*Maddox*
“Zabrina, why are you all covered in blood?” I ask again as I stare at Alpha Jordan’s daughter. Her yellow dress is covered in the red, sticky substance, as are her hands. It’s smeared all the way up her arms and even on her chin. “Are you injured?”
She shakes her head, “No, King Maddox. It’s not me… it’s… the maid!”
I let out a sigh of relief that it’s not Zabrina who is bleeding profusely, not because I care so much about her but because I don’t want to have to explain to Alpha Jordan or any of his friends that his daughter was grievously injured while she was in my home.
I’ve already sent for help using the mind-link, and as I hear footsteps approaching from behind me, I know that it’s Seth.
Reluctantly, I turn to Isla. She is even more pale than usual, and her bottom lip is trembling as her sapphire eyes stare in abject horror at the bloody monster in front of us.
I really fucking hate Zabrina right now. “Isla, dear, I’m going to have to let Beta Seth walk you back to your room. I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s all right,” she says. “I just hope… everyone is okay.”
“Me as well,” I tell her. I long to lean down and kiss her lips, but in the mental state she is in right now, I think it’s best to hold off.
Turning to Seth, I say, “Come back directly.”
He nods and takes Isla’s arm. I am tempted to watch her go, but I have a problem to handle. Judging by the amount of blood we are dealing with, it is a big one.
Two guards approach from either end of the hallway, also coming from my call. I don’t want to conduct this interview alone. Witnesses are a good thing to have when speaking to someone you think might possibly have committed a heinous crime.
“What happened with the maid?” I ask her.
Zabrina’s arms flop about as she talks, and she sounds frantic, but I know she isn’t. For one thing, she isn’t sweating at all, and her eyes are not dilated.
“I went down to visit her in her cell,” she tells me. “I felt so bad for her, you know? I have known the woman for so long, and I have become friends with her over the years.” She locks eyes with me, and without blinking says, “We’re very good friends, despite her station.”
I nod. “Go on.”
“Well, I was thinking, perhaps she didn’t do this, poison you that is, because there’s a good chance someone else slipped into the castle and poisoned the wine. After all, there are many people who might want to dispose of you, Your Majesty.”
I do not take this moment to point out that it was an aphrodisiac I was slipped, not a poison.
Unless my enemies would like me to fuck to death, I’m guessing it wasn’t their doing….
“So I went to speak to her,” Zabrina continues. “As she was eating the steak I brought to her, I asked her if she had done it, and she started to cry. She said her father told her to do it, that he was an assassin ordered by an enemy Alpha to kill you.”
“What Alpha?” I ask, taking careful mental note of everything she is saying.
She shrugs. “That’s the thing. She didn’t say, and then, as I was telling her that I would have to tell you of her vicious plan, despite the fact that she and I have come to be such good friends, she grabbed the steak knife and sliced her own throat! She cut clean through her jugular! It was… horrendous.”
“That explains all of the blood,” I murmur.
“Yes! It was spurting everywhere, and I… well, I tried to make the bleeding stop.” Zabrina holds her hands out as if I might be able to see from all of the blood how much effort she put forth.
“But it was fruitless?” I ask her. “Alice died anyway?”
“That’s right!” she says with a firm nod, and I try to hide a revealing smile. “I cried out to the guards to fetch a healer, and they did, but by the time they returned, my beloved Alice was dead.” Fake tears stream down Zabrina’s cheeks as she shakes her shoulders, a loud sobbing sound emitting from her mouth.
I give her a moment to finish her elaborate portrayal of a woman who has just lost her best friend. When she seems to have herself pulled together, I ask, “Then what did you do?”
“Why… I came looking for you, of course. I thought you should hear from me, not only that Alice was dead, but that she was the one who had tried to harm you. So you see, it wasn’t me. It was her… the corrupt maid. The woman I had trusted to take care of my every need for years. I’m so sorry, Your Majesty.” She takes a few steps toward me, but I put my hands up and back away.
The last thing I want is for that innocently spilled blood to get all over my suit.
“May I ask why you thought it necessary to take a steak knife into the dungeon?” I ask her. “Also… wasn’t your maid friend in solitary confinement?” I believe that had been my order.
Zabrina’s shoulders raise and drop. “I just wanted her to have a nice meal. The guards allowed me to go in and see her.”
That was something I was going to have to take care of. I had no doubt the beautiful Alpha’s daughter had used her ability to beguile men to sneak her way in. Picnic basket and all….
