Chapter 17

[Evelyn’s POV]

What the actual hell is going on?!

My heart was hammering in my chest, I was nearly certain that it was going to break through my rib cage. Alexander’s voice was sharp and tore through the air like a knife. I should have known that something was wrong from the moment I decided to follow Fiona out here.

Alexander would never have allowed me to come here. This had to have been all of Fiona’s doing. But why?

When I saw the whites of Alexander’s eyes, I felt as if my life in his pack was coming to an abrupt halt. His gaze landed on me before noticing that Fiona was even standing there. His brows were pulled together in confusion while glancing around the room.

“Look what Evelyn did,” Fiona said accusingly. “I told her to be careful because that box means so much to you, but she wouldn’t listen.”

Is she being serious?!

When he noticed the box Fiona had so brutishly thrown onto the ground that the look of confusion swiftly shifted to that of anger. He snapped his head back to shoot me an accusatory look.

I parted my lips to speak but she jumped at the opportunity to make the situation ten times worse.

“It’s a good thing that you came when you did, Alexander,” she hummed. “I was just trying to tell Evelyn that shouldn’t be here, but she was rather insistent.”

“What?” I hissed. I gaped at her in sheer disbelief. “That’s not—”

“My God, she was practically rummaging through all of your private rooms and even carelessly knocked over that box there,” Fiona added breathlessly.

Alexander was deeply furious and instantly moved over to pick up the box from the floor. Based on the way he was clutching the box close to him, whatever was in that box had to have been the man’s most prized possession.

I wasn’t immediately able to see what was inside of the box. All I knew was that Alexander was hesitant to open it, probably fearing for its current state.

Oh, please. Whatever is in that box, please don’t let it be broken.

His features softened with undoubtable worry. Whatever it was it had to have held great sentimental value to him.

His tone was filled with venom as he spoke. “What was your reasoning for entering these secret rooms in the first place?” he asked, tightly.

His Beta, Oliver, pulled out that same gun he once pointed in my back and aimed it right at me. I didn’t have time to muffle my sharp intake of breath.

Jesus Christ. This was a fucking setup.

I should have known that this whole thing was a damn trap. I should have never openly believed anything Fiona had said. The girl was a goddamn bully and a snake.

Fiona’s eyes widened in shock over Alexander’s way of handling things. But her surprise swiftly resolved to a more passive disposition. She remained silent and watchful, probably eagerly awaiting for Oliver to pull the trigger.

I was finding it rather difficult to find the right words to say. I had been placed into such a compromising, sketchy situation, that I really wasn’t sure how it was going to end. It wasn’t as though Fiona was the one who spoke to the guards, insisting that I be let in.

That sneaky sociopath tricked me into introducing myself to most of the guards and making them believe that I was the one who demanded to be let in.

“Fiona told me that you wanted me to come here,” I said plainly.

She scoffed in defense and tried to appear innocent by folding her shoulders inward.

“Oh, that’s ridiculous. Everyone knows that these areas are off limits,” she contended.

“If that was true then why are you here?” I asked back. “Why would you drag me all the way out here, claiming that Alexander had asked for me to be here?”

No one spoke.

Fiona quickly shook her head in denial. “It’s not true.”

I took a solid step forward, feeling my own anger and desperation to save my own life coursing through me.

“It is true!” I declared. “And you wanna know how I can prove it?”

“Tell me,” Alexander said sternly.

“Ask Nina.”

Fiona’s features filled with panic. All the color, practically, drained from her face.

“Alexander, I knew you were going to be busy here—you told me as much this morning before we both left the dining room.” He gave a curt nod, allowing me to continue. “You knew Nina and I were meeting with a few members from my old pack about the seeds Grandma Wendy and I were going to have planted. Before I was able to hand them over to Wendy, Fiona approached the two of us in the corridor. She said, and I quote, ‘Alexander reached out to me to inform you that he’d like for you to go and meet him at the camps today’.”

Alexander slowly turned his head to glare at Fiona who refused to so much as lift her eyes off the ground.

“I, myself, couldn’t believe that you would call for me to come out here. I’ll admit I had my doubts. You and I are still new to this whole marriage thing, and I didn’t want to come off like I was ignoring your orders so...I followed her out here.”

We all watched as Alexander waved his hand out, signaling for Oliver to lower his weapon. This allowed some of the much-needed air to return to my lungs.

The Alpha’s look was still questionable. “The guards—”

“Had no idea what I was doing here, or even who I was. That should have been the second major indicator to tell me that I shouldn’t have been out here in the first place. Once they let us through, Fiona went on to say that I should help straighten up the place. But the more I glanced around, nothing needed to be organized.”

Fioan was determined to stand her ground.

“Surely, you can’t believe a word of what she says,” she said through pursed lips. “She probably bribed Nina so that if you were to ask her for her side of this story, she would back Evelyn up. Believe me, when I found her, she was rustling through a bunch of drawers and cabinets, probably looking for your treasure, Alexander.”

My brows drew together in utter confusion. “His what?”

“Don’t try and act all innocent,” she remarked. “I saw you looking through everything. That box he’s holding right now—you took a glance inside and deemed it all worthless. And then you proceeded to toss it to the ground like the heathen you are. You don’t even care if the treasure is damaged or not.”

“I don’t even know what’s in that box!” I exclaimed loudly. “I would never do anything like that. You’re the one who’d been stalking in the corner. You waited until Alexander was about to come in and then you threw the box to the ground.”

The dull ache was starting in the side of my head. I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to make sense of the situation.

“This is insane,” I muttered. “You’re really making all of these accusations against me...I don’t even know what’s in that box. Yet you claim I would deem it worthless. Alexander, would you be willing to open it and check to see if whatever is in there is broken?”

Alexander opened the box and took out a handcrafted necklace that looked far too familiar. It was then that my nerves instantly calmed.

I turned to Fiona with a smirk playing on my lips. “You claimed that I believed that necklace is of little value?”

“Yes,” she hissed.

“Well, that’s how I can prove you’re lying.”

I slowly reached into the pocket and took out the necklace that I always kept on me. It was the same necklace my mother had left me. I held it out for everyone to see.

I stepped over to Alexander and carefully held it out for him to see the near-identical comparison between the two.

Everyone was stunned at the revelation.

“This is the heirloom my mother gave me. How could I possibly say that his necklace held no value?”