Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen
And when the truth is unknown, sit back and let it unravel~ Xander Vancei.
Xander
“Steelfang won’t take this lying down,” I say grimly. It’s not necessary to say it though. Only the foolish wouldn’t realize that. If we are in their shoes and an emissary of ours is killed, the culprit’s pack can get ready to leave existence. My brothers are seated around the table, staring at the man’s body. Even in death, the scar under his eyes looks domineering in its own way. I watch it in fascination, as my brain gets to work, trying to figure out what actually happened, and how he got poisoned without us initiating it. Before the truce, we wouldn’t bat an eye if someone from Steelfang bleeds to death right in our presence. I mean, you don’t go about handing cakes and cups of wine to your enemies, do you? But now, he died in our pack, after eating food offered to him by us. That alone is damning, and we have no evidence to prove otherwise.
“I think this is a set up,” Xarius says. He doesn’t sound as carefree as moments ago when I was about to give him a punch or two. He’d retaliate though, but at least, I get to hit him. He leans on the table. “What if Steelfang had already planted spies in Blackmoon? Remember we’ve been away for years. We don’t even know what members of our pack look like,” he pauses for effect. I can see what he’s trying to say. “What if they planted their spies, poisoned the food after his arrival, and just used him as a scapegoat?”
I consider this seriously. That’s a possibility. Anything to bring us down, Steelfang would grab at it like candy. The sudden offer of a truce was already looking suspicious from the start. Besides, if this matter is taken to the Council of Werewolves, we’ll face many repercussions, and worse, we have to give up a life to appease Steelfang. And that’s only Steelfang agrees to it. I can think of many ways we could be punished. And we have no evidence. None at all. But on the other hand, Steelfang might be our enemy, but they’re not dishonest lots. I don’t think they can kill a member of their pack just to trap us.
“Steelfang won’t do a thing like that,” Xavier says. He’s having the same thoughts as me. “I hate to say this, but they won’t kill their own.” He adds, and I nod in agreement.
“Then who poisoned him?” Xarius frowns. “We didn’t, heck we didn’t even know that an emissary was on his way,” he goes on. He looks angry now. It’s confusing really. If we aren’t behind the man’s death, and Steelfang can’t possibly be behind it, then who poisoned him? And why?
“Do you think we should tell Steelfang about it before they find out?” Xavier asked with an exhale.
“Don’t be stupid,” I hiss. “Steelfang won’t pop balloons for us, and pat us on the back just because we told them ‘Hey, your emissary died at our pack, but we can swear on our honor that we didn’t kill him. You have to believe us.’ If anything, this is cause for a greater war than what we’ve been doing.” I say solemnly.
I run my hand through my hair. I hate dead ends, but I’m going to unravel this matter. Someone was behind it, and I’m going to fish that person out.
“Let’s bury the body,” Xarius pushes off the chair, and goes over to the man’s corpse. “The poison is deadly enough that even his wolf couldn’t push out its toxins and save his life. I have never seen anything Iike it,” he leans down but doesn’t touch the body. “See, his body is turning grey.” He adds, and I peer down to see it. A grey patch spreads from the man’s neck and disappears into the spot that’s covered by his clothes. It’s not noticeable except when you really look closely. “The poison—whatever it is—should be classified with the same deadliness as wolfsbane.” Xarius says.
I clasp my hands and place them on my knees.
“This should strengthen our suspicion that whoever did this is an expert, or received instructions from an expert.” Xarius points out. I can tell he desperately wants the culprit to be Steelfang. But I don’t think that’s the case.
“I agree with you on that,” Xavier sighs. He also gets off his chair, take one look at the body, then a calculating look creeps into his eyes.
“Let’s bury the body. We’ll do it ourselves with no help from the servants.” He’s already on the move, grabbing the head and gesturing at us to help. We sneak out the private door in the throne room that leads straight to a spot in the forest. I stop on the way to grab a spade for digging, and by the time I join my brothers, the body is laying on the ground, and we have birds for company.
Xavier digs a grave, and we bury the body. This part of the forest is not mostly used, not even for the pack run. I gathered that from the Betas.
We head back to the throne room with grim expressions on our faces.
“Way to go,” Xarius groans. “Just when we were about to cement our positions as Alphas too,” he adds. A thought occurs to me, and I sit up.
My brothers give me a questioning stare. “Pualin,” I say. I see the moment realization dawns in their eyes. Xarius sits up, and Xavier grits his teeth.
“That’s possible,” Xavier says. “There’s every possibility that he knew the emissary has arrived, got to the kitchen through people who secretly work for him, and poisoned the man.”
“And what does he hope to achieve?” Xarius asks.
“Challenging our leadership. If we bring trouble to Blackmoon just in the first month of our ascension, how many more will we bring when we get halfway?” I ask.
“Sonofabitch,” Xarius cusses. “If that bastard is behind this, I swear–”
He pauses just then as we hear a sudden noise behind the door. I gesture at them to carry on with the conversation, and creep to the door. I open it with a sharp pull, but there’s no one.
My eyes narrows as I catch the sight of a disappearing figure.
And I know who it might be…