Chapter 34: Getting More Suspicious

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Getting More Suspicious

Azura and Caroline finally skidded to a halt after five minutes of nonstop sprinting that would have made an Olympic marathon runner weep with pride. Azura doubled over, hands on her knees, gasping for air like she’d just surfaced from the bottom of the ocean.

But Caroline?

Caroline wasn’t done.

Before Azura could even catch her breath, Caroline’s hands shot out, grabbed both of Azura’s shoulders, and began shaking her like she was trying to extract the last few drops of juice from a very confused orange.

"AZURA. WHAT. IS. GOING. ON." Each word was punctuated by a violent shake. "WHY were you with Selena and that gloomy witch?! Were you about to punch Selena and Mara stepped in to protect her?! OR did that backstabbing little sister of yours run to Mara and tattle on you again, making you two almost fight to the death like TWO YEARS AGO?!"

Azura’s head bobbled back and forth like a dashboard toy on a bumpy road. Her brain was still processing the last ten minutes—a witch, a glowing hand, a near-death experience, and now she was being treated like a human milkshake.

Witches. There were WITCHES in this novel.

Were there vampires next? Were there going to be sparkly bloodsuckers descending from the ceiling any second now? Because she’d barely survived living with the WEREWOLVES. She did NOT sign up for a supernatural all-you-can-eat buffet of horror.

But then Caroline’s words finally pierced through the fog of her panic.

The bitter, venomous tone when Caroline mentioned Selena’s name.

Azura’s eyes snapped into focus. Her hand shot up and grabbed Caroline’s wrists, stopping the shaking mid-motion.

"Caroline." Her voice was calm. Deadly serious. Like a nun about to deliver a sermon on a Sunday morning. "Please. Do not speak badly of Selena anymore."

Caroline blinked. "Huh?"

"I forgot to tell you something very important." Azura placed both hands on Caroline’s shoulders now, looking her dead in the eyes with the intensity of a woman who had seen the light—and possibly a few too many motivational posters. "I no longer hate Selena. In fact, I want to be a GOOD sister to her. A kind sister. A loving sister. A sister who does NOT push her down flights of stairs or frame her for crimes she didn’t commit."

Caroline’s mouth opened. Then closed.

"So from now on," Azura continued, her voice rising with dramatic fervor, "remember that the Azura standing before you is a REFORMED Azura! A CUTE Azura! An ANGELIC Azura who has repented and wants to bully Selena NO MORE! When you insult Selena, it stabs my heart, Caroline! HOW CAN YOU KILL YOUR FRIEND’S HEART LIKE THIS?!"

Caroline stared at her like she’d just grown a second head that was singing opera.

Inside Azura’s mind, a small, exhausted voice screamed:

I’ve said this so many times in the past four days. To Jonathan. To Selena. Now to Caroline. I should just write "I HAVE REPENTED" on a sandwich board and hang it around my neck so everyone can read it and leave me alone.

She sighed internally.

Being a villainess was exhausting.

Being a reformed villainess?

Absolutely soul-crushing.

Caroline yanked herself back, grabbed Azura by the shoulders again, and gave her another vigorous shake that rattled her teeth. Her eyes narrowed into suspicious slits, scanning Azura’s face like she was looking for a zipper to peel off a very convincing mask.

"Are you KIDDING me?!" Caroline’s voice hit a pitch that could shatter glass. "Are you REALLY Azura, or are you some witch in disguise?! Because the Azura I know would NEVER say this! She HATES Selena! That girl DESTROYED your family! She tried to steal Alpha Adrian from you! And your reaction is to FORGIVE her?! That’s IMPOSSIBLE!"

She jabbed a finger at Azura’s chest.

"WHO. ARE. YOU."

Azura barely resisted the urge to slap her own forehead so hard it would leave a handprint.

Of all the people in this world, Caroline is the most suspicious of me. Jonathan thinks I have a brain tumor. Selena thinks I’m playing some elaborate five-dimensional chess game of manipulation. But Caroline? Caroline is one step away from calling an exorcist.

She panicked internally. She couldn’t faint again—she’d used that trick yesterday.

So, this time she let her mouth handle it.

Her chaotic, disaster-prone, nonsense-spewing mouth.

"Caroline, you have NO IDEA what it’s like when your wolf goes into hibernation because she’s so DISAPPOINTED and ASHAMED of your actions!" Azura’s voice cracked with theatrical anguish. "It feels so SAD! So EMPTY! So... so QUIET in here!" She tapped her chest dramatically. "Cora chose to sleep because she didn’t want me to torment my own sister anymore! And when I actually SAT DOWN and TRIED to remember everything I did to Selena—"

She paused, gasping for breath.

"I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD WHY CORA CHOSE TO NAP FOREVER!"

Caroline blinked, momentarily stunned by the sheer volume of the outburst.

"It’s not really Selena’s fault!" Azura continued, flailing her arms like a windmill in a storm. "The ENTIRE pack dumped all the blame on her when she was just a CHILD! A CHILD, CAROLINE! And about Adrian?!" She threw her hands up to the sky. "The Moon Goddess chose them to be mates! ME?! I’m just a side character who can’t read the room!"

She grabbed Caroline’s hands and squeezed them, her eyes burning with the intensity of a thousand suns.

"So now I’ve repented! I want to become an Azura who would rather BECOME A MONK than slap Selena even ONCE!"

There. I blamed everything on Cora. Let the proud, hibernating wolf take the fall. She’s not awake to defend herself anyway.

