved most of their lives at one point or another. They wouldn't lay a hand on me.

"Did you all not hear my command? I am your Alpha!" Alpha Ryan's roar shook the canvas walls, releasing a wave of compulsion.

A direct Alpha command. Lower-ranking wolves couldn't disobey it.

The Warriors clapped their hands over their ears, faces twisted in pain, and forced themselves to shuffle toward me. "I'm sorry, Healer Aria. It's the Alpha's order."

I didn't move. I didn't fight. I just looked at Alpha Ryan.

There was no fear in my eyes. Only a deep, pitying disappointment.

"Alpha Ryan, you're going to pay dearly for what you're doing tonight." My voice was quiet. "You're personally destroying Moonlight Pack."

The instant the Warriors' hands were about to touch me, a thunderous shout rolled in from outside the tent.

"Stop!"

It was Elder Markus, head of the Council of Elders. He stalked in flanked by two Gammas, his face purple with fury.

"Alpha Ryan! What in the Goddess's name do you think you're doing? Aria is the most precious Healer this pack has. She is your future Luna. Who gave you the right to lay hands on her?"

Confronted by the Elder, Alpha Ryan's bravado faltered, but his neck stayed stiff. "Elder, she's jealous of Cindy. She tried to poison my child!"

"Child?" Elder Markus shot a single look at the filth-streaked Cindy. His brows knit together hard. "I can smell Shadow Blight on her. How was something this unclean allowed into our camp?"

"Alpha Ryan, this Rogue has bewitched you!"

Cindy saw the wind shift. She launched into her victim routine. "Boohoo... you're all bullying me... is it because I'm a Rogue? Alpha Ryan, since your people don't want me here, fine, I'll go. I'll just go die out there in the woods."

It worked on Alpha Ryan every single time.

He shoved past the Warrior in front of him and threw himself in front of Cindy. "Nobody is sending her anywhere! I am the Alpha. In this pack, my word is law!"

"If you can't accept her, you can't accept me!"

Elder Markus's beard shook with rage. "You... for one Rogue, you'd go to war with the entire Council?"

Alpha Ryan let out a contemptuous huff. "If it's for my true love and my child? I wouldn't mind cleaning out the Council a bit."

The tension in the tent was a wire pulled to snapping. Everyone stared at this once-brilliant Alpha in pure disbelief.

I looked at this stranger wearing my fiancé's face, and something in me finally, completely let go.

"You don't need to clean out anything." I unpinned the Healer's badge from my chest and set it gently on the table. "I'll see myself out."