ARTEMISIA
Ramona clears her throat, shifting in her seat. “My name is Ramona Piazza, and I’m a member of Alpha Giorgios pack as well as the daughter of one of his counsels. I grew up with Luna Blackwood and we have been best friends since we were pups.”
“That’s beautiful,” the judge says with a smile before he lifts his phone for her to see the screen. “You share a lot of your days with her, even after she left the pack.”
“Oh, yes, Your Honour. Absolutely.” Ramona nods, playing with her fingers. “I missed her very much, so I was happy that she was allowed to keep in contact with me.”
“Were you afraid of her not being able to?” he asks, making her nod again.
“Totally! We really have a bad opinion of the Blackwoods, Sir. This is why I was scared about her being abused by them.”
He lowers his hand, leaning slightly over his desk to give the phone back to his guard. “Would you please show this to Alpha Guerrieri, please?”
The guard takes the phone silently and takes a few steps back to our stands to hand it to Giorgio.
“Would you please read the texts out loud for me, Alpha?”
I look over to my brother, seeing him look back at me troubled before he wets his lips with his tongue and starts reading out loud. “No, I think he is hot, and I’m so stupid to like him. But he is acting like a total dick. What is his fucking problem?”
He clears his throat as he shifts on his feet while the spectators giggle. “Then Ramona answers: Oh, my Goddess. He just acts like this because he is in love with you and doesn’t know how to express his feelings. And my sister replies to that: Duh because he is a caveman who never got a woman interested in him without showing her his abs. Like someone would talk to him for more than 2 seconds.”
Taking a deep breath, he lets his arm slump, “Your Honour, this is just ridiculous.”
The crowd around us cracks up as the judge grins at him before releasing Ramona from the witness stand. “Thank you, Ms. Piazza.”
“Your Honour,” she says quietly, making a small curtsy before walking back to sit on the seats behind me.
“Luna Blackwood,” the judge calls out, tearing my attention back to him. “Would you be so kind and tell the court who you were talking about in these texts?”
I smile, scrunching up my nose. “Finnegan Blackwood, Your Honour.”
“I knew it,” Fynn grins, boasting about himself. “It’s because I’m the hottest.”
Giorgio clicks his tongue while he hands the phone back to the guard who returns it to me.
“And he is one of your fated mates, isn’t he?” the judge asks, making me nod repeatedly.
“Yes, Judge.”
Crossing his hands on his bench, the judge looks at Giorgio. “I guess a wolf with Alpha blood would take such insults from his mate pretty seriously, don’t you think?”
“Yes, Your Honour, but…” Giorgio starts, but the judge stops him by raising his hand.
“The court is well aware of Finnegan Blackwood. He is an aggressive, proud and strong wolf. Wouldn’t you think your sister would have faced something far worse than just brainwashing if she was talking about him like this and they were controlling her like you are claiming?” he raises his hands, laughing. “And from what I saw from her texts, they are all in this kind of tone. She never seems to hold back on anything with her friend and her tone gets more loving towards her mates, but she doesn’t seem to make excuses for anything. To be honest, she doesn’t seem abused to me.”
“Your Honour, Finnegan Blackwood attacked her once too, and she even landed in hospital because of him.” Giorgio spits out, making me look at him wide-eyed.
Who told him that?
The judge looks at me angered. “Is that true, Luna Blackwood?”
“That was before he knew that my wolf wouldn’t heal me. He didn’t attack me, he was just being a bit rough. He, himself, was the one who brought me to the hospital when he realised what was happening and it never happened again. This is not something to be brought in front of a court,” I regain myself quickly, justifying my mate’s action effectively, just for the judge to look at me with a smug expression.
“But you being attacked by Logan Blackwood is, right?”
My breath hitches in my throat while the crowd around us murmurs, and my brother grins, making me feel sick to my stomach. “So is her being poisoned, Your Honour.”
I feel the room spinning and I clench the wooden balustrade of my stand as Hendrick stands up. “Am I allowed to speak, Your Honour?”
“Go ahead,” the judge sighs, putting a document back onto a pile for the judge sitting on his left to take.
