Ch. 66..70: The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate Chapter 66-70
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 66
Edwina’s POV…
Sonia walked into the courtroom. She looked pale and heavy. Well, her being heavy was understandable, but I thought she would have a little bit of glow since she was finally getting what she wanted. A chance at a fair trial, but I understood that she would be not just lonely but anxious, she had been so used to taking control of her life and right now it feels strange to her not being able to control it.
I could see her struggling to take the steps she needed to move further.
The hall wasn’t crowded. It was filled with people from different clans in the night howlers pack. As she walked past them, they muttered unkind words to her, and I could see her trying to shut them out so she wouldn’t get affected by them. It would have been easier for me to shut out words from them because I have been used to mockery all my life, but it would be harder for her because she has been used to people singing her praise and bowing down to her feet.
I wonder the kind of struggles she would be going through right now, with no one to stand by her side. I knew her too well to know that she was being overwhelmed with despair.
She reached the podium where she would be seated all through this trial.
Alpha Alex was seated beside me. I truly wish I could read his thoughts right now, his far-off thoughts. But he seemed not to be an open book, his face looked indifferent, and you couldn’t tell if the look he gave to Sonia was that of pity or love.
It was easy for me to observe everyone unnoticed because of the huge veil that covered my face. I know a lot of people were questioning why I covered my face. They are not stupid; they know it has to do with the fact that the person behind judgment is my sister.
I know I can’t keep up with this act for so long and would have to come clean. I am sure there is no way we can keep it away from her any longer.
Beta Caleb walked to the stage wearing black and orange trousers with a royal Beta robe. I recognize the robe from Ben; he normally wore it whenever there was a case to be judged. As soon as he climbed the stage, silence submerged the hall; it was one respect they gave to anyone who made his or her way to the stage.
“Good day to everyone,” he greeted and there was a chorus synchronized reply.
“To our great Alpha, Alpha Alexander Chase, who sits and rules the pack with great wisdom and knowledge, to our Luna,” he paused. And I knew exactly why he did, he was about to join my name to the greeting, but something rang that bell in his head,”
“To our Luna, who supports and holds the pillars to the throne, to the eleven elders whose judgment knows no bounds, I greet you all,” he greeted and bowed down. We all nodded our heads in acknowledgment.
“I am pleased that we could all gather here to witness the dispensation of Justice and fairness. Everyone deserves to be heard and everyone deserves to be given a fair trial and that Is what we are all entitled to.”
He took a deep breath, I want to say by the way his hands were clenched together. He was having a mini stage fright, but he was handling himself so well and was well composed.
“Today, we gather here to hear the case of Sonia Sinclair and Alexander Chase. As we all know, Sonia Sinclair was a former Luna, but in the course of this case, she would be treated as an equal citizen. No special treatment shall be given to her,”
I glared at Sonia. She wasn’t doing so well there; she was already so anxious, and it was showing on her face.
I wish I could go there and hug her and tell her everything is going to be alright but I wasn’t sure this was going to do her any good at this moment, I remember that only our dad could calm her down, and at this moment wish he was still alive, he would have stood by her side all throughout the trial.
He was a bad father to me but was a damn good father to Sonia. It was strange how a father could choose to love one of his children and neglect the other one. What kind of father does that?
“Sonia Sinclair is charged with the crime of adultery and crimes against the throne, the ultimate act of treason.”
There was a loud noise from all sides of the court. I cast a glare at Alpha Alex; he didn’t even look at me. Why would he charge her with treason? He had only made things worse, and come to think that he had promised me that he wasn’t going to include that as part of her crime because I was the one that told him, and I only did that because I wanted to help.
Sonia looked hopeless and broken. I am sure this was the first time she is finding out that she was being charged with treason, and we all know the penalty for treason.
Beta Caleb swivelled to the direction in which Sonia sat.
“Sonia Sinclair, after swearing the oath of truth and knowing that whatever you say now will outweigh any future statement, what do you plead?”
