Chapter 211

Alexander’s POV

I had the warriors take Sophia straight to my study. It was late, and half the house was awake by now after Anya’s screaming, but I couldn’t let Sophia keep getting away with this.

Not anymore.

To think that she’d been playing the part of a woman who’d changed, who’d matured, who had put her scheming past behind her­—and then for her to break into my home in the middle of the night, torment an innocent woman, and attempt property damage?

No. I was tired of giving Sophia chance after chance after chance. I was determined to find out the truth before Mommy and Daddy came to save the day yet again.

“Sit her down there,” I said to the warriors, pointing to one of the wooden chairs opposite my desk. They plopped her down like a sack of potatoes and uncuffed her at a nod from me. She bit fire out at them with her gaze alone as she rubbed her wrists. As if she’d been cuffed for days instead of minutes.

“Alex, I can explain—”

“Yes. You will explain.” I pulled a chair up in front of her and sat, leveling her with a steely glare. I didn’t care that I was shirtless, didn’t care that I’d been content to curl up with Ella minutes before. “Tell me everything. Now.”

“I was just pranking her,” she said quickly. Too quickly. “A little light hazing before the wedding, you know? To initiate her into my friend group. I wasn’t actually going to ruin her dress.”

“Bullshit.” I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. “You just admitted minutes ago that you were going to ruin the dress, and now you’re doubling back. Tell me the truth, Sophia.”

At that, Sophia snapped her mouth shut. I could practically hear the gears whirring in her mind from where I was sitting. She was trying to come up with an excuse. With another lie.

Over the next ten minutes, Sophie came up with every excuse under the sun to get away with what she’d tried to do. She said that Anya was in on it, that it was Anya’s idea to see if I cared about her. She even said that the dress was stolen from her mother’s closet and she was getting revenge.

Everything except the truth.

“If I may, Alpha,” one of my Gammas said, stepping forward, “Omega Lilith made a suggestion—she said she can make a minor truth serum.”

I turned in my chair to look at him. “Pardon?”

The Gamma sighed and gestured to the door. The other Gamma opened it and let Lilith enter the room. “I heard she’s giving you trouble,” she said, holding up a small vial. “I made this truth serum from some of the herbs in the garden. It’s said to have tongue-loosening effects.”

I lifted a brow at that, but at this point, I’d been through too much to deny the possibility of such a serum. If curses and witches and dark rituals were real, then who was to say that truth serums weren’t?

I held my hand out and took the vial. One of the Gammas held Sophia’s mouth open while she squirmed, and I dropped the liquid onto her tongue.

It didn’t really seem like anything happened at first, as I suspected. But then Sophia began to shake her head as if trying to dispel a thought. She blinked, and when she looked at me, her eyes seemed clouded over.

“No… No, I won’t say it…” she whispered, clutching at her hair.

Curiosity piqued, I leaned forward again. “Sophia, why were you really here tonight?” I ventured.

Sophia hesitated, gripping the edges of her chair with white knuckles. Finally, she choked out, “I… I’m jealous. You were supposed to marry me, not that Omega bitch. You’re mine.”

“Is that so?” I glanced at Lilith, honestly impressed, before turning back to Sophia.

Sophia nodded. Her face was straining with the effort of holding back the truth, but she said, “I wanted to sabotage her just like all the times I sabotaged Ella.”

The mention of Ella’s name set my nerve endings on fire.

“How dare you speak of her,” I whispered.

Sophia ripped at her hair and gnashed her teeth. “But it’s true. I sabotaged her up until the very end.”

“The very end.” I narrowed my gaze, mind reeling as an implication suddenly hit me—one that I hadn’t considered before. “Did you fabricate the evidence I found?”

“No. No, no, no…” She shook her head violently. “I was only told to deliver it.”

“Deliver it to who?”

“Gabriel.”

I jerked upright at the sound of that name. Gabriel—the Beta I hadn’t seen in months. As far as I knew, he’d left the pack around Ella’s death. I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since.

“You’re working for Gabriel?” I asked.

“Working with him,” she replied. “Well, it started out that way. He promised to help me break you two up so you and I could finally be together. But then he started going rogue. I never intended for her to die that day, you know. I never meant for it to go quite so far.”

“Tell me more,” I said.

“He told me to be there. At the Stormhollow estate. So I went and found it on fire. And lo and behold, Ella was there, in premature labor. I took her home, and I had the opportunity to save her, to give her the medicine she needed, but I didn’t. I didn’t mean for her to die initially, but I let her die in the end.”

My fingers clenched into fists so tight my nails bit into my palms.

Sophia had intentionally let Ella die.

And Gabriel had something to do with it.

“What else?” I asked.

But Sophia didn’t answer. Her eyes began to clear, and she snapped her mouth shut again, face reddening as she realized what she’d said—it seemed the effects of the serum had worn off.

“Can you make more?” I asked Lilith.

She shook her head. “It only works once. It could kill her if we try again—due to the various nightshades I used.”

A low growl rumbled in my chest. I snapped my fingers at the warriors, commanding them to take Sophia to the pack cells before I throttled her myself. Sophia cried and whined and begged, but I didn’t hear any of it.

All I heard were those confessions echoing through my mind.

Sophia was working with Gabriel. The evidence had likely been intentionally forged.

And most of all…

Sophia had willingly let Ella die.

“Alex—Alex, wait!” Sophia cried out as the warriors dragged her away. “I love you, okay?! I’ve always loved you, ever since we were kids! I’m sorry! I just—”

“I don’t love you, Sophia.” I stood slowly and turned to her with ice in my veins. “I never did. I never will. And from this day forward, after what you’ve done… I’ll only ever hate you.”

Her lower lip quivered. “But—but Alex—”

“And for the last bloody time, stop calling me Alex,” I ground out. “It’s either Alpha King, or Alexander. From now on, you will only ever say my name with fullness, with respect… Or better yet, not at all.”