Stella’s POV
I am so angry that I am shaking. What in the hell has gotten the men around here to be so convinced of something that I know for a fact isn’t true? Even if we weren’t with Raven all day. I know her, she would never cheat on Brandon. She loves him with her whole heart. That was why it was so hard to see that play out in front of the packhouse. We had a great day, but the second we got back here Truett grabbed me, and it wasn’t for a hug and a kiss, it was them holding us back so we didn’t do anything to Brandon. I was sickened by his words, and I watched as he broke my best friend's heart right in front of me. Her falling was an actual accident, but his sending her away because he was so hurt he couldn’t look at her, was all on him.
I have been waiting on a call to hear she got home, but mom and Joshua have not linked me yet to let me know that she had arrived. I am just pacing and waiting. Truett tried to hug me, and I shut him down really quickly. He doesn’t know Raven like I do, but instead of us talking about it, or even asking any of us what happened. Brandon automatically assumed the very worst of Raven. That was what bothered me the most. Raven had already had to deal with enough bullshit in her short life, and for him to do the same thing to her when he swore to love and protect her. Yes, Truett better be glad he held me back. But I am not on team Brandon. I am team Raven, and he, his friend, and his brother are all about to get schooled.
Dad gave me a link just now and told me about them finding Raven. Dad said that he was going to link me when they find out what happened, and I am sick with guilt. I let her leave because Truett didn’t want me to drive her back. He felt like she deserved to be punished for hurting his best friend. So he ended up hurting mine. The pain I am feeling about this is almost unbearable, she wrecked her car because she was probably dizzy from hitting her head. Why did I listen to her? She always downplays everything. She was hurt, and I let her leave. I will tell Lanie, and when I get this sorted out, and I will. I will make sure that they understand the full extent of their actions. She told Brandon that she was pregnant. It would clearly be his child, we have been here together this whole time, all month long here, we never left. He was not thinking clearly at all, I cannot imagine what will happen when he realizes what he has done to Raven. For now, I am keeping quiet about the accident. I plan on schooling all of these guys together at the same time. Someone needs to show them the error of their ways.
I know that he loves her. I know that he wants her and the pup too, but he is so blinded by jealousy right now, he can’t see anything. The whole thing doesn’t even make any sense, at all. This is just so well timed out, it cannot be a coincidence. Someone here was willing to tell Reagan that we had made plans to leave. I mean hell, we were in here just last night talking about how excited we were for the trip. I suddenly realize that someone in this pack, probably one of these hungry bitches looking at our table, right now, had set us up. Cheryl is working with Reagan, and Reagan looks like Raven. I already know what happened now. I just needed proof of it, to take to Brandon. I want to know what he is willing to do to the bitch who told them that we were leaving Black Adder? I would like to volunteer to give her the punishment she deserves. What if she loses the baby? Oh, Goddess, I didn't even think of that. At least Brandon will have to deal with the guilt of it for the rest of his life. Because he made her leave, in that state, knowing that she had a head injury. I will probably never forgive him for doing that, even if she does.
Dinner had been totally quiet with Brandon sitting with us, and the whole pack gossiping about what went down today. How in the hell did they already know about it? Slutty she-wolves kept approaching Brandon and trying to get him to agree to allow them up to his room, at least he was loyal to Raven on that. I am glad she warned him, and I am getting tired of these freaking she wolfs walking up, but I don’t want to speak right now. I am not speaking to any of these assholes. It might encourage Truett to think that I am forgiving him, and I was not right now. I don’t even know how they can condemn her in the first place. I was starting to wonder how people even knew what had happened because Brandon had not shown me, or Lanie, his alleged proof. No matter what we said, he refused to do it. After the fourth girl came up and offered herself to Brandon, I had to ask, because this was freaking crazy.
“Excuse me, he has a Luna. Stop disrespecting her, and don’t offer yourself to the Alpha. He has a mate” I told her, and I was angry so I pulled no punches.
“Not my fault if everyone found out that our Luna was a slut. That is on her, not me. She won’t be Luna for long, as this is going viral” the she-wolf waves her phone screen in my face, and a video of what looked to be Raven and Justin played on her phone. It was pretty graphic, but Raven had not left here until today. And I was with her all day. So it literally was impossible for this to be Raven.
“Can you send me that video? I want to look at it” I asked her, and the look she gave me was amused.
“I bet, he is pretty hot” she smirked.
“No, Raven is my best friend. It could NOT possibly be Raven, so I need to look at this video to see if I can get proof of it” I told her and rolled my eyes. This girl was just disgusting.
