Sold to the Alpha

by Cara Wylde

  “Did Sabine Miller bite you, Mrs. Blackmane?” asked Councilor Arthur Harington.

  “No. She never bit me.”

  “What exactly happened the night she escaped?”

  Avelyn looked him in the eyes and told him what she had practiced just half an hour before, and what Max, Karl, and Jocelyn had already mentioned. “I helped her escape. At the time, I had no idea what she had done to get herself locked up, and she had convinced me not to tell anyone that I knew about her. I thought I was helping a friend. She had me convinced that what had happened years ago between her and my husband had mostly been a misunderstanding. When I suggested we should simply talk to my husband because I was sure he would understand and allow her to start a new life, she refused and came up with an escape plan.”

  “Didn’t it all sound… I don’t know, strange?” The question came from Councilor Redfur.

  “I… yes, I thought it sounded strange.”

  “Do you know what makes me just a bit uncomfortable with your story, Mrs. Blackmane?” continued Redfur. “The fact that you believed Sabine, empathized with her even, but never once questioned your husband. How can a woman who finds another woman locked up in a man’s dungeon still trust that man? Live with him… feel comfortable with the idea of being his wife?…”

  Avelyn raised an eyebrow, showing mild confusion. Of course, she wasn’t confused in the least, but she had to play her role right. “I’m afraid I don’t understand the question. I am a shifter-bride. I was raised to become a shifter-bride and obey my husband, whoever he may be. I’m sure you know Alma Venus Boarding School is one of the best schools in the world, and the shifter-brides who are raised and educated there are incredibly expensive exactly because they are so well prepared. Yes, I did empathize with Sabine and believed with all my heart that she deserved to be free, but at the same time, I was sure my husband had had his reasons to isolate her from the clan. In fact, I spent an entire month torn between the two, between the friendship I had formed with Sabine and the love I felt for my husband. Eventually, I tried to choose some sort of middle ground. I decided to help Sabine escape, then tell my husband about it. I didn’t want to lie to him, and I was ready to suffer the consequences of my actions. I know it was stupid of me, but I trusted her completely.”

  “How were you not afraid that Maxwell Blackmane would do to you what he had done to Sabine? Didn’t you even consider the possibility that you might end up taking her place in that luxurious cell?”

  Avelyn allowed a moment of silence to pass before she spoke. “I am a shifter-bride. He is my husband. I have always loved him just the way he is, and whatever action he deemed appropriate to take, I was ready to accept it because I knew it would be the right one.” She didn’t take her eyes away from Redfur’s dumbfounded face, although she would have loved to see Max’s reactions. Or Jocelyn’s. Oh yes, Jocelyn’s reaction would have been priceless. However, she was aware that neither of them would let anything show on their faces, so it would have been useless to look at them, anyway. She held Jonathan Redfur’s gaze instead.

  “I have no more questions,” he finally said.

  Before the next question came, Avelyn had a brief second to feel disgusted by how easily the Council had accepted her explanation. It made sense, of course. They all believed that was exactly what a shifter-bride should be like: modest, obedient, blind to her husband’s flaws, horrible decisions, or despicable attitude. She stole a quick glance at Max, thinking how lucky she was he had proved to be not only decent, but loving and appreciative. Yes, they had met in the circumstances imposed by the outraging clauses of the peace treaty concerning shifter-brides, and Max had bought her against her will, but once she had become his, he had treated her with respect and done everything in his power to win her love. She hoped all shifter-brides in the world were as lucky as she was, but unfortunately, she knew she was one of the rare exceptions.

  It took one simple, well-thought-out sentence to convince them Sabine had invented the part where she had bitten her and Avelyn didn’t turn into a werewolf on the next full moon for whatever mysterious reason, then she was free to go back to her seat. It was pretty obvious she was in her last months of pregnancy, so they only needed a confirmation for confirmation’s sake. They wouldn’t have guessed in a million years that a cure for the werewolf venom existed and actually worked. In fact, Avelyn would have had to work harder at convincing them about the truth than about the untruth. It was funny and a bit ridiculous how sometimes a lie was more believable and easily accepted than the real fact.

  Monique Delacroix was next at the witness stand, and the most important thing she had to elucidate was why she hadn’t called the police when Sabine Miller and her allies attacked the school.

  “I didn’t want Alma Venus to be associated with something of such proportions,” she answered. “We have a reputation to live up to, and having the members of two shifter factions, plus a dragon-shifter, battling at our gates didn’t feel like a good way to go about it. Something like this could affect our girls, could keep away prospective… clients. When Mr. Blackmane said he would take care of it and make sure his affairs wouldn’t affect the school, I thought the sensible thing to do was trust him. I was wrong.”

  The headmistress stood her ground in front of all the councilors’ questions, but Avelyn eventually got the impression that what really convinced them to finally accept her testimony was the weight of her old, noble name. She confirmed that Viggo was in Myrtle Valley both the first time and the second time Sabine attacked because he was interviewing some of the Alma Venus brides. After he managed to drive the she-wolf away the first night, he had decided to stick around a while longer to make sure everyone was safe. This wasn’t entirely false, of course.

