Caught
As soon as they both noticed his presence, Ray stopped and jumped off her body, feigning surprise. “Alpha Lucas… um…. I…” Ava could do nothing but shed tears at that moment; she saw Sabrina standing behind Lucas, grinning, she knew if of course, this whole thing was planned and she’d fallen for it; she’d been ruined.
One minute, Lucas De’ Clan was standing there fuming, hot steam erupting from his head like boiling water as he stared at his mate in disgust, and then the next, Erasmus launched at Ray, pushing him to the ground, his sharp teeth and claws diving into Ray’s skin like needle penetrating fabric, wounding him severely.
As Erasmus roared and clawed at Ray, Ava knew that if she stayed and watched this a minute more, then Ray would be a goner, she looked towards where Sabrina stood and watched her reaction, she was shocked of course when Sabrina did nothing, why was she standing there grinning? Was Ray not her lover as she’d claimed? Why wasn’t she helping him? How could she stand there and watch this without doing anything? Ava knew then that she had to do something since Sabrina wasn’t going to, she jumped off the bed and took her wolf form, pushing Erasmus away from Ray with her head, the impact from Layla’s push sent Erasmus backing away to hit his head on the surrounding wall. He got up and growled at her, his teeth dripping with Ray’s blood.
‘Please,’ her wolf begged, her eyes showed nothing short of tender emotion. ‘This does not call for bloodshed, it’s my fault it happened, punish me instead.’
Erasmus growled again and left the room, his heart radiated so much pain, the push from Layla multiplied his headache, he was not thinking well at this point. Of course, he’s been a fool, he should have known it was all just a lie, she runs into the arms of her betrothed the minute she discovers he is alive; all that has happened between him and Ava has been nothing but a lie.
Not a few seconds had passed before the wolf guards stormed into the room, and then they obeyed the alpha’s instructions to arrest Ava.
**********
The noises from inside Sabrina’s room had attracted the attention of the surrounding dawners, and as usual, news always spread fast round the packhouse. They all gathered and watched in sadness as Ava was dragged out of Sabrina’s room in chains, and taken to the packhouse dungeon.
After Ava was taken away, the guards came in attempt to rush Ray to the healers’ quarters, but it was too late, right there on the ground, he’d bled to death. Kozi confirmed it after examining the body when it was brought in, Nani was heartbroken too, as she’d also heard the news about what happened with Ava.
“I don’t understand,” tears lined Nani’s eyes she spoke, watching as Ray’s body was being taken away to be buried. “Why would Ava do this? She’d never hurt her mate on purpose, not after all they’ve been through together.”
“I don’t know either Nani,” Kozi responded, “and it’s not my place to say anything about the matter, but what I think you should be more concerned about is who Ava was sleeping with, or rather, WHAT.”
Nani’s brow furrowed, “what are you talking about?”
Kozi turned around, before dragging her to a quiet corner, where no one would hear them conversing, and then, he began to whisper, “didn’t you find it strange that a whole wolf died from just a few scratches on the skin?”
Nani whispered back, “I did, but we all know how alpha Lucas gets when he’s angry, he CAN cause a lot of fatal damage.”
“I know, but this damage he caused was not fatal at all, I mean, Ava stopped him from killing Ray on time, right?”
She nodded, “yes, at least that’s what I heard from Sabrina who witnessed it.”
“So why then did he die? I mean even a human would’ve survived such damages with the worst thing being a few permanent scars, but a mighty wolf who is known to be much stronger, well a lot more would’ve been expected.”
“I don’t know Kozi, a lot has happened today that I myself do not understand, maybe the scratches impacted his heart in a way, who knows?”
“We are getting to the baffling part Nani, I thought the same thing too, I thought that checking to see if he had an underlying issue with his heart or something would satisfy my curiosity, so I cut him open right before he was taken away, and what I saw made me jump out of my skin.”
As if she wasn’t hearing him well, Nani came closer, “what did you see?”
Kozi looked around again before continuing, “In the space where his heart was supposed to occupy, there was nothing there.”
The statement shocked Nani, and she didn’t hide it at all, “what do you mean there was nothing there? How can a wolf exist without a heart beating inside of him?”
“I’m telling you what I saw Nani, I’ve seen a lot of strange things in all my years of tending to wolves, but none beats this one. It was like an empty body, with nothing inside, no heart, no life, even before his death.”
“I understand now; for him to have no heart, he must have been much weaker than a wolf, even much weaker than a human, no wonder he died so quickly!!! Someone was controlling that body. Kozi, your findings are correct! That man that slept with Ava was neither human nor wolf… And he came in here posing as a lover of Sabrina? … you didn’t notice that when she found out about her lover’s death, she didn’t show any form of emotion??? It seemed like she was even happy!”
“I don’t know Nani; I really don’t know what to say about that girl anymore.”
“This is big news! We are dealing with mystical powers here, no wonder; Ava must not have been in her right mind. Kozi… I think we should inform the alpha about our findings.”
“You want to inform the alpha? Do you have enough proof apart from your suspicions? Do you know how much trouble you’d be causing if you didn’t?”
“You’re right… I need to dig deeper into this matter and get enough evidence before I say anything.”
“I’ll give you a good word of advice that I’ve learnt in all my physician years, Nani; some things are just best left unsaid.”