Avelina glared at Lyanna, her eyes wide with a sudden, jagged spark of panic.
The composure she usually wore like a second skin began to fray at the edges, and for the first time, she looked genuinely flustered.
When she finally found her voice, it came out several octaves higher than her usual melodic tone, sounding thin and desperate in the quiet of the stone room.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Avelina shrieked, her hands trembling at her sides. "Why would I ever try to kill you? What could I possibly gain from such a horizontal act? This is madness!"
Cedric stood by, watching the exchange with a growing sense of exhaustion. When he heard Lyanna lobbing these accusations at Avelina once again, his first instinct was to dismiss them as more symptoms of her jealousy.
He shifted his weight, his large frame beginning to move toward Avelina as if to instinctively shield her from Lyanna's verbal assault. To him, Avelina was the constant, the loyal sister who had always been by his side.
However, Avelina was faster than his protective instincts.
Her reaction was so visceral, so visibly panicked, that it gave Cedric pause. He stopped mid-step, his eyes narrowing as he took in her flustered state.
He had seen Avelina face dangerous warriors and grim medical emergencies without blinking, yet here she was, vibrating with fear over a question from lyanna.
For the first time in his life, Cedric looked at Avelina with a flicker of genuine suspicion, observing her as if she were a stranger he had never truly seen before.
Avelina caught the shift in Cedric's gaze.
She realized instantly that she had overreacted, her nerves frayed by the fact that Lyanna had taken her completely by surprise.
She forced her breathing to steady, her mind racing through her library of manipulation for a quick solution. All at once, she found her weapon. She squeezed her eyes shut, and suddenly, fat, heavy tears began to roll down her delicate cheeks.
"I know you don't like me," Avelina sobbed, her voice trembling with fragility.
"I know you hate me for being close to Cedric, but you cannot simply stand there and accuse me of attempted murder. Lyanna, please..."
"It is Luna for you," Lyanna interrupted, her voice cutting through the performative sobbing like a cold blade.
"Do you find it that difficult to follow the laws of this pack, or are you disrespecting my title on purpose?"
Avelina was momentarily stunned into silence. The sheer audacity of Lyanna demanding her title while Avelina was in the middle of a crying fit was unprecedented.
She stubbornly refused to utter the word Luna, so she simply let the tears continue to flow, looking up at Cedric with the heartbroken expression of a child who had been unjustly bullied.
Seeing Avelina's tears, Cedric felt his suspicion begin to waver. In all the years he had known her, Avelina had always been a woman of strength.
He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen her cry, and this was only the fifth instance in over two decade.
He held a deep-seated disdain for tears, viewing them as a mark of weakness that had no place in a warrior pack, and Avelina knew this better than anyone. For her to be weeping so openly, he reasoned, she must be truly devastated by the weight of Lyanna's false accusations.
The entire situation was beginning to give Cedric a throbbing headache. He felt trapped between two worlds.
On one side was his Luna, his newly discovered mate who seemed to be acting out of a deep-seated, irrational jealousy.
On the other side was the woman he viewed as his sister, who was now falling apart before his eyes.
He wished he could simply walk out of the room and leave them to settle their own disputes, but the gravity of the claim—that his own servants had tried to kill his wife—kept him anchored to the floor.
He felt a strange mix of happiness that Lyanna cared enough to be jealous, and utter frustration that he didn't know how to handle it.
Lyanna watched Avelina's performance from her position, her expression one of mild amusement. "I already told you that I believed you didn't do it, Avelina," Lyanna said, her tone light and conversational.
"I was only asking the question because my two maids keep looking at you as if you're their personal savior. All you had to do was tell me you had nothing to do with them, and I would have taken your word for it. Why the need for all these tears? I truly don't understand you."
The comment hit its mark. Avelina knew that if she continued to cry after Lyanna had seemingly backed off, she would look like she was fishing for Cedric's pity.
She wiped her eyes and stood up, her heart burning with a concentrated venom. She had always disliked the weak girl Cedric had married, but today, she wanted nothing more than to shift into her wolf and tear Lyanna into jagged pieces.
Lyanna turned her attention back to the two shivering maids by the door. "Now, tell me," she said, her voice dropping into a domineering one.
"Why did you try to kill me? Do not look to Avelina for help. She is a smart woman; she knows that conspiring to kill a Luna is a high crime, and she won't dare associate herself with you now."
"Luna, we didn't!" the first maid stammered, her knees knocking together. "We really didn't try to kill you, we swear it!"
Lyanna's gaze hardened. "So, you are saying that I am a liar? That I imagined the events leading up to my fall?"
She didn't wait for them to answer. She turned to Cedric, her expression softening just a fraction. "Cedric, do you remember the day we were married? When I finally left my stepmother's house, I brought only one small box with me. You asked me what was inside, do you recall?"
Cedric nodded slowly. He remembered that small, battered box vividly because it had been the only piece of luggage she owned.
At the time, he had been struck by how little she had to her name. Lyanna had timidly told him then that it was the only memento she had left of her father and mother.
"Good," Lyanna said.
"These two women stole that box. They took it to the mountain top and hung it from a branch dangling over the abyss. I went there to get it back. While I was trying to retrieve the only thing I have left of my parents, your guards arrived."
"My foot slipped, and I fell. I am certain that box is currently with the guards who found me at the foot of the cliff. It is likely broken into pieces now with some of the things inside lost and never to be found, but you can ask them yourself. Cedric, you know how much I treasured that memento. Even if I wanted to die, I would never take my father and my mother's memory with me to the grave."
Cedric's eyes flashed a dangerous shade of red, his Alpha blood boiling with a sudden, protective fury.
He looked at the two maids, his hands curling into fists. If Lyanna had died, he would have lived the rest of his life believing she had abandoned him by choice, never knowing that she had been lured into a death trap.
He knew these two didn't have the intelligence or the bravery to orchestrate such a cruel plan on their own. There must definitely be someone behind them. He stepped toward them, his voice laced with pure venom.
"Who told you to do this?" Cedric growled.
"Do not test my patience. I know you didn't come up with this on your own. If you do not give me a name right now, I promise you will spend the rest of your short lives wishing you had died on that mountain instead of her."
The maids collapsed in terror, their faces pale. Lyanna watched them, a small, triumphant smile playing on her lips.
She had achieved her goal. She had successfully proven to Cedric that she hadn't been trying to kill herself, and Cedric is a very intelligent man, she knew he will Definitely know that these two maids can't come up with such a plan themselves and he will unleash his wrath on them.
Now, she just had to wait and see if the fear of the Alpha was greater than their loyalty to Avelina who is currently shaking in the corner, she's obviously looking forward to the answer of the two maids