Caroline’s face cycled through emotions like a slot machine—suspicion, confusion, awkward understanding, and then suspicion again. Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

But... doesn’t Cora hate Selena too? Since when did Cora suddenly care about Selena?

She frowned deeply.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

She needed to talk to Jonathan and Vincent about this. Immediately. Preferably with a drink in hand.

Finally, she just nodded stiffly.

"I see... my bad, then."

"..."

The silence that followed was so cold it could have frozen hell over.

Azura rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, a nervous laugh escaping her lips.

Great. I just made her more suspicious. Fantastic. A-plus work, Azura. Really top-tier performance.

Her brain, which had been running on emergency fumes for the past ten minutes, finally engaged the "change subject" lever like a gambler pulling the slot machine handle and praying for a jackpot.

"Uh... so! That woman you slapped earlier!" She pointed vaguely in the direction they’d fled from. "Was it because she did something? Like, I don’t know... maybe she was flirting with Vincent? Or—"

Thank the Moon Goddess, she had chosen the right bait.

Caroline’s eyes lit up like she’d been offered a lifetime supply of her favorite wine. All suspicion about Azura’s "repentance arc" evaporated into the thin air as she crossed her arms and let out a cold, sharp laugh that could have flash-frozen a lake.

"Not only did that snake try to seduce Vincent—as if she didn’t KNOW he was MINE—but a few DAYS ago, she tried to DRUG Jonathan!"

Azura’s eyes went wide.

"And I regret not slapping her friends HARDER," Caroline continued, her voice rising with righteous fury, "because her little gang of hyenas HELPED her! Luckily, Jonathan didn’t drink anything that night, so he dodged that bullet. But still! THE AUDACITY!"

Azura’s brain short-circuited for a moment.

Wait. The absolute nonsense excuse I made up earlier to Selena and Mara—that Caroline slapped those women because of Vincent—was actually TRUE? I was just BSing on the spot!

She hadn’t expected Jonathan to be involved too, though. Her brother. Her idiot brother. Someone tried to DRUG him?

A flicker of genuine anger stirred in her chest.

"But wait." Azura frowned. "Why are those women still walking around this shopping district like they own the place?! Shouldn’t they be in a dungeon somewhere right now, wearing matching silver bracelets and regretting their life choices?!"

Caroline’s jaw tightened. "Because Alpha Adrian, Jonathan, and Vincent don’t know about this yet. The bar staff reported everything to me, and I’ve been gathering evidence before I—"

"Gamma Caroline."

A man suddenly approached them, cutting Caroline off mid-sentence. He leaned in, whispered something into her ear, and Caroline’s expression shifted from fury to grim professionalism.

She turned to Azura. "Wait here. I have pack business to attend to."

And just like that, Caroline and the mystery man sprinted into one of the nearby stores, disappearing into the crowd.

Leaving Azura.

Alone.

On the side of the street.

In front of an accessories shop.

Azura sighed.

The last hour had been so unbelievably chaotic that Azura felt a primal urge to crawl into a cave, curl into a ball, and never emerge again.

Just as she was contemplating which cave in the territory had the best acoustics for sobbing, a voice drifted over from the store entrance.

"Hey, check out the video someone shared in the group chat! It’s Lady Azura, the pack witch, the pack jinx, AND Gamma Caroline having a FIGHT!"

Azura’s head snapped toward the source of the voice like a meerkat sensing danger.

Three she-wolves had just walked out of the accessories store, their faces illuminated by their phones. They hadn’t noticed Azura yet. Rookie mistake.

"Ugh, I’m so disappointed they didn’t actually throw down like two years ago," one of them said, scrolling. "But man, our pack witch is so protective of Selena. Like, she only became pack witch because of her, you know? And even though she’s barely in the pack, every time she comes back, she ALWAYS picks a fight with Lady Azura. Selena, man. I wanna say she’s unlucky, but on the other hand... she’s kind of lucky too?"

"Lucky how?"

"Years ago, when she got exiled to live alone in the forest near the border? She ran into Pack Witch Mara and saved her life. And THAT’S why she got to come back. Pack Witch Mara made a deal with the Elder Alpha—she’d become the pack witch, and in exchange, Selena could live in the pack again. Sure, she’s a maid now, but at least she’s protected."

Her friend sneered. "Protected? Girl, please. With the entire pack hating her and ignoring her, and Lady Azura bullying her every single day? She’d be better off living outside. And that Elder Alpha is a sly old fox too—he deliberately sends Pack Witch Mara to other packs on ’missions’ so she can’t always be around to protect Selena. Otherwise, even though Lady Azura is strong, she’d never win against Pack Witch Mara’s insane spells."

Azura stood frozen, the words of those she-wolves sinking into her brain like stones dropped into a murky pond.

So that’s how it happened. That’s why Mara looked at me like she wanted to skin me alive and use my fur as a doormat.

She’d known Mara was protective of Selena, but she hadn’t realized just how deep that bond ran. Selena saved Mara’s life. Mara literally changed her entire life trajectory for Selena. They were bound by something stronger than pack ties—survival, gratitude, and probably a whole lot of trauma bonding.

No wonder Mara had been two seconds away from turning me into a toad earlier.

Azura’s hand drifted into her pocket, fingers brushing against something rough and frayed. She pulled out the tattered bracelet—the one Mara had been so weirdly intense about. The one Selena had apparently asked Mara to cast a spell on.

She held it up to the light, squinting at the faded threads and tiny, almost invisible runes woven into the fabric.

So... is this thing a time bomb waiting to explode? Or... a protective charm? Because knowing my luck in this novel, it’s probably the first option.