Alessia Stocklin and Ezra Withers are polar opposites, but they can certainly agree on one thing: their mutual hate for each other.
He's an Alpha deadset on killing every rogue he comes across, while she's a vigilante - known as Nightshade - intent...
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Elias was the first to rise from his seat and saunter toward the conference room. Tension hung thick in the air as the severity of the incoming decision washed over us in harsh reality. Today could be the day many rogues would be sentenced to death. I faintly wondered what was milling through Ezra's mind. Was he chomping at the bit to eradicate rouges? Or had Elias and the Beltaire Bandits helped sway his opinion in the opposite direction?
His face drew tight. Whatever cycled through his mind was not displayed on his face in the slightest. Ezra, after having stood up with a stretch, helped me up from my chair.
Today's events began to drain my body, my shoulders slumped and my stomach protested for a new dose of my pain medicine. I pushed my physical symptoms aside, tucking a piece of my dark hair behind my ear as I marched into the conference room with Ezra's hand gently hovering over my back.
Ezra guided me to my seat as he sat on one side of me, Elias on the other. Judy stood off to the corner of the room with a smile. Her hands clasped over her chest. She did not seem to be in a hurry to discuss the results.
Once everyone shuffled into the room and maneuvered to their seats, Judy took a deep breath in but remained silent. The silence caused another round of anxiety to fall over all of us. Elias frantically drummed his hands on the tabletop. While we all were probably wondering the same thing: when was Judy going to speak? None of us dared to ask the question that was at the top of everyone's minds.
Judy moved to the only open chair surrounding the table and stood behind it. Her hands rested on the chair's back as her gaze washed over all of us.
"Thank you for your patience," Judy nodded at each of us at the table. "While the other eight members of the Werewolf Committee could not be here in attendance today, I have been entrusted to oversee and make a judgment on case 8967 on the basis of rogue activity. I have done my best to put my biases aside in order to ensure a fair ruling."
She paused, and her chest puffed forward as she inhaled. "With that being said, I have come to a decision."
Yet again, she paused. The tension in the room was palpable. My fingers itched to reach out and try to feel it; that's how thick and present the tension was.
"With the full support of the Werewolf Committee, we have come to a decision on case 8967 on the basis of rogue activity. Rogues will not be eradicated."
Elias gasped, bending over the table in relief. While Blake and Elias reached out to each other from their seats to hug in celebration, my mouth hung open.
I was over the moon with the decision of the hearing, but I couldn't grasp how Judy had come to such a decision given the cold exterior of her examination. Everyone who was questioned further in the conference room left with a bad taste in her mouth. What had changed her tune?
