Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Then who was it!”
“That’s what Castor worked to piece together,” I shot back just as loud. My head was killing me. The pain seemed to radiate through my body, weakening my limbs. “Once he realized he’d been poisoned with wolfsbane.”
“Wolfsbane?! Who? How!”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. That’s what all of this has been about,” I cried. “Castor sent letters to two people that he thought he could trust. Two people with the power to help. One was Rici Bruno, the former leader of Wolf Republica.”
“Rici?” he repeated. “I knew him. Three years ago, Cygnus sent Castor to Italy to network with the European packs. He and Rici became good friends, but Rici died over... a year and... a half ago,” Badr finished, dread coloring his tone. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
“Rici was murdered too.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes. Castor warned Rici, telling him everything. That dark days were coming—that war was coming—and it was all being orchestrated by an enemy that he was trying to find. Rici was set to take over Wolf Republica, a pack with over thirty thousand wolves. He said that if Wolf Nation ever turned and started enacting these barbaric laws, Wolf Republica had to be ready to step in and stop us. Even if it meant taking out the alpha council.”
“The shadow found out about that letter,” Badr said. “That’s how they knew that Castor knew everything. But how?”
Hatred boiled in my gut. “Because of her,” I hissed. “The second person to receive Castor’s letter. Headmistress Dagem.”
“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.