Chapter 237 The Unknown Mark
ADRIANA
“Go ahead, Damien. You have my full attention.”
The courtroom had gone so quiet I could hear the faint sound of the ventilation system running somewhere above us. Damien stood at the stand and rubbed his wrists slowly where the chains had been, and then he looked up and began to speak.
“I cannot believe what has been said about me in this court. Not once in my life has it crossed my mind to move against the King or against Alpha Damon. Even when he took what was mine by right, I accepted it. I told myself it was fate and I moved on.”
‘What was mine by right.’
That word stuck with me but I wanted to hear everything before I pulled at that thread.
“I don’t know how those items got into my house. I had never heard of aconite before they named it in court. What I know is that they came to my door, searched through everything I owned, and arrested me on the spot. They said I was planning against the Alpha. I was taken to his house still trying to explain myself when they walked back in carrying those items.”
I looked up from my notes. “So you’re saying the items were not found during the initial search of your home. They appeared after you’d already been removed from the property.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Was Nancy home when they came?”
“No.” He exhaled slowly. “She’d heard something was happening and came straight to the Alpha’s house. She wasn’t there when they searched.”
No witness to the original search. No one who could confirm or deny the chain of custody for those items from the moment they were supposedly found.
“How did you end up in the woods with those men?”
He pressed his lips together. “Those boys came to me. They said they’d heard about contraband being moved into the pack — weapons, they said. They wanted me to come and see it. I was the chief guard. That was exactly the kind of thing I was supposed to act on.” He shook his head. “So I went with them. And when we got there, we were surrounded and we were just taken. No one tried to listen to us.”
“You had never encountered those three men before that night?”
“Never. I learned their names here in this courtroom.”
I sat back and let that settle over the room for a moment before I turned to the Elders. “Is there anything you’d like to raise at this point?”
They conferred quietly among themselves, and then the Chief rose. “We have questions for the accused. Damien — you’ve maintained your innocence through two separate incidents. But you’ve provided no evidence of it. Words alone are not sufficient. If you want this court to shift its position, you need to give us something tangible.”
Hazel stood before he’d finished the last sentence.
“My Queen, I’d like to formally represent Damien for the remainder of this trial.”
“Damien,” I said, “are you in agreement?”
He nodded without hesitation.
The Chief turned to me. “My Queen, with respect, she holds the position of Beta. That creates a procedural conflict—”
“Not for the duration of this trial,” I said. “Leo is stepping into the Beta role temporarily. That resolves the conflict.” I looked at the Chief steadily until he sat down. Then I nodded at Hazel. “You have the floor.”
She moved to the center of the room with a folder already in her hand and the particular focused energy she got when she’d been preparing something and was ready to deploy it.
“Damien served as head of guards under Alpha Damon before his arrest. That role meant he controlled everything — rosters, schedules, uniforms, equipment allocations.” She pulled a photograph from the folder and brought it to me. “This is what the three men were wearing when they were apprehended in the woods.”
I looked at the image. On the shoulder of the jacket, printed clearly, was a red crown.
My throat tightened.
“This,” Hazel continued, turning to address the room, “is what Damien was wearing at the time of his arrest.” She held up a second photograph. “Black clothing. No insignia. No symbol.” She let both images sit in the room’s attention for a moment. “If Damien had recruited those men and was running them as part of his operation, they would be wearing standard guard issue. His issue. But they’re not. They’re wearing something else entirely, something with a mark that Damien didn’t authorize, because it was never part of his uniform system.”
I looked at the Chief. “So the question becomes — who gave them those clothes? And since they clearly weren’t working under Damien’s authority, whose authority were they actually under?”
The Chief had nothing immediate to offer.
“I want one of the boys brought back in,” Hazel said. “Any one of them.”
I granted it, and Kyle was brought through the side door a few minutes later. He looked less composed, the rehearsed steadiness starting to fray at the edges. I watched him register Damien standing at the stand and something flicker across his face before he locked it down.
“Kyle.” I kept my voice even. “You’re here to answer questions. I want you to understand something clearly before we begin. I can get what I need from any one of the three of you. None of you is irreplaceable to this process. So your usefulness right now depends entirely on whether you choose to be honest.” I held his gaze for a moment. “Hazel.”
She stepped forward. “You told this court that Damien approached you at a bar. What was the name of that bar?”
Kyle blinked. “I — I don’t remember the name.”
“You don’t remember the name of the bar where a man approached you about a job that would make you rich and then threatened your family’s lives if you refused.” She said it without inflection. “That’s a memorable evening. But the name of the bar is gone.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“We searched every bar in your pack.” She pulled a second sheet from her folder. “We went through security footage from that entire period. There is no record of you and Damien in the same location at any point.”
Kyle’s eyes shifted. “Maybe it wasn’t a bar then. Maybe it was the street. Things blur together after a while.”
“A bar,” Hazel said clearly, “became a street just now.” She looked at me. “My Queen, I’d like Collins brought in.”
Kyle was taken out before Collins entered. His hands weren’t steady and the moment his eyes landed on the photograph Hazel was holding, something in his face went wrong in a way he couldn’t pull back.
She held it up. “What is this symbol?”
He stared at it. “Where did you get that?”
“Does it matter where I got it?”
“You had no right—” His voice cracked slightly. “Those were my personal things. You had no right to go through them.”
I leaned forward. “Collins. In this courtroom, I have every right. Now answer the question.”
He looked at the image, then at the floor, then at the wall, anywhere that wasn’t a face looking back at him expecting an answer.
“I was supposed to burn that,” he said finally.
It came out quietly but the room was silent enough that every person present heard it.
Hazel took one step closer. “Why were you supposed to burn it, Collins? What happens if we see it?”
His jaw worked. “You’re going to get us killed. You don’t understand who you’re dealing with.”
“Then help me understand,” she said. “Because right now, the only person with the power to end your involvement in this is standing right in front of you.”
He closed his mouth and didn’t open it again.