Chapter 92 ON MY OWN

Chapter 92 ON MY OWN
Kali's POV 

I couldn't sleep, but if there was one thing I hated the most, it was the fact that my insomnia was slowly developing into a bad habit. It wasn't even my fault, and the heavens could see that I tried my best to stay out of trouble, but it never worked. 

Raelyn's words echoed in my ears, and I found myself comparing who's threat held more weight. Diego's or Raelyn's? 

None of them was going to play out well for me if I thought about it, and it made my skin crawl. I tried to fall asleep, but times without number, and more times than I could count, I woke up with the nightmare of Raelyn slicing my head from my neck, or Diego ripping my heart out with his own claws. 

Luckily for me, and probably by the moon goddess' grace, morning came by pretty quickly. The moment I freshened up, I made my way out of the room and straight to the hut where my little guest had been proclaimed dead. 

The hut smelled of smoke and damp earth. As opposed to the last time, the guard from before was nowhere to be found, and I had no idea how I felt about that. Shivers raced down my spine as I stood in front of the door. They hadn't even bothered locking the hut anymore, and as crazy as it sounded, a small part of me almost felt like the door would swing open, and he would run out of the little hut. 

A small sigh of relief slid past my lips as I walked into the empty space. It was sad that they'd moved him so quickly, but at the same time, I wasn't sure how I would react if I were to walk into his corpse. 

Without wasting so much as a single moment, I crouched low, running my fingers over the cracked floorboards. I was searching for anything, anything, that might tell me who wanted the man dead. My nails scraped against the wood, and my  frustration grew heavier with every second.

There were no letters, no hidden compartments, no stray fibers or scents I could trust. Just emptiness, like someone had already been here to scrub it clean.

“Think, kali.” I bit the inside of my cheek and stood, scanning the corners one last time. “There has to be something.”

No matter how many times I chanted the words to myself, it still didn't change anything. 

Outside, the sun was dipping low, shadows stretching long over the pack’s grounds. Everyone seemed to be busy with their daily tasks, and I was grateful for that. It made it super easy to focus on the task at hand, without letting rumors get in my way. 

I tugged my cloak tighter and started asking questions. At first, the answers were simple, rehearsed even. 

“I didn’t see anyone near the hut.” the first man said.

“The man kept to himself.” another one had said. “he came with the others, but I haven't seen any of them since.”

“No one barely interacted with him.”

Their answers sounded palpable at least, but the longer I asked, the more their eyes shifted. With each passing second, I could feel their suspicion coiled around me like vines. When I pressed harder, insisting someone must have noticed something, the hostility began to bleed through, and then, I made the mistake.

A man sharpening a blade out by the well narrowed his eyes when I asked him if he’d been near the hut last night. His hand stilled, the scrape of metal on stone cut short.
“You accusing me?” he asked, voice rough with a dangerous edge. “Is that it?”

“No,” I said quickly, raising my hands. “I just need to know who was where….”

“Sounds like you’re pointing fingers,” he snapped, standing. His voice was boomed, and I just knew it was loud enough to draw a few heads. “And that's a little ironic, don't you think?”

“No.” My stomach twisted. “I’m only trying to find out what happened. If you just let me…”

I didn't get any more time to finish up what I was saying, as someone else cut through from the crowd. The plan had been to lay low, but it was too late. His voice had struck like a bell, summoning others.

“She’s covering her tracks,” someone muttered from the gathering circle. “Didn’t that rogue meet with her last?”

“I heard he wanted to talk to the Alpha,” someone else chimed in. “but she got to him first.”

The murmurs grew louder, heavier, and before long, they were hurling accusations at me like stones. A crowd had started to form, faces tight with fear and anger. Fear knotted in the pit of my belly at the growing crowd, and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Raelyn stepped forward.

“Of course she’s hiding something.’ Her lips curled in triumph, like she’d been waiting for this moment. “Why else would she be digging around the hut like a rat in the dirt? She’s desperate to erase her mistake.”

“It wasn’t me,” I said firmly, even as my pulse thundered in my ears. “I’m trying to find out who really….”

“You expect us to believe that? That man is dead, and the one person who gained his trust conveniently happens to be you.” Raelyn cut me off, her tone dripping venom. “The outsider, the one who’s been under suspicion since the moment she arrived.”

“You don’t understand….”The circle tightened around me, as my breaths came sharp and shallow. The world around me swirled, but I still held on to whatever strength was keeping me sane in this moment. 

“No, you don’t understand,” Raelyn snapped, her voice rising like a whipcrack. “This is our pack. Our family. And that man could've been one of us. He could have been a soldier, but you cut his life short. If you won’t confess, then maybe it’s time we deliver justice ourselves.”

My blood ran cold as a ripple of agreement ran through the crowd. Fists clenched, and eyes gleamed, and I hated how I understood what that meant. They wanted blood, my blood. 

My chest squeezed as I searched desperately through the faces in the crowd. There was no way this was going to be my fate. How could I have made it here, just to end up like like. 

As the furious chants from the pack members grew louder and louder, I didn't stop searching, even when my heart hammered like it's only mission was to break free from my chest. I was this close to giving up, when my gaze landed on the last person I expected to see. 

Diego.

He stood just beyond the circle, arms folded, and jaw clenched. His gaze locked with mine, sharp and unreadable, and I quickly put two and two together to figure out that he'd been standing there for a while now. 

Memories of me in his office and his latest ultimatum flashed in my mind, but a tiny part of me reassured myself that he was going to save me. He was going to stop this, he just had to. 

“Alpha Diego,” I said, the word breaking past my throat. “You know I didn’t do this. Yo know, so tell them.”

For a long, terrible moment, he held my stare. His eyes were storms I couldn’t read, fury and calculation clashing beneath the surface. My heart pounded, waiting for him to step forward and silence the mob, but at the last moment he turned away.

The air collapsed around me, and I nearly lost my balance. The crowd surged closer, Raelyn’s triumphant voice spurring them on, and all I could hear was the roar of betrayal ringing in my skull.

Diego wasn’t going to save me.

This time, I was on my own.

Shit.