#Chapter 35 A Single Alpha’s Gala

I can admit, I’ve ben petty. It was a rough day when I realized Alicia was playing Alpha Connor like she so easily played Alpha Herold. Mara was finally sent to the Royal pack hospital, and it’s been enough time to consider the evil plans of that witch and whatever she has going on with Alpha Connor.
To double down on my theory that the Luna-title-stealer is creating this poison to gain power in a pack; any pack with a weak, pathetic Alpha. I demanded to throw a gala for single Alpha’s, the attendees not as high in numbers than the normal parties thrown in this palace, but it’s enough for me to stakeout my mission.
I sit on the gold throne up front, the gala in full throw. The music is blaring, the women are throwing themselves, and Gabriel seems less than amused with this theme. He sits in the throne beside me, sneering at the hapless, desperate woman throwing themselves at any man with an Alpha title.
He looks through me, shaking his head. “Come on, my dear. Do we have to attend this gala? It’s not for us. We can’t relate to the theme you’ve chosen.”
“Then we will watch everyone else have fun,” I say. “If not, you are free to go upstairs.”
“And leave you down here with all these eligible Alpha’s looking for a mate?” He rolls his eyes, planting himself firmly in his chair. “Hell no. I will stay right here.”
“Then stop whining,” I say.
My eyes are fixed on Alpha Connor, perusing the food tables while groups of onlooking women talk amongst themselves, daring one another to approach the downtrodden Alpha. He is still upset over Mara and the fact that her treatment may leave her in a deep coma for a while. He hasn’t taken that well, but he doesn’t seem to mind the female attention tonight.
Especially not when a familiar witch strolls in wearing a ruby red dress and stick heels.
I watch Alicia immediately sniff the blood in the water like a drooling shark, throwing herself into Alpha Connor’s arms. They embrace like they have done it before, her lips pecking at his chin but the Alpha looks uneasy, looking sideways toward Gabriel and myself.
He knows now the purpose of this gala was to see if the rumors were true.
They clearly are.
“I fucking knew it,” I growl. “She poisoned Mara, she wants to be the Luna of his pack and that greedy, dangerous, stupid bitch has—”
Gabriel crosses in front of me once, pulling me out of my seat and damn near across the hallway, my heart racing at the realization of this news. Connor is just like Alpha Herold, and I refuse to let Mara end up like I had over that manipulative snake.
The Alpha King realizes the reason for this gala as well, dragging me into a meeting room, pushing me into a chair before leaning on the table, his hands pressing over his eyes, then his mouth, as if battling a migraine.
“You’re setting this up for Connor, aren’t you?” He asks but his tone sounds more hypothetical than anything else. “I can’t believe you’ve gone to this extent.”
“This proves everything, Gabriel. It proves that she poisoned Reese because of Olivia being Herold’s Luna and that she did the same to Mara to take her spot with Alpha Connor and—”
“No,” he snaps, his voice echoing off the walls. “Enough!”
I sink into my seat, catching my breath. I’m surprised to see Eugen and Herold strolling into the room, both of them curiously looking at the taut tension between my husband and myself. They almost seem worried, given the last fight between them all ended quickly but wounded everyone.
“What’s wrong?” Eugene presses, standing on my free side.
I shake my head, rattling all over in anxieties I can’t contain now. “It’s Alicia. I know she poisoned Mara, just like she did Reese, because she wants to be Luna of Alpha Connor’s pack.”
Gabriel groans, exasperated of this topic by now. “Please, someone tell her she is going overboard. It’s starting to become an obsession, my dear. Explain the reasoning for this!”
“She is a murderer! That is the only explanation needed!” I scream.
The King Alpha looks to Herold for some kind of reassurance. I expect him to agree, but Alpha Herold was never one to be trusted, so why start now?
“She may have been manipulative, but my mate died in jail, not by Alicia,” Herold says, his eyes carefully scanning my own.
Gabriel acts as though this is all the news he needed to back up his claims that I’m making these accusations up without any background proof. I hate that he thinks I am obsessing over this topic, when I am clearly trying to give him proof and he’s ignoring it.
“I fucking hate you,” I breathe.
Everyone goes still and solid at those words.
Eugene speaks first, the safest choice of the group in front of me. “Who? Who do you hate, Queen Luna? Why would you say something like that?”
Herold and Gabriel both look wounded by my words, so I look elsewhere, rattling on the verge of sobs and inconsolable aggravations. I open my mouth, my tongue dry and my head spinning. Truthfully, I hate everyone right now, even Eugene who didn’t dive in at my defense. It’s not his place to defend me, I know that, and I feel stupid expecting it.
“Fine, I can read your expression clear enough,” Gabriel snarls. “I’ll be in our bedroom, in our shared bed, the one we have slept in every night as husband and wife. If you want to throw that away now over this stupid obsession with that she-wolf, then leave me out of it.”
Gabriel breaks from the room and astonishingly, Eugene follows, cooing for him to calm down in this tensile mess. I stare up at Alpha Herold, my eyes filled with hot, thick tears. I hate Herold, that has always been the case and it always will be, but for him to let me die from Alicia’s demand and he still think she never did it—it opens an old wound.
“How could you be so stupid?” I breathe, blinking down my cries as they fall down my cheeks. “You really believe she is innocent in all of this, don’t you?”
He shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “She did a lot of things wrong, a lot of punishable acts, and I sent her away for those lies.”
“Lies,” I scoff, shaking my head. “Is that all you think there was?”
He doesn’t know what to respond, so he refuses to.
I can’t hold it in any longer, all of these senseless, blind men ignoring that damn viper and her harmful antics to be a power-hungry whore. I stand to storm out, Herold stepping into my path to stop me but it’s not the best idea.
Using my hands, I throw him backwards, watching him hit the hallway wall and melt to the floor in a frustrated gasp. “Stay away from me!” I scream, biting at my sobs now. I’m spiraling, I can feel it, and I can’t reign it back in now. I’ve let my composure go for the night at the behest of that evil woman. “Dammit! Just forget about me! You obviously have already!”
Herold’s confused look isn’t the only one in the hallway.
Eugene and Gabriel are stopped a few paces away, eyes wide and mouths left agape at my words. If not making myself look and feel like a crazy person, I may have just given away my old life by displaying my past emotions so abruptly in front of them all.