Chapter 81|Lies Upon Lies.

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**Third Person's P O V

Meanwhile, at the De Luca Pack...

Leah stared at the unrelenting man with a saucy look, her brain was freezing and so was the whole of her body not from cold but from fear. A deep borne apprehension that made her feel like clawing at her own skin.

When news got to her that Martin was caught on the verge of killing Arabella she knew all hell was surely to break loose for her plans had failed the second time. The only chance she had was wrecked.

She knew right then and there if Martin didn't return to kill her, her own foster family will take her to the grave themselves. But then, they didn't know the full details pertaining to her involvement did they? So she wracked through her brain for a reasonably solid explanation that could make her appear the tricked or famed person from the bad person they assume her to be.

Dimitri calling her and asking if she'd heard word that Skorr had been captured didn't make her worry less, it made the hair on her head feel like it was lit on fire. Next thing she knew Dimitri himself had disappeard into thin air until one by one she couldn't reach to any of Martin's men. That was when she knew she was doomed and was just waiting for the time when the De Luca Pack members will arrive to fetch her.

Her mind played tricks on her, made her believe her self-concocted thought that if she made a move first no one could get to her. Without bothering to pack for a trip to the country at the farthest end of the map, China per say or New Zealand Leah changed into a pair of rompers and opened her condo's door in the face of Damon Creed. The man who's never done so much as smile in her direction.

Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Stomach? Nah, it dropped to her feet. She felt like all the food she consumed in the past few hours were returning to the same passage they went in at a neck-breaking speed and she retched on his feet.

Damon literally scuffed her by the neck into her own condo, he single-handedly carried out her arrest and took her back to the Pack she had every plan to flee the hell away from and all she could do was stare at the window of the car they first rode in to the plane they boarded afterwards filled with utmost dread and in eerie silence. The type that made a person break into sweat no matter the coolness of the atmosphere.

Leah let his calm and collected facade fool her into thinking perhaps the Alpha, Alexander De Luca had other plans of punishment for her when she found herself heading towards the De Luca Pack manor instead of the dungeon as she assumed they were planning to lock her in.

Damon surprised her by hauling a cloth over her head, a chain at her feet and literally dragging her to god knows where. It was until she felt they icy cold floor biting at her bare feet that Leah fully understood where she was taken to.

The dungeons.

Her worst nightmare.

The very same one she and her consorts practiced every sort of lashing on Isabelle, to put it mildly. The very one where she herself fed Isabelle with the poison that was supposed to kill her, annihilate her.

Dread ran up her spine after he took off the cloth, hooked the end of the chains attached to her legs to the wall and slipped a silver ring into her thumb, it was enough to render her wolf completely useless. There was no way it could save her. Damon shackled both of her hands to the wall and had the decency to push her hair away from her face when it was getting into her way.

He accomplished all of that wordlessly and as emotionless as the brick wall behind her back.

"You need to give me a chance to explain," She meekly voiced out when he was done. "I was threatened, I did nothing willingly. You know how Martin is, he tricked me into believing Isabelle and Arabella's presence in the Pack was solely because they both wanted to get rid of my brothers."

He spat at the ground close to her feet and when he raised his face to hers, his eyes were red.

"You do not refer to them as your family ever again, you let go of that privilege when you became Martin's crony and you know it."

Leah thrashed in denial against the wall, "I swear to you I was under that impression, all I did was try to save them before they were hurt and nobody cares about me in the end." She tried to pull the affected damsel in distress card but was met with tightly pulled brows, nostrils flaring wider by each passing second Leah shrunk to the wall.

"If you were a man I would've showed you what's done to traitors. Keep thanking God that I do not hurt women Leah or your blood would've been pooling this room the moment we walked into it and with your heart still beating so you could feel the pain and wish, cry, plead, fucking beg for death but it'll be taken out of your grasp just as you reach for it, continuously and repeatedly. Lie in my face again and I'll forget you're a woman Leah, nobody will give a fuck if I take your punishment in my hands." His voice was grave. It made her swallow what wasn't dried of the saliva in her mouth.

