Page 25 of The Alpha's Betrayed Mate

Raske took over the trial after Belmont’s words of introduction, and Venna took the opportunity to shoot him a cold look when he sat down a few feet away. He met her gaze with that placid, disinterested look that always made her want to strangle him, but right now all she could find was sadness. It wasn’t even sadness for herself, for what she’d lost. It was sadness for her unborn child, who would have to grow up in a world where his or her parents hated one another. Better or worse than having a father who could never love his children more than his pack, she wondered? Hard to say. She’d have to ask Rylan one day.

One by one, members of the pack came up to offer their testimony about Venna’s alleged link to the demonic presence on the island. For want of anything better to do, she listened, even making a few vain attempts to remember who had wronged her in case an opportunity for vengeance came up later, somehow—but her heart simply wasn’t in it. All of this was just terribly, tremendously sad. It was as though the fire that had fuelled her anger had been doused by a sadness she’d only just begun to let herself feel. What had finally unlocked that door, she wondered? It wasn’t the hurt Belmont had done to her, that was for certain, or it would have been open for years. No, she realized. It was her child, the tiny life that had only barely taken root inside her. It was the dawning realization that the pack she’d sworn her life to protect was simply not worthy of her.

Let them carry out their absurd little trial, she decided as yet another of her former friends described in elaborate detail the way that two demons at once had tried to cut her throat—presenting this, for some reason, as evidence that she was in league with them. The longer they talked, the more time she’d have to work on her escape plan. She’d get the hell away from this place and start again somewhere. No pack, no soulmate… but she wouldn’t be alone, would she? She’d never be alone again.

“I call Venna to speak,” Raske’s voice broke through her reflections, and she realized she’d been smiling faintly for quite some time. That probably hadn’t gone over well with the pack. Well, nothing to be done. She moved up to the chair they indicated, and stood behind it, keeping her expression neutral. Raske made a tutting sound, then instructed for the chair to be cleared away.

“I want to say something first!”

A strident, familiar little voice. The pack murmured as Rylan broke away from Yara with some difficulty and bolted up to the front of the group, shooting his father a defiant look before turning around to look at the whole pack. Venna couldn’t help but feel a glow of pride as she watched her nephew stick out his chin and straighten his back, the very image of Marroc in miniature. His father would have been proud to see him, she thought with a faint twist of sadness. She hoped she’d get a chance to tell him that, before the pack sent her away.

“You’re all being completely unfair,” he told the crowd, whose expressions ranged from thunderous to mildly amused. “Venna is the strongest, bravest, best demon fighter of anyone on this island, and it’s totally wrong that you’re acting like just because she turned up when the demons did, that it’s her fault they’re here. She didn’t bring them, shefoughtthem. She nearly died, to keep all of you safe, and now you’re blaming her for something that isn’t her fault, and it isn’t fair.” She could hear his voice shaking with rage at the injustice of it, could see fresh tears spilling down his cheeks. With a surprising gentleness, Raske moved to usher the boy to his seat. But Rylan wasn’t finished.

“I don’t want totestify!” he yelled in response to whatever Raske had murmured in his ears. “Testify means telling everyone what Venna did wrong! We shouldn’t even be having a trial. We should all be hunting that demon, right now, instead of wasting time here. We should be doing what Venna says.” He shot a mutinous glance over his shoulder at Belmont, and though Venna hoped like hell he wasn’t about to say what she suspected he was going to say, there was far too much of Marroc in him. “She should be the Alpha, not my dad.”

“That’s enough,” Belmont said sharply. With tears of frustration standing in his eyes, Rylan stomped back to his seat, shrugging off Yara as she tried to put a comforting arm around his shoulders. Venna cleared her throat, not sure whether to laugh or cry. Leaving Rylan behind, that was going to be the worst part of getting away from this place. Could she take him with her, perhaps? It was worth considering.

“You want to hear my side of the story, right?” she asked after she’d taken a moment to give the pack a long, hard look. “That’s a nice change. It’s a shame you didn’t want that eight years ago, when you sent me away. I’d just lost both brothers, and you barely gave me five minutes to scrape up my shattered heart before you sent me to fend for myself in the wilderness. How’s that for a wise, compassionate leader?” She kept her voice light and calm, not even bothering to glance at Belmont. She could imagine the frozen expression on his face just fine without having to actually see his face.

“We’re interested in hearing what you have to say about the allegations we’ve been discussing today,” Raske said stiffly. “But if you wish to connect your alleged affinity with demonkind to the tragic death of Marroc and Korvi—”

“Demons are drawn to grief and anger,” she snapped. “Every child knows that by their fifth birthday. I left Korvi’s side because I knew my feelings would draw demons from miles around and he’d be safer without me. They’re also drawn to secrets. Didn’t you ever wonder why the last eight years were so peaceful? Why attacks on the village dropped from five per week to one per fortnight? Because the rest were coming straight to me.” She jabbed a thumb into her sternum. She hadn’t intended to say any of this, not really—but something about hearing Raske speak her brothers’ names had unlocked some door in her and the words were spilling out. “I saved each one of your lives at least a thousand times, and none of you even knew I was there,” she said. “I followed you to Halforst to keep you safe on the road, and then I nearly lost my life fighting off the horde that followed you. You, and the anger and grief you insist on carrying everywhere you go.”