There was total silence in the hall, for this would be the first time she would be speaking and everyone, including I, wanted to know what she would plead, and knowing the new charge count that was being laid on her, she would have to make a last-minute decision.
“For the charges on adultery,” she spoke with a very calm voice, even though they were totally fake and in no way amplifying her true emotions. I wanted to commend her for finding her way to keep her cool, she paused, and I could see her eyes looking towards my direction.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 67
Edwina’s POV…
Maybe she was looking at Alpha Alex or at me, but I am sure she was wondering who was behind the veil. This would have come as a shock to her when she finds out that the Alpha has another Luna, had she figured it out to be me.
“I plead guilty,” she muttered, and another uproar inundated the hall like it was the first time they were hearing about it.
Bunch of hypocrites, we all knew she was guilty; why act surprised, I muttered, and I could see Alex, who sat close to me, smile.
She continued
“And for the charge on crime against throne as an act of treason,” she paused, and I could see her making a last-minute decision, “I plead not guilty,”
More noise saturated the hall.
I nodded my head gently. Even if guilty, one was never to plead guilty to treason, for there would be no use for a trial anymore. They would just pass out a judgment, which we all know the penalty to be death, and that would be it. She knew better.
“Okay, with that being said, we can proceed with the trial. We know you just pleaded guilty to adultery, but it is still essential to carry out a trial on it to know the gravity of the sentence you would receive. Do you understand that?”
She nodded her head slightly, “Yes I understand,” she muttered.
“Also, you only listed one witness here in the person of Edwina Sinclair,”
And yet again, another chattering covered the hall. If not that the podium where she sat was far off from where the crowd was, I am sure she would have picked up lines and knew why they were amazed by this.
“However, the person in question is yet to respond. Would you love to change the name to someone else or leave it?”
The more he spoke, the more the noise increased.
“Can we maintain silence, please? This is a court, and decorum and orderliness are meant to be observed, he stated, and the noise reduced and soon silence was observed once again in the hall.
“We don’t want to be forced to make this a close-door case,” he warned.
“So Miss Sonia Sinclair, would you want to change or leave the name?” He asked again.
“I want to leave the name, hopefully, she would show up before the court’s end,”
There were silent whispers that could be heard, and her last statement broke me. She was still hoping that I would come through for her, I was all that she had, and I knew that right now. My heart began to ache, and because I was caught in a tight corner right now, between facing her and coming through for her, she would hate me for life, she wouldn’t be happy for what I had done to her, and I knew that to be true, there is no way Sonia was going to neglect the fact that I got married to Alpha Alex despite her telling me not to, Sonia has a hard heart, she isn’t as forgiving as I am.
“Okay,” Caleb said. The expression on his face could easily be read if you truly understood him.
“Let us go on then with the case. You are accused of having an affair with Benedict, who was once a Beta of the night howlers. Can you walk us through the version of events and clearly state the timeline of things,”
“Before I do so, I would like to point out that guard,” she said, pointing at a tall, muscular guard to stand at the end of the hall, “is a spy from the sizzlers who was sent here by Ben to spy on us.
And quickly, the guard whom she had pointed out tried to escape the hall but was immediately apprehended by the guards.
The once silent hall was once again filled with so much noise when they brought the guard to the front of the courtroom.
“Search him,” Alpha Alex spoke for the first time since the case started. They began to search this supposed sizzler’s guard and removed all the weapons from his body, nothing out of the ordinary. Did Sonia just accuse an innocent man to make it look like she was on the side of the law? If she just did that, then she is still as evil as I had known her to be.
“I am not a sizzler, I am a proud omega of the night howlers, I swore my allegiance to the throne and to my Alpha Alexander Chase,” the accused soldier cried out. I felt sympathy for him because, at this point, nothing indicated that he wasn’t part of the night howlers.
Caleb walked toward him and glared at him for a few seconds.
“You claim to be an Omega, I know all the omega wolves by name and face, yet I do not know you,”
“Ahhh,” a chorus noise came from the hall.
