CHAPTER 3: THE ACCUSATION

MENODORA’S POV

The opportunity came faster than I anticipated…

On the night that changed everything, the air felt similar to the night that I was born. The tension and uneasy watching, almost like the forest was waiting for something, but at the time, I wasn't sure what it was waiting for.

I just finished an unsuccessful hunt, my breath is coming out in shallow painful pants and my heart drums a frantic rhythm against my ribs. For some reasons that I cannot fathom, the air feels heavy and the metallic tang of fear lingers at the back of my throat.

“Something is terribly wrong…” the quietness of the forest puts me on edge, even the wind has stilled.

My claws tingle beneath my skin, my shift threatening to overtake me once again.

“Not now please…” I whisper, my fingers curl inward and my claw-nails dig deep into my palms, creating little red crescents as I fight hard to keep my shift in check. The feeling only grows stronger, something is out there calling out to my wolf or maybe trying to warn her of impending danger.

“ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” a blood-curdling shriek rings through the trees, piercing through the stillness of the forest. My legs suddenly lose coordination with my brain, totally refusing to propel me forward as I stay rooted to the same spot, my heart drumming a frantic beat between my ribcage.

“That voice…,” I let out a painful gasp. I know that voice, in fact it's a voice everyone is familiar with. It belongs to the Alpha's sole heir.

Without conscious thought, I am already moving forward in the direction of his voice, my legs guided by pure instincts and all the while conscious of the fact that something ancient is stirring awake within me.

“Too late…too late…too late,” I chant like a mantra when I finally reach the clearing. I smell it before I even see him, that rich tangy iron scent of blood, clinging heavily to the back of my throat and causing my whole body to shake uncontrollably.

“Run!" my instincts scream at me but my legs remain fixed to the same spot. My eyes roam his body that lay in the centre of the clearing, his chest gaping open and his ribs split wide as though whatever killed him had clawed right through him.

From his wounds flowed a crimson torrent that turned the earth beneath him into a thick clinging mud that drank his life force away, feeding it to the trees instead like he was an offering made to the forest gods.

With a deep inhale, I let my feet sink into the muddy earth, trusting my feet to guide me against my fears.

“Oh-" a ragged breath escapes my lips as I stand over his body. His body is carved with a number of claw marks, but something about them feels unsettling.

Looking down at my own fingers, it comes to me immediately.

“No…,” I stagger backwards for the umpteenth time tonight “no…that's not possible…”, but the truth stares me right in the face. The claw marks are exactly shaped like my claws…jagged and unstable.

“Over there, he's over there." My head immediately whips in the direction of the voices. Warrior after warrior burst through the clearing, they're too many and everything is moving too fast for me to keep up with.

Their eyes land on the body that still lays on the ground and slowly, like the pull of a tide coming in, their focus is pulled away from the body and settles on me like dust on an abandoned armchair.

The silence that follows is deafening, almost similar to the moment just before glass shatters.

“I…didn't…do…it,” I stammer, shaking my head in disbelief at how I have quickly become a prime suspect in a murder I have no idea how it even happened.

“You're here right now and you want us to believe that?" That is all it takes and the accusation that were only thoughts in their minds begin to take shape. The accusation hangs heavy in the air, like a blanket placed over my face to suffocate the life out of me.

“I didn't do it, I swear," I try again, my voice comes out louder and shrill with desperation, but my words fall on deaf ears. The attention that lay upon me heavily like a mask is now turned to the body that lay on the ground and the warriors slowly begin to examine each mark with painstaking patience.

Without looking at the body, I know what they're seeing because for the past half hour, I stood over the same body, examining the same lines till I could tell the difference in the length and width of each of them.

“The marks are similar," I hear one of them, the closest to me, whisper to his other colleague, before he turns and looks at my fingers now folded in front of me.

“The curse has finally caught up with us," I hear another whisper, glancing in my direction before quickly glancing back to avoid being affected by whatever plagued me.

“She did it…”

"I DIDN'T DO IT,” I scream, my voice cracking through the silence like the whip of a horse. "I literally just got here…" that is partially a lie, but they didn't need to know that I have been here for more than half an hour now.

“I heard a scream and came rushing to see…”

"Silence!" My words are immediately cut off by the command that comes from between the trees. All eyes turn in the direction of the voice and the crowd parts to allow the Alpha step through the clearing with the members of the Moon Council on his heels.

His presence is overwhelming and suffocating, making the space feel smaller than it really is and his gaze is calculative and chilling in a way that turns my blood into ice. His eyes flicker to the body for a split second and his features are overtaken with grief before he straightens his back, his entire being filled with raw determination.