Chapter Forty One - Finding the traitor

Chapter Forty One - Finding the traitor
MONA’S POV

I flinched as Beta Isa swung the wolf whip down at the back of a guard. He had flogged the five guards that were with my father during the attack, now he was flogging them again, ignoring their groans of pain as he brought the whip down their backs.

“Since none of you want to confess the truth, I suppose I should just flog you all until you die,” he threatened, raising the whip again.

“There is no way I would lie to you Beta Isa,” the guard begged solemnly, “I swear I am not working with the rogues.”

“That is what you all have been saying, so who is lying?” Beta Isa asked cruelly, flogging the whimpering guard and I closed my eyes, unable to watch the scene any longer

What was wrong with these people? I wondered as I looked around the room, from the faces of Aster to Luka to even Gamma Ethan. 

How could they just stand by and watch this happen? 

Most of the guards Beta Isa was beating were innocent, was it really fair to punish everyone because of one mole? 

Beta Isa raised his whip again, about to strike down another guard, when I suddenly raised my hand in protest. “Can you stop?!!!” 

Beta Isa paused, turning slowly to me with a stunned look on his face like he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

“What did you just say?” he asked me coldly, holding his whip tightly like he was about to whip me too.

“I asked you to stop,” I said boldly, standing my ground. “This isn’t going to help us find the mole. You are just punishing the loyal men without proof and if the traitor is among them, he will never confess.” 

Beta Isa scoffed, staring at me in disbelief, “and I want to assume you have a better idea?” 

“Yes,” I nodded, lifting my chin to look him in the eyes. “I do in fact have a better idea.”

Gamma Ethan intervened suddenly, stepping in between me and Beta Isa. “Okay everyone, let’s take this discussion upstairs.” Then he turned to the other guards in the room, “watch these men.”

Beta Isa made the point of glaring at me angrily before flinging the whip on the ground, I rolled my eyes and sighed as I headed upstairs with them.

Upstairs in my father’s study, Beta Isa paced the room impatiently. “Well? What is your brilliant idea?”

I looked up at him with my hands folded, “I want you to release them.”

Isa paused and turned to me with a shocked look on his face, “I should let them go?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes,” I replied, matter of factly. “I think you should let them go.”

“You see, this is why I never approved of the Alpha bringing you back into the pack. It is obvious you don’t even care about your father, an attempt was made on his life and now you want me to allow the person that caused it just to go without punishment?”

“I never said that you should allow them go without punishment, I just asked you to let them go,” I insisted. 

“Um.. Mona, that will not be possible, how can we allow a potential criminal go especially after what they did to your father?” Luka asked. 

“I don’t mean we should just let everyone go, what I mean is that we should act like we are letting them go. We can have the pack doctor come down to announce that my father’s condition just worsened to the point of death.”

Beta Isa frowned, “and why would we do that?” 

“We will do that because the mole, whoever it is, would not be able to resist relaying that information to the rogues,” I explained and they all stared at me, seeming fascinated. “We will watch them secretly and whoever tries to make contact is our traitor.”

“And if no one tries to make contact?” Isa asked, seeming unimpressed.

“They will,” Gamma Ethan said, stepping forward. “The rogues don’t attack blindly, they need information, so if the Alpha is on his ‘deathbed’ they will send word.”

Isa’s lips thinned as he glared at me. I could tell that he hated the fact that I was right. “Fine,” he agreed. “But if this fails, the next time I am interrogating someone no one will stop me.”

He stared at me as he made the statement, as if he knew his words would affect me and it took everything left in me not to roll my eyes at him.

We all returned downstairs and Beta Isa took the whip again, raising it like he was going to hit the guards again.

“I thought we agreed that—”

“I don’t care about any agreement, my way is the best way,” Beta Isa said and I looked around the room, about to complain when the pack doctor came down the stairs with a grim look on his face.

“What is going on?” Gamma Ethan asked him.

“It is the Alpha, he suddenly developed complications” the pack doctor said solemnly. “He might not make it through the night.”

As the pack doctor made his fake announcement according to my plan, I dramatically fell to my knees, seeming like the news of my father’s sickness had broken my heart.

