I'm Dying Mate (Iona Blackfield) novel Chapter 22

(22) The Trial

(22) The Trial

Arthur

It’s been a week since lona was taken. It was stressful on all of us who had to go through all the hoops and laws of the Elders. We were summoned but we had to talk within the family to decide whether that is the right thing. We wanted to take lona back but if it involves the Elders, you can never be too careful.

Growing up under them, we’ve seen cases like this. Trials and judgments with Anchors interviewing and conducting the trials. I’ve seen it all, the strife and disbelief but also the odds of us taking lona back.

We should have known that there was this vampire that hang around lona but there was a lot that we didn’t know about our niece. It’s been years since we saw each other while she was under her hiding. I didn’t know that Mother has the means of hiding a child in that great degree.

Sarah was silent for a moment while she sits on the chair around the circular table located in

the middle of the desolate room. We all were silent while we waited for the Anchor to come

in and sit on the only empty chair on the head of the table.

We’re currently in the Temple, the home of the Elders. This is the home where we were trained and honed in to the fate of being Alpha mates of werewolf females. Every corner of this huge mansion is filled with memories of me and my brothers childhood.

But instead of reminiscing and talking about it with my wife and mate. I am glaring at Sarah. with every ounce of my being while observing her. In a brief moment, I see Sarah with a bewildered face with emotions running rampant in her eyes. If I didn’t know any better, I say she’s panicking. My train of thought was cut short when she suddenly fumes and bursts out

of the silence

“It’s already proven that she has relations with this vampire” she grips on the chair tight enough to pop holes on it. “Why do we have to drag the wretched anchor now?”

I raise my eyebrows at her “Nervous? Any secret you’re not willing to share?”

She glares at me and I chuckle in delight. Dragging a lot of people just because of her stupid revenge on an accident that lona accidentally caused. A normal person would mourn, blame her for a while but she should have realized by now that no matter what she does, the child won’t come back

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She’s hiding something Cara whispers through the mind link. I glance at her on my side and gives me a hard look

She is and we’re going to find out I hold her hand and squeeze.

Sarah turns silent all over again while settling back to her seat. We patiently waited for the Anchor to arrive, we heard that Roosevelt’s Anchor will be our witness and temporary judge and there’s nothing wrong with that but then we can’t ignore Roosevelts weird personality and peculiarity.

Unlike the other Elders, Roosevelt has chosen an anchor that is a Light Reader. Light readers are considered psychics and they have a habit of finding the truth of things. They are also

known to be obsessive and are hoarders. Roosevelts Anchor is no different from other light readers. She is obsessed with bracelets, it runs up her arms till it looks like its own sleeve. When she walks, it is freaking annoying as it jiggles and sounds like metal maracas.

The other Elders have Celtic warriors or other werewolves as Anchors. Anchors are usually

*the beings that updates the Elders of the trends of the current era they wake up in. Elder’s

usually hibernates for decades and Anchors are close to a job of being a secretary

Fredo lightly growls, his eyes glaring at Sarah with the stoic face. Farah had to touch his arm to calm him down and it worked since he has been struggling for a while. My head twitched at the sound of hearing jiggling metal as the Anchor got close.

I groan feeling a headache coming as the sound persisted in the halls accompanied by light footsteps of a small female. The door finally opens after what felt like an eternity and a silver haired woman with dark skin came in, the Anchor smiles, her iris was so light you’d think it

was white.

She sits on the remaining seat but not before her circling every one of us. Her hands touching the back of our seats while she hums with a foreign tune on her lips. Her eyes looks. curious like all light readers are. She sits with her bracelet filled arm which makes me question how many does she have on?

“Well, let’s start talking” she says, her voice upbeat and cheery. I told you, Light readers are strange beings. She seems to ignore the heavy atmosphere around us.

