Chapter 436: Chapter 436

VALERIE.

By the time I’m done, many at the table are frowning or deep in thought. Expressions of worry of unease, anger and even their faces. Sebastian’s eyes are blazing, and his barely being held back. His aura is surging around it.

anger I guess he never knew I was almost raped. We may not always see eye to eye, but he has looked out for me. In his own way, he truly has.

is The one thing we always will share is the love we had for Jai. I lost him that night, but Sebastian also lost his best friend. The one person who would blindly believe everything Sebastian said and did because, in Jai’s eyes, he truly believed in Sebastian until the very end. He was the perfect beta.

I feel exhausted too, reliving every moment like this. Speaking my truth loud and clear made it feel so much worse than at that time. The reality that if Zade wasn’t there I’d be dead, feels like an icy bucket of water. Like yes, I knew this; but saying it again, every single moment, telling an entire room of people… that reality hits hard.

Zade’s constant irritation at my carelessness makes even more sense now.

I continue on, filling them in on the car crash, along with help from Zade at points. Then the visit to Adriana’s place… everything. I tell them everything, and by the end of it I feel that same rage I did last night before we came here. In the last hour, I have relived every emotion from fear, worry, pain, sadness and anger, but it’s the anger that’s reigning supreme right now.

My words have affected several of the people here, Zaia for sure, and even Atticus has run his fingers through his hair several times. And I can tell he’s doing his best to stay sitting, although he knew a lot of this already.

“And here we are. To make sure we weren’t followed, Zade drove all this way despite the fact he was wounded. These trackers that were allowed to be put into us have affected god knows how many people’s lives,” I finish, my voice trembling with anger.

There’s a few moments‘ silence, and Zade scans the group of alphas. “So how will you this?” he asks.

fix Sebastian’s eyes flash with irritation. “In case you have forgotten, the reason we even needed to satiate the humans and agree was because of the recklessness of the Sable,” he says, his eyes cold as he looks at Zade. “If that attack wasn’t so public then to such a measur our secret might have remained.”

Irritation flashes through me, and I cock a brow. “I see. As a Sable member who was on that. team until that night, why didn’t you stop it then? Since you seem to want to point fingers? You were on that team, under cover or not. You could have stopped the so–called reckless. attack and not blown our cover.” I snap. “If memory serves, you were the Sable in charge.”

“She has a point,” Atticus mutters.

I glance at Zaia, feeling guilty for throwing Sebastian under the bus, but if we’re going to point fingers, let’s do it right.

“It is no one’s fault. Whatever happened was meant to be. But we were clearly too trusting. And we will dispute it and put an end to this,” Zaia says firmly, placing a hand on Sebastian’s balled fist.

“Let’s see what information you have, then,” Sebastian says, sliding the laptop over to Atticus, who takes it and puts the memory stick in.

After a moment, the large screen on the wall comes on and the laptop screen is mirrored on it, displaying the content of the memory stick, which are several labelled folders. Sebastian takes the laptop back when Zade sits forward.

“Shall I?” Zade asks.

Sebastian doesn’t reply but pushes the laptop over to him. Zade slides it closer before he opens the first file.

“I’ll start with all the werewolves I know who have been killed. Most of them had never even shifted in their lives. But somehow the media has just brushed it under the rug and marked them as accidents or simply not bothered, declaring a lack of evidence. Although there’s been evidence.”

He scrolls through the images. There are so many… some with more information, others with less. He then clicks on one file before going through a sub–folder and opening another file with the person’s name.