The Alpha’s Curvy Cinderella - Chapter 68: Chapter 68

Grant POV
“I need to retrieve some papers and Sarah needs to get in here,” I said quietly, standing up and placing my hands on the table.
“Sarah,” my mother said confused, but my father just nodded tightly. Evidently, he had put two and two together. He was no fool, my father.
“I’ll mind-link her, go get what you need” he instructed “but do hurry will you. It seems like today is the day for ridding this pack of all its bad seeds” he muttered darkly, in a foul mood.
My mother looked scandalized. Elder Jason merely coughed in amusement. I dashed out of the door and headed upstairs, straight to the bedroom where there was no sign of Sarah. I opened the safe behind the painting and grabbed the papers I needed, jogging back downstairs. I wanted this over and done with as soon as possible and my freedom restored back to
me.
I opened the door and saw Sarah sitting placidly at the table, a small smile on her face. Well, she wouldn’t be smiling long, I thought with satisfaction. I couldn’t understand how she could be so damn calm. Hadn’t she heard her father and Stella being dragged out of the room? Or seen them being dragged into the pack house and restrained? Or did she care so little about them that it didn’t matter at all to her? That her father and stepmother didn’t matter? How cold. But it didn’t really surprise me at all, to be honest. It was completely within her despicable character. She was a horrid human being.
She looks entirely too comfortable the way she’s sitting there. She should look nervous or scared but instead, she’s sitting there like she’s about to have freaking afternoon tea or something Hades growled.
She won’t be smiling for long. Not after I confront her with this evidence. There’s no way she’s getting herself out of the trouble she’s dug herself into. She looks calm now but give it a few minutes and I guarantee she’s going to look like she’s about to s**t herself I warned Hades.
Dude, gross. Too much information. Urgh. The sayings you humans have are disgusting. Why couldn’t you just say petrified or something?
Whatever I muttered scared, alright Hades. She’ll look scared. Is that better?
Much. See how easy that was? How less disgusting that sounds?
You are so weird
You’re a man w***e. I would rather be a weirdo than that. So there he stuck his tongue out at me and then lay down, looking pleased with himself as I rolled my eyes at his childish antics. Damn, mutt. Couldn’t he see the seriousness of the situation? Or was this his way of dealing with it?
I plonked myself down at the table, deliberately sitting opposite Sarah who merely gave me a smile, raising an eyebrow at me. My mother cleared her throat.
“Grant,” she said sweetly “Perhaps you would like to fill us in on why you sent for the elders or council, whatever you want to call them,” she said slightly exasperated.
Elder Jason looked a little bit frustrated with the way she so casually spoke about them.
I coughed. Elder Jason merely nodded. “To be fair there were two of us approaching, but my comrade got injured and was forced to turn back,” he said explaining why he was solo.
Well, that explained that, I thought, one mystery solved. “Well, it’s quite simple why Elder Jason is here. I have proof that Sarah has broken one of our most sacred laws” I said seriously, side eyeing Sarah who looked at me nonchalantly.
My mother gasped and looked at Sarah incredulously “Not you too” she said with frustration in her voice. She was taking this personally now. As though she was responsible for everything that was going wrong with the pack.
My father merely tightened his jaw. He had been expecting this. Sarah said nothing, merely folded her hands in front of her, her handbag situated on the floor beside her. So far nothing had rattled her or changed her composure. She was like a robot, with no feelings or emotions.
“That’s a pretty serious accusation. Where is this proof and what exactly are you accusing your chosen mate of?” Elder Jason asked, c*****g his head at me.
I handed him the papers. He blinked and then grabbed a pair of spectacles out of his pocket, putting them on, and blinked, perusing the papers slowly.
He looked confused. He looked up at me. “Explain what it is I’m looking for?” he said slowly “I’m having difficulty understanding what these financial records are” he admitted sheepishly.
My mother was glancing over his shoulder, as was my father, curiosity on their faces.
“If you look at the highlighted section you will see a description of a herb called Catuaba purchased by Sarah. Catuaba, in case you aren’t aware is an illegal aphrodisiac banned from being purchased or distributed amongst shifters due to its ability to cause memory loss, sensitivity, extreme s****I frustration, and horniness and even render a subject susceptible to certain suggestions.”
Elder Jason pointed at the highlighted version, scanning it slowly now. My father scowled and my mother put a hand to her mouth, looking horrified. “I’m familiar with the herb. I studied it in middle school for a project. It’s very potent and can be fatal if given in high doses over a long period of time. It’s relatively easy to get your hands on though and it’s not dangerous to humans, only shifters. It affects us differently from them. It’s one of the reasons it is illegal” she whispered, her voice shaking as she stared at Sarah who looked at her innocently.
