“Elder Thaddeus, will you set this meeting in motion?” Elder Davis spoke up.
The six of us were seated at a round table. The Elders had not wanted the meeting to be confrontational as it was the first held against Alpha George and it was possible that he still had some merits. It was why there were only six of us present at this meeting: myself, Alpha Raphael, a few Elders_ Elder Davis, Elder Walker and Elder Thaddeus and of course, Alpha George, whom we were interrogating.
“Of course,” Elder Thaddeus cleared his throat before continuing, “the motion before us is to review the rumours that have caused distress to the reputation of Alpha George and has caused the worry of the Council of Elders. This is a round table discussion, Alpha George; you can speak freely.”
A roundtable discussion or not, his answers to questions would determine if he would be impeached or not. If his ascension to the throne is questionable, then he would be removed from his throne, and the Elders would be taxed in finding his throne the worthy heir.
The problem was that Alpha George had been rumoured to use dark magic which implied that he drugged minds to get his throne. If my uncle had been successful years back in trying to ascend my father's throne, he would be Alpha today and nobody would question it.
I sensed a little hypocrisy in this meeting but who was I to voice such an opinion? It seemed to me that the Elders preferred to see violence and blood instead of some magic tricks.
“What do you have to say to this, Alpha George?” asked Elder Walker.
“It is preposterous! I have never dabbled with dark magic,” his voice was firm and clear and he looked Elder Walker straight in the eye when he gave his answer.
If he was guilty then he was a fool to look at Elder Walker in the eye. The old man had an uncanny ability to detect lies.
“The first rumour concerns your long-dead lover and her daughter. Your lover's name was Marilyn I believe?” questioned Elder Walker.
I watched Alpha George closely. His eyes seemed to hold a glare at the mention of his dead lover. I was curious about this, Marilyn, and I had a feeling that Alpha George was indeed guilty, as the rumours said.
“It is insignificant. Marilyn died while giving birth to her daughter,” he said in a bitter tone.
“We determine what is significant,” said Elder Davies.
“Who was Marilyn? How did you meet her?” asked Elder Thaddeus.
All eyes were on Alpha George and it was easy to tell that he was tense. He was a man who had many secrets he felt burdened to protect. I did not envy his position.
“She was a maid in my palace,” came his response.
“I see. The baby she had, where is this child?” Elder Walker asked him.
“I was not too keen on knowing. I found out she had cuckolded me; I am sure Alpha Dagen can understand the feeling,” he said, and my eyes narrowed on him. What was that supposed to mean?
“We do not care if Alpha Dagen can relate to such a feeling. We want to know about the child. The child bears royal blood regardless of who the mother is. Where is the child?” asked Elder Thaddeus.
“I was cuckolded. She was sleeping with someone else before she got pregnant. It was safe to assume it was not my child,” he replied.
“Did you perform the test? Did you check that the child's blood did not match with yours?” questioned Elder Davis.
“There is clearly a double standard here. Not too long ago Alpha Dagen's mistress was…”
“We are well aware of Alpha Dagen's situation with Lady Nydia and he has evidence that the child in Lady Nydia's womb does not belong to him. Besides, the interrogation concerns you and not Alpha Dagen,” said Elder Walker.
“I was too angry back then and greatly ashamed. I did not check but that does not…”
“That is no reason to dismiss you from your throne. We are well aware. However, we are concerned about the child because eyewitness testimony has it that Ms. Marilyn gave birth to a hybrid child_ the child was half werewolf and half vampire,” this was definitely more interesting than I had thought. A mixed werewolf? That was common in the Dark Moon pack and beyond because the vampire settlements were closer to the pack.
“I wouldn't know,” he said.
“Ms Marilyn might be the rumoured runaway princess of the current Alpha of the Dark Moon pack. In fact, we suspect that she is Alpha Napoleon’s twin sister,” said Elder Thaddeus.
The shock on Alpha George’s face was apparent. Howbeit, he struck me as though this was no news to him but instead, he was worried that the Elders had been able to discover that much.
“I do not know what you are talking about, Marilyn was a maid in my palace.”
“Were you the first in line to your father's throne?” asked Elder Davis.
“Not naturally but my elder brothers abdicated the throne to me,” replied Alpha George.
“Too bad we cannot ask them because they are dead, huh?”
“They died of a plague if you are insinuating…”
“How many brothers did you have?” asked Elder Thaddeus.
Alpha George seemed to be thinking about his answer which was odd. It was probably the simplest question he had been asked today. Why was it taking him so long to answer?
“I had two.”
“Did you have a brother named Robin?” Elder Davis asked.
“No.”
“Our records say that Robin was the eldest son of the previous Alpha and in fact, he took a bride and was rumoured to have been expecting a child right before you ascended the throne. What happened to Robin?”