Riannon knew that she would never forget that face and she recognised him at once. The man who
accused Maya of being a traitor. The man she interrogated personally for many hours. The man even
Ash interrogated and he was by far one of the cruelest interrogators she knew. And yet that man never
cracked.
She remembered his perfect face being broken in many places and yet he kept saying the same story
over and over again. He was the one to blame for what happened to Maya back in the past. Because he
helped to set her up.
Riannon always knew that this man was connected to Roxy somehow. She knew it. She just had this gut
feeling inside telling her that she was right about that.
He watched her walking inside of the barn with Ash by her side and she could swear that she saw a
vague smile in the corner of his lips. His hands were chained and lifted up and he was shirtless,
revealing his perfect muscles.
A warrior. This was what he claimed to be. His long brown hair was reaching his shoulders and was not
bloody yet, meaning that no one tried to beat the truth out of him. Yet.
“Ri,” Brayden stormed her way but stopped when she gave him a death stare.
“What is going on here?” she walked past him and stood in front of the man. Maya was in the room too
and they exchanged knowing glances. No words were needed. But Riannon tried her best to signal her
friend that everything would be fine. Whatever it took now, she would make sure that nothing happened
to her in this lifetime. She wasn’t going to lose her again.
She noticed a few warriors and their Gamma in the room as well. All of them looked concerned. Maya
was everyone’s favourite and some of the men were even after her in hopes to get her as their chosen
mate.
At least, she could hope for their support if it came to this.
“Nice to see you, Ri,” Brayden stood next to her right in front of the man with the grey eyes who was
watching her with some kind of amusement in him, “I missed...”
“I asked what is going on here!” she demanded not even bothering to look at him.
“Unfortunately, our Maya is compromised,” her husband sighed as if he was sad. He
wasn’t. She knew that he wasn’t. He did not care. She wasn’t his friend. If anything, they were NOT each
other’s biggest fans although there was never an open confrontation.
“Nonsense,” she interrupted him.
“Luna,” Roxy dared to speak, “We found out that Maya…” “Shut up!” Riannon said calmly but loud
enough for everyone to hear, “You may be my
higher-ranked wolves should deal with and as far as I remember you are still an omega.
Unless something changed in the few days that I’ve been absent.”
Everyone looked at her. And she only lifted her chin up higher.
“I understand that you are upset, Riannon,” Brayden said, finally not using her nickname anymore, “But
Roxy… Roxanne here was vital for the investigation.”
“I have no doubt!” she let out a laugh that was stone cold. “Helpful little omega, isn’t she? How did all this
start again?”
“I…” Roxy started to form tears in her eyes the way she always did, trembling.
“There, there,” Ria came to her and patted her shoulder, “You were so brave and full of yourself just three
seconds ago. I am sure you can handle an adult conversation without bursting into tears for once if you
try really hard.”
Again, no one spoke a word. They all just looked at her, stunned.
“Maybe you need emotional support?” Riannon went on, “We can do that too! Luckily your mate is right
here! Come on, Bray, give her a hug. The girl needs some strength! For the sake of her wolf and all.”
Her husband clenched his lips tight. But before he was to reply something, Roxy spoke.
“All I did was notice she had your bracelet under her shirt when you left. I didn’t think much of it, but later
I followed her and saw her walking into your room. She went straight to your jewellery box and took
something else from it.”
“Right,” Riannon nodded a few times, “And to that, I have a very important question.”
She made a pause and walked back to the chained man because she needed to see his
reaction as well as everyone else’s.
“Which bracelet?” she asked and noticed how the man’s eyebrows twitched slightly. Just a second of
movement. Nothing more. Not enough for anyone else to notice. But she knew that he was surprised.
“Excuse me?” Roxy seemed startled as well. But that did not come as a shock.
“Which bracelet did you see on Maya?” she repeated the question slowly as if she was talking to a stupid
child.
“Erm… A diamond one,” Roxy stuttered.
“There are many diamond bracelets in the world,” Ria scoffed, “Yet you were sure that Maya had mine
on. You must remember the details well then. It must be one of my memorable
“It was the one with an emerald in it,” the omega said quietly, hugging herself and
lowering her head as if the pressure was too much for her.
“Oh, really?” Riannon sneered, “And how would you recognise it if I never wore it in the few days that
you stayed here?!”
This time she got a few gasps from the people around them. “I…” Roxy was lost for words. But just for a
second. Then she looked straight into the
Luna’s eyes and said, “I looked at your pictures in the magazines and saw that one.”
“Did you see others?” Ria did not want to lose the momentum and kept going, “Can you describe them?
You seem to have quite an eye for jewellery if you remembered it that well from just one pic.”
“I…” the omega looked at her mate and Brayden stepped in at once.
“Riannon, enough! That’s not about the bracelet anymore!” he practically growled at her.
“On the contrary,” she turned to look at him, “The bracelet is the most important part here! It was enough
for you to suddenly search my best friend’s room! Like I couldn’t have given her the damn thing! And you
know that I would let Maya have anything she wants from my jewellery box! Not that she would want
anything! So, why did you order that search?!”
“Because I wanted to get to the bottom of this!” he snapped, “And I am happy that I did! Because that
phone is the main issue now, Ri! Not the bracelet!”
“How convenient!” she narrowed her eyes at him.
“The phone unlocked with her fingerprint!” he snarled.
“Big deal!” she scoffed, “Like those are hard to get nowadays! All you need is a glass that the person
used!”