Was Sonia right? Was this man truly an imposter in disguise and was just trying to spy on us?
“I am an omega,” the man cried out again.
“If you are, prove it to us, show us your omega mark,” Caleb commanded.
The man looked perplexed at this moment,
Then he opened his arms and showed a tattoo of Omega. The noise became noisy at this point in time. I was confused about what was going on and why they were making so much noise.
“Only Sizzlers have the mark of Omega. The night howlers have none,”
And immediately, that man fell to his feet.
“Have mercy on me, I am only but a messenger, I have families, I was only sent to spy, I meant no harm,”
“Take him and lock him up, for him to await trial,” Alpha Alex ordered, and then immediately dragged him from the hall as he cried out for mercy.
Sonia had a little bit of a smile on her face. At that point, I wasn’t sure if this was purely coincidental or part of the plan all along. Was this Ben trying to aid her in her case? At this point, I didn’t know what to think, and I wasn’t sure I fully trusted her words.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 68
Author’s POV…
At this point, Sonia had done a single act that was going to help her case and to prove herself not to be a traitor to the crown. When she saw the guard, he introduced himself to her. She saw an avenue to prove which side she was on. He wasn’t an escape plan for her. She was lonely and hopeless, and she saw in the man’s eyes a route to vindicate herself. If she was loyal to Benedict, she wouldn’t have done that.
Sonia glared at Alpha Alex, hoping to see some kind of pleasing smile, but he still looked as indifferent as he did when the case started. She knew it would take more than just whistleblowing to get him to know she was on his side and on the side of the throne, and whoever is the Luna sitting beside him must be feeding him with lies about her.
“She must be a new bride,” she thought to herself.
“So may we continue,” Caleb announced. At this point, he prides himself on knowing all the faces of the omega wolves and their names. When he had made it a mandate for him to know, he had done it so that everyone felt noticed and known and also, to identify spies.
“So we asked you, can you run us through the version of events that lead us up to the moment you were caught in an affair with Benedict and please note this is a court of law, and such no explicit detail is required,” he added. Sonia let out an exasperated gasp. She wasn’t even intending on saying anything relatively vague. At this point, she was confused about where she should start. She was about to tell a bunch of strangers about herself and Benedict, a story which she isn’t proud of to date.
How does she look Alpha Alex in the face and tell him she didn’t love him at first?
At first, she thought to herself. Maybe for them to understand her and her actions a little. Maybe, just maybe, they needed to understand her story at first.
“Everyone thought my father loved me and I was his favourite daughter. Everyone thought I was the preferred one and the one that gets to have it all. My sister was the one neglected because she had no wolf. But at a point in my life, I began to wish and cry for myself to have no wolf.” She paused and breathed out. She wished her sister was here to hear all these.
“They were all right. I was the loved and favoured one, but it wasn’t in the way you all thought. It all started when I came off my adult age, and my father had been alone for years without a mate, and then he always told me, I look so much like my mum. I thought that was meant in a good way. No protege daughter wouldn’t want to look like her dead mum, but that wasn’t it. I was barely eighteen when my father sneaked into my room in his wolf form, telling me that his wolf wanted me as his mate because I looked so much like mum. I was just eighteen when he first touched me and raped me,”
There was a loud shout from the hall. Everyone was surprised, but that didn’t stop Sonia from continuing.
“I am not saying this for you all to sympathize with me, but I needed to let out the truth. My father hated my sister because she had no wolf, so he couldn’t touch her, and I hated her because I felt like I was at the receiving end. He didn’t like me in his human form, but whenever his wolf took over his body, I would be at the receiving end, and his human form dreaded himself and the act, my dad was struggling, and I could see it, and that was why when the opportunity came for him to marry me out to someone, he replaced me for my sister in order to get rid of me, knowing he wasn’t attracted to my sister,”
She paused, and at this time, tears were all over her eyes. She had tried so hard to keep this huge and mighty secret away. This was the dark secret of her past; this was the part of her nobody knew. This was what made her who she was.
