Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

VENITA POV~

Breathing became too difficult for me to manage, and every single bodily function I had came to a crashing halt.

“What are you talking about?" I asked her. “I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

She made a sound that was part wince and part scoff. “Do you really expect me to believe that?” She asked. “The doctor said that I was poisoned by something that wasn’t ingested, and the last gift I got…”

The words trailed off. She didn’t need to say any more. I already perfectly understood all that was being said.

More and more tears fell down my face but I stayed beside her, her hand in mine. “Why would you even think that I’ll do something like that to you?” I asked. “You’re my best friend, and my sister in-law. Why would I…?”

“Because you’re pregnant for a rogue!” She yelled, cutting off my question. “Because you want me to keep your dirty little secret.”

My chest was heaving, shock and pain twisting my insides like a violent hand. “What would I get out of that?”

“I’m the only one that knows your secret, Venita. If I die, who’s going to tell your brother that you’ve been sleeping with a rogue and selling them pack information?”

“What the hell did you just say?” Rogen’s voice broke through the tension in the room, and my heart dropped to the ground in a loud crack.

He was looking at me, tears in his beautiful blue eyes. I couldn’t do anything other than stare at him.

“Tell me she’s lying, Veni. Tell me she’s hallucinating because of the drugs.” His chest rose and fell with his anger, and this time the tears started to fall. “Tell me my sister isn’t a mole, goddammit!” He yelled.

I flinched at the tone of his voice. “It’s not like that, Rogen. I promise it’s nothing like that.”

Lilith coughed, a painful sound that drew our attention back to her. Rogen rushed in, pushing me aside and checking on his mate. I watched with tears streaming down my face as he gave her some water to drink and sat beside her, leaning her head on his shoulder.

She pulled something out from beneath her pillow and handed it over to my brother. “Have the healer test this. This was the bracelet she gave me for my birthday a week ago.”

Her birthday had been exactly two days after the breakup with Jerome and my confession that I was pregnant.

I fell down to my knees. “I didn’t plant poison on you, I swear.”

“Guards!” My brother bellowed.

Six guards trooped into the room. “Yes, Alpha.” They answered in unison.

He didn’t even bother to glance in my direction as he gave his orders. “Search my sister’s room, see if you find anything that belongs to the rogues.”

I stayed there on my knees, pleading and crying as the guards filed out. “It wasn’t me, I swear.”

“Are you telling me you’re not carrying the child of a rogue?” he asked, tears in his eyes.

I swallowed, shame filling me as I thought of just how bad I had messed up. “I… I am.”

“Is that why you tried to kill my mate?”

Before I could answer, the guards rushed back in, a piece of paper in the hand of one of them. “We found this in her room, Alpha,” he said, stepping forward.

Rogen stretched an arm out to retrieve the paper, only taking a pause to give Lilith some water when she started coughing again.

“You promised me the throne of Bloodied-Fang, not just your love. Take the Luna out and weaken the Alpha from grief. When I take him out, the pack would fall into your hands, and we can rule side by side.”

The content of the letter made my blood run cold and I froze in silence. “I… I have never seen that letter before,” I stuttered.

“That isn’t all.” Rogen continued, his voice devoid of emotion.

“Apply this ointment to the gift you give her, and let the poison do the rest. It will take her out slowly and then you can get what rightfully belongs to you.”

I couldn’t speak, I just knelt there and cried, unable to fathom the fact that I was being set up, and the only person who had this information to use was the woman coughing in my brother’s arms.

“Lock her up in the pack slums.”

*******

“Beta Venita Lockley of Bloodied-Fang, how do you plead to the crimes of treason against your Alpha, an attempted murder against your Luna, and the murder of the pack’s heir?” The law official of the pack council asked me.

I was kneeling in the middle of the judgement room, my head lolling from the pain and weakness that threatened to consume me whole. But my head snapped up at the mention of a pack heir.

My eyes found Lilith’s across the room, and she had a smirk on her face. Tears welled in my eyes once again and I let them fall.

“Not guilty.” My voice was weak, but the sound carried. “I will never do any of the things you just mentioned.”

The council members exchanged looks, they knew what I was doing. If the accused pleaded not guilty, then it left the Alpha with the burden of passing judgment himself.

Rogen’s eyes met mine, anger shining in their depths. He rose from his seat slowly, then stretched an arm out for all of the evidence that was gotten to be placed in it.

After reading them out and showing beyond doubt that I was guilty, he looked at me. “You’ve been proven guilty of treason, murder, and attempted murder. I hereby denounce you as a member of the Lockley family, strip you of the title of Beta, and sentence you to an execution by fire.”

Tears spilled down my face. That was the worst punishment in our world. I kept my eyes on his, letting him see the pain in them. He had chosen. And he chose a stranger over his own family. His only family.

“Do you have any last words, Venita?”

“I didn’t do it.”