What I was going to do about Zabrina now, I wasn’t sure, but I would have to be decisive. I knew every word that came out of her mouth was a lie—save the fact that the poor maid had bled out like a sieve; of that I had no doubt.
“Where is your father?” I ask her.
Again, she shrugs. “Likely in his room. Why do you ask?”
I study her face for a moment, trying to determine what to do. Alpha Jordan is powerful. He has many powerful friends, and he is quite influential when it comes to the old guard, the gentlemen who have been Alphas since before my father passed away.
Angering Alpha Jordan is a risky endeavor. If I do so, I can easily anger several large packs at once.
Yet, I can’t let this woman stand here before me and lie about what happened when I know damn good and well that she is the one who used that knife to slice through the maid’s neck.
Why would she do a thing? Simply put, she was afraid that the maid would convince me of what I already knew to be true—it was Zabrina who slipped the drugs into my glass--or at the very least, her order that caused the maid to do so.
I decide to hold my cards for now. Seth is back. I can hear him approaching behind me again and know the cadence of his footsteps well enough that I don’t have to turn to look at him to know it’s him.
My mind flashes with images of Isla. I should be in my chambers with her right now, kissing her, exploring her body with mine.
Instead, I am standing her gaping at a bloody nightmare.
“Go get cleaned up,” I tell Zabrina. “We will speak of this tomorrow.”
She nods. “Yes, Your Majesty. I think… a good sleep will help to ease my troubled mind. Perhaps… you could pay me a visit later? I could… take comfort in your arms.”
She is propositioning me now? When she is covered in the blood of the woman whose neck I have no doubt she slashed? And she’s just seen me walking down the hall with Isla?
“Not tonight,” I tell her, managing a sympathetic smile. Again, there’s no reason to alarm her at the moment.
Her bottom lip protrudes in disappointment. “Perhaps you’d be more inclined if I wasn’t covered in the blood of the woman whose life I tried to save,” she says. “You know… some would count me as a hero for even trying.”
I press my lips together for a moment, choosing my words carefully, before I say, “It takes a special kind of person to do what you’ve done.”
Zabrina’s face lights up. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” she says, totally missing what I am saying to her. “I like to think so.” She bows her head to me and then heads off to her room, and I notice bloody footsteps all down the hallway.
“What the hell happened?” Seth asks me.
“She killed that poor, innocent maid,” I tell him.
Seth’s eyes widen and then narrow again. “The one I told you not to punish?”
I glare at him. “Well, she wasn’t completely innocent. She is the one who put the substance in my drink. But yes. Her.”
“How do you know Zabrina is the one that killed her?” Seth asks me.
“It’s simple enough,” I reply. I look from one guard to the other to see how closely they were paying attention to our conversation, but they both look at a loss.
Sighing, I take a few steps, pressing a hand to my forehead. “Zabrina claims that she took the maid dinner because they were nearly best friends, and she felt sorry for her. First of all, that’s suspicious because when we first discovered that I had been given something in my drink, Zabrina said the maid acted alone. I seriously doubt she would’ve just decided that she was mistaken.”
“True,” Seth says, “but that hardly seems like enough evidence to accuse Zabrina of murder. After all, she could’ve just felt bad for the woman, someone she knew, and wanted her to have something to eat.”
“Does that sound like Zabrina to you?” I ask, giving him a dry look.
“Well, no,” Seth admits. “But we hardly know her. Perhaps we haven’t gotten a good impression of her. Maybe she’s been nervous around you and hasn’t acted quite like herself.”
I can’t help the chuckle that escapes my lips. “I somehow doubt that. At any rate, I have further proof that she slashed that girl’s neck.”
“And what proof is that?” he asks me.
I inhale sharply and blow it out through my nose, going back over the conversation. “Zabrina claimed to have been best friends with the girl. I asked her if she sought medical attention for the maid, for Alice, and she said she did, that she’d sent for a pack healer.” I shrug. “So you see, Seth… that’s how I know she’s lying.”
His forehead knits together. “I’m not following. What is it in what you’ve just said that proves she was lying?”
“I asked her about Alice several times,” I tell him. “Her alleged best friend. She never once corrected me.”
“Corrected you?” Seth asks.
“Yes, Beta Seth. Don’t you remember?” He stares at me blankly. Finally, I put him out of his misery and fill him in on what he’s missing. “The maid’s name is Alva.”