“Marrying Alpha Alex was an escape for me, I had no feelings whatsoever for him and this is my truth, I was a damaged girl with a lot of trauma, and I still am,”
“Can you stop?” Alpha Alex muttered. This was the first time he was speaking to her directly, and she knew she had touched a part of him.
“You asked for my truth, and this is me telling the truth right now, this is all I am and that part of me you never saw, this is the story behind all the scars you asked me about that laid out in my body,” she muttered, and he rose his voice.
“Why are you telling me all this now? Why today? Do you think I will spare you?” He yelled at her.
“Let’s take a ten minutes break. Guards, take her back to the waiting chamber, and everyone should go out and come back in ten minutes,” Caleb quickly announced before things got out of hand. The guards took her out as everyone exited the hall. When everyone was out, Edwina opened her veil and burst out in tears,
“Don’t cry, Edwina, please,” Alex begged, rocking her into his arms as she wailed bitterly. This was why he stopped Sonia. He was agitated, and he knew Edwina was already crying and trying so hard not to burst out openly in tears.
“Don’t believe it. She is just trying to get to us with her sad story. This is all part of her plans,” Caleb said to her.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 69
Author’s POV…
“No, she is not lying. How could I have been this stupid?” Edwina cried out, and Becca approached her.
“Ma’am, maybe you should leave because I don’t think you can handle any more of this trial,” Becca begged her.
“I think Becca is right, this would be detrimental to your mental health,”
“I used to see him leave her room on different nights, and I would think that maybe he went to check up on her because she was his beloved daughter. I didn’t know there was more, she had more scars than usual, and I would think they were training scars because she spent all her time training to be the best. How come I never saw things for what they truly were?” Edwina mumbled in tears as the realization hit her. She had always thought of herself to be the victim, but in actual fact, she was the fortunate one, and the real victim was Sonia. No wonder she turned out to be this way when she had to withstand abuse from her father; that was the height of it. Edwina endured verbal abuse while she withstood physical and s****l abuse.
“I don’t think you should stay here till the end. It would only do you more harm than good,” Caleb said to her.
“No, I want to hear it all, it would only do me badly if I am kept in the dark after realizing all this. So I would prefer to see this to the end,” she said,
“Are you sure?” Alpha Alex asked her.
Edwina wasn’t sure about her answer, but she knew there was no going back at this point, and she would see it through to the end, no matter how painful.
“Yes I am sure,” she replied, ” I will see this through to the end,”
Caleb ordered that everyone be let in and Sonia brought in again. Edwina sat down back at her throne and covered her face with the veil once more.
They brought out Sonia, and for the first time, she was truly seen for who she was and not what she was.
“I must refrain you from speaking about the abuse because this could be triggering to others and so we need to warn you from speaking about it, “
She nodded her head ” I am sorry for whoever had this caused a great deal of turmoil but this is my truth. Mr Sinclair wasn’t a terrible dad. He had his struggles, I just wish my sister could be here because I don’t want to have to repeat this to her again, and I never planned that she would hear such details from others,” she said, and there was a whisper in the hall.
At this point, surely a great number of them knew that Sonia wasn’t aware that the woman behind the veil who sat on the throne as Luna is her sister, and Sonia wasn’t aware of all that.”
“Let us proceed. A lot of time has already been spent narrating this part, but none of how the affair with Ben started,”
She cleared her throat.
“When I met Ben, I was attracted to him and his wolf. He was damaged just like I was, and as the saying goes, damage attracts damage. He was the first person that truly saw me for who I was. He told me that my scars came from the fact that I was abused and I loved that he saw me for who I am, damaged and not the perfect Luna, and then I was real with him and scripted when I was around Alpha Alex.” She paused and swallowed a lump of saliva that was in her throat.
“It grew to the point that I was already in a relationship with him, but I had begun to fall for my husband and his kindness. So one day he came to me that he had figured out a way for us to see and be seen as usual.
