Page 23 of Beyond the Grasslands

“No way. I might believe he has a woman somewhere. In fact, that sounds entirely plausible and explains his recent behavior. I don’t think Vik has it in him to outright murder an innocent woman, or even be in on a plot like that.”

“Fuck if I know what anyone is capable of anymore.” I growled in frustration as we hit the secondary set of doors at the bottom of the stairs. This portion of the pack house was soundproofed, much like the office, so we would have to put a pin in our conversation and come back to it later. I hoped that we would have enough information by then to get to the bottom of everything. It was my greatest hope that we would be able to exonerate my cousin from the possibility of being in collusion with Miriam and her cohorts, but that remained to be seen.

Miriam’s smugsmirk and narrowed eyes stirred something in my blood. It called out for vengeance, but that would have to wait until we could claw the truth out of her. “You think you have the upper hand?”

“I know I do. It’s hard to be wrong when you have a goddess on your side.”

“You think Selene sanctioned everything you’ve done.”

Miriam spat at my feet. “She is a false Goddess. Selene is nothing more than a bottom-feeder who attempts to play cupid and fails more than she succeeds.”

“Is that so?” I asked. Miriam narrowed her eyes impossibly lower.

“You think this is all a game. We’re supposed to meet the one the gods chose for us and live out some crazy happily ever after, but if that was the case, then why are we always at war with other packs?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Miriam? We haven’t even been involved in a pack war in two generations.”

“Only because She watches over us. Only She can offer us that peace. Your Selene is nothing compared to her.”

“Someone ate too many of those human fruit loops,” Warren commented.

“Uh huh,” I murmured. “And you think you’re special enough that a Goddess has come to you, told you her plans, and you’re what?” I chuckled. “Let me guess, Miriam… You think you’re her warrior put in our pack to set some great misdeed to rights?”

“I am the misdeed!” Miriam shouted. “Johann was mine to start with. He was always meant to be mine!” Spittle flew from the woman’s mouth as the shock of what she implied landedright in my gut. A flash of my mother, suffering with a pain no one could pinpoint came to mind. Miriam laughed. “Yeah, you finally understand. “Your father and I were together for years before that whore you call your mother came along and enticed him away from me with the lure of the moon-blessed union.”

She spat again. “She was never supposed to find him. The Goddess told me that she would never reach the pack, but something happened to distract her and the whore got in, and then she pulled my love away from me.”

“My father was faithful to my mother.” It was a statement, but also a demand. I needed to hear that he was the man I always thought him to be.

Miriam cackled. “Yeah, he tried to be. After you were no longer underfoot, it became easier to win him back to my side. I’m sure you noticed how sick that bitch got.”

I pushed forward and wrapped my hand around Miriam’s throat. “Lies!” I spat in her face. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, since my tight grip didn’t allow much movement. She told no lies. I could smell the truth of her words in the air around us.

“Ease up, or we’ll never get to the bottom of this,” Warren commanded as he placed his hand over mine that was wrapped around Miriam’s throat.

I did as he asked and stepped back out of reach. “You will answer every question asked of you by Warren or myself with complete honesty!” The Alpha order caused Miriam to flinch as if she’d been slapped. Truthfully, I put enough force behind the command to make it hurt when it landed, so that wasn’t too far off base.

“After Johann Greywolf met his moon-blessed mate, when was the first time you were intimate with him?”

Miriam laughed. “The first time was the year Thorin was born.”

“What the fuck?” I yelled as the bitch laughed. It was true. She didn’t tell a lie.

“Was Catalina his daughter?” Warren asked and I felt sick to my stomach at the thought that she might be my half sister.

Miriam shook her head. “No. She was the spawn of my idiot mate. She could have redeemed herself, but she refused to dupe her perfect Thorin.”

That was something at least.

“Did you remain intimate with Johann from that point on?”

“No, that whore caught on to what the pains meant and forced him to cut me off.”

There was no way. No fucking way that my father cheated on his mate - my mother - and they stayed together and even seemed happy to everyone who encountered them. There was no way they could have fooled our entire pack and me. How could they have lied to me?

“Were you ever intimate with Johann again?”

Miriam’s grin nearly sent me into a homicidal rage. “Of course. Why do you think his whore of a mother started to get so sick? That pain no one could pinpoint, it was all thanks to me.”

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