I only became aware that it was morning when I got outside. The Alpha and the Prefect stood very close to me, the Alpha on my right while Cecily on my left. The effects of the poison had faded away and the hazy sensation I felt in my head had stopped. I wanted to run at the moment just to be sure that I had fully recovered but Simon had just gone out to assemble the rest of the council members and he would soon be returning, perhaps with all of them. I waited. No, we waited. Simon returned like he should, most of the members following him. Just when they were getting closer, I saw Bridget coming toward us, walking in the middle of the little crowd. Her face was distorted with scorn. She was on a white gown that gave her a loosened fitting at her waist. Her eyes dimmed, her lips spread as she saw me- not smiling. I guess they came down from the main packhouse to where we were.
The Prefect leaned forward and stood in-between the members of the council and us. “Bridget,” the Prefect said, “Step forward please.” She gestured with her hand.
Bridget did as told, her hands wrapped nervously together. “Are you aware of the incident that happened to the Luna last night?” Cecily asked.
She shrugged. “No,” she answered simply.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Bridget nodded. I smiled, she was sure putting up a good act because I could smell the bitch lying. Bridget looked at me, her gaze was scary. I could almost read the writing there, it says; vengeance.
“There was an assassination attempt on the Luna last night but she managed to pull through.”
“So how did I come into the picture?” Bridget said, looking at me as if I was the one speaking to her. I looked into her eyes, it looked reddened- as though she cried not long ago.
“It has a lot to do with you, Bridget,” Cecily said. “There are a couple of questions which I will ask you and what I will need from you in most of them is a yes or no answer. Alright?”
Bridget nodded still looking at me. I was becoming anxious. “Okay,” Bridget said.
“Are you aware that madam Audrey had a personal fuss with the Luna that she refused to share with the rest of us?”
“If she had a personal beef with the Luna, how am I supposed to know that?” Bridget asked.
“Stick to the rules, Bridget.”
“No.” Liar.
“Are you aware that Madam Audrey engaged in a fight last night?”
Bridget spent a few seconds looking at me before she replied. “Yes.”
“Alright,” Cecily said. “Do you by chance know whom she fought with?”
“No idea.” Bridget still focused her angry gaze on me.
“Okay. The Luna here was attacked by Audrey last night but unfortunately, she didn’t make it out of the fight. Her actions generated a controversial question which I have not been able to answer myself. . . why would Audrey do it? Did she do it because she wants to become the Luna or did she do it because she just felt like it would be a good idea to kill someone she barely knew? When I considered all these possibilities, I noticed that none of them really made any sense. Now, there is something Luna said that really intrigued me. She said that madam Audrey who everyone believed was your mother is not really your biological mother.”
Bridget shifted her glance back at the Prefect, there was an element of surprise on her smug face. Maybe she didn’t expect this one. The Prefect continued, “Now there is a very important question which I would need to ask you in the midst of the council. I would want you to answer honestly.”
“Okay.” Bridget nodded feebly.
“The question is, how long have you known that Audrey wasn’t your real mother?”
Bridget looked nervously around, possibly looking through everyone’s faces. “I am just getting to know it now.”
“That’s a lie,” I said.
“Silence! No interruption, please.”
I gritted my teeth. The Alpha looked back at me and nodded his head slowly, blinking an eye. He looked calm and coordinated. “Alright,” I said.
“Have you ever threatened the Luna?” the Prefect asked.
Bridget looked at me again, the age lines on her forehead drawn. “I see no reasons why I should.”
I shrugged. I wanted to shout. LIAR was the word, but then the Alpha turned around just in time to scowl at me. I swallowed the bitter pill. “As I have said, I have never threatened the Luna before and I have no plans to threaten her ever. Though there was a time in part of our history, we kind of had a rough interaction with ourselves. Nevertheless, she’s the Luna. So I don’t think threatening her would put me on the good side of her book.”
The whole place remained silent. Cynthia and Princess stood very close to each other but none of them said a word. The other members including the beautiful black woman that voted against me during the trial as the Luna-elect were present but still said nothing. My guess was, it was either they didn’t believe her story or maybe they didn’t believe mine. Another guess would be that they didn’t know who to believe. This means that I would need to convince them beyond reasonable doubt that all she told them were lies. Bridget stood calmly speaking and this scared the shit out of me. I looked into her eyes, it didn’t look like she was scared of anything. If I ever tell anyone that what happened to me last night was a joke or if I ever tell someone that what happened didn’t scare me, then I will not only be deceiving the curious individual but I will also be lying to myself.