I did not believe for one minute that Raven was capable of doing this. I remember that first night she arrived, and her playing 20 questions with me. I wanted to get to know her, and it was a fun game to play. She had told me about the thing in life that hurt her the most, was Justin's betrayal. She was loyal to the bone, she wouldn’t do that to Brandon. Especially since she had experienced the same kind of pain, she would never betray him.
I am absolutely grossed out at seeing this video. Truett was the only man that I had seen naked, and he was getting upset at me watching the video too. I am pretty sure he was checking out the female in the video when he watched it. It was clear that Justin didn’t have anything to be embarrassed about in the video as well. I was watching it for the second time when I saw it, the proof that it wasn’t Raven was when Justin was putting Reagan on all fours. I froze the video, and said, “Can we all go to your office?” Brandon knew it was aimed at him. I am about to ruin his day, and I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I wasn’t completely happy about it.
The six of us head out of the dining room to go up to the office. We passed the previous Alpha couple as they entered the dining room and when his mother, Angie, tried to tell him to call and check on Raven, he blew her off. I stopped and spoke with her for a minute, and I told her that I was about to get it straightened out with Brandon right now. Dad had told me that Justin had shown up at Blood Walker earlier tonight and that he was frantic for them to go and help Raven. I guess he figured it out too, I don’t know how he did, but anyone with eyes can see a man in love with the woman he is with, in this video. I know that soon Raven will have to make a choice. I just hope that Brandon’s words didn’t make her hate him, more than she already hated Justin.
We all filed into the office and took our seats. Truett sat next to me, in a chair in front of Brandon’s desk, and Krew and Lanie took over the couch against the wall. I see Brandon has gone into full Alpha mode like he is planning on intimidating me. I am sorry for him, it is not going to work. He needs to be taken down a peg, and I am just the girl to do it.
“Brandon, do you want the bad news? Or the worst news first? Or actually, I would like to know why none of you guys love your mates enough to listen to them?” I asked him. It's a trick question because they're all really bad.
“What are you talking about, Stella? You saw the video. You know it was Raven, the proof was right there in front of your own eyes, you don't have to stick up for her anymore. Just admit it. Don’t try to cover for her. You and Lanie were just as complicit in this as she was” Brandon said, and I straightened up in my chair.
“OK, Brandon, I see that this is how you are going to play it, alright. I will play along, in the same cutthroat way. Just know this. In five minutes, you, your brother, and your best friend here are all going to be feeling like shit. Actually, lower than shit, and you know what. You are all right now, in my opinion, lower than shit. You do NOT deserve to be forgiven. I know I won’t be easily forgiving you for what you did to Raven. Not for a long time” I told him and then stood up from my chair to speak. I am so angry right now I feel like I could explode. Truett reached out to hold my hand to try to comfort me, and I slapped his hand away. He looks hurt, but I am too. His Alpha just called me, and Lanie, liars that helped Raven to cheat. Is that what they think of us? Neither of them came to our defense. I am glad we know now, I think a little time apart is in order.
I mindlinked Lanie to have an Omega pack some clothes up for me. I will not be staying here after I get through speaking. I cannot believe that they would automatically assume the worst, about all of us. Lanie knows to have my car brought up too, and I was glad that Carter had Simone drive it here for me, on their last trip to visit. I am about to be dropping truth bombs all over the place. I hope that by the time they recover from the explosions, I will be off our land, I need some time away, they need to reflect on what they did too. Lanie told me not to leave without her. She is having both our bags getting packed at this time and taken down to the car. I controlled my breathing to even out, plus I needed to give the Omegas time to get us packed. I told Lanie to link me when they had the car loaded and to have them leave it parked out front.
“You know, there are several things that disgust me about this plan against Raven. Things that apparently did not occur to any of you brilliant ranked wolves. Why would Raven record herself having sex? With a person she despises. Why would she send said video out to over 700 recipients? In what is clearly an email chain for ranked wolves, that belongs to a ranked wolf. Did you check to see where it originated from? I bet it was Silver Blade. Or did you just naturally assume the very worst about your new mate? Who would hate Raven enough, that when all her other plans failed, would be able to do this, just to ruin Raven in the werewolf community? Someone who just freaking happens to look exactly like Raven. Goddess, you men are so blind. That is Reagan in that video. She died her hair, and wore contacts, and put this show on. Why do you think you got it an hour before anyone else, Brandon?” I asked him. I am just getting warmed up now. He will be losing his shit when I am done. He deserves to feel the full weight of guilt that I am about to put on him.
