Riannon knew that she would never forget that face and she recognised him atonce.

The man who accused Maya of being a traitor.

The man she interrogatedpersonally for many hours.

The man even Ash interrogated and he was by farone of the cruelest interrogators she knew.

And yet that man never cracked.She remembered his perfect face being broken in many places and yet he keptsaying the same story over and over again.

He was the one to blame for whathappened to Maya back in the past.

Because he helped to set her up.Riannon always knew that this man was connected to Roxy somehow.

She knewit.

She just had this gut feeling inside telling her that she was right about that.He watched her walking inside of the barn with Ash by her side and she couldswear that she saw a vague smile in the corner of his lips.

His hands werechained and lifted up and he was shirtless, revealing his perfect muscles.A warrior.

This was what he claimed to be.

His long brown hair was reaching hisshoulders and was not bloody yet, meaning that no one tried to beat the truth outof him.

Yet.“Ri,” Brayden stormed her way but stopped when she gave him a death stare.“What is going on here?” she walked past him and stood in front of the man.Maya was in the room too and they exchanged knowing glances.

No words wereneeded.

But Riannon tried her best to signal her friend that everything would befine.

Whatever it took now, she would make sure that nothing happened to her inthis lifetime.

She wasn’t going to lose her again.She noticed a few warriors and their Gamma in the room as well.

All of themlooked concerned.

Maya was everyone’s favourite and some of the men wereeven after her in hopes to get her as their chosen mate.At least, she could hope for their support if it came to this.

“Nice to see you, Ri,” Brayden stood next to her right in front of the man with thegrey eyes who was watching her with some kind of amusement in him, “Imissed...”“I asked what is going on here!” she demanded not even bothering to look at him.“Unfortunately, our Maya is compromised,” her husband sighed as if he was sad.Hewasn’t.

She knew that he wasn’t.

He did not care.

She wasn’t his friend.

Ifanything, they were NOT each other’s biggest fans although there was never anopen confrontation.“Nonsense,” she interrupted him.“Luna,” Roxy dared to speak, “We found out that Maya...” “Shut up!” Riannonsaid calmly but loud enough for everyone to hear, “You may be myhigher-ranked wolves should deal with and as far as I remember you are still anomega.Unless something changed in the few days that I’ve been absent.”Everyone looked at her.

And she only lifted her chin up higher.“I understand that you are upset, Riannon,” Brayden said, finally not using hernickname anymore, “But Roxy...

Roxanne here was vital for the investigation.”“I have no doubt!” she let out a laugh that was stone cold.

“Helpful little omega,isn’t she? How did all this start again?”“I...” Roxy started to form tears in her eyes the way she always did, trembling.“There, there,” Ria came to her and patted her shoulder, “You were so brave andfull of yourself just three seconds ago.

I am sure you can handle an adultconversation without bursting into tears for once if you try really hard.”

Again, no one spoke a word.

They all just looked at her, stunned.“Maybe you need emotional support?” Riannon went on, “We can do that too!Luckily your mate is right here! Come on, Bray, give her a hug.

The girl needssome strength! For the sake of her wolf and all.”Her husband clenched his lips tight.

But before he was to reply something, Roxyspoke.“All I did was notice she had your bracelet under her shirt when you left.

I didn’tthink much of it, but later I followed her and saw her walking into your room.

Shewent straight to your jewellery box and took something else from it.”“Right,” Riannon nodded a few times, “And to that, I have a very importantquestion.”She made a pause and walked back to the chained man because she needed tosee hisreaction as well as everyone else’s.“Which bracelet?” she asked and noticed how the man’s eyebrows twitchedslightly.

Just a second of movement.

Nothing more.

Not enough for anyone elseto notice.

But she knew that he was surprised.“Excuse me?” Roxy seemed startled as well.

But that did not come as a shock.“Which bracelet did you see on Maya?” she repeated the question slowly as ifshe was talking to a stupid child.“Erm...

A diamond one,” Roxy stuttered.“There are many diamond bracelets in the world,” Ria scoffed, “Yet you were surethat Maya had mine on.

You must remember the details well then.

It must be oneof my memorablemagic

“It was the one with an emerald in it,” the omega said quietly, hugging herself andlowering her head as if the pressure was too much for her.“Oh, really?” Riannon sneered, “And how would you recognise it if I never wore itin the few days that you stayed here?!”This time she got a few gasps from the people around them.

“I...” Roxy was lostfor words.

But just for a second.

Then she looked straight into theLuna’s eyes and said, “I looked at your pictures in the magazines and saw thatone.”“Did you see others?” Ria did not want to lose the momentum and kept going,“Can you describe them? You seem to have quite an eye for jewellery if youremembered it that well from just one pic.”“I...” the omega looked at her mate and Brayden stepped in at once.“Riannon, enough! That’s not about the bracelet anymore!” he practically growledat her.“On the contrary,” she turned to look at him, “The bracelet is the most importantpart here! It was enough for you to suddenly search my best friend’s room! Like Icouldn’t have given her the damn thing! And you know that I would let Maya haveanything she wants from my jewellery box! Not that she would want anything! So,why did you order that search?!”“Because I wanted to get to the bottom of this!” he snapped, “And I am happythat I did! Because that phone is the main issue now, Ri! Not the bracelet!”“How convenient!” she narrowed her eyes at him.“The phone unlocked with her fingerprint!” he snarled.“Big deal!” she scoffed, “Like those are hard to get nowadays! All you need is aglass that the person used!”

“You haven’t seen what’s inside!” Brayden was breathing heavily now.