“The poisoning started way before Artemisia joined our pack. She was poisoned under her parents’ and brothers’ eyes and no one cared about her wolf being dormant or treating her poorly. We sorted this out and we did file the reports about this to the court,” Hendrick explains calmly, making my heart beat normally again.
The judge nods, taking a file out of the pile and I admire his skill at not disintegrating the pile. “Yes, we are aware of the reports and the amazing news about Luna Blackwood doing improvingly better since she joined your pack.”
He flashes me a smile as he lowers his voice. “Also, congratulations on your pregnancy, Luna Blackwood.”
“Thank you, Your Honour.” I mirror his smile just until he lets it fall, concentrating back on my brother.
“Did you know about your sister being poisoned in your pack?” he asks, making my brother shake his head.
Giorgio lowers his head ashamed as he answers lowly, “No, Your Honour. We did not think she was being poisoned.”
I laugh, laying my hand on my belly. “Tell him what you thought it was.”
Giorgio looks at me with a saddened expression before he answers the judge’s intrigued look. “We thought she was acting because she got rejected by her mate and was jealous of Luna Torrie.”
“They used to lock me into the attic when I was being emotional about my wolf not responding to me or I felt sick. So, I stopped complaining about it,” I add, flashing him a sarcastic expression.
Cayden skyrockets out of his seat while my mates’ expressions darken. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”
“Alpha Blackwood!” The judge reprimands him. “I understand that this isn’t easy but please… Alpha Guerrieri, is this true?”
Giorgio clasps the wooden stand, nodding with a distraught expression on his face. “I’m afraid it is, Your Honour.”
“I am sorry, but I must have missed your motive in bringing this case in front of my court as your sister is obviously doing better, her blood test results are perfect and she is expecting a pup. All I can see is a happy young she-wolf, who is trying to cope with a very chaotic situation, and I miss the cause of you being in constant contact with her but not addressing this matter with her directly. You must excuse me, but it sounds like you have some ulterior motive to me, Alpha.” He turns toward Hendrick still standing next to me as he sighs. “Was the culprit caught?”
“Yes, but we believe that she is just a small piece in the puzzle. We are still investigating, but we will get to the bottom of it.”
The judge nods repeatedly as he shuffles through his papers, “Fine, fine. Alpha Guerrieri, is there something else you want to say?”
“Your Honour, we would like to have our doctors check on my sister. Just to be sure.”
Cayden stands up, even before the judge has pursed his lips fully. “No way we are going to accept that, Your Honour. We still have to find out who is behind the poisoning on his pack grounds.”
“We will accept Alpha Blackwood’s reasoning. But to bring peace to your soul, we will have Luna Blackwood checked by one of our doctors. Would that be alright for you?”
Giorgio nods, closing his eyes for a short moment. “Yes, Your Honour. Thank you.”
“Very well. Alpha Blackwood, I’m really sorry that your pregnant Luna had to stand here for so long. Would you please take her to her room to rest? I can’t imagine that all this stress is good for the baby,” the judge says to Cayden, who thanks him and steps forward to help me off the stand. “The court will look into this case and rule over it in three days from now, please try to stay on your best behaviour, gentlemen.”
“Of course, Your Honour,” Cayden and Giorgio respond in unison, and I lean into my mate, feeling the exhaustion in my legs.
“Ah, one last question, Alpha Guerrieri.” The judge jerks up, making us halt in our movements. “Did you find out about what we talked about last time? The kidnapping and torturing of Emma and Miranda Silvester?”
My eyes widen as I see Giorgio straightening his spine, only to pull at his ear. “No, Your Honour. We still don’t know how what happened or who brought them into our territory. But Alpha Saviano and I are looking into it thoroughly.”
“You are dismissed,” The judge purses his lips as he walks out of the courtroom with his other judges, and I look at Fynn automatically.
Drake’s voice thunders through my head as I’m getting led out of the courtroom by Cayden. “See, it’s not us the monsters, mate.”
“He lied,” I breathe out as we are already walking along the hallway, making Cayden look at me with a lifted brow. “He just lied as he told the judge that he didn’t know what happened and who it had been.”