Chapter 50

Dominic

Chaos broke out in the courtroom.

Irene sat frozen, cold as ice, staring straight at Lila. Her face was neutral, but her eyes said enough for those close enough to see.

If she could have killed Lila with that look, she would have.

My father stood, turning on his Alpha aura to take control of the crowd. I came to his assistance with my own powers of persuasion, but I did not rise from my seat.

From now on I was on the side of the truth, and would not jeopardize my integrity to defend my step-mother. I couldn’t help but feel relieved that others were finally seeing her true colors, and that I hadn’t been the one to accuse her.

“Guards, take her!” One of the elders said loudly, banging a gavel.

Though my father turned quickly to see which one of them had given the order, he knew better than to fight against the council.

I watched him calculating his next moves.

He bent down to whisper something in Irene’s ear, and her eyes went wide. Her mouth went slack involuntarily, and she looked at him as if he personally had betrayed her.

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” he said calmly.

My father took her by the arm and pulled her up to stand, and she looked as light as rag doll as he did so. I had never seen my step-mother this way, as if she were a child being hauled up for a spanking.

As the guards came towards her, she squirmed in my father’s arms trying to break free.

“You cannot be serious!” she started saying. “I am the Luna of this Pack! Are you going to believe this deranged woman’s fantasies over my integrity?”

The guards were silent as they were handed their charge. My father turned his face away from her, sadness at the edged of his mouth, and gestured for them to take her away.

“This is protocol, Irene,” the Alpha said to his wife. “No one is above the law.”

“No!” Irene elongated the vowel into a drawn-out howl as she was escorted out of the courtroom.

A breath of silence took over as the door was shut behind her, and then the chaos resumed.

Tessa screeched, and I saw Ward appear at her side. I didn’t know he was back from helping his Pack, and his bewildered face told me he hadn’t been filled in on all the facts of the trial.

Lucian looked dumb-struck, but kept his breathing even. As if he felt my eyes on him, he turned his face to mine.

His expression was a mixture of curiosity and contempt, as if he couldn’t believe that I was still alive and that his mother was being hauled away.

A final twitch of his eyes told me he wouldn’t roll over easily. I would have to keep my eye on him going forward, even more so than usual.

Mira tugged at my arm.

“Can we get out of here?”

Her eyes were tired, her forehead creased.

I nodded, taking her hand, and began leading her out of the seats and towards the door.

As we passed my father, he put a hand onto my shoulder to stop me.

“Take her home, then come see me.”

“Of course, Father,” I replied.

Mira and I shared a silent walk home, and I made sure that Wyatt was around to check on her if I wasn’t back soon.

I gathered some files and met my father in his office, and found him pacing the floor.

“Dominic, son,” he said as I entered. “Do you really think she did it?”

“I do not wish to slander or speak ill of your wife, the Luna,” I began carefully, formally.

“Oh to to hell with that!” my father answered. “She is accused of trying to have you killed— my son and heir, murdered! This accusation outweighs the integrity of her rank and position.”

“I understand,” I responded. “In that case, you should look at this.”

I handed him a folder compiled of evidence that Irene had tampered with the security camera system, and could be behind my escape and injuries.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” my father asked.

“I wanted to be sure before I brought anything to you.”

“And your episodes— they’ve started again?”

“They never stopped,” I said, lowering my gaze slightly.

“Son,” he said, coming towards me, “I hope you remember that you can come to me with anything. Leave the Alpha at the door, and trust me as your father. You are more important to me than everyone in this Pack combined, even if I can’t always show it.”

Before I knew it, I was wrapping my arms around him in an embrace. I was taller than him at this point, a bit broader. But in that moment I was just his boy who needed comfort and reassurance.

I could not remember the last time we had hugged, and was ashamed that perhaps I had allowed for that distance between us to grow.

“What will you do?” I asked him as we pulled apart.

He sighed. It made evident that my father was getting older, and his resilience was beginning to wear away.

“I will have to interrogate her, and see if she confesses to these crimes,” he said. “I will grant her privacy, as she is still our Luna. But if she does not come clean or explain the situation, we will send her to a public trial.”

“Do you need me?” I asked sincerely.

He smiled then.

“No, son,” he said. “I should do this on my own.”

I left my father, but I wasn’t ready to go home just yet. I walked the perimeter of the compound, taking in the fresh air and feeling the blood pumping through my body.

I wished I could have been a fly on the wall, but granted my Father the space to deal with his wife on his own.

A tingle went up my spine, wondering if the Alpha would control his rage or let it out behind the safety of closed doors.

When I finally arrive back in my room, the sun was almost set. Mira had fallen asleep on top of the sheets of the bed, and I decided to leave her for a bit longer. There was no need for her to be awake and fretting over the outcome of the interrogation along with me.

I sat in the chair in the corner, moving aside a book Mira had left there. I smiled unconsciously as the way she always left her books around, as if she was struck with inspiration so suddenly that she didn’t have time to find a bookmark and just balanced it wherever she could.

Watching her rest, I felt a serenity take over me. I started to breathe along with her, transfixed by the subtle rise and fall of her chest.

My mind was still reeling from the events of these few days, but something about Mira’s peaceful presence seemed to wash away all my worries. For this brief moment, the outside world drifted away and we were the only people on the planet.

I thought of my father, currently interrogating his second wife on whether or not she had tried to kill his only son. Though I could not predict the future, I felt confident that the sleeping woman in front of me would never be capable of such deception.

Mira was not perfect, and neither was I. But together, we just might stand against the evil and corruption in the world.

My thoughts were interrupted when my phone rang.

It was my father.

“Hello?” I answered. “I see. And she said that? What happens now?”

I waited.

As I took in his next words, I turned my head back to Mira. She was moving in her sleep, but not yet awake.

“I’ll let her know.”

I hung up the phone, still digesting what I had been told.

Irene had confessed to everything, no fight left in her. She would be stripped of her title and eventually exiled from the Pack.

And with her gone, Mira was now officially the Luna.