He told me that he had decided to marry my sister so we could see. People would see us as in-laws and not flag any card,” she paused and glared at Alpha Alex, hoping she could get any reaction from him, but again he had taken the indifferent composure, and there was nothing you could tell from his face, one couldn’t even tell if indeed he is angry about all these.
She glared at the crowd as most of them listened to her with keen attention. She knew she had managed to gain some people’s sympathy.
“I was not all in on the idea because, yet again, she was the favoured one, but I couldn’t stop Ben. When he told me about his plan to kill the Alpha, I was already pregnant for him, and I wasn’t a part taker, but I didn’t disclose any of the information because I know that I would be locked up for it and then our affair would be discovered.
I am not his accomplice either in his escape because when I knew about it, I disclosed all the information to my sister, who I had listed as a witness, even disclosing his plans on how to escape with me. I wouldn’t do all this if I wasn’t loyal to the crown, and I later grew to love my husband, but when I realized it, it was already too late. I plead for mercy.”
She concluded, and there was silence.
“Before we go into the part you get to answer the questions, we call upon your witness to testify to what you have just said, else we will skip to the other aspect,” Caleb announced.
Everyone turned to face the throne as they all knew she was the one.
“For the second time we call upon your witness,” he called out again.
“For the third and final time, we___.”
Edwina stood up, and everyone exclaimed because they didn’t expect her to do so, she removed her veil, and Sonia’s eyes widened.
WHAT THE F**K!!!! She exclaimed.
The Alpha’s Exchanged Mate – Chapter 70
Edwina’s POV…
As soon as I stood up, I could feel Alex’s hands on my wrist. I glanced at him, and it was one of those moments when you don’t communicate with your mouth or your lips, but your mind, body, heart, and soul does all the communication.
I could see him asking me.
“Are you sure about this?” When he held my wrist, I could feel our soul connect to the inner part of our being. I wasn’t sure about this but hearing my sister speak for the first time, I saw her for who she truly was. She is a fighter just like me, who had learned to hide in the shell of self-denial and perfectionism.
She had been abused by her own father, my father. The man I assumed to be biased toward me and had loved her more. But that wasn’t love, and if it was so, I am glad he didn’t get to show me that kind of love.
My mind went back to some awkward moments I had witnessed growing up and had thought it was an exceptional love and bond that existed between them, but it was not so. It wasn’t a forbidden act on display before us, but no one saw it.
I wondered if sometimes Sonia being hostile toward me was an attempt to protect me or a cry for help. Then I remember when we fought a long time ago.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be me. You have always been the perfect daughter,” I had told her.
“Perfect,” she scoffed at the word and laughed hysterically.
“I bet you if you trade lives with me and my so-called perfect life, you won’t have so much pleasure in it,” she had told me, and I had not gotten to understand what she had meant by that. I thought she was just playing and acting modestly. But she wasn’t, she meant it, but I never saw it.
I gently walked down the steps at the altar of the throne where I sat. My hands were now free from the grip Alex had on me as I had assured him this was what I wanted to do. My veil was still covering my face as I saw Sonia’s face. She was still perplexed, still trying to find out what she could make out of all these. And then I walked to the stand that was meant for the witness, all eyes were still on me, and mostly Sonia’s eyes were on me. I wondered if her heart had already told her that I was the one behind the veil. I saw Caleb glaring at me as they all watched what my next move would be. If I am, to be honest, I also anticipate my next move because I wasn’t sure what it would be, would I go back to my seat and act like it was some sort of prank or bad joke from my path, or would I go through with it and face all the repercussions that come afterward. But then that was something I wasn’t sure I was willing to bare, I also thought about Sonia and how she would feel at the moment, she was already in pain, and she might not be able to bear this extra shock.
My mind flashed back to the conversation I had earlier with Caleb. That was before I talked with Becca and also Alex. I was worried that Alex had been avoiding the trial, and I had gone to his office to look for him, but I didn’t see him.
It was frustrating because I felt like he was purposely hiding from me. And I didn’t want him to do that. Why can’t we have talks like other normal couples who get to disagree and settle things amicably? But in the face of any inconvenience when it comes to Alex and me, either of us disappears or runs away to hide, and when we are done hiding, we get to have s*x and act like it never happened.
