Chapter 7: Xander's POV

Anna stated her observation regarding someone spiking Lisa’s wine and the possibility that she could’ve been framed. I actually didn’t believe her. Lisa could've paid her a huge sum of money to lie. 

‘Brian, head over to my office. I’ll meet up with you there.’ I mind-linked Brian. 

‘Okay, Alpha!’ He ended the link. 

I scurried to my office and Brian was already in it. I nodded, appreciating his hastiness.

“What’s the problem?” he asked, shoving his hands into his pants’ pockets. 

“It’s regarding Lisa. An omega just testified that someone added something to Lisa's wine, so there’s a possibility she could’ve been framed. I need you to look into this and gather evidence.” 

“Okay.” Brain answered, but he seemed to be reluctant.

“What?” I questioned.

“You need to look at this.” Brain said, handing some materials to me. “In fact, after the scandal, many of the pack members had reached out to me to reveal a Lisa you never knew.”

I opened the files he gave me and it contained reports from pack members claiming that they had been bullied by Lisa for so many years. 

“They mentioned that she has been demanding fines illegally and also robbing innocent people of the rewards from their labor.” He explained. 

My hands balled into fists and my face hardened. “How could she have done this without my notice?" A low growl escaped my throat. 

“And as far as I know from others' saying, Anna is one of the Omegas Lisa always like to make fun of and torture. How on earth could she justify Lisa after all the terrible things Lisa has done to her?” He added. 

“You're right. What if she could've threatened her to say it?" 

An awkward silence roamed over us, like we were both basking deep in our thoughts. 

Though there could be a possibility that Lisa had been framed for cheating on me with Gerold, her evil seeds to the pack members are still 100% true, which was beyond my tolerance: I don’t want an Injustice Luna who bullies pack members for fine and authority. 

“But on the other hand,” I broke the silence, “if she was truly framed, should I give her another chance to prove herself? Maybe she could change. Maybe I could make her stop bullying my pack members and make her receive training on how to be a better Luna.” I tried to be positive. 

“Alpha,” Brian almost frowned. “You've given her so many chances, yet she ends up misusing all of them and making a joke out of you. Why do you still want to give her another chance?” He gave in to his frown, his eyes made it glaring that he was frustrated with Lisa as much as I was. “Lisa cannot and will never change.”

“I know, but we can give her a chance.” I insisted, maintaining an impassive expression . “She has loved me since we were kids; she has always been with me and has dedicated her childhood and whole life to being loyal to me because of her love for me. I can't just lock her up in jail like I ought to.” 

“Alpha—” 

“And not to mention my best friend’s death— Getting engaged to her and protecting her was my promise to him. He trusted me to keep her safe and had always wanted us to be happy together and had always wanted his sister to be a powerful, confident, and unwavering Luna. If I don't make her my Luna, I'd fail my best friend and render his sacrifice and my promise useless.” 

He let out a deep sigh. “Alpha, I know you want to keep your promise to repay him for his sacrifice, but Lisa can't be the Luna her brother wanted if she continues her terrible ways. The pack cannot survive with such a Luna, the pack needs someone that can run it alongside with you with great intentions and motives to build the pack, but Lisa has no attribute close to any of that.” 

I knew he was right, but I didn't want to make any decision that would ruin my pack, nor did I want to break my best friend's trust.

Still stuck in a dilemma, I left Brian in my office and headed to the room Lisa was locked in.  

I approached the door slowly with a heavy heart. My emotions were stuck between forgiving her and letting her redeem herself, or rejecting her and punishing her for the terrible things she had done to my pack members. I had never been this confused. I didn’t want to break the promise to my friend, and also didn’t want to make any rash decision either. 

As I got closer to the door, I heard her voice coming from inside the room. 

“Now, spill it to me.” I heard her say to Anna. 

“Uh?” Anna replied. 

“What’s on your mind? Anytime we talk about Xander, you’re either acting nervous or blushing like a tomato. What’s going on?”

“Well… I don’t want to seem terrible to you, but I’ve had a crush on Alpha Xander for a really long time now.” Anna admitted shyly.

I rolled my eyes, wondering why these women always liked me when they knew I was getting married to Lisa soon, but I was more confused as to why she was saying it in Lisa's presence, knowing fully well how temperamental she was. 

