All Chapters of Blood Ties And Moonlit Lies: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

I pick the smell of gasoline, faint, but distinguishable enough, from the figure walking ahead of me, making his way towards a row of maisonettes where omegas leave. He looks like one of the men who was with Myron at the hearing earlier this evening, but I can't be sure. Myron's close associates all dress like lumberjacks—jackets and boots. This one may just be a lumberjack like most of the men who live in this part of the pack land. I start dropping back, but the smell of gasoline, and the way the fellow is clutching those files under his underarm sends the hair on my arms protesting trouble.“Hey, wait up,” I call. Without slowing, he glances back at me once but now his face is shrouded in the gloom cast by the pillar of one of the houses. “What's that you're holding?” I ask. He picks up speed. “Hey, this is Supreme alpha Eli, and I order you to stop.” He bolts. I fire after him. He turns a corner between two homes, ducks under lines with clothes hanging from them. To avoid the

Ten minutes later, Eli's figure fills the doorway. I'm sitting on the bed; the transducer and monitor Prescott used to scan me are all gone. The pediatrician had come back to ask if I was sure I want to see Eli rather than Myron. I assured him I can take the whole thing from here. Most of the staff here are from our pack, and a few from neighboring ones. It is obvious news about me traveling ahead of my arrival. Time has come to take my life in my hands, chart the course of my own destiny. “What happened?” Eli asks, worry etched on his face, eyes searching. He hesitates. Can he sense the infants inside me? He's supreme alpha, he has the ability to. “Selene, that's the woman's name whom Myron has been having an affair with,” I say without preamble. “She was here with her kid, Myron's son. I attended to him. His name is Cilian Golden.” He stands there in the middle of the room, just staring at me, not breathing. “Myron is cheating? He's going to tell the elders you're full of shit,

Sleep deserts me. So I sit up and stare at the door, listening for the sound of Eli in the house. Somehow, he has refused to come into the house, puttering around out there with his cup of tea. I lay back again, pull the covers over my nose and close my eyes, inhaling deeply. The embedded scent of him in the fabric fills my head, causing stirrings I've not felt in a long time. Oh I've been numb. So numb that what it means to be a woman is a little more than a memory. I've been a wife to a man I feel more fear than love for. The scales tipped, and tipped, and tipped, until the crush I have for his brother, Eli, mushroomed into something I carry around, like a labor of love. And tonight, I suspect Eli knows. He must have sensed the fluttering thump of my heart as I held on to him on the bike earlier. My presence here must be worrisome too, him being Myron's brother, way older brother, yes, still . . . Has he always known though? Has he always sensed my feelings for him, since the day

Eyes burn into my face and the back of my head, the silence both mocking and taunting. Even the elders look taken aback by the twist in the moment. Emerald's face is a mask of distraught, pity, fear, and pain. Neither of us considered that, that morning Myron wasn't the only one who burst into that damned bedroom to see her naked in bed. I was there too. My brother Myron had called me that morning to tell me how his wife, my precious goddaughter, was spreading her legs for men around the pack. Although I thought he was nuts to call me with that sort of news, I followed him.Even then, seeing her in that bed, I knew Myron was not to be trusted. Not after what he told me about his plans three months before. His plans to—“Supreme Alpha Golden,” a thick voice breaks into my trance.I look up. Oh, how their eyes question me now. I'm in the crucible for this moment, not Emerald. One of the male members of the council says, “We need your response.”Emerald’s eyes have gone glassy bright wit

The elders hunker together, consulting in hushed tones. Their eyes dart at me, Eli and Myron as they decide our fate—my fate actually. At the least, this is how I see this whole thing. It's been a cribbage game where Myron has been holding all the winning cards. I feel like I’m floating. Not in peace or freedom—but in a kind of free fall, dizzy and weightless, with no bottom to land on.I look from Myron to the elders, from Selene to the boy clinging to her skirt, and finally to Eli.His eyes are soft, searching me.But they do nothing to console the hollow crater forming inside my chest.I shouldn’t be here anymore.This madness—this chaos—is stacking higher and higher, toppling over like a cursed domino trail I didn’t set up but have to suffer for. Myron, Selene, the boy, the lies, the injuries, the pack. And now this... show.Everything feels cursed. It’s like watching a building collapse in slow motion, and I’m the only one with no exit. The elders finish their discussion. Mara’s