Chapter 151: Chapter 151

“Hello, Uncle!”

Arthur’s eyes snap to Charlotte. As he takes in the woman standing before him, his eyes widen in disbelief and fear.

As if he has seen a ghost, he scrambles to put as much as distance possible between them but ends up falling flat on his ass.

Charlotte smirks, letting her teeth extend into canines and peek out of her mouth.

Arthur starts sweating profusely. He looks at Azraiel and Katya for help but when they maintain a stone face, he realizes he is on his own.

“Y-“ he gulps, “You are alive.” He trembles.

Charlotte grins. The smell of his fear gives her immense satisfaction.

“Yup.” She says popping the ‘p’. “I am alive, despite your schemes to get me killed.”

Arthur’s face changes at the accusation.

He regains his composure, or at least tries to.

“I never wanted you dead, Charlotte. They wanted to kill you but I convinced them to let you leave the continent.” He says, his voice a little clearer than before.

Charlotte’s eyes harden.

“And that makes it alright?” Arthur visibly flinches at the hardness of her voice.

He doesn’t say anything but his body shakes like a leaf as Charlotte stares him down.

The combined energy of two powerful alphas and a witch is for sure too much for him to bear.

She wants to scream in his face and demand why he betrayed her. Was she so replaceable and easy to dispose of? She would have done just that if she was still human, a weak girl who was at the mercy of her uncle.

But now, she isn’t that old Charlotte. She is the Luna of the Blue Orchid pack and Alpha of the nameless pack of supernatural species.

So she reigned her anger and instead, let the wave of her power scream in her stead.

She watches with mild satisfaction and amusement as the power fills the dungeons and her uncle is forced to get on his knees.

If not for the slight touch of Azraiel’s fingers on her back, she wouldn’t have stopped until Arthur screamed.

Charlotte closes her eyes for a second, she won’t let him have the satisfaction of seeing her hurt.

NO, absolutely not.

She opens her eyes and ice sooths the fire threatening to burn the world down.

She puts a mask on her face and asks him in a hard voice, “What were you outside the woods two days ago?”

Arthur gulps, “I just wanted to drop some of your mother’s stuff for you. I didn’t know if you were alive or not, but I just figured it wouldn’t hurt to part with her things.”

Charlotte’s jaw clenches at the pain in his voice.

No, he is not a good guy. She shouldn’t feel bad for him.

“Why?” When he looks at her blankly she asks again, “Why after all this time? You could have left those here months ago. Why now?”

She watches as he tries to come up with an answer.

“I-I don’t know, okay?” He almost screeches in frustration. “A few days ago, I just felt like I should dispose of her belongings here.”

From the corner of her eye, she watches as Azraiel shares a look with Katya.

“Did anyone ask you to drop those things here?” Azraiel asks.

Arthur looks at Azraiel and frowns, “Only I knew about those things. I never told anyone that I kept Lenna’s things. Even the Grisham’s thought I had burned everything when Ron took Lenna away.”

Charlotte’s jaw clenches at the mention of her mother.

She gulps and turns around to look at Azraiel.

“I want to leave.” She says quietly enough for him to hear.

Azraiel nods and and takes her hand to leave.

They are almost out of the door when she hears it. She almost missed it.

“I’m sorry, I really am!”

Coward!

He couldn’t even apologize to her face!

She doesn’t turn around. Charlotte instead clenches Azraiel’s hand and leaves without turning back.

*****

An hour later, Azraiel leans back in his chair and sighs.

Charlotte was visibly upset after meeting her uncle. Her anger rippled off her in waves and it took everything in him to stay put and not get her out of there sooner. He was inly happy that she asked to leave. He had to calm her down at their house before he could return to the packhouse. Right now, she is sleeping as her body is still showing the consequences of her shift.

Her uncle is a piece of scum that doesn’t deserve to breathe. If it were up to him, he wouldn’t be alive. The only reason he hasn’t killed him yet is because he is their only link to Charlotte’s mother. As soon as they figure out things about her mother, he is going to act upon the torturous method he has imagined he will use on Arthur countless time in his head.

