79. Interrogation Part II

“You killed Seff’s parents—you tried to kill *Seff*—because your cowardly ass wanted to keep yourself on Kiran and I’s good sides.” Selene squeezed Hyacinth’s face harder; she could simply crush his jaw if she wished. If he was spineless, surely the rest of his skeleton was easy to mold.

The accusation made his indigence flare. “I wanted to *protect my pack*!” he claimed, struggling to remain still. “If you two came sniffing again for your *reincarnated lovers*, you would wreak havoc! Getting that family out of the way would have been in everyone’s best interest.”

Selene released him with her own flare—of many conflicting thoughts and emotions. They were mostly hazed in the red of anger. “How easily you confess.” It made her realize two things: one, he *did* know more, including how he knew the rare secret of the Amaranth reincarnations. *How*? she wondered. *Who told him*? It could have been Linden herself before her death—a fatal mistake on her part.

Second: he was misled in having such a mindset.

“*Murder* is in *everyone’s* best interest?” she clarified in a deadly slow voice.

Hyacinth squirmed even though he didn’t seem to regret his reveal, but wherever he was drawing his audacity from made him lift his chin. “You seem to think so, bloody night goddess.”

Selene forced herself not to rip his throat out here and now. Instead she barked a laugh and smiled, which was more terrifying than a snarl. He shrank just a little. “Many Alphas would do anything for their pack. We have made impossible decisions for the greater good of our Alphas, Betas, and Omegas. Do you think killing some of them, your own packmates—a *pup*—is in the whole of the Magnolia’s best interest? I was not aware *selfishness* was a part of the title.”

“You’re not one to preach about selfishness.”

Selene slammed her hands down on either armrest, bending to put her face inches from his, the scent of his blood from the pinpricks she’d created with her claws filling her nose. Along with the stench of fear. Hyacinth flinched and recoiled.

“I did not run all the way out here from the comfort of my home to have you insult me, Hyacinth Furze. It is very bold of you,” she breathed, “to speak so brazenly if you want to stay on my good side as if you have nothing to lose? What *do* you have to lose if you cross me?”

“You aren’t the queen of every pack, Selene,” Hyacinth said, but his tone wasn’t so proud now. “Do you think you can demote me?”

Selene straightened abruptly, placing a hand over her heart. “Oh, gods no. My hubris and might as an immortal Alpha only go to my head for certain situations. In this case…” She paused to look him up and down like the weasel he was. “I only feel pity and shame for you.

“Because, dear Hyacinth, I believe your pack had faith in you. They trust you to lead and protect them. They also loved Linden and her family—the Amaranth line is one of the founding families of the Magnolia, are they not? Over one hundred years of loyalty…nearly wiped out by you.”

Hyacinth’s eyes widened in horror. Oh, gods, he hadn’t even *considered* that. Selene was filled with disgust. He committed murder without recognizing the consequence.

He tried to stand, but Selene shoved him back with a foot to his gut. “If your pack found out that Linden Amaranth and Alarik Bleize were not killed in an accidental crash, if they found out that you set it up, do you think they would still trust you? *I* have no power to demote you…but your pack does.”

She watched his thought process play out in his eyes. Only a few decades separated them, but this felt like an adult dealing with a child who believed themself smarter.

Finally he came up with, “They won’t believe a foreign Alpha.”

Selene snorted. “Half your Omegas pledge their bodies to me before they even see my face.” She paused and then smiled as an idea formed. “Here, this might convince them: I will tell *Seff* the truth, and then *she* will tell the entire pack of your selfish act of ‘justice.’”

He was horrified, but after a few seconds of stuttering, the fight left, expelled like an exhale. Slumping in his chair, he dropped his gaze. “I can’t risk my position. What do you really want, Selene?” he asked quietly.

Her smile grew, slow and wide with wickedness. The sight of defeat on a victim: she felt on top of the world. She was a queen—a bloody goddess of the night, daughter of conquerers, the Luna of the Moon pack.

“Besides your apology, I want…your confession.”

-

Selene trotted out of the College quite enlightened.

She left small chaos in her wake as well: Hyacinth reeling from a broken nose, his wives tittering around him, their pups thinking themselves brave by nipping at her heels out of their home, and a great cluster of Magnolia wolves staring at her with awe and fear. They bombarded her with questions on their family members and when the next Choosing was and why she graced them with her presence.

She ignored it all and when she breached the perimeter, she resumed her breakneck speed home.

Entering the hidden passageway straight to her room that she left out of earlier, she was surprised to find Fleur dozing on one of the harem couches, Luan tucked in her embrace. Considering Aura was now not on good terms with her twins and trying to mend that, her living space wasn’t ideal for a young pup. Fleur, as defined earlier, was clearly still looking after him.

But they weren’t Lona and Selene wasn’t in the mood to socialize.

*Gods, I hate this desk*, she thought sourly as she sat in it once again after putting on a slip. *Alright, Kiran, let’s send you to test your own theory*.

In a neater script than his, she wrote, *I would pay a visit to a certain chickenhearted Alpha about your records. He really squawks if you threaten to tear a certain something off. However, I am skeptical about your theory, Kiran—*

Selene stopped writing. She ripped the letter up and drew up another:

*I would pay a visit to a certain chickenhearted Alpha about your records. He really squawks if you threaten to tear a certain something off.*

*When you return, we need to speak to Wisteria Ren.*