It was the longest she's heard him speak in a long while and Damon was known for keeping his promises that she didn't dare to utter another word until he was out of the room and the sound of his footsteps weren't reaching her ears anymore.

Leah knew right there and then that she was irrevocably doomed and nothing could soothe the tempest of fear and fury raging in her. So she burst into tears.

Now several days later, each drawing closer to the day when the final punishment shall come, the day when the Alpha shall grace her cell room with his intimidating presence and also the day Leah dreads more than anything.

Francis shook his head at her expression, she dared to spew lies despite knowing how nobody was going to believe in them, and the way she was looking at him wasn't helping matters.

A memory came to his mind, recalling her as the cheerful girl who was always tagging after Alexander when she was younger and forcing them to include her in their discussions. Damon never welcomed her into their group and Lucas barely ever acknowledged her, it was Francis and Alexander who took pity on her determination and included her in some of the activities they partook in.

"Why did you have to side with Martin? Don't give me that bullshit about Arabella and Isabelle being around to hurt the Alpha and Lucas. I know you Leah and you know me better to believe I will regard you stupid story as nothing but the filthy lie that it is. I want the truth and nothing more." Francis was stern in his questioning. He was known to be far more lenient than both the Alpha and the Delta but at his convenience, he adopts their own style time after time.

"I..." Her voice shook.

He threw her a glare knowing she was about to lie again. "The truth and nothing else. Nothing else!" He growled.

He saw when she gave up and her shoulders drooped.

Leah shut her eyes close, bearing herself for the look of contempt she was sure would mar his striking features.

"I was scared." Her voice was barely heard, "I was scared of how they seemed to take up their attentions within a very short period of time when I spent years trying to be close to them and never succeeded. I was jealous, so jealous that I imagined myself on so many sleepness nights pushing both of them off the cliff that Alex frequents to clear his head. I found the opportunity to when I eavesdropped on Martin dishing out orders to Arabella to get rid of Isabelle. I knew he was my kindred spirit and shot my shot."

He stared at her through hooded eyes finding it hard to actually believe her words. To actually believe that the Leah he knew was truly capable of hurting a human and with glee.

"Alexander treated you like a sister. You were ungrateful." He spat.

"It wasn't enough!" She exclaimed, "It was never enough. He ruffles my hair, asks me about the friends I made like I'm the small girl from next door."

"That's because he sees you as what you are, his younger sister."

"His younger foster sister you mean. I don't want him to see me as nothing but the lonely girl they found in their territory with no one to take care of. I'm a grown up. I never wanted them to take me as one. My mother left me on the De Luca Pack territory for a reason." She admitted.

Francis narrowed his gaze at her, "If my memory is right, I recall that you said your mother is dead."

"She is, and that's because she killed herself moments after hauling me into the direction of the Pack soldiers guarding the borders. She told me I was the rightful daughter of the former Alpha the same way Alexander and Lucas are, she assured me that I was a by-blow of Enzo De Luca which makes me not only their foster sister but their half-sister. As their half sister I deserve so much more than the meager attention they and everyone else in the pack spit my way like a I'm nothing but worthless begger."

Francis didn't let her words get to him because he knew they were nothing more than filthy lies.

"You're delusional Leah, your story doesn't add up. I wanted to be of help but it's clear that you don't need it with all the lies you're heaping nonstop. It's a shame you wasted your life for nothing but silly childish contempt and jealousy. You were nothing but ungrateful to downplay the care and love given to you by everyone in the pack especially those who truly took you as family. You blew your chance when you chose to lie over being truthful and regretful of your actions maybe I would've been able to save you. You don't deserve to be saved after all you've done. First, your blalant attempt at murdering Isabelle, then your subsequent plan to have Arabella killed. You've changed drastically Leah and trust me it did you no good."