He rose a brow.
"A what?" He asked her.
"An imposter." Aurora said.
He sighed, leaned back at the desk, and folded his arms.
"Jasmine is an imposter." He said with such sarcasm ringing in his word. "And where did you get all this information from?"
"Alexander." She said.
He looked at her in disbelief. "Alexander told you that Jasmine was an imposter, and you believed him."
"It wasn’t from Alexander." She explained. "Well, at least not from him directly. Look, I had someone investigate Jasmine, and then I-
"Investigate her?" He said further sounding surprised with sarcasm. "What are you investigating her for exactly?"
"Look, Jasmine isn’t who you think she is." She said. "That’s what you need to know. I hired some people to investigate the Moonlight pack, and they couldn’t give me what I wanted, except they redirected me to someone else who knows what happened."
"Alexander knows what happened. And it’s because his brother Dean was the one who was supposed to marry her. He knows them beforehand. We didn’t know much. And if anyone would know the truth, it’s Alexander."
Xaden just stared at her. "I’ve had no cause to investigate Jasmine. She is an unshifted wolf and can’t transmit or send information to anyone."
"Xaden we didn’t carry out her screening. We didn’t check whether she is truly an unshifted wolf." Aurora argued. "You were supposed to. We did do that for every slave we have, and you said we were going to, but for whatever reasons, we didn’t."
He frowned, pushed himself back from the desk, turned to the table, and stared to roll up the scrolls.
"Because she is. And if you haven’t noticed, I’ve been busy with many things in my arms." He informed her.
"With all dire respect, my lord, it seems you have lost your direction." She said. "You don’t have focus anymore. I came back, and I heard that you had taken out an eye and hand of Alexander on behalf of Jasmine. Who the hell is she? You’re trying to convince me that there isn’t anything more going on between the both of you."
He looked at her, puzzled. "If you believe that someone or something is amiss between us, then you are the one who has lost your direction."
"You aren’t acting that way, at least not to me or any of your men. You give her validation. You’ve saved her and stood on her behalf times without number. You even took out the hand of another Alpha for her!" Aurora said. "Now tell me if that is normal."
"You already know that Alexander and my altercation was inevitable." He said. "It was going to happen one way or the other, and well, moreover, since you’ve been exiled, you missed him sending an assassin to kill me."
She sighed and shook her head. "I heard, and if you didn’t lose focus, you would know that Alexander would never send an assassin to kill you. He wants to do it himself. It was not him. You have the wrong man in a cell."
"That’s not up to you to decide." Xaden said as he pushed the scrolls inside a drawer and locked it.
He shoved the keys inside his pocket.
"Then I ask that you give me a chance for you to hear me out." She told him. "All I ask from you is a few minutes, my lord. A few minutes."
He stopped short.
"If I do as you ask, will you let me be?"
He asked her.
"Yes." She nodded.
She couldn’t let this get out of hand.
He sighed. "Fine. Well, we have a few minutes before Alexander’s execution."
She sighed a sigh of relief as he returned all the scrolls to the drawers and started walking ahead.
"What makes you think I will be interested in what Alexander has to say." He told her.
She shrugged. "Because he doesn’t have anything to lose. And it really won’t be such a bad idea."
"And you believe him?" He asked as they made a turn and took the steps. "Aurora Alexander is my enemy. He is not going to tell me the truth and you bloody well know it."
"Well we have to hear it don’t you? I just want you to hear it." She said to him.
He stopped in his tracks. "Why didn’t he just tell you and get it over?"
She shrugged. "I have no idea. He just told me to get you."
He sighed and then walked ahead. "I hope this is not going to be a waste of my time."
She said nothing about that last statement and went ahead behind him.
As they walked down to the dungeon, Xaden stopped short and held his hand, prohibiting Aurora from moving any further.
"What?" She asked him. "What is wrong?"
He took a deep breath and rushed in without saying a Word.
The guards at the gates of the dungeon were dead.
"What happened?" She asked, shocked.
And then they went past the three spots that held each set of guards.
They were all lying dead on the floor.
Aurora looked on in shock. "How did this happen?"
The guards who watched over the dungeons were the strongest men in the pack.
How could they have been killed so quickly and without even sounding an alarm?
Xaden rushed up to the cell and stopped short at the bars, then flung it open.
"Xaden, what has-
She stopped short when she saw it.
Alexander was not missing. He was inside the cell where he was supposed to be.
Except he was lying down dead.
"Oh my God." She said.
She could not believe this.
She had just come back from the cell.
He had been fine.
"B-but he w-was here when I came. He was fine." She said.
Xaden looked over the body and saw where his throat had been slit open.
"Ring the bell! Shut down the entire castle! Shut down the bloody castle!" Xaden shouted