Chapter 57|Details.

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Several hours after Alexander and Isabelle got down from the high caused by their passionate lovemaking, the couple righted their appearances and called back the two men who were previously present in the room before the Alpha and his mate began tearing at each other's clothes. By then it was already dark.

A prominent blush rose up Isabelle's cheeks as Lucas and Francis walked into the solar accompanied by Damon who held Old Bea's hand in his.

The old woman urged Isabelle into her awaiting arms for an embrace. She kissed the top of her head and let her head rest on the crook of Isabelle's neck, inhaling deeply in her Alpha's mate's scent.

Old Bea's hand trailed down Isabelle's mussed hair, whispered words of pleasantry and apologies to her before letting go of her and rounding the table to her specified spot.

All four of them took their seats around the table and the atmosphere turned serious. Isabelle averted her gaze from Old Bea who was staring too deep into her. The younger one felt like all truths attached to her were seen broadly in the older woman's eyes.

"Welcome back, Luna." Damon for the first time acknowledged her verbally as Alexander's mate in her presence. Isabelle replied his greeting after finding her voice from the shock that ran through her.

"I need permission to seize Leah before word gets out that the Luna is back. She had a hand in her abduction and the whole fiasco." Three heads turned to Francis who spoke, rapidly.

The remaining haze of lust clouding Alexander's senses evaporated within the blink of an eye and he found himself on his feet, reeling from his Beta's statement.

"What do you mean she has a hand in this?" The veins on his head popping out as he raged, He turned to Isabelle who stared right into his eyes, "Isabelle tell me." He shuffled his head between the two awaiting an explanation.

Isabelle nodded, "It's true. She took me to the dungeons herself, at first I thought she was taken too. It's a long story, she needs to be taken before more damages are made. We have too many betrayers from within, a lot of the Elders are corrupt. If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would've never believed them capable of their treachery." Isabelle's voice was missing the slight tremble it had on it prior to her memory's return. The woman speaking before them appeared every inch the Queen she legally was and Alexander felt a twinge of pride in him at the realization that his mate was much more than everyone thought she was.

"Damon, get to it, we'll ask questions later." Alexander commanded, the Delta rose to his feet in a hurry instantly, taking two more men with him from the soldiers and hunters to find her.

"I take it you are unhurt, my Queen." Old Bea glided across the room towards Isabelle whose eyes glinted with affection at the sight of the woman.

"Thank you." Isabelle whispered against Old Bea's hands on her cheek, she turned her head slightly and had her lips coming in contact with the woman's palm. Placing a kiss to the middle of it Isabelle reassured the woman of her wellbeing.

"I need to hear everything about what happened, from the scratch." The Alpha demanded.

Isabelle complied instantly, the vision of the event returning to her in full force. "Leah and I were in your condo when she received a phone call, she brainwashed me into believing you accepted the Lichen Pack's offer to have you married to Arabella in a week. I was so hurt I felt like my heart was on fire, the pain of your alleged betrayal was coursing through me in alliance with a rage I'd never known. I wanted nothing more than to leave and she assured me that she knew the best place for me to go without having you breathing down my neck or anyone reminding me of you." She paused.

"I believed in her because the sympathy she showed me that day seemed too real to be fake. I was blinded by hurt, she really got me hooked. I agreed to be taken there after she's told me of Old Bea's involvement in the plan to have me taken away for respite." Her eyes turned to Alexander who was attentively listening to the story. Attentively listening to how they all got deceived by one of the persons they held dearest to.

"I could only remember getting into the car with her, she spoke with Ethan and I couldn't hear what was said because I was too gone with heartbreak and something else, something that made me lose consciousness. When I woke up next I was chained to the wall in a cold and dark room. It wasn't dark enough for I could decipher the identity of those around me. My first thought was on Leah's safety, I pled at them not to hurt her knowing I was their target. They took me a fool and tried all sorts of depravities. Sylvester Skorr and Viktor Ives were the only two I recognized, the other man's voice was deep I couldn't fathom who he was because he stood in the shadows."

"What of Arabella? Was she involved?" Lucas asked, speaking for the first time.

Isabelle's gaze slid to his as she replied, knowing the connection between the two courtesy of Francis. "Sadly yes."

Alexander butted in, "Under influence and a lot of pressure. There are too many complications attached to the whole ordeal." He did it for Lucas, and because of his conversation with her.

Lucas' eyes blanched at the admission and he willed himself to listen to the rest of the treachery without unleashing any emotions.

"I was forced to slip in and out of consciousness only by their will and when I found my head and found Leah staring at me from the door with the room brightened up I thought it was going to be over, I thought she was my saviour. But what she did surprised me most, she wore a lopsided grin when she saw me shackled and that was when my hope began to diminish. I couldn't believe her deception even as she ran her fingers over my face, her nails biting into my skin until her eyes gleamed with so much satisfaction at the sight of my blood running down her fingers. As though possessed she repeated the action over and over my arm until I felt numb from the pain and she held my head back, gripping my hair in a tight hold and staring at me with so much hatred I felt like I was punched in the stomach." She thought of the good days when Leah was like a sister to her.

"Arabella visited me once, she sneered at me, reminded me of how I was never going to cross paths with the Alpha and my loved ones again and how I wasn't going to be missed because I was a nobody. Funny enough, despite the two having the same wish in mind, to have me gone and out of the equation, the room boiled with hostility whenever they were both in it. I bit back my words and waited for the time when it was all going to be over."

Alexander rose from his seat, in a blur he took her hand in his urging her up, when she took it he returned to the chair, pulled her over his thigh and wrapped his hand around her midriff in a protective gesture.

He placed a kiss to the spot between her neck and shoulder, laced their fingers together and urged her to speak on. Calming the volatile emotions threatening to surface with the scent of his mate. Of daisy and rose.

"Next time I was forced to consciousness, Leah was hovering above me with a cup that was supposed to render me dead, it was a concoction made from the obsidian coal, silver and the white moss."

Their gasps resonated in an echo around the room at her admission.