Free Web NovelChapter 46: Take The Stand
Rhea stood motionless beside the river. The cold water rushed over the rocks, uncaring. Her fingers curled into fists. Every answer seemed to sit just beyond her reach. Everyone knew something. Adam. Kaleb. Kat. Elder Rowan. The Council. Everyone except the child’s mother.
She snatched up a heavy, jagged river stone and hurled it into the churning current. The rock hit the water with a violent crack, spraying cold droplets into the air, as if that single burst of physical force could expel the frustration in her veins.
Adam noticed. His heavy brow pulled tight, his amber eyes flashing toward Kaleb’s distant silhouette before settling squarely back on her. He strode over, his massive frame cutting off the biting wind.
"Are you alright? I saw that fool talking to you," Adam said, his deep baritone vibrating with a low, fiercely protective rumble.
Rhea whirled on him, her jaw tightening until the bone ached. The scent of her raw frustration filled the narrow space between them. "Unless you are here to tell me what you know about my boy, then leave me the hell alone," she shot back, her voice a harsh, breathless whisper that cut through the rushing water.
Adam let out a low groan, his chest heaving under his heavy leather vest as he nodded. "I had better let you be then," he murmured, his tone forced into a flat, calm register.
But as he turned his massive shoulders to walk away, Rhea’s instinct flared. She lunged forward, her fingers locking onto his thick forearm. "Why won’t you tell me? Why?" she demanded, her voice cracking with the agonizing weight of her desperation.
He froze, but he refused to speak, and he absolutely refused to look down into her eyes. "If you are keeping this from me because you are worried about what I’ll think of you, don’t be. I promise you, Adam, I will understand."
Adam finally looked at her, his golden eyes blazing under the moonlight, searching the silver depths of hers for a long, agonizing beat. "A few more hours won’t change the truth, Rhea," he said, his voice dropping into a dismissive, guarded growl that made her stomach drop.
Rhea stared at him, a cold clarity settling into her chest. Slowly, she let her fingers slip from his arm, her hand falling away like lead. "If I am forced to find out what happened to my baby along with a room full of strangers, then know this," she whispered, her jaw turning to iron. "I will never forgive you, Adam. I don’t care how noble you think your reasons are for what you did."
Adam swallowed hard, his throat bobbing. A flash of profound conflict rippled across his rugged features, fracturing the stoic mask he was trying so desperately to hold up.
"What I know can only be spoken under the sacred authority of the Council, Rhea. Nowhere else." He took a sharp breath, his gaze suddenly softening with a rare, fierce tenderness. "But one truth you must hold onto is that I would never do anything to hurt you."
Rhea looked into his eyes, her heart shattering into jagged pieces. She wanted to believe the warmth in his scent, but keeping a secret this hollow and cruel was a betrayal of its own. "You are already hurting me," she whispered, her chest tightening until she could barely draw breath. "From where I am standing, you are acting just like the other two."
Adam let out a ragged sigh and shook his head, his cedarwood scent turning heavy with regret. "Stop torturing yourself, Rhea."
Rhea shifted her gaze to the black, rushing river, her vision blurring with hot, unshed tears that she refused to let fall in front of him. "Do you think he still remembers my scent?" she asked, her voice trembling against the wind. "Do you think he will remember my face?"
Adam’s jaw twitched violently at her words, a low, pained rumble caught in his throat. "Rhea, please. Stop feeding the ghosts in your mind."
Rhea looked back at him, her expression dead and hollow. "I wish I could," she said, her voice dropping lower. "But I am his mother."
Without waiting for his response, she turned her back on his suffocating shadow and walked away, her scent of wild pine and rain fading into the freezing fog. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Just then, Elder Magnus’s thundering voice shattered the quiet of the riverbank. "Rest is over! Mount up, let’s get moving!"
The warriors moved in a silent, grim blur back to their horses. The procession tore into the night once more, the relentless rhythm of hooves swallowing the dark hours.
Nearly an hour later, the massive iron gates of the Grand Council’s ancient fortress loomed out of the mist. The grim procession filed into the vast stone courtyard, marching directly toward the heavy timber doors of the interrogation chamber.
Inside, the Alphas took their massive carved seats, the Lunas following, and the heavy oak doors shut with a deafening thud that sealed out the night. The air in the stone room instantly turned suffocating, charged with tension that felt tight enough to snap.
"Welcome to the Interrogation Chamber of the Grand Council," Elder Magnus announced, stepping up to the raised stone dais, his silver-gray eyes raking over the room. "We will waste no more moonlight. Let us call the first person to the stand."
Every eye in the room pinned to the elder. The silence was heavy, loud enough to cut, as the golden eyes of the high councilors moved deliberately across the crowd.
Then, Magnus extended a single finger. Every gaze followed the line of his hand until it landed squarely across the chamber. "Luna Kat," the elder called out, his voice echoing off the stone. "You will take the stand first."
Instantly, the last remaining color drained from Kat’s face. Watching her from across the room, Rhea felt River rise up to her paws. Kat was hiding something massive; the scent of her deceit turned sour and pungent.
Cradling her swollen belly with trembling fingers, Kat pushed herself out of her chair. Her boots dragged against the stone floor, her steps heavy and hesitant as she walked to the center of the room.
"Now, what do you know about the firstborn pup of Ironfang?" Elder Magnus demanded, leaning forward over the stone tier. "The pack whispers claim you were draining his life with venom because you wanted him out of the line of succession for your own pup. What do you have to say to these charges?"
Kat looked around the room, her eyes darting past the judging gazes of the elders before she pressed her hand hard against her belly. "I never harmed the boy," she said, her voice remarkably steady, though her nostrils flared with a panicked scent. "Those are nothing but foul rumors whispered by omegas who have hated me since the day Kaleb declared he wanted me. They are lies."
Rhea’s face twisted into a snarl, her silver eyes flashing white as she leaned forward in her seat. "But that is not what you confessed to me in the Bloodveil war room, Kat!" she challenged, her voice ringing out like steel.
Kat whirled around, meeting her sister’s gaze head-on. The fake fear vanished from her eyes, replaced by a venomous glare. "So what did I tell you?" she shot back, her voice dripping with malice. "I said many things because you were threatening my child. Would you not do the same?"