He did notlike tobe contradicted.

“Were there her pictures with our enemies?” she rolled her eyes, “Videos maybe?Textsare no proof, Bray!”“They are if they lead us into capturing the intruder!” her husband spat the words,“It’stoo much of a coincidence!”“This part I agree with!” she folded her hands on her chest and came up closer tothe man with grey eyes, “It is a bit too much of a coincidence that everything gotsolved so easily.

And Maya, who is not an i***t, by the way, was stealing myjewellery and wearing it in front ofmessages that describe all her betrayals and future plans plainly.I mean, comeon! I know Maya since we were children.

She is not that dumb! She would atleast use a code!”“And yet she didn’t!” now Brayden was properly angry, “You should listen to whatthis man says before you continue to embarrass yourself protecting a traitor.”“She is not guilty unless proven otherwise,” Riannon snapped, “And I am notconvinced at all.

But you are right.

Let’s listen to that very important witness whoyou got at the most convenient time.”She already did this in the past.

She interrogated that man and knew what didnot work.

Because she didn’t break him and neither did anyone else.

He wasgood.

Very good.

Which meant that he was dangerous.

So, she had to try something else.

Something that he wouldn’t expect.She came much closer to him, regretting that he was much taller than her.

It didnot give her the desired effect.

But she had to work with what she had.Slowly, she traced her fingers over his face and all the way to his chin, cupping itgently as he did not tear his eyes off her.“You are very beautiful,” she said, and his lips parted slightly.

“Th-thank you,Luna,” he said in a hoarse voice, “I...”“Don’t thank me,” she took her hand off him, happy to throw him off his courseeven a little bit, “It’s just a fact.

Not a compliment.”“Riannon, what is the point of this?” Brayden was losing his patience.

“No point,really,” she shrugged her shoulders, “Just stating the obvious.

He is veryhandsome.

That’s all.”She could hear the sound of her husband’s teeth-gritting.“All right, handsome, tell us everything.

Who are you? Why are you here? Andwhat is your connection to Maya?” she looked straight into his eyes, not evenflinching.He impressed her in her past life but right now he was even more impressive.

Hisgame was on point.“What pack are you from?” she asked and immediately answered in unison withhim.

“Crimson Moon.”He looked at her with a newfound surprise.

“They caught you on the border.What were you doing there?” she gave him a soft smile“I was...”

“Waiting for Maya,” she said together with him again.

She remembered every lineof his.

She never forgot a single one since he didn’t give anything new no matterhow many times sheasked.

And just a few days later he escaped to never be seen again.“Continue,” she waved for him to go on.“She was supposed to meet me under the willow tree and give me theinformation...

stopped talking when again she pronounced all the words at thesame time as him.“Couldn’t she just text it to you?” Riannon scoffed, “You didn’t seem to have anyproblem communicating through texts, right? Why meet up?”he“She said that it wasn’t a phone conversation,”they said in unison again and now Mayasnorted loudly.“Riannon, what is going on?” Brayden stepped closer to her, mixed emotionsevident onhis face.“Just an interrogation,” she angled her head to look at him, “Why? Don’t you thinkthat hisreplies are so natural and flow nicely?”“How do you know what he is going to say?” her husband asked.“Because I have my sources, Brayden,” she chose to lie this time because shecouldn’t possibly explain to him how she knew all that.

But she knew that he

would buy that.

“And they told me that this would happen.”She turned to the man with grey eyes and asked, “What is your name?”“Axel,” he said, and she was glad that she didn’t try to answer together with himthis time.The name that he introduced himself with in her past life was Everett.

He caughtup with her game very quickly.

She knew that she would hardly get anything outof him anymore.

Not even through torture.But she couldn’t help and did one thing.

Riannon leaned lower and whisperedinto his ear.“Nice try, Everett.”His face was void of emotions, just his lips twitched a bit as if he had amomentarily need to smirk.“Anyway,” she now was facing her husband, “I don’t see any good evidence hereto accuse Maya.

Just a bunch of badly thrown together clues and two veryunreliable witnesses.

I have more questions for them, to be honest.”victim again.“Fine, you are right,” the Alpha agreed, “Maya is almost family.

I wouldn’t punishher severely anyway.

We will send her to the border since her loyalty has beencompromised.

It will be just for a year or two.”“No,” Riannon said firmly.

She knew that she couldn’t lose that argument.“Ri,” he took her arm above her elbow and pulled her closer, “Be reasonable now.This isthe best decision.

She’ll be fine.”

“I said no!” the Luna furrowed her brows, “Maya will stay by my side at all times!She is the only one I trust and this will never change!”“Ri!” this time he shook her roughly and she almost fell down from the impact, butMaya and Ash were next to her side to catch her just in time.“Are you out of your mind?!” Maya growled angrily.

She was surprisingly calmprior to this but now even her nerves gave in.She pushed her Alpha and in less than a second he was back grabbing herthroat tightly.

“Brayden!” Riannon screamed, “Let her go!”“I will f*****g snap her neck for this!” he snarled and Ria was ready to attack himherself.

No matter what it cost her.But this was when a loud menacing growl interrupted them all.

“Take your handsoff my MATE!”NOTE: Hi, Circle! Thank you for all the messages of support that I receivedtoday.

I am still going through them but will try to reply to everyone.

This willprobably be my last long author’s note as the one they have is limited to200characters.

So, it will be a bit harder for us to communicate.

I will edit out myprevious notes as well.

I may be leaving some extra important info in commentsand in Marissa Gilbert’s Reading Circle group in the future.

So, stay tuned.