Chapter 237
Ellie’s POV
Pine Hollow was a quaint little pack tucked between two hills, with a main road running through the center and a lake surrounded by pine trees at the far end. It was peaceful, and especially beautiful at this hour, with the sun setting over the water.
Lucas pulled up to the pack house and cut the engine. We sat there for a second.
“You want me to do the talking?” he asked.
“No,” I said, and got out of the car.
The Luna of Pine Hollow was a woman named Sera. She opened the door and gasped when she saw us standing there.
She looked at me, then at Lucas, then back at me.
“Luna Ellie,” she said. “This is… unexpected.”
“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry for showing up like this. I wouldn’t be here unannounced if it wasn’t important.”
She studied me for a moment, then stepped back and let us in.
We sat in her front room. There was a stack of books on the side table, a blanket folded over the arm of the couch, and a half-finished cup of tea going cold on the windowsill. Sera sat across from us with her hands folded and listened without interrupting while I explained what I had seen at the festival. The hooded figure. The sigil on the fabric.
Since I had to leave out the part about how I recognized him, I had no choice but to bend the truth a little. I said I saw a knife in his hand and he seemed to have an intent to harm either Dominic or myself. Technically not a lie; just not something that happened in this life.
When I was finished, Sera was quiet for a moment. Then, she said, “You’re sure it was one of our Gammas?”
“The sigil was a Gamma rank marker,” Lucas said. I handed her the fabric, and she took it, studying it.
“Hm,” she said, furrowing her brow. “This does look like our sigil…”
She looked up at me with confusion written clearly across her face. “Ellie, I… I hope you know that I have absolutely no clue why one of my Gammas would be on your property with a knife. Please believe me.”
I watched Sera’s face, searching for a lie, but honestly, I found none. She seemed genuinely taken aback, and frankly a little frightened. Not like a guilty woman.
Besides, I already knew that this woman had nothing to gain from killing Dominic. Our packs were far apart, and Pine Hollow was always friendly with us. We traded goods regularly. It would only hurt her pack to do something like that.
“I believe you,” I said.
To her credit, Sera didn’t waste time after that. She made two phone calls, spoke to someone, and within
1/3
Choptre
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twenty minutes, three of her guards were escorting a man through the front door in restraints.
I stood up.
It was him.
He looked different without the hood-younger, maybe, than I had always imagined, with pale eyes and a sharp face and that same unsettling quality to him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
My heart was pounding so hard I was certain they could all hear it, but I kept my face neutral and my hands loose at my sides.
“I’d like a few minutes alone with him, if possible,” I said.
Lucas and Sera exchanged glances. Sera nodded. “Very well.”
They put us in a small room off the hallway with a guard posted outside the closed door. The tnan sat across from me with his wrists restrained tightly behind his back. Somehow, that didn’t make me feel any better, but I refused to show the fear on my face and instead looked at him steadily.
“You were at the festival today,” I said.
He said nothing.
“I saw you. And I think you saw me.” I paused. “You were there for Dominic, weren’t you?”
Something shifted in his expression. It was barely perceptible, but it was there. I saw it.
“I just want to understand,” I said.
He looked at me for a long moment. I figured he wouldn’t say anything. But surprisingly, he muttered, “It wasn’t you who was the target, lady.”
“Who was it, then?”
“Who hired you?”
Silence.
す
I leaned forward slightly. “The wolfsbane toxin,” I said. “Was that given to you or did you decide to use it?”
“Huh?” The man blinked at me in confusion. “The what now toxin?”
“Wolfsbane.”
He blinked again, looking at me like I’d just spoken gibberish. “What the hell is that?”
“You don’t know what wolfsbane toxin is?”
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