Chapter 281

281 The Day Of The Trial (5)

Shayla Plainheart and Gavin Ashmore grew up as blood-unrelated siblings. Since they were close in age and came under Quinn’s patronage at almost the same time, they quickly became good friends.

It was unclear when it started, but as they grew up, things started to change. Shayla’s feelings shifted from familial ones to romantic ones.

Unfortunately, Gavin did not share the same sentiment. He instead fell for the timid Maya Greenwood, who Shayla always considered a goody two shoes.

When Gavin was found guilty of harassing Maya, it was Shayla who helped him to escape from the pack house.

Alas, he was captured fairly quickly. When he was then kicked out of the Infinite Eclipse Pack, Shayla was heartbroken.

In Shayla’s opinion, it was Maya who acted coy around Gavin. Maya misled Gavin completely, and Gavin fell for her charm.

Shayla then begged Quinn to put a good word for Gavin in front of the Alpha, but Quinn refused to.

Quinn pointed out to Shayla that Gavin knew that what he did was wrong and did it anyway. This was not something that neither Quinn nor Ronan could tolerate.

If the pack forgave Gavin, it would be taken as a sign that it was not a serious offense and any infatuated young man could do the same thing.

.....

In the end, Quinn delivered Gavin to Black Reef Island. Needless to say, Gavin was miserable there. Shayla came to visit him as often as she could, but it did not make Gavin feel any better because he knew that his place in the werewolf society was forever gone.

One day, Silas Goldfinger came to the prison in search of someone who might just be willing to do a small job in exchange for freedom and possible entry into another pack.

A lot of the prisoners were interested, including Gavin. When Gavin told Silas that he hailed from the Infinite Eclipse Pack, Silas knew that he was the right person for the job.

His client was a very important person with a high rank in the werewolf community, so Silas told Gavin. It was inconvenient for her to come down to Black Reef Island to talk terms with Gavin. So if Gavin had someone who often came to visit him, it would be great if this person could serve as the middle man or woman to bridge the communication between the client and Gavin.

The next time Shayla came to visit, Gavin told her everything. Shayla quickly agreed. In her naivety, she went straight to the Ironclad Claws Pack House without any plan. Although she remembered not to reveal her own name or Gavin’s, she ended up blurting Silas Goldfinger’s name instead.

This one slip of the tongue was what drew Kieran Locksworth’s attention to the young woman from the very beginning.

It was not a coincidence that Ralph was attacked mere days before the war between the Silent Walkers Pack and the Night Prowler Pack began. Lucrethia had planned for Ronan Silverback to kill Kinnon Youngshaper.

Burning with rage from the battleground choice and consumed by vengeance over his darling little boy, Kinnon Youngshaper was supposed to lose against Ronan Silverback. Possibly killed, if Lucrethia’s calculation was correct.

This was in line with her plan to make Lillian the Luna of the strongest pack on the continent.

The order that she gave Gavin was not to kill Ralph but injure him severely. Severe enough to incapacitate the boy, if possible. After all, she needed Kinnon to go rampant during the war.

Gavin’s death was part of the plan.

After all, it would not make sense if he escaped scot-free from the Night Prowler Pack House so easily.

For Shayla, Lucrethia had another plan.

Lucrethia had planned to reward Shayla with a lot of gold and send her away as a reward while keeping Gavin’s death a secret from Shayla.

One way or another, Shayla eventually found out. She went back one last time to meet with Lucrethia and kicked a huge fuss.

This was not what she wanted, she said.

She wanted to give Gavin a second chance, allowing him to be part of a werewolf pack again.

The young woman said that Lucrethia deceived her. She threatened to tell Quinn and Ronan Silverback about the entire scheme.

Naturally, Lucrethia did not want to let the cat out of the bag that soon.

Only dead people did not talk.

Lucrethia squeezed the life out of Shayla and murdered her in cold blood. Her son, Conrad Woodland was also there when it happened.

He was a total wuss.

His knees went weak and he fell to the ground in fright.

Beta Kieran just happened to enter the room at the inopportune moment. He widened his eyes when he looked at the young woman’s corpse.

“Beta Kieran, get rid of this woman for me,” so Lucrethia ordered. “The maid stole from me and I punished her for it.”

Within a pack, the Alpha was the rule. Since Conrad Woodland was there to witness the punishment and no objection slipped from his mouth, Kieran had no reason to find it absurd or unlawful.

After all, the young woman was, he thought at that time, a mere rogue werewolf without any connection.

Their lives were practically worthless.

They were the pest of the werewolf society, the unwanted werewolves who contaminated the whole community.

“I only found out the truth about Shayla Plainheart recently,” Kieran said.

By recently, he meant his unofficial interrogation with Lillian, Ronan, and Dane.

Lillian and Ronan both contributed some pieces of the puzzle, making it possible for them to put together the entire story and establish a connection between Gavin Ashmore and Lucrethia Woodland.

“I buried her in an empty spot in a human graveyard at a small town west of Pine Groove City.”

“This is very magnificently told, Alpha Kieran, but this does not help at all with uncovering Madam Woodland’s role as the mastermind,” Gregor remarked.

“I am not done yet,” Kieran said in response. “When I buried her, I saw it. Shayla Plainheart had some skin and blood under her fingernails. She scratched Madam Lucrethia Woodland when the Madam was choking her.”