“This is hardly relevant,” Raske said stiffly. But she wasn’t finished.

“Maybe the demons have been seeking me out,” she said, searching the crowd for the faces of the wolves who’d testified to that effect. “Maybe they’ve been looking for me because they know I’m the shield that’s been keeping this pack safe for the last eight years. Maybe they know that once they take me out, it’ll be a piece of cake to kill the rest of you. But all I’ve ever done is protect my pack and protect my family. So if you want to tell me that you honestly believe that I picked up that demon’s weapon and used it to harm the last living member of my family, then… well, then I’ll leave right now. Because if you believe that—of me—then none of you have ever known the first thing about who I am. You don’t see me. You don’t know me. And if that’s the case, I choose exile willingly. Exile, or death.”

The pack looked uneasy as she returned to her seat. She could feel Belmont’s cool stare burning a hole through the side of her face, but she kept her eyes focused stubbornly on the floor, not warning to give him the satisfaction of a sidelong glance. She could imagine how worried he’d be that she’d spill his secret, tell them all that she was carrying his child, that instead of punishing her with hard labor he’d been carrying out a secret, passionate affair with her. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t considered it. The thought of humiliating him like that in front of the pack he prized above all else, it had been tempting.

But at the end of the day, she’d taken pity on him. The pack’s admiration was all he’d had… and after what he’d sacrificed for it, it felt mean-spirited to take it away. Wasn’t it enough that he’d lost the respect of his son? Wasn’t it enough that he’d lost his soulmate?

“Yes, thank you, Venna, very—passionate,” Raske said stiffly as he gained control of the muttering room again. Those little barbs had made her seethe once, but she felt curiously above it all now. Why had it taken her so long to accept her status as an exile? There was so much power here, so much freedom. “Now,” Raske went on briskly. “We have a few more wolves to hear from—including one who’s already offered some, er, improvised testimony. I call upon Rylan to speak.”

It seemed unkind to do this to Rylan. He’d been unconscious for the whole confrontation with the demon last night—there was nothing he could offer by way of storytelling that would either condemn or exonerate her. She waited for him to return to the stage—but a low murmur began among the wolves that quickly broke into a worried hubbub as they began to scan the hall more closely.

“Yara?” Belmont strode into the audience. “Wasn’t he sitting with you?”

“He said he wanted to move closer,” she said helplessly, pointing to a place in the middle of the crowd—where there was absolutely no trace of Rylan. Suddenly, all of the curious peace Venna had been feeling was replaced by a gripping terror. Through the windows, she could see the orange light of sunset. They’d been talking for hours in here, and now it was the most dangerous time of day for demons. She rocketed to her feet, her mind already on the beach—but Raske’s staff was suddenly pointed squarely at her throat.

“Don’t be stupid, lorekeeper,” she said through gritted teeth. “I know him. I know how to find him.”

“I think his father knows him a little better than an exile who’s been in his life for barely a month,” Raske said. It had clearly been intended to wound her—what she hated was that it worked. “I hereby call this trial to a halt,” he shouted now, turning to address the hall. “We will reconvene at the same time tomorrow—right now, we will dedicate our energies to bringing the lost child safely home.”

“The beach,” she shouted at the back of Belmont’s head, furious that he didn’t even turn to look at her. “Check the beach, he hides in the rocks, there’s a cave about a hundred paces north of the sand, it’s full of sticks and wood—make sure they check properly!”

There was no way of knowing whether he’d heard her, but she had to hope that some part of him cared more about finding Rylan than it did about his stupid pride. And for now, all she could do was follow helplessly as four wolves marched her back up the hill to her prison cell at the old library. She could have taken them out—she’d won fights with worse odds before—but Raske, the conniving old bastard, had spun some kind of spell on the rope that bound her wrists that made her muscles feel weak as putty.

She was helpless to do anything. She only hoped, for Belmont’s sake, that Rylan was recovered safe and sound. Because if anything happened to the boy, she knew that Belmont would never be able to forgive himself.

Chapter 15 - Belmont

He sent wolves to search the beach the moment he was out of earshot of Venna and the wolves who were escorting her back to the old library. No sense wondering whether that was a terrible mistake, not now—the sun was setting and soon it would be pitch dark, and Rylan could be anywhere on the island. Belmont split the whole pack into search parties and assigned each pair a part of the island to search, then bolted home to search the cottage. He rummaged through Rylan’s room, desperate and hopeful that the boy might be hiding under the bed, behind the desk, even in the laundry basket under his dirty clothes… but there was no sign of him there, or in Venna’s room, or in Belmont’s. He took a long look at the suitcase in the corner before he left the cottage, slamming the door shut too hard behind him.There would be time to worry about all the mistakes he’d made later. Right now, all he cared about was finding his son.

The wolves he’d sent to search the beach reported back half an hour later, sandy and covered in rock-related scrapes as they shook their heads grimly.

“You searched the rocks?” he demanded a few times. “You found the hiding place?”

The wolves exchanged glances. “There’s a whole bunch of little caves like the exile described,” the leader said with a shrug. “They were all empty, though. No sticks or wood. Not sure what she was talking about there.”

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