She raises her arms above her head and claps her hand together. Something from her body starts glowing white, I can see it through the spaces between her metal bracelets. I squint trying to see even with the harsh light emanating from her. There’s a tattoo on the back of her hands which made me think it was her tattoo that was glowing and not her

The glowing didn’t stop for a while, her eyes starts rolling back in its socket and her mouth starts gaping open. Light escaped her mouth as she begin to whisper things.

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She jerks her head to the side and rolls her shoulders. She does this for a good thirty minutes until her gaze lands on me.

“You!” she says accusingly “You have something that you are hiding. Everyone has something that they hide but yours… is interesting. I will warn you that once you don’t tell it from the one you are keeping it from. Your life will never be the same again!”

Cara squeezes my hand with an uneasy expression on her face. She knows

It’s okay I whisper back, softly and comforting. It would all be fine.

The anchor rolls her head again and it then lands on Fredo “Your sorrow, your agony, your pain was the feeling you felt when you lost your sister and it was the pain you can’t forget. You often compare it to losing a leg but when you lose a mate you lose your mind and heart, you really do not know the difference of those two things”

She mumbles a few incoherent words until she rolls her head again and it lands on Sarah. The anchors face turns grim while she frowns “You have dark dark secrets that could kill you. You could lose so many things because of it. Your mate will simply forget you as if you were just a wind that passed by”

She shifts her gaze to Raven next “Strange… you are almost as clean as a newborn soul but no one is safe in this judgment. You have lied countless of times and those will pile up in to something you can never control but wait…”

she lets a few moments pass until she starts speaking again. “No, you are not clean not at all. You’ve lived a life hence you have something that would deny you of purity. You are tainted as anyone can be because of this ‘lona’ that you call. She could be the death of you all and could be your savior but the question is Which is she?” she cackles not in an evil

way but in a way that says excitement. She stops when her eyes lands on the ceiling of the room.

She let out labored breaths while she caught her breath. There was a thin sheet of sweat on her forehead while her chest rises in large puffs. She looks like she ran around a track and is close to breaking down. It takes a few minutes before she starts talking again.

“I have said what I needed to say. Now, you must speak your own words to seal the trial” she says not looking at us at all. She looks dazed as if she is coming down from a high that has wiped her out.

“it’s wrong to let lona be accused with such a thing, she can’t even produce enough healthy cells to live to the end of this year much less plan and support a rebellion” Raven says, he is stoic and cold throughout the meeting but Fiona on his side looks ready to jump at Sarah, claw first. I know the feeling

“Yes, I agree with my brother as far as our niece knew, the vampire was human and he died.

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( (22) The Trial

She didn’t even know he awakened as a vampire until recently” I say

+25 Points

Fredo grunts his eyes challenging the light reader even though it was foolish to do so. Light readers are not one to fight, they often laugh at violence at how petty it is. They know the real reason and the truth of any strife or argument so why would they cause anymore misunderstandings that could cause any harm to them. But that doesn’t mean they’re not good fighters. They have this ability, much like earlier, to produce a searing heat from their palms with their light.

Sarah shrugs her shoulders “the judgment is necessary with a case like hers. Maybe this is just a front by her, and she is playing us on the palm of her hands. So, the elders must be involved”

Then the anchor speaks “Is that all you got to say?”

“Yes” we said in unison.

“Then this Trial is done” she says and returns to normal. She breathes in a long and deep breath then exhales heavily.

“Well, I’ll see you after five days” then she was gone not even bothering to introduce herself or saying goodbye for formality.

I don’t even know what her name is, I heard she uses Roosevelts name if she needed to introduce herself. There’s nothing wrong with is since being an anchor it also means she is the extension of Roosevelt himself. The other anchors are known to do it as well like Cara’s father with his anchor a fairy named Ruby.

Slowly, we walk out of the room. No one is talking to each other as it is a rule to observe silence after a trial where you told the truth. We didn’t say anything until we reached our packs and our homes because that is also how we seal that the trial was done.

