The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 24

Alexander

I followed my Beta into my study, where a man was waiting for us. I recognized the man’immediately as one of the photographers from the press

conference.

“Alpha,” Gabriel said, gesturing to the man, “this guy says a couple came into his tabloid agency to leak the story. He saw them.”

I narrowed my eyes and folded my arms. “Is that so?”

The man nodded. “I–It’s true, Alpha,” he said, wringing his hands. “They came in and spoke to my boss. Well, I didn’t see them, but I did hear them speak.”

“And? Spit it out.”

The photographer fidgeted with his camera strap. “It was an older couple. A man and a woman.”

“An older couple?” I asked, straightening a little. “Did they give names?”

“No, sir. They were careful about that. But I remember what they sounded like.”

“Go on.”

The photographer hesitated. “Well, the man had a deep, gravelly voice. Like he used to smoke. And the woman’s voice was high–pitched, but she drew out her ‘s’s, sort of like a snake.”

I tilted my head slightly, exchanging a glance with Gabriel. The description was vague, but it sounded an awful lot like Sophia’s parents, John and Helen Oxford. Alpha and Luna of Moonshine pack.

John once had a smoking problem, and Helen did speak like that.

But it made no sense. The Oxfords and the pack they led, Moonshine, was a close friend of Ashclaw’s. I’d known John and Helen my entire life. They weren’t the type to do something like this, and even if they were, they had no reason for it in this case. Our packs were allies.

Unless…

Sophia allegedly wanted to break up my marriage to Ella. I always knew she had a crush on me, but perhaps it ran deeper than that.

What if her parents wanted us to get together? Moonshine was a distinguished pack, but they had fallen on hard times over the years. A marriage between our packs would benefit them, just as it had benefited Stormhollow.

have to do some

asked. “Any identifying features?

just heard them talking to my boss, and when they left, my boss told me

didn’t feel like enough to go off of for a definitive answer. But it was enough

I said. “You can

photographer nodded and hurried

I told Gabriel as soon as we were alone. “I want to investigate the site of

I found myself at the clearing in the forest where the Spring Celebration had

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Chapter 24

had sat the other

clearing where the Bynfira had been held fast day ago, i

That kiss.

expected it. Hadn’t expected her to grab my tie and pull me down to her like that, hadn’t expected the surge of desire that shot though më sh our lips met. For those few

through mud. He was furious with me,

there was still a chance her pack was involved in my parents‘ deaths. Besides, even if i did want to fall for her, she still wanted

of the bonfire sat in the center of the clearing, although it was nothing but a circle of charred wood and wet ash by now. It had ramed this morning, so everything had turned soft and

be evidence–evidence that would either exonerate or condemn Sophia and perhaps even her

I grew up with, the one who had been my friend through thick and thin… could Sophia really be

she really that angry that I hadn’t attended

made any sense. Even if they wanted a union between Ashclaw and Moonshine, they weren’t the

that she knew about the contract first, had approached him in the hopes of ending my marriage to Ella, and had

would do, but neither did pushing Ella out of a hayloft. And as the days went on, I

the bonfire. I circled wider and wider until I was walking the entire rim

my eyes caught on something metallic glinting in the sunlight, half–buried in the dirt near where the

and dirt. I brushed

Sophia’s necklace.

It had been a gift from her mother on her sixteenth birthday, and she treasured it. For it to be here, at

could be innocent explanations. Perhaps she’d lost it while fleeing from the

night perfectly; she had been standing near the bonfire when

in the day,

over in my hand, I noticed something else; there was dried blood on the clasp. And