Ruby:
Mrs. Smith took a moment to collect herself, clearly affected by Lilith’s words. Her body quivered with anger, and her hands shook with fury.
“Lilith was like a daughter to me.” Mrs. Smith’s voice wavered. “She would often come to our home seeking comfort and guidance. But one day, she arrived dishevelled and bloodied. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, and I knew something was terribly wrong.” Mrs. Smith swallowed hard as Lilith shifted uncomfortably, her face paling as she realised the gravity of what Mrs. Smith was about to reveal.
“I overheard her speaking to my husband as he tended to her wounds,” Mrs. Smith revealed, her eyes fixed on Lilith. I could tell it was painful for her to speak, but she had no choice because they had both betrayed her first.
“While they believed I was busy cleaning, I overheard her speaking in hushed tones to my husband. She confessed to him that she had killed a doctor named Williams, who was trying to find Luna Ruby and expose the truth. Lilith demanded that my husband do his job and cover up any traces of her crime because Williams’ grandmother had witnessed his death and was trying to expose the truth. But the poor old woman was no match for them, and they ended up placing her in the werewolf academy under the guise of mental illness to trap her indefinitely. I recently learned that she died, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at the hands of both my husband and Lilith. It seemed this wasn’t the first time he had helped her cover up a crime and erase any evidence of her actions.”
Mrs. Smith’s voice trembled with rage and grief, while I wiped away tears, remembering Mrs. Thompson. The poor woman had also been a victim of Lilith. How many more lives would she take before it was all over?
“That’s when I knew Lilith’s darkness went far beyond anything I could have imagined. I regret keeping silent for so long, but I can’t continue to protect her, not when she commits such heinous acts and takes innocent lives. But one thing is clear: My husband and Lilith are merely puppets. There’s someone higher up pulling the strings. I can’t pinpoint who it is, but their goal is to eliminate anyone who opposes them and seize all the power. That’s why Lilith plans to succeed my husband as council president.” Mrs. Smith concluded, shaking her head with bitterness.
Who could be the game master in all this? I had been certain it was all Lilith’s doing, but now hearing Mrs. Smith, I wondered who else could be involved and their aim in hurting people.
“Uncle, do something! Don’t just sit there!” Lilith yelled at Mr. Smith, who sat quietly, hiding his face in shame, unable or unwilling to meet her eyes.
“You coward! I thought you said you loved me,” she sneered at him, then proceeded to remove her shoes and throw them at him. It was clear she thought she had him wrapped around her finger, but now he was not ready to stand and publicly defend her.
She was about to punch him in the face when the chief spirit judge signalled two warriors to restrain her. Her behaviour grew increasingly erratic as she ranted and shouted for them to release her. Every elder in the room shook their heads in disappointment, some exchanging concerned glances.
Seeing Lilith lose control gave me a sense of satisfaction. I stood up, leaving Damian’s side, and moved to stand next to Mrs. Smith. This was my chance to bring more allegations against Lilith and ensure she faced justice. I was bloody tired of seeing her face and ready for her downfall.
“That’s not all,” I called out, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Lilith also took my husband from me, just as she’s tried to destroy your family,” I said, casting a glance at the elders, who exchanged uncertain glances as murmurs filled the room.
“This is her pattern-destroying families and stealing other people’s mates!”
Uncle Sam, an elder with white hair, gave me a sorrowful smile. For once, they seemed hesitant to take sides, unsure how to respond to such explosive accusations.
“Oh, Ruby, you truly are clueless,” Lilith taunted with a cruel smile. Her words momentarily caught me off guard. I hated that she found amusement in this, given all the pain she had caused.
Anger flared within me, but I held my ground, refusing to be intimidated.
“Clueless? I know exactly what you’ve done, Lilith,” I retorted sharply. “You’ve tried your best to ruin my life, but you failed. You’ve taken countless innocent lives just because they stood up to your lies, and now you’re going after my second chance, as though taking my first wasn’t enough?”
Lilith’s eyes narrowed, but she said nothing, clearly caught off guard by my accusations. “Your actions speak for themselves, Lilith,” I continued. “You’ve manipulated and deceived, leaving a trail of pain in your wake. It’s time for the truth to come out, for justice to be served. You deserve every ounce of pain you’ve inflicted on the innocent, and I will ensure you pay with your life.
“You think you know the truth, Ruby, but you’re just scratching the surface,” she retorted in pure venom.
Lilth’s smile twisted into a sneer. “You think I took Liam away from you? That’s not the case at all. Liam came to me on his own accord,” she claimed, her gaze darkening for a moment.
“He was tired of his dull, boring mate who was obsessed with having a child. He sought me out because he found something in me that you could never offer him.”
I felt my heart clench at her words, the bitterness of her accusations stinging deeply. But I refused to back down.
“You’re twisting the truth to fit your narrative, Lilith,” I shot back with a bitter laugh. “Now that you know you’re cornered, you’re trying to spin a story to save yourself. I wouldn’t be surprised if you used dark magic to manipulate him.”
She laughed coldly. “You think Liam is righteous and I’m the evil one, Ruby? Maybe you’re right. But you have no idea what Liam is capable of. It was Liam who strangled your own child with his own hands. He told me he wanted to savour the act of taking the life out of your newborn child. Stop blaming me! My only role was to arrange for your baby to be taken away and left in the woods to die. Surprisingly, I wasn’t heartless enough to kill a newborn, but Liam was.”
