First

“I said stay back,” Tatum growls, blocking Leila mid way down the stairs.

“I’ve had enough of this, first you kept me grounded here for days like a prisoner and now this?”

Leila gives him a cold once over, ducking underneath his arms and continues making her way down the stairs with gusto in her steps.

She has to defend herself, the Iron Claw Pack probably already thinks she’s responsible for the attack on Margaux because of Tatum’s action ar now the pack members are bringing a matter that has been put to bed to her doorstep?

She flings the door open just as Tatum steps up behind her and she is welcomed by an angry mob, welding sticks and torches and holding banners of slandering statements about her.

“What is this about?” Leila asks them in a curt tone, unable to hold back herNôvelDrama.Org holds this content.

annoyance.

“You are a murderer!”

“An evil woman!”

“An usurper!”

The crowd fires at her.

Leila is about to reply when the crowd parts and none other than Carmela slowly walks through the centre, a coy smirk flat on her lips as she approaches Leila but it’s not Carmela who catches Leila’s attention the most.

It’s the badly beaten man being dragged along the ground by two warriors. They throw him in front of Leila just as Carmela raises her hands and the crowd immediately goes mute.

“The Luna is supposed to be our mother, our protector, the star that brings light to our darkness but this woman,” Carmela spits out in a stern tone, pointing squarely at Leila as she takes a step closer before she whips her face to the crowd, her finger still pointed in Leila’s face.

“This woman, she is the cloud that has cast a shadow over the light this pack should have.”

“Yes..” The pack roared in support.

Leila grits her teeth, taking long deep breaths, rage boiling in her pits as she squints at Carmela.

“If anyone is darkness over this pack, it’s you Carmela,” Lella fires back at her, stepping forward.

“You accuse me of killing the witch,” Lella’s attention shifts to the crowd. “She led you here to slander my name, but where is the proof that I did it? What due procedure was followed? Is this what the people of the blood oak pack have become? Mindless puppets? What reason would I even have to kill the witch?”

Leila does not hold back. She may not be able to expose the truth just yet but she can still try to pull them out of Carmela’s hold.

“Evil does not need a reason to be evil!” One person from the crowd yells in

response.

“Exactly,” someone else supports. “You are not even supposed to be Luna, the Alpha’s mate should be and don’t think we are not aware that you have also tried to kill her several times.”

“Murderer! Let’s burn her!”

“That’s enough,” Tatum’s cold voice sends a hush over the crowd and he pulls. Leila backward. “You insult and disrespect me by doing this, all of you! Am I too lenient or too nice or perhaps you have such little regard for me that you come to my house in this brazen act of defiance and lay such baseless accusations against my wife?”

“Alpha,” Carmela bows to him. “We apologise for our actions but the truth must be said. She sent this man to kill the witch, he confessed it himself,” Carmela points to the beaten guy.

Leila’s eye bulge in shock, rage and anger fill her heart and she wants to gouge Carmela’s eye out.

“What brazen nonsense! I have never seen this man in my life before,” she

line sharply raising her voice and looking at the man again

“Luna, do not deny me,” the guy raises his head up and mutters weakly. “Your promised to protect me, please keep your word *

“What word? Protect you how? I’ve never seen you before,” Leila replies, her voice hard, seething with anger as her head snaps to Carmela and she’s unable to hold herself back “You did this, didn’t you? You devil.”

Stop trying to blame me for what you did. You hired this man to kill the witch, you attacked Margaux, you may have even had a hand in the death of the head warrfor and you have tried to kill me at least three times. Enough is enou. We no longer want you as our Luna and justice must prevail.

“Yes” The crowd roars yet again.

*Justice, Justice, Justice,” their chants become deafening.

“Only the Alpha has the power to decide who is Luna or not,” Leila replies confidently, raising her voice. “I have no hands in any crime you accuse me of nor do I know this man.

“I want you all to think. I have been your Luna for two years and such has never happened, I have never made trouble once, why would I suddenly start now? What reason would I have?”

Leila desperately tries to appeal to the crowd, she wants them to see, even if it’s just one person. She needs someone to at least take her side.