“You haven’t seen what’s inside!” Brayden was breathing heavily now. He did not like to
be contradicted.
“Were there her pictures with our enemies?” she rolled her eyes, “Videos maybe? Texts
are no proof, Bray!”
“They are if they lead us into capturing the intruder!” her husband spat the words, “It’s
too much of a coincidence!”
“This part I agree with!” she folded her hands on her chest and came up closer to the man with grey
eyes, “It is a bit too much of a coincidence that everything got solved so easily. And Maya, who is not an
i***t, by the way, was stealing my jewellery and wearing it in front of
messages that describe all her betrayals and future plans plainly.I mean, come on! I know Maya since we
were children. She is not that dumb! She would at least use a code!”
“And yet she didn’t!” now Brayden was properly angry, “You should listen to what this man says before
you continue to embarrass yourself protecting a traitor.”
“She is not guilty unless proven otherwise,” Riannon snapped, “And I am not convinced at all. But you
are right. Let’s listen to that very important witness who you got at the most convenient time.”
She already did this in the past. She interrogated that man and knew what did not work. Because she
didn’t break him and neither did anyone else. He was good. Very good. Which meant that he was
dangerous.
So, she had to try something else. Something that he wouldn’t expect.
She came much closer to him, regretting that he was much taller than her. It did not give her the desired
effect. But she had to work with what she had.
Slowly, she traced her fingers over his face and all the way to his chin, cupping it gently as he did not
tear his eyes off her.
“You are very beautiful,” she said, and his lips parted slightly. “Th-thank you, Luna,” he said in a hoarse
voice, “I…”
“Don’t thank me,” she took her hand off him, happy to throw him off his course even a little bit, “It’s just a
fact. Not a compliment.”
“Riannon, what is the point of this?” Brayden was losing his patience. “No point, really,” she shrugged her
shoulders, “Just stating the obvious. He is very
handsome. That’s all.”
She could hear the sound of her husband’s teeth-gritting.
“All right, handsome, tell us everything. Who are you? Why are you here? And what is your connection to
Maya?” she looked straight into his eyes, not even flinching.
He impressed her in her past life but right now he was even more impressive. His game was on point.
“What pack are you from?” she asked and immediately answered in unison with him. “Crimson Moon.”
He looked at her with a newfound surprise. “They caught you on the border. What were you doing
there?” she gave him a soft smile
“I was…”
“Waiting for Maya,” she said together with him again. She remembered every line of his. She never
forgot a single one since he didn’t give anything new no matter how many times she
asked. And just a few days later he escaped to never be seen again.
“Continue,” she waved for him to go on.
“She was supposed to meet me under the willow tree and give me the information… stopped talking
when again she pronounced all the words at the same time as him.
“Couldn’t she just text it to you?” Riannon scoffed, “You didn’t seem to have any problem communicating
through texts, right? Why meet up?”
he
“She said that it wasn’t a phone conversation,”
they said in unison again and now Maya
snorted loudly.
“Riannon, what is going on?” Brayden stepped closer to her, mixed emotions evident on
his face.
“Just an interrogation,” she angled her head to look at him, “Why? Don’t you think that his
replies are so natural and flow nicely?”
“How do you know what he is going to say?” her husband asked.
“Because I have my sources, Brayden,” she chose to lie this time because she couldn’t possibly explain
to him how she knew all that. But she knew that he would buy that. “And they told me that this would
happen.”
She turned to the man with grey eyes and asked, “What is your name?”
“Axel,” he said, and she was glad that she didn’t try to answer together with him this time.
The name that he introduced himself with in her past life was Everett. He caught up with her game very
quickly. She knew that she would hardly get anything out of him anymore. Not even through torture.
But she couldn’t help and did one thing. Riannon leaned lower and whispered into his ear.
“Nice try, Everett.”
His face was void of emotions, just his lips twitched a bit as if he had a momentarily need to smirk.
“Anyway,” she now was facing her husband, “I don’t see any good evidence here to accuse Maya. Just a
bunch of badly thrown together clues and two very unreliable witnesses. I have more questions for them,
to be honest.”
victim again.
“Fine, you are right,” the Alpha agreed, “Maya is almost family. I wouldn’t punish her severely anyway.
We will send her to the border since her loyalty has been compromised. It will be just for a year or two.”
“No,” Riannon said firmly. She knew that she couldn’t lose that argument.
“Ri,” he took her arm above her elbow and pulled her closer, “Be reasonable now. This is
the best decision. She’ll be fine.”
“I said no!” the Luna furrowed her brows, “Maya will stay by my side at all times! She is the only one I
trust and this will never change!”
“Ri!” this time he shook her roughly and she almost fell down from the impact, but Maya and Ash were
next to her side to catch her just in time.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Maya growled angrily. She was surprisingly calm prior to this but now even
her nerves gave in.
She pushed her Alpha and in less than a second he was back grabbing her throat tightly. “Brayden!”
Riannon screamed, “Let her go!”
“I will f*****g snap her neck for this!” he snarled and Ria was ready to attack him herself. No matter what
it cost her.
But this was when a loud menacing growl interrupted them all. “Take your hands off my MATE!”
NOTE: Hi, Circle! Thank you for all the messages of support that I received today. I am still going through
them but will try to reply to everyone. This will probably be my last long author’s note as the one they
have is limited to 200characters. So, it will be a bit harder for us to communicate. I will edit out my
previous notes as well. I may be leaving some extra important info in comments and in Marissa Gilbert’s
Reading Circle group in the future. So, stay tuned.
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