Chapter 31 Investigate
~Brenda’s POV~
Last night was one of the worst nights of my entire life. I lay awake for hours, barely able to breathe properly as I replayed every second of the moment Kael said those heartbreaking words to me. I could not believe he would ever say something so cruel, something that cut into me so painfully that I felt physically shaken.
Sleep refused to come, no matter how hard I tried to force my eyes shut. My thoughts kept spiraling and tightening around me until all I wanted was to return to Mooncrest, to the familiar spaces that had always comforted me.
Kael had been my childhood crush. I had carried feelings for him for as long as I could remember. Even in those early years, when we were both little and he was already displaying that distant, guarded nature of his, I admired him. I loved him quietly, day after day, and dreamed constantly of the day I would finally become his.
I learned his story like the back of my palm. I memorized every detail of his life, the tragic parts, the lonely parts, and the rare gentle ones. I always wanted to be the person who provided him comfort, warmth, and peace. So I could not understand why he would choose to break my heart in such a devastating way.
He said we would not work, said he could not give me the kind of love I deserved. His voice had been soft when he said it, but the softness only made it worse. Yet I knew he could love me. I felt it deep in my bones that he could and someday would, and I knew I needed to fight a little more for what I felt was the love meant for me. I needed to do everything in my power to show him that I was the one he needed by his side. He wanted me to give up, but giving up was not something I had ever been capable of doing. It simply was not in my nature to walk away from something my heart had already claimed.
The next evening, tired and drained as I was, I decided to take a walk to clear my head and to think of new ways to strategize. The walls felt tight around me, so I chose the ground floor, a place far away from all the executive chaos and tension happening upstairs.
However, as I turned around a corner, two pups came running wildly and bumped into me. One managed to regain his balance almost instantly and continued running without missing a beat, while the other fell to the floor with a soft thud.
“Watch where you are going, pups,” I scolded, my attention shifting to the one struggling to get up.
“Sorry,” he apologized quickly.
“Who is pursuing you?” I asked, momentarily forgetting they could simply be playing. I expected an answer filled with giggles or excitement. Instead, what I got suggested they were not playing at all.
“We were running away from the witch.”
“The witch? What witch are you talking about?”
“The one up the stairs. She was looking at us through the window. We don't want her to hurt us.” He ran off right after saying that, but I did not need any more explanation to know exactly who they were referring to.
Even so, I could not ignore something like that. Had she done anything to frighten them? Had she cast some charm or looked at them in a strange way? I needed to see for myself before jumping to conclusions.
So I moved outside and walked around to the back of the building where I knew I would have a clear view of her window. I hoped to see her face, to study her expression or her posture and understand what had frightened the pups.
What I saw instead was not her face. The window was glowing. It was an unnatural glow, something bright and vivid that looked almost like fire was burning inside the room. Yet I could detect no smoke. The air remained still and untainted, which only made the sight even more disturbing. Was this magic? Was she using magic to scare the children? Or was she trying to escape? I could not wrap my head around it. But if she was attempting to cause trouble again, then I would not stand by and watch it happen.
Without wasting a second, I went straight to the one person I knew would have immediate access to Kael, his beta, Dagan.
“You look troubled. What is the matter?” Dagan asked the moment I entered his office and sat down.
I explained everything I had witnessed, every detail of what I had seen and heard, and his expression shifted into one of astonishment. He looked like he could not believe what I was telling him.
“Are you serious?” he asked.
“You can come with me to see for yourself, but I cannot guarantee the glow will still be there. I know what I saw, Dagan. Something strange is going on in that room.”
“Is there someone in there with her?” he asked, and the question made my expression drop instantly.
“How do you expect me to know that from the ground floor?”
“You are right. Forgive my stupid question. We need to investigate. Alpha is currently in a meeting and I cannot reach him right now, but we have to find out if she is working alone or if someone is helping her,” Dagan said, his expression hardening with seriousness.
He paused everything he was doing and we headed up to the top floor together. When we arrived, the guards, as usual, would not allow us inside.
“Something is going on in there and we need to investigate. Let us in,” Dagan said firmly to the guard in charge.
“I am sorry, Beta Dagan, we cannot let you in. We have express orders from Alpha. If you want to go in, you must get permission from him.”
“I cannot reach him right now. He is in a meeting,” Dagan replied with growing frustration.
“I am sorry. There is nothing we can do,” the guard repeated.
Dagan let out a long sigh and dragged his fingers through his hair.
“Is the prisoner alone in there?” he asked, giving up on trying to push his way in.
“No. Taren is in there with her. He took her food in some time ago,” the chief guard responded.
“How long has he been there?” Dagan asked.
“It should be more than thirty minutes now.”
“Thirty minutes? Is that not too long for just eating?” I asked, unsure why the time frame unsettled me so deeply.
“I am sorry, but I do not have an answer to that,” the guard said, and I bit down on my teeth in frustration.
We left the top floor together and returned to Dagan’s office, fuming in equal measure.
“Taren,” he muttered with gritted teeth. “I just had a feeling he would be connected to this. Last night I saw him snooping around in the forgotten library. I think I just found the traitor we have all been searching for,” Dagan revealed, narrowing his eyes and nodding slowly.
“Traitor? What do you mean?” I asked, struggling to follow. How could Taren possibly be a traitor?
“If you are absolutely certain of what you saw, and Taren is in there with her, then it simply means he is trying to help her escape again,” he explained, and realization slowly dawned on me.
“I understand what you are saying now. We must report this to Kael.”
“But we have no proof. There is no way to incriminate him yet. We need to catch him in the act.”
An idea formed in my mind suddenly and completely. “I have an idea of how we can catch him in the act,” I said, allowing a wicked smile to slowly curve across my lips.