Chapter 273 The Truth Begins to Surface

Chapter 273 The Truth Begins to Surface

DANIEL

The woman among them, a server I vaguely recognized from the restaurant shivered so violently the chair beneath her rattled.

"Beta, please! I-I know nothing about it. I wasn't the one who served them. Please, you have to believe me!"

I cut her off with a sharp wave of my hand, my patience hanging by a thread. "You were on duty last night, weren't you? Your name is on the shift schedule."

She clamped her mouth shut, her eyes darting toward the men beside her.

"Answer me!" I roared, the force of my command causing the very air in the small room to vibrate with a low, menacing growl.

She jumped, her resolve snapping like a dry twig. "Yes! Yes, I was on duty! But I didn't see anything. I swear on the Moon, I don't know anything about poisoning!"

"Quiet," I snapped, silencing her with a glare that froze the tears on her cheeks. "Do not speak again unless I ask you a question. You’re dismissed from this conversation."

I shifted my focus to the two men.

They were pale, their chests heaving in rapid, shallow bursts of air.

Fear was a pungent odor in the room, and they were reeking of it.

"Now, let’s talk about the wine. Who among you served the Alpha and his woman? Who decided that our pack house needed a funeral?"

"I wasn't the one!" one of them blurted out, shaking his head until he looked dizzy. "I swear it! I served the table in the corner, not the Alpha's!"

The other man chimed in, his voice cracking. "I wasn't either! I was in the kitchen the whole time!"

I stood up, the chair scraping loudly against the floor.

I didn't say a word as I paced toward them.

They knew better than to try to feed me lies.

I stopped in front of the man who claimed to have been in the kitchen, I grabbed him, staring down at him until he couldn't hold my gaze.

The man’s resolve shattered.

He started to hyperventilate. "I-I and Peter, we both served them. But it was only the food I brought out! It was Peter! Peter was the one who handled the wine, he brought the bottle from the cellar himself! I don't know anything about it, I swear!"

I furrowed my brows, the name clicking into place. "And who the hell is Peter?"

One of my guards stepped forward from the doorway.

"He’s the one, Beta. The one Scott went after."

I felt a surge of grim satisfaction and dropped him, he hit the chair hard and groaned in pain.

That idiot, Peter definitely knew something about it.

I stepped back, my arms crossed over my chest. "Good. We’ll hold off on the permanent measures until we get our hands on him. I want him awake, and I want him to watch while you three give me every single detail you saw."

The woman sob increased quietly, a sound that usually would have annoyed me, but now, it just sounded like justice.

Before I could press them further, my phone buzzed against my hip.

I pulled it out, my pulse skipping a beat.

It was a text from Scott

(Scott: Beta, we caught him. He was trying to cross the border into the territory of a rival pack.)

I allowed myself a cold, thin smile.

I typed back.

(Me: Bring him to the pack cell. Don’t kill him yet.)

I slid the phone away, but before I could turn back to the staff, it rang.

The screen flashed with a name that instantly softened the hard lines of my face: Marie.

I picked up, my voice dropping to a softer, more human register. "Hello, baby."

"Daniel," her voice was sweet, but there was a tremor of excitement underneath it. "He’s awake. My brother is awake!"

My heart felt like it had been freed from a vice. "Really? How is he?"

"He’s confused, and he’s weak, but he’s here, Daniel. He’s back."

"Thank the Moon," I whispered, the relief making my knees weak. "I’ll be there soon. I just have a little bit of business to finish up here."

"We’ll be waiting," she said, and I hung up.

I turned back to the three workers, my expression darkening once more.

The good news about Alpha didn't change the fact that these people were part of a scheme to tear our pack apart.

I walked over to the corner, picked up a heavy iron poker from the fireplace in the common room, and laid it on the table.

It wasn't for killing.

It was for talking.

"Now," I said, my voice devoid of mercy. "Peter is on his way here. You have exactly twenty minutes to tell me everything you know with no lies, or I’m going to make you wish you’d just walked into the Alpha’s trap yourself."

The room went deathly silent, the only sound the flickering of a bulb overhead.

I was going to get the truth, no matter what it cost.