“The financials are in Sarah’s name,” Elder Jason said agreeably “but can you be certain she is the one who purchased it?” he asked with a frown. “For all we know, another did, using her online bank account.”
“It gives the card number. If it matches her debit card or credit card, and I have reason to believe it will, then she had to have been the one who purchased it. She doesn’t allow anybody else to use her card” I explained “Her father would have her cut off if she did.”
“Sarah, hand over your purse, right now” my mother snarled, her eyes blazing. She looked ready to tear Sarah into shreds.
Sarah obediently bent down and grabbed her purse, sliding it over the table to my mother who looked ready to kill. My mother’s hands were shaking as she zipped the purse open and began to rifle through the cards. She withdrew a credit card and put it against the paper, comparing the numbers. Her eyes narrowed in disgust. “They match” she hissed and tore the card into shreds, letting them fall to the ground in pieces. Her hands were shaking with rage.
Shame she didn’t do that to Sarah commented Hades amused.
My father looked at me, “Is there anything else you wish to add Grant?” he asked grimly.
I straightened up “I believe she drugged me the night of the ball. My memory of that night is hazy at best and I have no recollection of what really happened, let alone any memory of actually marking her or choosing her to be my chosen mate.”
It was with utter shame that I admitted that, knowing how it would make me sound. How weak and vulnerable, for a woman to have gotten the better of me.
My mother’s eyes filled with tears “Oh honey” she burst out, her hand to her mouth “Oh my god. I thought, I thought that you had” Her shoulders began to shake as she fought the urge to cry.
“Mother, stop, don’t blame yourself. I had my suspicions and I acted on them. Sarah and I were seeing each other before the ball and then I found my mate but she rejected me. Sarah didn’t like that and clearly thought she still deserved to be Luna. She knowingly drugged me, knowing the effects, and enticed me into making her my mate, securing her position as Luna to be while fooling everyone around her.”
“Oh, your mate rejected you” my mother gasped “Who, why?” she stammered. She was genuinely upset on my behalf.
“That fat b***h Jordan” Sarah spoke, for the first time, her voice dripping with venom “and Grant still couldn’t stop thinking about her. Even though he accepted the rejection, she was all he could talk about” she sneered.
“Jordan,” my father said surprised “Oh she would have made an excellent Luna” he mused, rubbing his chin and looking off into the distance.
“Yeah, except she didn’t want to be,” I said heavily “She didn’t want me. I teased her and bullied her and I paid the price for it. It’s nobody’s fault but my own that she rejected me” I admitted, acknowledging it properly for the first time.
My mother looked at me sympathetically. Her eyes darted back to Sarah and she narrowed them, glaring at her coldly. Elder Jason spoke. “The proof in this case is undeniable. This young lady” he indicated an unrepentant-looking Sarah, who still looked too calm for her own good “devised a plan and knowingly purchased a herb that she knew to be highly illegal, for the sheer purpose of fooling the future Alpha into marking her as his chosen mate. We have the financial records, the matching numbers to her credit card, and testimony from herself indicating her disdain for his actual mate. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that she is guilty of the crime of which she is accused. Does anyone else at this table, have anything more they wish to say, or any more information they wish to share to shed any more light on this?”
My mother hesitated. My father’s jaw ticked. I shot Sarah a look of sheer hatred. She barely flinched. She was one cool customer, I marveled. When was she going to realize that she was about to get what was coming to her?
“Why Sarah?” my mother asked quietly “Was being Luna that important to you that you would risk everything for it?” “I wasn’t about to let Grant make a fool out of me” Sarah hissed “he made promises and then the second he found out Jordan was his mate he backed out as though I meant nothing to him. As if Jordan could compare to me! She was nothing but a weak, pathetic, wolf-less omega. I’m the pretty one. The thin one. The strong one. He should have chosen me! I was willing to do anything and everything for him. I loved him. All I wanted was for him to love me in return” she said passionately as we all stared at her.
She sounded crazy, maniacal, obsessed. There was a light burning bright in her eyes. She waved her hands around wildly. She wasn’t restrained but I doubted she’d get past me and Father anyhow.
“What you just described isn’t love Sarah,” my mother said dismayed. “That’s trying to control someone. You can’t make someone have feelings for you or reciprocate them. It either comes with time or with the mate bond.”
Elder Jason cleared his throat. “Well I think it’s time that I made my decision,” he said in a coarse voice. He looked resigned and weary. It must have been a long journey for him. He looked around at all of us as we nodded, awaiting his verdict.
“Wait” Sarah interrupted him “Before you do, there’s something you should know,” she said, digging in her handbag and retrieving something, flourishing it in the air triumphantly as we all leaned forward to look, unable to believe our eyes as she smirked, a look of positive glee on her face.
“You can’t kill me now, can you” she said smugly as my mother made a strangled noise in the background.