Her words sent shockwaves through me, like ice water poured over my head. My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the ground, struggling to breathe as I tried to process the horror of what she had said.
“No, that’s a lie! Liam could do terrible things, but he’d never take the life of our child!” I screamed, my voice raw with emotion. Lilith’s face twisted with sinister satisfaction.
“How desperate can she be to blame Liam like this?” I thought to myself. “He was the father; his duty was to protect and love our baby!”
“I am not one to lie,” Lilith continued. “And when I say I watched Liam savor the life draining from your baby with no remorse, trust me, I’m not kidding. Liam, your ex-mate, killed your child, not me.”
I clutched my chest, pain ripping through me as I gasped for breath. My mind whirled as I struggled to grasp the reality of her claims.
“He killed Andrew with his bare hands and ripped out his heart,” my wolf reminded me, and I shook my head. I could hear murmurs around me and Damian calling my name, but I was lost in my own agony.
“You can summon Liam and ask him yourself.” Lilith taunted.
“She’s right, Liam killed me by strangling the life out of me,” the chief spirit judge interjected, and my eyes snapped to him in shock.
“Who are you to speak?” I lashed out, disbelief and anger coursing through me. “You know nothing about my life or my child!”
“I know more than you think. Ask that bastard yourself. He confessed it to me and told me how he killed me.”
“Killed you? What are you talking about?” I demanded, my voice trembling.
“Mother, I was killed by Alpha Liam because he didn’t want me to take over the alpha position, just as he had done with his own father,” the chief spirit judge revealed.
My mind was spinning. Mother? Killed him? This couldn’t be real.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I am your son, Alex, Mother,” he said, his eyes flashing silver. I almost collapsed again, but I was already lying on the ground.
“No, impossible! This doesn’t make any sense!”
“Haven’t you wondered why I could do extraordinary things as a baby? For heaven’s sake, I giggled as a newborn! How could a baby do that? It’s because I had an immortal living within me; that’s why I was smarter than my friends. Father killed me, but the chief spirit judge saved me, and now we share the same body.”
How was it possible that the grown man before me could be my little son, Alex? My breath came in short gasps, and I felt dizzy, unable to find the right words.
“This can’t be true,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I shook my head in disbelief.
“My son is just a child… This doesn’t make any sense!” I screamed, gripping my hair so tightly that it hurt.
The chief spirit judge met my gaze with his silver eyes flashing dangerously. “The truth is hard to accept, but it is what it is. I have saved Alex and granted him a new life, but his spirit remains tied to me, Ruby. Now we share the same body.”
Those piercing silver eyes made me feel overwhelmed. I watched as the chief spirit judge raised his arms slowly and began chanting in a language I couldn’t understand.
What was he doing?
His words echoed through the room, and a sense of power filled the air. As he continued to chant, a bright light appeared at the centre of the room, shimmering with ethereal energy. It swirled and danced, taking form before our very eyes. Then, the light began to shape itself into a large bag, which materialised in a burst of light.
The room fell into a hush as everyone watched in awe. The chief spirit judge lowered his arms, his chant coming to an end as the large bag settled in the centre of the room. The mysterious bag seemed to pulse with a soft glow, its contents unknown to us all.
I stared at the large bag in the center of the room, its soft glow pulsing and leaving me to wonder what it could contain and what it all meant.
“What’s inside the bag?” I asked the chief spirit judge, unable to resist my curiosity.
His gaze met mine, and he said simply, “Answers.”
His words sent a chill down my spine, yet a spark of curiosity flickered within me. I took a deep breath and cautiously crawled my way towards the bag. As I approached, I couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling that washed over me. Once I reached the bag, I hesitated for a moment before undoing the knot at the top. My heart raced as I opened the bag, and what I saw inside left me gasping in shock.
It was my ex-mate, Liam, bruised and battered, his hands bound tightly behind his back and a tape covering his mouth. I fell back in disbelief, unable to comprehend what I was seeing.
The sight of him so helpless and broken left me feeling conflicted. Who had done this to him? How had he ended up in the bag? What was the chief spirit judge’s purpose in bringing him here?
My mind raced as I struggled to gather my thoughts. The chief spirit judge snapped his fingers twice, and the tape covering Liam’s mouth fell to the ground, allowing him to speak.
“You bitch…” He yelled, groaning in pain.
“Why didn’t you tell me you gave birth to a monster?”
“Now that’s no way to speak to your beloved son, father,” the chief spirit judge retorted with a smirk, cold satisfaction in his eyes as he watched Liam tremble with fear, trapped inside the bag like an animal.
“Alex,” I called, my voice quivering. Slowly, I stood up and moved towards the chief spirit judge, taking his hands in mine. His hands were cold, sending a chill up my spine. As I gazed into his eyes, tears welled up, blurring my vision. My heart ached with regret, knowing I had failed to recognize my own son, and now the pain of realizing it was my supposed mate and husband who took his life felt unbearable.
“I’m sorry, Alex. I failed you as a mother,” I said, my voice breaking. I squeezed his hands, trying to find some connection to the child I once knew in the man before me.