Chapter 236
Chapter 236
ELENA
The trial was over.
+25 BONUS
It should have felt like relief. The weeks of testimony, the brutal questions, the endless speculation about Maggie’s motives- Goddess, the weight of it all should have lifted. But it hadn’t. Not really.
Instead, I felt heavy.
I sat at the corner of the hol bar, one heel hooked on the footrest, the other leg crossed over my knee. A half–empty glass of whiskey sat on the napkin in front of me, its amber swirl catching the dim gold of the pendant light above. My throat still burned from the last sip.
I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. The hunger gnawed at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it.
Maggie was guilty.
The words echoed, stark and brutal, as if spoken in that low, precise voice of the lead judge again.
Guilty.
They’d spared her the death sentence. The prosecution had agreed to drop capital punishment She’d live–but the sentencing was still weeks away. We didn’t know yet if she’d spend the rest of her life in isolation or behind change for her cooperation. bars, or if she’d be given some kind of conditional exile.
It should have brought me comfort. I’d fought for that compromise, after all. I’d stood in front of a room full of wolves who saw only danger in Maggie and told them there was still good in her. That people–wolves–could change. That she’d saved me once, and that mattered.
But watching her be led out in shackles today, expression empty, gaze hollow…
It didn’t feel like justice.
It just felt like loss.
“Still nursing that one?” a low voice said from behind me.
I didn’t have to turn around. I already knew who it was.
Derek.
I sighed and let my eyes close for a second, just long enough to keep from snapping at him. He stepped into the stool beside mine and gently laid his palms on the edge of the bar.
“What are you doing here?” I asked quietly, eyes still forward.
“I just wanted to see if you were okay.”
“I’m not.”
Silence stretched. I felt the weight of his gaze on the side of my face, patient and steady. It made me ache. I wanted him here and didn’t. I wanted comfort and solitude in the same breath. I wanted things I couldn’t name.
“I’ll talk to you later, Derek,” I said finally, turning toward him. “But not now. Right now, I just need space.”
His jaw ticked. He didn’t argue. Just nodded once, quietly, respectfully.
“I get it,” he said.
And then he left.
Chapter 236
+25 BONUS
The stool beside me stayed warm for a while, as if some trace of him lingered. I downed the last sip of my whiskey and let it burn all the way down.
Another body slid into the stool Derek had vacated.
I didn’t bother looking up right away.
“Whiskey neat,” the newcomer said to the bartender. His voice was smooth, practiced. Confident.
I finally glanced over–and immediately regretted it.
Alpha Jacob Stormvale.
Of course.
He was broader up close than he looked from the trial bench, his suit tailored sharp enough to cut glass. A dark navy jacket hugged his frame, and the knot of his tie was ever so slightly undone, just enough to suggest carelessness—but calculated carelessness.
His hair was light and mussed in the way that took effort to maintain. His jaw was carved, lips full, and Goddess help me, his eyes were this impossible, unreadable shade of storm–gray.
He was devastatingly attractive.
“You caused quite the stir in there,” he said, voice low and amused, the rim of his glass catching the light as he brought it to his lips.
I arched a brow without turning toward him fully. “Are you even allowed to talk to me? Aren’t you supposed to be sequestered or something?”
He smiled, slow and rakish, a hint of mischief tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Trial’s over.”
“I didn’t think the judges were allowed to talk about the trial even after it ended.”
“I’m not here to talk about the trial,” he said, accepting his drink from the bartender with a nod. “I’m here to talk to you about what you said in it.”
