Chapter 236
Chapter 236
Chapter 86: Theo
I left after Marie and Kylee arrived. They needed time together. And it still hurt too much to watch them be there for her in the way I wanted to be. Kingston was waiting outside the door still. I didn’t know if she would want to see him either, and I couldn’t bring myself to allow it. Not when she was pulling away from me already.
“She needs time with her family,” I said gruffly.
“Of course,” Kingston said.
“Jimmy has tracked down one of the culprits involved in her poisoning,” I said. “My father is handling the other Alphas and Lunas if you would like to join me at the precinct.”
“Absolutely,” he said eagerly.
We traveled to the sheriff’s station in silence. Jimmy and Maggie had been able to catch up with John easily enough. He was holed up in an old management building at the fairgrounds. He didn’t put up much of a fight when they cornered him. His guilt was already eating away at him.
I looked at him through the one-way glass at the station. We used to be friends back in high school. We were never close, but as his future Alpha, I knew him well enough. At least, I did back then. The man sitting before me now was a stranger to me. An enemy I would have never expected.
“Do you want Sheriff McCabe to question him, Alpha,” Jimmy asked. “It may be…”
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Chapter 86 Theo
“No,” I interrupted. “I need to take care of this.”
I entered the interrogation room and sat down across the table from John. Anger and the sting of betrayal boiled under the surface but was tempered by pity. He looked ragged and disheveled. But I could tell this was a state he had been in for a while. He was fidgeting and his eyes darted everywhere around the room, except on me.
“John,” I began more calmly than expected, “We know what happened last night. I know there was a plot to poison Luna Ayla. I know you were involved.” He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head but he wasn’t denying anything. “I also know you couldn’t do it.”
John fell still, his shoulders falling. “She didn’t take a drink,” he muttered. “I was watching. Watching like a hawk. Like a wolf. Watching to see if she took a drink. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to. But she said it had to be done. But she didn’t tell me. She never said…”
“Who, John?” I asked. “Who didn’t tell you what?”
“She didn’t say there was a pup,” he said with anguish. “I never would have if… I would have let them hurt me. I wouldn’t have… That’s why I stopped her. I heard the other Luna and I couldn’t do it.”
Luna Victoria had mentioned her conversation with Ayla about her pregnancy at the gathering. That was right around the time John knocked her drink from her hand.
“But then you had an argument with someone,” I said. “You tried to leave and they got mad. Who were you arguing with, John? Was it her?”
John was chewing his nails viciously. I could see where he had been drawing blood from doing so. He was losing his mind, but he managed to nod a confirmation to my question. I stood up and walked around the table, leaning on it as I reached out for John. He shied away, but I
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rested a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer some kind of comfort.
“John, I need you to tell me who you were arguing with.” Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
He shook his head vigorously. “No, no, I can’t,” he insisted. “They’ll hurt Sarah.”
“I won’t let that happen,” I said. “I swear. But whoever it was went into the kitchen after you left. They poisoned Luna Ayla. They tried to kill her. They killed our pup, John.”
John was still shaking his head and rocking back and forth. “She wasn’ t allowed in,” he muttered. “That’s why it had to be me. She said so. She wasn’t allowed in.”
“But she did go in,” I said. “We have her on the security cameras, John. We can see her putting something in the drink. Who is she, John?”
He slowly stilled again. “It was Amy,” he said softly. “Amy poisoned Luna Ayla.”
My jaw clenched so tight I thought my teeth would cr ack. Kieran came growling violently. I had barely felt him since the doctor told me our pup hadn’t made it. He had been so devastated. I couldn’t let him out to run. So, he receded into my subconscious.
But now he was back with a vengeance. I could feel him trying to force the shift, but I couldn’t let him take over. I wouldn’t be able to stop him from taking his rage out on John for his involvement. The others must have seen what was about to happen because I felt strong hands grab my arms and drag me away. I pushed Kieran down, forcing him to back down. When I had settled, I was in another room.
“You back with us, man?” Jimmy said as he held my shoulders.
“Yeah,” I grunted.
Chapter 86: Theo
“I don’t understand why you didn’t let him tear the ba st ard apart,” Kingston growled. “We know he’s guilty. Just because he backed out at the last minute…”
“John isn’t in his right mind,” I snapped. I sighed, still working to calm my anger. “His family has a history of illness. His mother suffered from paranoid delusions. He was an easy pawn for the Waar Pa k.”
“Amy wasn’t,” Jimmy snarled.
“No,” I rumbled. “Hunt her down. And bring her to the cellar. I no longer have an interest in catering to appearances.”