Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Dagem? Makena Dagem?”
“Who else!” My tears were flowing hot and heavy. “Castor thought she was trustworthy. He believed she was an honorable woman. Why wouldn’t he? He watched her stand up to the council so many times. Watched her push back on their unfairness. He heard about the times she marched into Sunella’s office and argued her down.
“Did you know the council banned omegas from joining the academy? The metal wolf councilman, Jabari, argued that it didn’t make sense to pay so much to cover their education when omegas only had futures as janitors and housekeepers. They even passed the fucking law! It is actual law right now that omegas are not entitled to entrance into the academy, but Dagem told them to go fuck themselves. She said that as long as she was headmistress, every wolf of every kind was welcome in her school.
“Of course he believed she was the good person she was pretending to be!”
Badr stared at me in horror. “But when she got the letter, she turned it over.”
“Worse. That bitch read the letter and dollar signs flashed in her eyes. She blackmailed them for millions, promising to keep quiet as long as the money kept flowing,” I spat. “And for the low, low price of her rotted soul, she also promised to get rid of their little problem.”
“Castor.”
I nodded.
“She poisoned him?”
I barked a laugh. “This, Badr, is the part where you get all caught up. Because no, Dagem didn’t do the poisoning. How could she? She didn’t have access to wolfsbane. That stuff is crazy illegal. Any wolf found growing it is put to death.
“But lucky for her, she had a shady-as-shit contact working under her—Warren Hall.”
“Mr. Hall got her the wolfsbane?” he sputtered. “How?”
“Hall had a thing for mundane drugs. Most of it burns up in our system too fast to have an effect, but not heroin. He had a dealer in the mundane dominion, and it was the easiest thing in the world to ask the dealer to get him some wolfsbane. The guy likely just ordered the stuff online.”
“How do you know all this?” Badr demanded, eyes narrowing. “Did Hall tell you all of this when you were killing him?”
“He didn’t have to. I’ve known for over a year who was responsible. Castor knew. He’s the one who put it all together,” I said. “It was easy once he figured out Dagem was using her dirty money to pull the strings. All he had to do was follow the trail.
“Money from Dagem’s bank account to Hall’s to get the poison. Money from Dagem to Holly to put small daily doses of wolfsbane in Castor’s food. Money from Dagem to Nurse Vega to lie and misdiagnose Castor every time he came in the infirmary, complaining about feeling ill. By the time Castor gave up on Vega and asked for a second opinion, there was already too much wolfsbane in his system. There was no going back. No cure. All he had to look forward to was a slow, agonizing death... because of them.”
“Oh, gods,” he croaked, stomach heaving. “Dagem, Hall, Holly, and Vega. They were among the seven that had to go.”
My voice was a growl. “You’re damn right.”
“But then who were the other three?”
“Mason,” I admitted, “but not because he had anything to do with Castor. It was because that vile piece of shit actually came into the temple and bragged about his rapes. The last woman who reported him went to his mother too, and his mom cursed him out. Said if he ever did something like that again, she’d disown him.
“But fucking Mason dared to swagger into my temple, complaining about Mommy being such a nagging bitch who doesn’t understand that Luame wants him to take advantage of all that ripe and tasty omega fruit. That’s why she made him an alpha, and all of them fish.
“Once I found out Mason was enrolling in the academy this year too, his fate was sealed. No fucking way an unrepentant serial rapist runs around free in my school.”
Badr scoffed. “Fine with me. I’m not shedding any tears over that shit, but who were the other two? Who killed my brother?”
“You know the other one,” I said. “Nia.”
“Nia? But then why did you let her off! Why is she strutting around happy, free, and planning parties!”
“Because I got to know her and realized she was just a pawn in Rici’s death.”
He lurched back. “Rici? How was Nia involved?”
“After they found out Castor sent a letter to Rici too, the council tried multiple times to get him in the same room, but the man was no fool. He turned down all their random party, summit, and conference invitations. But then the international alpha leader conference came,” I said. “Every important alpha from everywhere was going, Rici couldn’t turn it down. He showed up with his bodyguards, and Dagem and Sunella showed up with Nia.