Dangerous Territory

Twenty One

The girl's words and actions were starting to fit together much more clearly now, such as the reason she had immediately established a careful yet definite trust in Mala. She would have smelt Auden's scent entwining with Mala's, noticed the way it had increased and melded over time. She had been waiting to see if her theory was for real before confronting Mala over it.

"How did this all happen?" Mala was almost speechless.

"I tried to fight the ruling and they locked me up too. Nobody even questioned why. For all I know, they might all think I'm dead."

"Who?"

"Wellington." Blake whispered. "Auden was framed by Wellington. You need evidence."

While more questions were being answered, new ones were cropping up in their places. While Blake's words made sense, she couldn't quite picture, in her head, the Wellington she had been acquainted with, with the one Blake was warning her about.

Granted, she hadn't had much contact with him, however it was hard to understand why someone who hated shifters would employ them- employ her, even without a proper interview.

When she had overheard the conversation between Tanya and Zoe, they had spoken about the man and the testing of shifters, saying that they didn't want him to find out about it as if he were against whatever they were doing. But at the same time, Jon and Mattheus had told her that there was widespread testing of shifters happening in the penitentiary. Such testing so interwoven into the fabric of Irongate surely couldn't have been a mystery to him.

Leda had told her that the same person who killed Finnigaan Lodz, killed Auden's parents and framed him for it.

Wellington's marriage had been torn apart by the mate bond. He definitely had a motive and judging by Irongate's infrastructure, he certainly had the money.

Mala steeled herself. "I'm going to get you both out of here."

---

Wednesday bought about mock exams at the university.

By the time class was over, Mala was sure that she had failed the tests. Her mind had been too preoccupied with the events of the last few days and the article she had found during her research the previous day.

Another rehashed article of the murder, in a rather controversial human magazine, the writing situated below an interesting image that at first glance seemed like any other wedding photo.

Only after reading the caption, and taking another look, it turned out that everybody in the picture was dead.

There was a lady who looked eerily like Leda, and Mala realised that it must have been her mother. She also managed to single out Auden's parents, feeling an ache in her heart that their lives had been cut short.

The writer of the article boasted about the deaths with no shame, revelling in the fact that all of the casualties had been shifters.

All except Auden's mother, she thought.

Instead of going back to the apartment from the university, she took a detour down to Jon's place, hoping that she had memorised his schedule correctly.

Not only did she want to tell Jon how Blake had responded to his message, since she hadn't gotten a chance to tell him the other day, she also wanted to have an update on what was happening with him and Mattheus.

She was starting to form a plan, an idea that could have Auden and Blake out of prison with little lasting consequences and would rather not do it alone.