Once me and Cara got back to our home, I see the twins by the porch. I know they want to ask questions and Cara saves me from the twins being relentless by pushing me away to the direction of the forest and answering the twin’s question herself

I kiss her cheek gratefully before shifting to the direction of the prison. I see my warriors guarding a basement door and I nod to them while they open the door for me. I’m greeted by an elevator and I picked the farthest one.

I needed to make sure he was still there that no one escaped and told anyone that he is here. the elevator dings and the opposite wall opens. It reveals the dark and wide halls of the prison. My packs main job and income is these prisons, where we hold criminals for other packs or for the Elders.

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+25 Points

I step further down the room until I am in front of the wretched fucker that ruined my family. That ruined everything that was good in this family.

“Smith” I growl

He looks up, he lost a lot of weight since I held him here. he grins at me with grime on his face “Brother-in-law”

IONA

It’s been a week since I am held here, there was no reply from the Elders yet whether to let my mates stay or not. Dyson says they weren’t sure that I’ll still be here after one encounter with the two. It seems they were known to be good kidnappers.

Oh, I know and I can’t blame them for thinking that way.

I was cold to the bone, my whole body shook and trembled. Dyson was injecting me something in my back and I didn’t feel a thing. I could only feel the cold and how painful it is to move my fingers or my muscles.

“Alright, here I’ll get you a comforter” Dyson says while moving to the dresser by the foot of

the bed.

I can hear my teeth chattering “i-it’s g-getting worst…isn-isnt it?”

Dyson sighs “Apparently yes, if you don’t see or touch your mate you’ll probably loose every blood in your body before the real judgment even comes”

“is it my c-c-ancer?” I stutter. I feel like my teeth hare going to break or grind even further in my fums

He shakes his head “that’s the good news it’s not your cancer but the weeks or even months of your strained mating bond has affected you severely, which means your other two mates may probably be in the dungeon of their own pack house because one thing is for sure is that your mates are going berserk right now. They need to be by your side and they know you won’t survive for long if they weren’t”

“Da ya h-have to tell me?” I let out a sigh “D-Dyson help me calm them down”

He starts to laugh “Are you kidding me? Don’t be stupid like I’ll let you stand in that weak crumbling body”

“th-then let m-me die, j-j-just put morphine or-or anesthesia in m-m-m-my system”

“Are you saying you’re giving up?” he asks he sounded really surprised.

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I tried to roll my eyes but I was too freaking cold to even do

ng cold to even do that “isn’t this much more better…

much more peaceful……much more easy for you”

Then I heard something break, I look over to my side and see Dyson picking up the broken pieces of a glass. He was angry I know and that was obvious because of his tensed arms and his tight jaw and also the tense atmosphere.

“So that’s it” he says. “So it’s just like that, you’ll give up on living because you want to be peaceful?!” He shouts in frustration “I can’t believe you’ll just give up like that, I know you’re better than this”

After a few seconds with my chattering teeth and his heavy breathing I ask “Are you finish?”

He nods.

“I think it’s more peaceful because you don’t have to be bothered, I think it’s better because my Aunt Sarah will finally be happy and I think it’ll be alright since I’m fine with it”

I let out a shaky breath “In the end when you’re halfway dead almost all of your life you’ll realize you’re scared of dying, I’m scared of dying but I have to be strong to-to help other people” I didn’t realize I was already crying and the embarrassment of being so weak made me turn to my side so he wouldn’t see

“I’m sorry” he whispers while I hear someone close the door.

I sniffled while I was still shivering. I clutch the comforter tightly on me but I couldn’t sleep, not even for a while. Even when it started to turn dark and the door slowly opens. I didn’t turn to look at because I know it was just Dyson.

“I know, I’m sorry, Dyson” I bite my tongue so I don’t break my teeth. I can’t imagine myself looking pretty without teeth and it would be embarrassing to see my mates that way if I ever get out, that is. “I know what I said and I didn’t mean it. I am just so tired, re-really tired”

“We know” the two voices that says that made me sit up and look at the door’s direction. It was a mistake to move so quickly because my muscles on my pelvis and legs were protesting and starts to cramp

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