“No! Everyone should know,” Kaye refused, not even glancing at me. He walked directly over to the candidates, stopping at Lamar’s table.
Lamar sat upright, his face expressionless, though the slight twitch at his temples betrayed his nerves. I could sense his anxiety from across the room. At this point, they both looked so guilty that it was hard to doubt anything had happened last night.
Could they truly be so heartless as to attack her without any provocation?
“Get up.” Without another word, Kaye grabbed Lamar’s collar and pulled him out of his chair, shocking everyone around. Sydney covered her mouth in horror as Kaye marched over to her table and seized her by her ponytail.
I cringed, twisting my body and gritting my teeth. It didn’t look right for him to handle them so roughly. But was it not justified?
“Hey, you can’t do that to her!” Salem rose to defend her sister, but her eyes caught Emmet’s steely glare from afar. He stood silently, head bowed with his intense eyes peeking through his thick eyebrows, tapping the tip of his index finger on the table as a warning. She sat down again, covering her face in her hands.
“These two attacked an innocent candidate last night,” Kaye announced, his voice bold and unyielding. “They beat her without any provocation or wrongdoing on her part and then abandoned her at the bottom of a hill, knowing she doesn’t have a wolf. She could have died.”
The details struck me as odd.
“And the fact that you-” he shook Sydney by her ponytail, still gripping both of them beside him. Standing tall between them, he glared down. “You encouraged this brute to attack her,” he growled at Sydney, who kept her eyes glued to the floor.
How did he know all this?
Even Maximus exchanged a glance with me before he pulled out his phone to contact the warriors back at the farmhouse.
“Wait-they attacked Helanie?” Emmet finally broke his stare at Salem to ask his brother.
“They left her to die,” Kaye added flatly.
Without another word, Emmet strode forward, using his long strides to close the gap and swiftly yanked Lamar from Kaye’s grip.
Emmet forced Lamar to face him and then punched him square in the face, prompting me to rush over to stop him. Emmet was uncomfortable, restrained most of the time only because he didn’t want to unleash the storm that simmered inside him every second.
“Emmet, let the warriors handle this,” I said, rushing behind him and wrapping my arms around his waist to pull him away from Lamar. Maximus caught on and quickly moved between Emmet and Lamar-only to take over and start punching Lamar himself.
“Hey!” I shouted. We needed to be cautious with this case. The two culprits could play on sympathies, and we didn’t want that. Sydney and Lamar would later claim they were abused before being investigated.
These two had committed a crime; they shouldn’t be given any opportunity to paint themselves as victims later.
“Warriors, take them away and notify their packs,” I ordered, finally managing to push my brothers off Lamar, who was nearly unconscious.
Kaye had released Sydney, but he was glaring at her like he wanted to end things right here and now.
“I didn’t do anything! You guys are only accusing us because some wolfless rogue accused me. She’s just jealous of me!” Sydney began ranting as the warriors moved to cuff her.
“Really? Then tell me, you two-” Maximus turned to Lucy and Gavin. “Did Helanie talk about quitting last night? Did she leave right before your eyes?”
I noticed Salem glancing slowly at Gavin and Lucy, giving them a warning look.
“No! She was so determined. She would never quit-that’s not Helanie.” Despite usually being timid and hiding behind her boyfriend, Lucy rose to her feet to speak up.
I watched her confidently take a stand for what was right.
“There you go, brother,” Kaye said, walking over to me with a surprising intensity. “Even a new candidate knows how to stand up for someone she barely knows. It’s not about a particular person, but about doing the right thing.” Shock struck me when Kaye leaned in and whispered, disappointment clear in his eyes.
It was the first time I’d ever seen that look on his face.
“You think I’m not doing the right thing?” I tried to grab his arm to stop him, stunned that my younger brother was now against me, all because of Helanie.
Did she say something to him about me? She’d been partially conscious when I took her to the farmhouse. Maybe she heard me venting.
“It doesn’t matter. Justice will be served,” Kaye replied as he freed his arm and briskly walked away, leaving me to watch the warriors arrest the two culprits and take them away, while my brothers looked back at me with expressions I’d never wanted to see.
Helanie:
I was given tranquilizers for hours, but as I slept, the horrifying events from the night of the Alphas-and the faces of Lamar and Sydney-kept replaying in my nightmares. By the time I woke up, I realized it was already too late.
“Please don’t get up. You need to rest,” said the nurse beside my bed, but the way she pressed her fingers firmly into my shoulder to push me back down made it clear she wasn’t thrilled about caring for me.
“I just want to know… did the exam start today?” I asked in a hoarse, strained voice.
“Huh? I’m not here to find things out for you. Why can’t you just stay quiet and rest?” she replied, sounding exasperated.
I didn’t understand. Why was she so irritated with me?
“Is she awake again? We can’t keep pausing the movie,” another nurse grumbled as she walked in, and that’s when it dawned on me why they seemed so bothered.
“Go to sleep, okay?” the nurse by my bed ordered, throwing me a sharp look before turning around to speak with her colleague.
“She keeps waking up,” I overheard her complain as they both exited, slamming the door shut behind them.
“Can I get some wa-” I started to ask, but the loud slam cut me off. I glanced around for water but found nothing within reach.
I rested my head back, staring up at the ceiling. No. I wouldn’t let them treat me like this. They were here to take care of me, and I refused to be seen as a burden just because they couldn’t enjoy the luxuries of the farmhouse.
I noticed an empty glass on the small table beside me. Moving my arm was difficult, as I’d been bedridden for a while and hadn’t moved my muscles after that incident. A cast covered my little finger-a reminder of the extent of the injuries Lamar and Sydney had inflicted on me.
With effort, I carefully stretched my arm and nudged the glass until it tipped over and crashed to the floor, shattering with a loud noise that was sure to attract the attention of the nurses and doctors outside.
The door swung open, and they rushed in, panic clear in their eyes. The nurse, whose name tag read “Prim,” rolled her eyes once she realized what had happened.
“Did you freaking smash it?” she hissed, hunched over and snarled like an angry dog.
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