“In the absence of no further question, I think I should get the hell outta here,” Bridget said.
“No,” Cecily barked, “You don’t get to walk the ‘hell outta here’ from the council when you are called upon for questioning. You should have high regard for this organization for they are the fountain and mountain of this pack.”
Bridget bowed her head, her eyes still on me. “I apologize, Prefect Cecily.” She looked back at Cecily.
Cecily spent a couple of seconds looking at her before she said any word. “Very well,” Cecily said. “So I and the other people present here will take it that you did not know anything that happened last night, and in no circumstances would you have indulged yourself into any discussion that would hurt the Luna.”
“Yes.”
“In that case, we take it in good faith that all you have told us are true and nothing but it the truth.”
“Yes.”
“Very well, I think you are dismissed. Anyone present here may as well go back to their primary place of assignment.”
Bridget smiled with only one side of her cheek moving. She didn’t say a word. She looked at me for a very long time and then shifted her glance to the Alpha. She turned around slowly and made her walk back to the main packhouse. Everyone left except the Alpha and the Prefect. She stood watching them, together with the Alpha who hadn’t said a single word. For me, I wasn’t myself. I didn’t like that look that Bridget gave me while she was standing. From the way she was able to comport herself, she seemed even more dangerous to me than her deceased adopted mother- Audrey.
My heart was drumming uncomfortably in my chest, goosebumps erupted in some places, especially at my nape, back, and even on my shoulders as I continued to think about how to handle Bridget. I walked close to the Prefect, the Alpha watched me curiously. “Believe me, Prefect, that girl is lying,” I said.
She turned and regarded me interestingly. “You sure?”
“Yes. Ask the Alpha here. She had once accused him of saying something he didn’t say.”
The Prefect turned to look at Drake. “Is that true?”
Drake looked at me for a while as though he wished I didn’t say what I had just said to the Prefect. “My mind had skipped it and I wouldn’t have remembered it if my Luna didn’t say it just now,” he said. “To an extent, that’s true.”
“Hmm,” she nodded, pouting her lips. “If that is the case, then there is something I will need to tell you Alpha.”
Drake narrowed his gaze on the Prefect. He folded his mighty arms on his chest. “Kick me in,” he said.
“I think the Luna might be saying the truth.” Fuck. I loved that statement. This was exactly what I needed from her.
“Truth?” Drake said. “How come? I mean, why did you suddenly change your perception?”
“Last night after I left, I did some digging. And uh, I made some findings.”
“What findings?” I demanded.
The Prefect looked back at me. “You weren’t just poisoned with any type of poison you find in a grocery store, Luna. You were poisoned with venom.”
“A venom?” Drake and I said together. We both shared a glance before we looked back at the Prefect. “What type of venom?” he asked.
“A vampire’s venom,” she said. “Very dangerous especially when it’s your first time taking it.”
“What? How exactly did she get that?” I asked, my note of voice sullen.
“Exactly. How did she get em?” Drake asked.
“That, I do not know. But my guess is, Audrey might have a link with the vampires. They might have radicalized her,” she said.
“Or perhaps, held her hostage. Maybe against her wish.” Drake suggested, raising his shoulders.
“Or perhaps joined willingly,” I said, looking at the Alpha straight in the eyes. “Or perhaps her pocket is getting fat working with them.”
Drake regarded me for more than a second. “So you are saying she’s working voluntarily with the vampires?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, my voice louder than normal. “Remember you said that the convention would be about werewolves caught working alongside the vampires?”
“Alpha werewolves,” he corrected me.
“What difference does it make?” I said. “Alpha werewolves? Omegas? Luna’s? Betas? Oh c’mon, you never can tell who is compromised and who isn’t. The status doesn’t matter anymore. These deadly creatures might have penetrated us more than we think.”
“I think she’s correct,” Cecily chipped in. “We might be scratching at the surface, scratching where it is not itching us. I suggest we should be more cautious about everything and everyone around us.”
Drake nodded slowly.
“What about Bridget?” I asked.
“What about her?” Drake replied.
“What do we do with her?”
“I guess she should be on our watch list too,” Cecily said.
Watch list? I take that to mean that we should monitor her every move. Bridget is a big fucking time bomb.