  The next witnesses Councilor Willamar called were Viggo, Rosanna, Caleb, and Daniel. The Council would have loved to call some Alma Venus students to the stand, but Miss Delacroix had fought tooth and nail to prevent that from happening on the ground that such exposure would affect the girls for life. She was a powerful, influential woman, but that didn’t mean she could get anything she wanted. The reason why the Council had given up on this idea was easy to guess: Councilor Arthur Harington. His daughter would have been one of the witnesses, and he simply couldn’t have that. Lily Harington was too important to him to involve her in something like this, have her exposed at the witness stand in front of so many people, much less when it seemed that Viggo of the ancient Clan Drekinn had shown interest in her and was considering buying her for his Fyrstur, Eric Drekinn. No, Lily had to stay between the safe walls of Alma Venus and wait for her noble husband to claim her.

  After the remaining witnesses had been heard, everyone expected Councilor Willamar to announce the end of the session. No one thought he had one more witness to call to the stand, and when he demanded silence in the courtroom and called his name, everyone held their breath.

  “Jason Woodtail.”

  Two words. Avelyn’s heart skipped a beat, and she felt Max’s hand tense under hers. Two simple words. Jason Woodtail. A name. She hadn’t seen him before, but she felt like she already knew him very well. Regarding his physique, the one thing she was sure of was that he’d have purple eyes, just like all pure-blood fox-shifters.

  Jason Woodtail entered the courtroom through one of the side doors, escorted by two bear-shifters. It was easy to determine to which faction the two guards belonged to by the color of their eyes: deep, endless black. The Inari was tall and well-built, with short brown hair and sharp features. He was wearing a plain white shirt that stretched nicely over his lean muscles, washed up jeans, and battered boots. He was definitely handsome, in a rugged, boyish way. Avelyn thought that if he traded the old clothes he was wearing for a business suit, he would look like an authentic Prince Charming.

  The guards stopped by the door, and Jason walked to the witness stand. He didn’t look at anyone in the courtroom. He simply stared at his shoes, and once he was up behind the stand, he fixed his
gaze on an indefinite spot on the floor. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere else in this whole wide world but there.

  He wasn’t very willing to talk, either. He answered the councilors’ questions in as few words as possible, not giving details unless persuaded. Every time he heard Sabine’s name, he flinched. It was so subtle that only the shape-shifters in the room, including Avelyn, could see it. When he was forced to talk about her, he couldn’t say her name and only referred to her as “she”.

  Yes, he had done some terrible things, and just two months ago he had been ready to kill Avelyn without much of a reason, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for him. It was obvious he still loved Sabine. Their story wasn’t complicated. At least, that was how he put it.

  “We met in Denmark. We fell in love.”

  “Why did you agree to help her attack Clan Blackmane and kill Avelyn Blackmane?”

  “She wanted to do it.”

  His straight, simple answer threw everyone off guard. For a second, Councilor Willamar stared at him dumbfounded, unsure what to ask next.

  “Is it true that you killed your step-brother to take control of his earth?” Councilor Grimmr, the dragon-shifter, decided to take over.

  “Yes.”

  “Did you at least feel sorry afterwards?”

  “Of course I did. Not only then, but before that.”

  “And you still did it.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “It had to be done.”

  It seemed like there was no way anyone could reason with him. But even if he had the behavior of a madman, Avelyn had the impression that he wasn’t crazy at all. He looked rather… bored. He looked like he just wanted this to end. He knew what to expect, he was aware that he had no chance of getting out of it clean, and he simply didn’t care. Why didn’t he care, though? Because Sabine was dead, or was it something else?

  It went on like that for another hour, the Council struggling to get the words out of him. The atmosphere had grown tense, the air was heavy with long, confusing silences, and everyone was tired and hungry. There was no point to it. Jason Woodtail had turned himself in and confessed to everything. This was another thing that surprised Avelyn, Max, and everyone else. The police and the Council’s private detectives hadn’t managed to find him. He had simply turned himself in three days before. Why? To protect the few werefoxes who had survived the battle at Alma Venus. If they had him, they had no reason to go on searching for the other earth members. They had no fault in what had happened, they had simply followed the strongest.

  “No one tried to oppose you when you killed your step-brother and took over his earth…?” asked Jonathan Redfur. Even though he was a fox-shifter himself, he still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it.

  “Who would oppose a three-tailed Inari?” Jason answered with another question, but he did it in such a bored, disinterested manner that no one could take it as a challenge, a joke, or anything else. A four-tailed Inari could have been the right answer to that, but everyone knew they were incredibly rare.

  They couldn’t ask more from him, really. His fate was sealed, although he could hope for a bit of mercy for having turned himself in. Avelyn was sure Jason Woodtail couldn’t care less.

  “This trial ends here,” said Zachary Willamar after the witness left the stand. “We believe we and the jury have everything we need. Court dismissed.”

