First

“Luna?” Trent’s voice brings Leila’s mind back to the room.

Perhaps as her child grows older, he revitalises her body faster but does it have any negative effect on him?

She hopes not.

“I was going to say when I visited her earlier, she held my arm too tight and her fingers dug in but the wounds are completely healed,” Leila stretches her arm forward and she sees the shock in Trent’s eyes that he tries to hide but fails.

Why is he so surprised? Was it all part of their plan? Did they also kill the witch to frame her?

The wound was of a violent nature and they know she has no wolf, if it had remained on her, it would have been hard to defend herself that it wasn’t from a struggle.

Leila’s heart thuds gently as realisation slowly begins to dawn on her.

“Forgive me Luna but that sounds like a lie, we have all visited the witch at onel point or another, she doesn’t have physical contact with anyone so why would she hold you and so firm as to inflict injuries?”

“I don’t know!” Leila replies him sharply, a feeling of anger bubbling in her gut as she glares at Trent, thinking he really is Carmela’s father, they really are good at being multi faceted.

Why did the woman even hold and wound her like that?

Is she in cahoots with Trent and Carmela?

But if so, why is she dead?

Has her life always been threatened?

Now that she thinks about it, the witch firmly refused to tell her the truth until she ordered her as the Luna and the witch never spoke the words from her mouth, she used the mindlink even if it was just the two of them in the room.

Trent and Carmela have a hand in the witch’s death and it can only mean one

Thing

Carmela’s mark is certainly not real and they just killed the only person who knew their secret aside from her.

“My apologies if you are offended Luna,” Trent replies with a coy smirk, “I am only trying to get the truth for this honourable council but it seems to upset you. Is there something you are not telling us?”

“She just told you what happened. On what basis is she even accused of this murder?” Tatum cuts in, his voice curt and his face hard, Trent could feel his displeasure reeking off of him.

“She is the last person to have seen the witch alive Alpha and she also announced the death,” Trent replies.

“You were the last person to see my father alive, I never saw you stand before the council.”

Leila’s next words spill out of her mouth in anger and stuns everyone.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Trent’s smirk immediately vanishes and he scowls at her, his heartbeat spiking considerably and some of the elders murmur and whisper among themselves, stealing glances between Trent and Leila,

“We are not here to discuss issues of the past, you are the one who stands accused. What was your business with the witch?” Trent quickly recovers and continues his probing.

Leila scoffs softly and she glances at Tatum. He would not want her to say it but she cannot lie in front of the council, she has already sworn an oath with her child to say the truth in front of everyone.

“As I’m sure you are all aware, the alpha’s wolf does not feel a bond for that of the phoenix Luna and it made me curious, so I went to the witch with a few questions and it’s interesting what I found out,” Leila replies with a tiny smirk on her lips as she stares straight into Trent’s eyes.

“What did you find out? Is that the reason why you killed her?”

“Trent….” Tatum growls, “I respect you as my father’s beta and the head of this council, you have been of immense help to this pack and my family but

23

condemn her without proof one more time…..”

Tatum leaves his threat hanging in the air and Trent bows, sneering away from Tatum’s view.

“I’ll tell you what I found out,” Leila replies in a calm yet curt voice.

“I found out that you knew what the phoenix mark looks like from the witch, months before it appeared on your daughter. What if the reason the Alpha’s

wolf feels no bond for hers is because the mark isn’t real but only a product of your design?”