Chapter 108 You did it Melinda!
Vuk Kael Laskovic:
The tech room felt smaller every time we rewatched it.
Dim lights, the low buzz of the monitors, and the faint smell of old coffee that had gone cold hours ago. This was the third loop—maybe the fourth.
I had lost count. The footage played in crisp, unforgiving clarity on the main screen: Melinda’s face, Melinda’s uniform, Melinda’s hands measuring out the herbs, stirring them into the tea with slow, deliberate circles, then carrying the tray down the corridor like it was just another ordinary morning. The timestamp glowed red in the corner. 5:47 a.m. No shadows. No glitches. Just her.
Melinda sat hunched in the metal chair bolted to the floor, her whole body trembling. Tears had been streaming down her face since the first playthrough, but now they were relentless—thick, ugly sobs that made her shoulders heave and her breath catch in wet, choking gasps.
“It’s not me,” she whispered again, voice hoarse and cracking. “Alpha, please… that’s not me. I was in my bed. I swear on my mother’s grave, on the Moon Goddess herself, I never left after I came back last night. I gave Celeste my ID because she looked like she was dying, but after that… nothing. I slept. I slept straight through until my shift.”
I didn’t answer. I just let the footage roll on. The kitchen camera caught her setting the tray exactly where the Luna’s maid would pick it up. The hallway camera showed her walking with steady purpose. The witnesses we’d already questioned stood silent against the far wall—two junior maids and one night guard—arms crossed, faces grim.
Melinda’s eyes flicked to the screen and she flinched like someone had slapped her. “Look at it—please look! That’s my face, but it can’t be. I don’t even remember walking like that. I don’t remember any of this. Someone… someone must have done something to me. Drugged me. Or—or used magic. I don’t know how, but that’s not me doing those things. I would never hurt the Luna. Never.”
Her voice rose into a desperate wail on the last word. She slid off the chair onto her knees, hands clasped so tightly her knuckles went white. “Alpha Vuk, I’m begging you. Listen to me. I’ve served this pack since I was fourteen. I’ve cleaned the floors, carried the trays, never complained. Why would I throw everything away now? Why would I poison the mother of your children? It doesn’t make sense. Please… please just look at me. I’m telling the truth.”
I finally turned my head and met her eyes. They were swollen, red-rimmed, filled with raw panic. “Then explain the footage, Melinda. Explain why three separate people saw you last night. Explain why your ID logged you leaving and returning exactly when the poison was prepared.”
She shook her head so hard her hair whipped across her face. “I can’t! I don’t know how to explain it because it didn’t happen! I gave Celeste the ID, yes—I felt sorry for her, she said she was dying and the Luna had dismissed her and she just wanted one last breath of fresh air. I handed it over because I’m not heartless. But after that? I went back to the servants’ quarters, curled up in my bunk, and the next thing I remember is waking up when the morning bell rang. Ask the girls in my room. Ask them—they saw me sleeping. They’ll tell you.”
I pressed the pause button. The frozen image of her face stared out at us—calm, focused, guilty as hell.
“Enough,” I said quietly. I turned to the enforcer by the door. “Bring in the second set. The ones who were on duty last night and this morning. I want to hear it again, in front of her.”
The guard nodded and stepped out. Melinda’s breathing hitched harder. “No… please don’t. Don’t bring more people. They’re wrong. They have to be wrong.”
Minutes later the door opened again. Three more staff filed in—two senior maids who worked the night rotation and one of the outer gate guards. They lined up beside the first group, eyes flicking nervously between me and the sobbing girl on the floor.
I didn’t waste time. “Did any of you see Melinda last night? After midnight. Be precise.”
They answered almost in unison, voices overlapping but clear.
“Yes, Alpha. We did.”
The first senior maid spoke up. “I saw her come back around two in the morning. She used her ID at the gate. Looked a little out of breath, said she’d been fetching herbs because someone wasn’t feeling well. She even showed me the small bag she was carrying.”
The gate guard nodded. “Confirmed on my log. Melinda’s badge. Timestamp matches. She dropped a tray in the servants’ hall later—loud crash. I heard her say something about special herbs for the Luna.”
The second maid added, quieter but just as certain, “I passed her in the corridor when she was heading toward the kitchen this morning. Same uniform. Same face. She didn’t even look at me, just kept walking like she had a job to do.”
Melinda’s sobs turned into something broken. She pressed her forehead to the cold tile floor, hands fisted in her hair. “No—no—no! That’s not true. I didn’t talk to any of you. I didn’t drop a tray. I didn’t go back to the kitchen. I was asleep. Why are you all saying this? Why are you lying about me? Alpha, they’re mistaken. Or—or someone paid them. Or maybe I’m losing my mind and I really did it and I just don’t remember. But I swear… I swear on everything I hold sacred, I did not poison the Luna.”
One of the newer maids, stepped forward half a step. Her voice was small but steady. “It was her, Alpha. We all know it. She’s always hated the Luna. Everyone in the servants’ quarters has heard her. She calls her ‘that southern stray’ when she thinks no one’s listening. Says the pack was better before an outsider took the title. She’s said it more than once after a few drinks. ‘We don’t need some southern girl changing everything.’”
The room went still.
Melinda’s head snapped up. Her face was a mess of tears and snot and pure horror.
“I… I did say those things,” she whispered, voice trembling so badly the words barely formed. “Yes. I confess that. I hated that she came from the South. I hated how fast everything changed—the traditions, the way she spoke, the way the Alpha looked at her like she hung the moon. It felt wrong. It felt like she didn’t belong. But hating her… hating her is not the same as killing her. I would never poison her tea. I would never risk the children losing their mother. I would never betray the pack like that. Please, Alpha—look at me. I’m on my knees. I’m begging with everything I have left. Take my life if you must, but don’t take it for something I didn’t do. Lock me away forever, strip me of my rank, banish me—anything. Just don’t kill me for a crime that wasn’t mine. I didn’t do it. I didn’t. I didn’t.”
Her voice cracked into full sobs again. She crawled forward on her knees, hands reaching toward my boots. “Alpha Vuk… you’ve always been fair. You’ve always protected us. Please see me. See that I’m telling the truth. The footage is wrong. The witnesses are wrong. Or someone made it look like me. Magic… it has to be magic. Celeste—she’s the one who took my ID. She’s the one who knows things no one else does. Ask her. Please ask her. I’ll stay in the cells for the rest of my life if that’s what it takes. I’ll sign anything. I’ll confess to hating her out loud in front of the whole pack. Just don’t… don’t end me for this. My family… my little brother is only ten. He needs me. Please. Mercy. Moon Goddess, give me mercy through you.”
She kept going, words tumbling out faster and more desperate. “I’ll clean every floor in the pack house for the rest of my days. I’ll never speak another word against the Luna. I’ll cut my own tongue out if that’s what you want. Just let me live. Let me prove it wasn’t me. Test me with truth serum. Bring in the witches. Do whatever you have to do. But please… please don’t let me die like this. Not for something I swear on my soul I didn’t commit.”