I expected Lisa to sound angry and even slap her, but I stopped in my tracks when she exclaimed excitedly, “Really?! That’s great news!”

“It is?” I, as well as Anna, wondered. 

“Yes! Please, in everything you do, make sure to win his heart.” 

My frown returned to my face. I wondered what the hell got into her. Why was she not being possessive about me like always? What was on her mind? Did she want to secretly beat Anna up after this?

“Wh-what do you mean? He’s your mate and your fiancé.” She reminded her. “I’ll feel terrible to pursue someone else’s mate.”

I still didn’t hear the sound of any slap resonating from the room and that made rage build up in me. How could she let it slide that easily and act so happy about it?

“Anna… can I tell you a secret?”

“Sure?” Anna replied unsurely. 

“I’m not actually Alpha Xander’s mate.” Her words dropped a bombshell on me and my muscles forbade me from moving. “I lied to him since he can’t sense his mate, but I’m no longer interested in him. We’ll break up very soon, so don’t be bothered about our relationship. We’ll focus on building your relationship with him.”

What the hell?! My breath heated up in fury and I strutted closer to the door. How dare she lie to me about being my mate?

“Wow, that’s great news!” Anna exclaimed. “So how do we start? He barely even pays attention to my existence.”

How could she lie to me? And she was trying to trade me off to an ordinary omega like I was some goods for sale!

I kicked the flimsy door open and stormed to them. 

Lisa's eyes widened and her mouth was left hanging with no words escaping it. 

My hands clenched into fists and with every heavy step I took closer to her, my heart thumped wilder. My blood boiled in deep rage. She had made me lose every form of control and made me forget about forgiving her or giving her another chance. 

I had believed her when she said we were mates though I couldn't sense my mate, because I trusted her! But here she was, admitting the truth to an omega. It was all a lie. She had fooled me all these while and had made me believe we were mates just to satisfy her stupid crush on me?!

My muscles tightened and my breath was getting harsher and hotter. Another lie! Lie on top of lies, all the fucking time!

“Al-alpha Xan-Xander…” Anna stuttered. “I’ll leave now.” She said in a high pitch and quickly scurried out of the room. 

“You lied, again!” I said through gritted teeth, my fists had clenched till my fingers were excavating into my skin, almost making myself bleed. 

My chest was heaving heavily and Max wanted to rip out of me to get rid of her already. 

‘That explained why there wasn’t even a bond between us!’ Max cussed in my head. 

“I’m sorry, Alpha Xander. I really don’t know why L-Lisa… lied about… being your mate.” She stumbled upon her words, her entire body was quivering in fear. 

My jaw tightened— she just admitted it to my face again! Ever since I caught her in that room last night, she had become a totally different person and it seems so easy for her to piss me off! 

“Please Alpha Xander, calm down.” She lifted her hands, her chest was rising and falling really fast. 

I had had enough of her playing with my mood! I took the last step to her and grabbed her arm. 

Just when I touched her, I felt a headache and it felt like someone was trying to squeeze into my mind. 

After the sudden pain, I heard a female voice saying: “Damn he is just so rude!”

My face twisted in confusion and I glared into her steel blue eyes. 

‘Why isn’t anything turning out fine?’ The voice said again. 

 

I froze at the sound of the voice. She’s not talking to me, no, she’s talking to Lisa! 

‘Why is he staring at me like that?’ Lisa’s voice rang in my head in panic. 

‘Because he’s so arrogant.’  I slowly realized that it was Lisa’s wolf having a casual conversation with her. 

‘What the hell is going on?’ I asked my wolf for clarification. 

‘This is strange. It seems like we have accidentally built some kind of mind link between her and her wolf.’ Max, my wolf, howled and approached Lisa’s wolf. 

Lisa’s eyes widened. ‘Why did I just hear his voice and another male’s voice in my head?’ She was asking her wolf, yet her gaze burned into mine intensely. 

Her wolf was distracted from her question by also approaching my wolf. 

When our wolves finally touched each other in the mind link, they shivered and shouted in unison: “Mate!” 

“What???!” Lisa and I shouted in our joint mind link.