“Why would Reagan even do such a thing? What possible reason would she have for it? She would be completely humiliated for the rest of her life for it?” Brandon scoffs at my questions, but I see that the wheels are starting to turn for him.
“Why indeed, Brandon? I can think of several reasons, the main one is to get out from under attack from both of us, and Blood Walker. They got desperate, and need to try to save their pack. That is the only thing I can think of for this dog and pony show. Have us duke it out between two strong packs over your killing Raven over that video. That is what Reagan has always wanted, her sister dead. She was going to use you as a tool, she DID use you as a tool. The only mistake she made was the fact that you love Raven so much, you couldn’t hurt her. But you still did, didn’t you, Brandon? You are right on par with that asshole in the video. I will let you know something else. Raven is pregnant, with your baby, when you shook her arm off of you on the steps, and she fell, that was all on you. She could lose the baby, your baby, all because of your jealousy. All because you couldn’t sit down and talk like a reasonable adult” I told Brandon. I see his mouth opening and closing like a fish, and if he thinks that it is over, he is wrong.
“How can we believe that, Stella? Where is your proof? Because it looks like her in the video” Truett asked, I can see him sweating, and I think he realizes that he, and Krew, have royally fucked up too.
“The worst part is that neither of you two was willing to listen to us tell you that she was with one or the other all day long. We were with her, as well as my parents, and hers. She was never out of our sight. Not for a minute. So clearly you do not trust either of us, your true mates. I am so glad to find this out now though. It hurts the both of us, that you don’t believe in your mates, just like Brandon here” I told them, and I see Brandon bristling at me, getting angrier, and angrier, at my words. But he stayed quiet. I can see the guilt and shame in each of their eyes now, but they asked for this, and I am going to make sure they get the full show.
“You have several problems now gentlemen. First, you have a mole in the pack. Someone from this pack told Cheryl that Raven, Lanie, and I were leaving the pack today. Some of that blame lies on us, thinking that it would be safe to discuss our spa day, while we had dinner in the dining room. It was foolish of us to think that we could speak freely in our own pack. We might have been spared this whole ugly incident if we could have spoken without being spied on. They told Cheryl, probably one of your fan club girls, Brandon. That way Reagan could get prepared to put her plan into play. I would start with the 4 sluts that were bold enough to approach you to offer up their disgusting services, seeing as how your Luna "cheated" on you. At least you saved her from the pain of your betrayal, which brings me to my next point. Did you feel it? Did you feel your mate betray you? I bet you didn’t. Because she didn’t. I bet the first inkling of a problem you got was with this stupid video that you were sent. Then you promptly went haywire thinking that Justin had slept with Raven, am I close?” I asked and I could not keep the scorn out of my voice. These men deserved this, and everything that comes with it. I see it now, the shock at me nailing it, they should have known just from that. He was so mad, so sure that Raven had betrayed him, that he forgot that he never felt the pains of her betraying him. I am so disgusted with them right now I want to scream. Lanie linked me that the car and our stuff were ready out front. Time to go, I will finish this now.
“So I am heading to my room, and you men can discuss amongst yourselves where you went wrong. But before Lanie and I leave. I have a few more things to tell you. Since you men have the pack's best interests at heart. You sent your pregnant mate away with a head injury. Because of pride. So let me ask you this, are you proud now? Now that you might lose your mate and your pup? Potentially the next Alpha for Black Adder. Because Raven wrecked her SUV on her way home. She is being checked out right now. She is unconscious and injured, because of you. You want to know how I figured it out. I had picked out matching workout clothes for me and Raven to wear while we train. Raven doesn’t have a mole on her side. Watch the video again, she has a mole about three inches above her hip, right above her waistline. There is your proof, Brandon. It was staring you right in the face, so you go ahead and believe your "eyes" like you told Raven. Because I am going to believe my friend. Just like Truett did, when he backed you, and not me” I told them and brushed the tears from my face.
When the guys sat there and absorbed my words, we exit the packhouse, and slowly drove away. I need to go check on my best friend, she needs me. I realized that I didn’t tell Truett that I was pregnant, and I wasn’t going to tonight. He really pissed me off, and he would have never let me leave the office without escorting me if he had known that I carried his pup. He has been wanting a baby, someone he can pass the Beta line down to, he can wait to find out later, if he can somehow dig his way out of the giant hole he made for himself. Lanie reached over and squeezed my hand. I squeezed hers back. I know her pain too. Our mates didn’t trust us, and that hurt. They would condemn all three of us, and brand us as liars, instead of just asking, and having us work it all out.
Going to see Raven