Chapter 150: What Happened That Night
Chapter 150: What Happened That Night
Kaden’s POV
"Speak!" I roared, the sound tearing from my chest like a wild beast. The air around us grew so thick and heavy with my Alpha power that Brandon and Monica fell further against the stone, gasping for air.
Brandon looked at the smoking end of the gun, his face completely pale. He swallowed hard, his chest moving up and down fast as tears of pure fear ran down his face. "Alpha King... please... it was—"
"Don’t you dare lie to me!" I cut him off, my voice dangerously sharp. "One more lie, and I will put a bullet right between your eyes!"
"It was an accident!" Monica shrieked suddenly, her hands covering her face as she cried loudly on the ground. "We didn’t mean for any of it to happen! We didn’t mean to kill her!"
The world completely froze.
The wind stopped. My heart stopped. Hearing the word kill leave her mouth felt like a massive iron blade driving straight into my chest.
"Monica, shut the fuck up!" Brandon yelled at her, his voice cracking with panic.
BANG! BANG!
Two loud, deafening shots blasted through the yard, followed instantly by two broken, painful screams. I didn’t even blink as I shot both Brandon and Monica right through their kneecaps. Dark, thick blood exploded onto the stone steps. They fell onto their sides, holding their broken legs, crying out in pure pain.
"The next person who speaks out of turn dies," I whispered, stepping over Brandon’s shaking body and pressing the hot, smoking end of the gun directly against his forehead. The heat burned his skin, making him whimper like a beaten pup. "Tell me exactly how my wife died. Every. Single. Detail."
"We... we were in the library," Brandon sobbed, his teeth shaking badly from the immense pain in his leg and the heavy poison hurting his senses. "Rebecca caught us. I rejected her... we got into a fight because Monica wanted her dead so she wouldn’t talk. Monica and I are lovers—we’ve been together in secret, and we couldn’t let anyone find out Rebecca was once my mate. I hit Rebecca... she fell and went unconscious."
Brandon gasped for breath, looking up at me with pleading, bloody eyes. "Just as she passed out, the library doors opened. It was Helen. Your wife. She walked right in on us standing over Rebecca’s bleeding body."
My teeth ground together so hard I felt them crack. "And what did Helen do?"
"She... she saw the blood. She saw what we did to Rebecca," Monica choked out from the floor, shaking violently as she took over the story. "Helen was shocked. She screamed at us. She said we were monsters and that she was going to report us directly to you, Alpha Kaden. She turned around to run out of the library to find you..."
Monica let out a weak, breathless cry. "We got so scared. We knew if the Alpha King found out we tried to kill a pack member, you would execute both of us and destroy our lives. We panicked. Brandon grabbed a heavy metal object nearby and struck her. He hit her with the metal right across the head. Since she was just a weak human... the blow killed her instantly."
A blinding, roaring red completely took over my eyes. Pure, wild madness exploded in my chest. They hit her with metal. They killed my Helen just because she wanted to protect Rebecca.
"And then what?" I growled, my voice shaking the very stone beneath us. "How did it end up on Rebecca?"
"Rebecca was already passed out on the floor!" Brandon cried out, dragging himself backward in the dirt. "She was completely knocked out! We realized we could use it to save ourselves. We quickly wiped away our own fingerprints from the metal object. Then, we dragged Helen’s body right next to her, placed the heavy weapon inside Rebecca’s hands, and rubbed her fingers over it to leave her prints! We smeared the blood on her clothes to blame it on her! We knew you would be too blinded by grief to look for any other clues! We knew you would just blame the illegitimate child!"
The words repeated in my mind, echoing over and over like a cruel, mocking song. They were right. They had played me like a fool. I had been so blinded by my anger, so eager to destroy whoever had taken Helen from me, that I had walked right into their trap.
I turned my head slowly, looking down at my own hands. The hands that had locked Rebecca in a dark, freezing cell. The hands that had forced her to drop to her knees and beg for her life. The hands that had let guards starve her, beat her, and treat her like a killer animal.
She was innocent. She had always been innocent.
A heavy, dark sadness crashed over me, completely choking out the rage. The truth didn’t just hurt; it completely destroyed me. I had tortured an innocent woman. I had chained her, starved her, humiliated her, and broken a woman who had already spent her entire life suffering. She had cried until her voice gave out, begging me to believe her, insisting she hadn’t killed Helen. And instead of listening... I had called her a liar.
"Alpha King, please... have mercy!" Brandon begged, holding his broken, burning knee.
I turned to my top guards, my voice completely low, empty, and dead.
"They are coming with us. When we get home, lock them in the highest security cells," I commanded flatly, not even looking back as I walked away. "Do not heal them. Let the silver and poison burn in their bodies until I come back to tear them apart piece by piece."
I turned around and walked back toward the waiting car, my legs feeling heavy, like solid blocks of lead. The truth was out, but it didn’t bring me any peace. It only brought a terrifying, crushing reality.
I had hurt, broken, and tortured an innocent girl. And I had no idea how I was ever going to look her in the eyes again.