  Avelyn sighed and let her head fall on Max’s shoulder. Although she felt more tired than she had ever been in her life, she didn’t want to stand up just yet.

  “And now begins the waiting game…” she said.

  ***

  They didn’t have to wait long for the verdict. Avelyn and Max barely had enough time to get some fresh air, but it still felt like forever. Avelyn kept moving her weight from one foot to the other, thinking how much she wanted to lie down. One hour, at most, and they’d be free to go home. Or so she hoped. When they all gathered back into the courtroom, Avelyn could feel the same tension making the air almost unbreathable. Everyone sat down and waited for the Councilors to take their own places. They had already received and discussed the jury’s decision, so the only thing that was left was to make their own final decision public. Councilor Willamar was the one to speak.

  “First of all, Jason Woodtail was found unanimously guilty. The sentence hearing will take place on September 11th.”

  That was something to be expected, so no one was surprised. It was exactly why the Councilor had wanted to get it out of the way.

  “Concerning Maxwell Blackmane, Alpha of Clan Blackmane, the decision is as follows: the jury and the Council have concluded that during the battle on the grounds of Alma Venus Boarding School, the clan took a self-defensive position. However, two times has Maxwell Blackmane failed to inform the Council about events that threatened the peace treaty: the first time, when he refused to turn in Sabine Miller after she had killed two humans, and the second time, when he didn’t announce the Council about her escape, thus offering her the opportunity to hurt both humans and shape-shifters. The Council of the six factions has decided to accept Maxwell Blackmane’s and Karl Blackmane’s resignations from their political positions. They will no longer serve as advisers for Councilor Dimitri Voinom. Court dismissed.”

  Max, Karl, and Jocelyn could finally breathe normally. They nodded their heads in approval, although they couldn’t quite wrap their mind around the fact that they had gotten away with everything so easily. Avelyn was shocked too. Instead of relaxing, though, she furrowed her brows and wondered if there was any catch to it. People around them had started to stand up and walk towards the large doors, and the councilors themselves were getting ready to leave. She studied them carefully, trying to determine how they actually felt about it, and if the decision had been unanimous.

  “He clearly said the Council of the six factions took the final decision concerning us,” she told Max. “This means the jury came to a different conclusion…”

  “And they ignored it,” agreed Max. He offered her his arm and she took it. As they walked towards the door, he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “My guess is Councilors Calder Grimmr and Dimitri Voinom had a say in the matter.”

  “Still… that would be two to four.”

  “Maybe we have more friends than we thought we had.”

  They stopped in the large hall to wait for Karl to join them. He was still talking with a wolf-shifter in the courtroom, probably a friend of his from London.

  “I’ll wait for you in the car,” said Jocelyn.

  “All right, we’ll be there in a minute.”

  The three Betas, Caleb, Daniel, and Rosanna followed Jocelyn, eager to get out of the stuffy building. Max looked at Karl impatiently, but his brother ignored him.

  “Maybe we should go too,” suggested Avelyn. “He’ll follow, eventually.”

  “I want to discuss this with him. He and Councilor Voinom have always been pretty close.”

  “Can’t it wait?” Avelyn was literally dreaming of sinking into the soft cushions of their car.

  “One more minute, baby…”

  Avelyn sighed and started studying the people around them. They were all in a hurry to go home or run to a restaurant for an early dinner. When she saw Councilor Arthur Harington approach them, she squeezed Max’s arm to get his attention. Max turned to see what was going on only to be met with the Councilor’s wide smile.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Blackmane!” He shook hands with Max and kissed Avelyn’s hand. “I can’t tell you how glad I am this whole thing is over.”

  “Thank you”, said Max, although he sounded a bit reluctant. He and Arthur Harington had never been too close, let alone friends.

  The Councilor turned his attention to Avelyn, and she forced herself to smile as pleasantly as possible. She didn’t know what to think.

  “I believe I never got the chance to congratulate you for your baby. I know this may sound… odd, but… I was thinking…” He hesitated a sec
ond more. “Of course, you might have already chosen a godfather for your child, but I would be eternally grateful if you considered me if you haven’t.”

  “We haven’t…” answered Avelyn without thinking.

  “Splendid!” The Councilor clapped his hands in excitement. “You see… since my son told me about… the incident, I couldn’t stop thinking about you and the small life you’re carrying inside you.”

  Even though Arthur Harington kept smiling pleasantly, a chill went up Avelyn’s spine. He knew. James had told him. Why?

  “I… I’m sorry, Mr. Harington,” said Max. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

  “But of course you do!” He got closer to them, trying to shield their conversation from prying ears and eyes. However, with so many shape-shifters around them, he had to choose his words carefully. “James thought it would be better if I knew about this detail before the trial. Just in case it came up… I had to be prepared. I don’t necessarily agree with what he did, as he put me and our entire family in great danger, but now I’m glad he did it. I wish you two all the happiness in the world, truly. All I ask is for you to accept me as the godfather of your child. I give you my word that I will only make sure he or she grows healthy and strong.”