So I also went to look for him in Caleb’s office, which I had thought would be the second best bonding spot, but unfortunately for me, he wasn’t there.
Caleb was inside, sitting before his computer and typing fast. It looked like he had been sitting on that desk for hours and had not taken any rest whatsoever.
And I sat down opposite him before he noticed I had even entered the office.
“Luna Edwina, ” he said when he finally noticed my presence and was a little bit shocked to see me sitting before him.
“You startled me there a bit. How may I be of service to you?” He asked, and I smiled. I wasn’t sure if I should just go directly to the point and ask him where Alex was, or I should just go ahead and beat around the bush a little before I finally got home with my question. I went for the former.
“I am looking for Alex. Have you seen him ?” I asked calmly, trying not to sound worried. I wasn’t just a little bit anxious about all that was going on In my sister’s trial and Alex avoiding me. So he glared at me for a little while before answering. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to read my countenance to know the kind of answer In which he would give to me.
“I think he went out horse riding early this morning,”
I wanted to say okay, and then I realized he was messing with me because I was aware that Alex can’t ride a horse. After all, he could barely walk.
And I burst into laughter, we both shared in the laughter heartily, and I could feel half of the tension I was feeling from all the events happening in sequence washed down the drain.
“I am not sure where he is, but I know he will be back soon,” he finally said when we were both out of the heavy laughter state.
“Okay, ” I breathed out, “thank you so much,” I said.
“What is wrong?” He asked, and I could see that he sincerely cared to know, and he wasn’t asking only because he was obliged to ask.
“Did you two have another problem?” He asked further when I was quiet for a while.
“I am not sure if we did or not, but lately, he had been avoiding me because I proposed a trial for Sonia, and today is that trial, and he doesn’t want to discuss it with me because I am perfectly aware that the outcome of the meeting lies in ninety percent in his hand, even with the elders, he controls their decision.” I paused when I noticed I was blurting out too much at once and wasn’t precisely processing all the information I was giving out before all these.
“I think you are focusing on the wrong thing,” he said gently to me. I cast my hands around the office, hoping to find the next topic changer because I knew he was about to change the table and focus it on me. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be on the hot seat at this moment. I wanted to just have to explain to anyone how I feel about all these.
“She listed you as a witness,” he finally stated. And I glared at him.
“Yes, that was after she asked me, and I told her I couldn’t do it,” I replied to him.
“Hmm,” he breathed out, “she didn’t remove it. She said she was sure that you would show up for her,”
And that word or bunch of sentences alone broke me, the remaining piece of me that was left string that didn’t want to break, finally let loose, and I could help but wonder why I could be so fragile.
I teared up and began to cry, and quickly almost instantly, Caleb got up and headed to where I sat and put his hands on my back.
“All these must be hard for you, from the cheating to a failed marriage, to remarrying, to Ben’s escape, now the possibility of your sister’s freedom almost resting in your hands,” he handed me a handkerchief. I took it willingly from his hands and sobbed into it for a little while before handing it over back to him. “It must be a lot for you,”
It was truly a lot for me, and sometimes I tried to hide under the disguise of being a nice person to shield the actual pain I was feeling.
“I think you need to decide what you want to do when it comes to your sister and stick to it so that you don’t get to go and act out another script that is based on emotions,” he said to me.
I felt really ashamed that I got to break down before him, but I felt like he was someone I could talk to.
“I am not sure what I want to do, but I am not sure I would take the stance. There is so much battle I can fight in a day,”
“Then no matter what you do, don’t take that stance,”
And now here I was before Caleb, I just took an oath of truth.
“For transparency reasons, we require you to open your veil,” and I knew that was the moment of reckoning and truth. I am sure Sonia had her speculation already, and her face showed perplexion, but as soon as I lifted the veil above my head, I saw her world breaking through her eyes as realization hit her.
Her sister, Edwina, is Luna.