“No!!!” I screamed out in pain, as Aster rushed to my side, holding me to his body and consoling me while I fake cried.

“It will be okay Mona, your father will get through this,” he said, rubbing my shoulder. As I cried in his arms, I looked at the faces of the guards, trying to pick out the one who seemed happy to hear the news, but all their expressions were the same, they all seemed sad.

Whichever of them was the traitor, he was definitely doing an amazing job of hiding it.

“The rest of you,” Gamma Ethan instructed the other guards that weren’t being interrogated and they came up to him immediately. “Take these men to the dungeons, the interrogation will continue in the afternoon.”

I continued to cry as the guards were led away, after they exited, I paused, wiping my tears.

“Place all the suspected guards in seperate cells and put a guard that you trust to monitor those men throughout the night,” I said to Gamma Ethan and he nodded at me in agreement before he left

“You keep impressing me,” Aster commented, coming to my side as Luka left with his father.

I rolled my eyes before I turned to him, “don't you have anything better to do?”

“Not really and why are you still so cold? I thought you had forgiven me,” Aster asked, giving me a hurt look.

“I may have forgiven you, but don't think I will let you off the hook like that,” I said firmly.

“What would it take for you to let me off the hook and back into your good graces?” he asked, giving me a flirty smirk that actually made my stomach flip.

God, I was so easy.

“How about you stay out of my way first?” I asked, giving him a forced smile.

Aster’ smile actually widened, “as hard as that will be for me, I will do it for you.”

I rolled my eyes again, like I wasn’t blushing internally and watched as he headed out the front door.

I laid on my bed, after two hours finally about to get some sleep when someone knocked on my bedroom door.

“Who is it?” I called out grumpily, grabbing a dressing robe and rushing to the door.

“It is me Miss Mona,” a male voice answered as I opened the door to find a guard standing in front of me with a panicked look on his face.

“What is it?” I asked him, wondering what was going on.

“One of the guards that we were asked to watch over tonight has broken out,” he said in a shaky voice, refusing to meet my eyes.

Shit, I cussed internally. “Have you called Beta Isa and Gamma Ethan?”

“I called Beta Isa before I came to your room Miss Mona, he said that he was going to catch the guard himself and that he was going to call Gamma Ethan,” the guard replied and I almost screamed out in frustration.

Great, this was just great. Not only was I a massive fuck up who had allowed the mole escape, now the guard had already told Beta Isa of all people about it.

My life just kept getting better and better.

I dialed Luka’s number as I rushed downstairs, “have you heard?” I asked as soon as he picked.

“Unfortunately, yeah.” he replied solemnly.

“Where are you right now?”

“On my way to you, I’ll be outside your gate in less than five minutes.”

I cut the call immediately and literally ran outside the house, waiting outside the gate until Luka’s gray car pulled over.

“Hey,” he greeted me as I stepped in.

“What is the update? Has Beta Isa found him?” I asked, feeling panicked. 

“They have tracked the guard to his house in town. Beta Isa and the others are almost there,” He replied as he sped down the road.

“Okay, let’s hope they catch him and my stupid plan doesn’t bite me in the ass.”

“Your plan wasn’t stupid and besides we would have never figured out who the mole was without it,” Luka said, giving me a reassuring smile.

“Yeah maybe but thanks to me the mole is about to escape,” I replied anxiously.

Luka gave me a calm smile, “It will be fine.”

It had better be fine, I thought, looking ahead as he drove and trying to calm my racing heart.

Finally, Luka parked as we arrived at the guard’s house. I stepped out seeing three other cars, probably belonging to Beta Isa and Aster and Gamma Ethan.

The night was eerily quiet—too quiet for what we were supposed to be walking into. If the guard was inside, there was no way that he would come this quietly.

“Mona wait—-” Luka called out, trying to stop me from rushing into the house.

But he was too late, I had already pushed the front door open and as I saw the scene in front of me, a loud scream escaped from my mouth.

The whimpering guard from earlier lay on the ground with a silver knife sticking out of his back, his eyes stared blankly, unmoving and his skin had turned blue. 

He was the second dead body I had ever seen and I didn’t know it then… but he wasn’t going to be the last.