Chapter 140
Astor’s Pov
I was drowning with guilt and regret but I kept a reassuring myself that I did what I needed to do.
I walked the dungeon with every step feeling like a betrayal. The words I used the venom I said. The anger and everything I watched my mother do.
I couldn’t try and defend her so I had to watch everything happen and I kept trying to convince myself that as long as it meant to save him her life but I couldn’t convince my heart and my wolf.
If I had continued to let her stay at our house and not brought her to the dungeon then my pack, our pack, would tear her apart.
My father was loved. Deeply loved and respected. His death was a wound that cut every member of the Pack. And my mother? She had lost her mate. Her sorrow was a raw, open thing that fueled
the pack’s rage.
Faith confessed. None of those reasons really matter because the bottom line is the fact that she killed my father and the former Alpha of thi pack.
Keeping her locked up was the only way to keep her alive until I could figure out how to get her far, far away. But knowing that didn’t stop the sickening twist in my gut. I was supposed to be her protector, her mate, instead I broke her spirit.
“Alpha. I need you at Pack House office. It’s urgent.”
The Pack House was tense. Guards were everywhere, faces grim. They looked at me, their Alpha, with pity and expectation. They were waiting for me to deliver justice.
When I reached my office the first person I saw was Karim. Karim is the head of our tracking team. He was leaning against the desk, looking pale.
“Karim? What is it?–”
“I was coming to find you, Alpha” he cut in, his voice low and ragged. He didn’t meet my eyes. “We finished processing the scene where the former alpha… where we found him.”
My muscles tensed and I braced myself for more heartbreak.
“Go on,” I managed.
“The blood,” He said, slowly pulling a small, sealed evidence bag from his pocket. “We found traces of residual blood, dried and smeared around the edges of the clearing. There were drag blood marks.”
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Chapter 140
My world tilted. My hands gripped the edge of my desk.
“What are you saying?” I whispered. The air in the room was suddenly hard to breathe.
Alpha your father was not killed in that clearing. He was already dead and he was brought there,
The blood patterns didn’t match the final resting position.”
Grief hit me first, a fresh, hard punch to the chest. My father. They hadn’t just murdered him, they had treated him like garbage. They had dragged his body around like he was nothing.
But beneath the sorrow I felt something else which is something I should never have had to feel
about my father’s death.
Relief.
It wasn’t Faith.
If the body was moved, that meant the killer had time and planning. Faith was with me grieving her
dead parents. She could not have staged a murder scene hours earlier.
Before I could even speak, the door swung open and the doctor rushed in.
“Doctor, what did you want to tell me? Karim just said…”
He didn’t let me finish. He moved straight to the point.
“I just heard that the luna was detained in connection to our alpha’s death but he dead for at least
six hours before you found him. Long before anyone even knew he was missing.”
My mind raced back to earlier that day. Six hours ago. There is no way Faith did it.
The continued, his voice dropping to a serious tone. “And Astor, he was stabbed. Three times.
Clean, deep wounds. Someone wanted him dead.”
The air left my body in a rush. I stood up so fast my chair scraped backward loudly.
Stabbed. Hours earlier. Body moved.
It all slammed together, forming a horrifying, undeniable picture.
“Faith was right,” I choked out, the realization tearing through my chest,. She was right, and I didn’t
even listen to her. “It’s Kyle. It had to be Kyle.”
But then the questions started flooding in. “But how? I don’t understand how my father even met
Kyle. He wouldn’t have gone near him. Why was he there? What was my father doing that far out, alone. And most importantly why did Faith say that it was her and why were her hands full of my
father’s blood?”
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There was only one person who had the answers.
Faith.
She had tried to tell me. She begged me to listen. And I had thrown her into the dark dungeon believing the worst about her, insulting her loyalty and her love. The memory of her heartbroken face, her eyes dull with despair, made me physically sick. Guilt teared me apart.
I had to get the truth, but more than that, I had to fix this. I had to apologize. I don’t even care if she never forgives me, that is probably what I deserve.
“I need to talk to her,” I said, my voice thick with urgency. “Right now. I need to get her out of that
place.”
I didn’t wait for anyone to reply as I made my way out.
Please, let her be okay. Please, let her talk to me.
The path back to the dungeon was a blur. My wolf was howling inside, not only with rage at Kyle, but with terrible, gut–wrenching shame and guilt. I failed the one person who trusted me most.
As I ran, a sudden wave of ice cold dread washed over me. It was too strong to be just guilt. It was an instinct, a warning. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.
I reached the dungeon and rushed in to the dark cell.
“Faith! I am so sorry, I know you were right, I-”
The words died in my throat.
She was slumped on the floor, leaning against the far wall. Her face was pale and her eyes were closed in an awkward position.
“Faith? Hey!” I rushed toward her, dropping to my knees. “Faith, look at me.”
I reached for her arm, and that’s when I saw it. The blood. A frightening amount of blood. It was all over her legs and it was gushing.