Azraiel smirks at the thought. His wolf agrees that it will be satisfying to watch Arthur wanting to die but not being offered the mercy to do so.

A knock pulls him out of his sinister thoughts.

“Come in.” He straightens up very well aware who is at the door.

Katya enters the office and Azraiel asks her to sit.

He looks at her expectantly.

“Yes, he was bound to magic.” Katya rushes to let it all out. He had his suspicions when Arthur said that he just thought he should give Lenna’s belongings to Charlotte randomly.

“Yeah. I thought so.” He murmurs.

“But here’s the thing, Katya leans forward. He wasn’t influenced by just one person’s magic. I believe that he has been under the influence of magic for a long time.” Katya frowns.

“You can tell how many people did magic on him?”

“Yeah. The magic is like a footprint. Every person’s magic leaves a certain pattern. I noticed that he has been under the influence of one magic for way longer than the other one.” She hesitates.

“Go on.” He gently urges her to continue.

“I believe that the magic that was done on him recently was probably done by Sarah and Richard to make him kill Charlotte.”

Azraiel leans back. “So, it might not be entirely Arthur’s fault in the whole incident. He could have endangered Charlotte without intending to.” It would be of little comfort to Charlotte but at least she will know that it wasn’t his will that led Charlotte to the woods.

“Yeah.” Katya sighs. “But the influence of magic on him is so strong that I couldn’t separate him from the magic. I think he has been in the veil of magic for years, but that magic spell was broken by Sarah and Richard but someone again put him under a spell to send those things here.” Katya frowns.

Azraiel too finds it unsettling that someone was using Arthur as a puppet and Charlotte lived with that man for so long. On the other hand, when he thinks back to his conversation with the Grishams, the way they described Arthur’s changing views and actions would make sense if he were under a spell.

“Is there a way of knowing who cast spells on him?” Azraiel asks even though he has suspicions.

“Yeah. I can try to put him under hypnosis and make him retrieve the memory.” Katya nods to herself.

“Let’s do that.” Azraiel agrees with the idea. It would help them know who has been planning this all for years.

Katya is about to leave when Theo bursts in holding the contents of Arthur’s box.

Azraiel arches an eyebrow at him.

Theo wordlessly rushes to his table and puts down two burned photographs on the table.

“Look at the female.” He breathlessly speaks. “I cross-checked every damn pack’s members from the time around Charlotte was born. I couldn’t find anyone who looked like this.”

Azraiel takes a look at the female laughing in the pictures. It looks like she wasn’t aware that she was being photographed.

“It would make sense that she was never documented if she belonged to the red-eyed wolves’ pack.” Katya says frowning at Theo. Azraiel could see that she was confused about Theo’s reaction. They expected this, didn’t they?

“Yeah..” Theo nods. “I just checked with Nicholas too, he has never seen this woman.”

“He was too young. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t remember her.” Katya offers.

“Yeah, or maybe she too was a Therian and adopted a different form when she entered the human land.” Azraiel says as he inspects the photographs.

The first photo is burned, a woman can be seen talking to someone but her face isn’t clearly visible. The photo is burned at the part where that other person is supposed to be. Only a hand is visible.

The second photo is taken from a better angle. In this photo, the face of the woman is a bit more visible and the other person’s body is visible from down the neck.

Azraiel’s head starts spinning as he carefully examines the photos.

He can see Theo shaking his head. “No. Look at the face clearly.” Theo says to Azraiel.

Azraiel looks up from the photo. “It’s not Charlotte’s mother.”

Theo nods in agreement. “The woman in the photo is actually a Mrs. Elise Thompson. Charlotte’s mother is not even visible in the photos. The only parts of her we can see are the hand and the lower body. But look carefully at the neck of Mrs. Elise.”

“She is wearing the moonstone pendant.” Katya exclaims as she squints her eyes at the blurred photograph.

“Yes.” Theo says.

“Where can we find this Mrs. Elise?” Azraiel asks Theo.

Theo shakes his head dejected. “We can’t. She is dead!”