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But if he suspected me, why were Caden, Aiden, and Mateo coming along?
I knew there was nothing I could do other than to get in the car. I was in Crawford Town now, a werewolf town located in Mac Tire City, a city managed by a council that consisted primarily of werewolves and was headed by the werewolf Alpha of the Crawford Pack. By coming to study at Crawford University, I’d agreed to obey all the laws of the town and signed several agreements to that effect.
If they suspected that I’d committed any crime and found adequate evidence, they could not only kick me out of Mac Tire City but also find ways to deduct points from my Supernatural Council positive points.
I sighed and got into the backseat where Aiden and Mateo were seated. I bowed my head to text Levi about the current development, deliberately ignoring Aiden’s attempt to persuade Mateo to swap seats with him so he could sit close to me. I also disregarded Caden’s gaze, fixated on me through the car’s side-view mirror from his spot in the passenger seat.
When we got to the police station, we were separated from Mr. Webster, herded in, and made to drop all our devices. Then they forced us to sit in a small waiting room to wait for whoever was going to interrogate us.
The waiting room where they placed us was a stark contrast to the bustling police station outside. It was a small, windowless room, bathed in the harsh glow of fluorescent lights that cast a clinical pallor over everything. The air carried a faint scent of disinfectant, which mingled with the lingering aroma of stale coffee.
A row of uncomfortable-looking plastic chairs lined one wall, their once-vibrant colors faded with time and use. I took a seat on the one farthest into the room, pressing my palm onto the cool plastic while staring at the small table at the center of the room. Its surface was marred with scratches and ink stains, a testament to the countless others who had sat here before me, waiting for answers. Thankfully, trying to read those scratches was the perfect distraction I needed to ignore the Crawford boys.
“Aurora—” Aiden started speaking.
“Don’t . . . there are two cameras in this room watching our every move. I’m not ready to air out my dirty laundry for the amusement of whoever is listening. It’s already bad enough that everyone at school knows about it. I know I’m not worth it, but please give me this tiny dignity, yeah?” I said in a waspish tone that was lined with sarcasm.
The three of them released harsh and audible breaths and I pointedly resisted the urge to glance at them.
We sat there in silence for the next few minutes, with Mateo running out of patience first as he started pacing. Aiden encircled the back of my chair with his arms, lowering his head until his nose almost grazed my hair. I feigned ignorance, pretending not to notice him sniffing at my hair, all the while focusing on the table’s markings.
Just when I thought we were going to sit in silence like that until we were taken to the interrogation room for questioning, Caden’s voice echoed in the small room. “I’m sorry.”
I was a bit surprised by the apology as I watched him squat in front of me. Then, he grabbed my hand before I could pull it away, and apologized again with our gazes locked. “I’m so sorry for everything that happened yesterday evening. I was wrong and I regret it. I heard about people calling you names today and I have someone handling them. It will definitely not happen tomorrow. I . . .”
Before he could say more, the door was pushed open abruptly, admitting Nathan, Ryan, and Harper into the waiting room. Seeing Harper and Nathan’s red, puffy eyes confirmed my suspicion that something had happened the previous night at Caden and Aiden’s party.
“What the hell happened? And why are we all at the police station?” Mateo confronted Nathan.
“You guys don’t know yet?” Harper’s voice was croaky as she asked, tears welling in her eyes again as Ryan squeezed her hand.
I pulled my hand out of Caden’s, stood up, and moved away from him, closer to Nathan, Ryan, and Harper.
But then Nathan suddenly moved toward me, grabbing my arms and shaking me as he looked into my eyes. “Angelique and Hank were found dead early this morning by the crew cleaning up the mansion, and I suspect Aurora killed them.”
“What?!” Four people, including myself, exclaimed.
“What the hell? Why do you suspect Aurora?” Aiden asked the same question I wanted to ask.
“She’s the last person Angelique offended. They suspected that Nyra girl before, but they already interrogated her with a truth meter, and she left when Angelique couldn’t find a replacement gown for her stained gown. Since she’s not the one who killed Angelique, you’re definitely the one who killed her. You pretended to leave with that man and then came back with him to kill her, right?” As he spoke, he shook me harder and his grip on my arm tightened to the extent that if I was human, he would have broken my arm.
In annoyance, I pulled my leg up in between his legs. I wasn’t trying to hurt him too badly, but I wanted him to unhand me. I was wearing a jacket, so I couldn’t see his memories when he grabbed my arm, but it was very annoying that he couldn’t speak without shaking me around like a doll.
Like I’d thought, a knee to the privates got him to unhand me.
It wasn’t too hard, but it still hurt and Nathan couldn’t resist hurling insults at me as he groaned in pain, holding his crotch. “You . . . bitch, you, you slut! You . . . murderer . . . you . . .”
I stared at him, my face tilted to the side because my wolf-half was present as I growled. “That’s what you get for putting your filthy hands on me.”
My face was expressionless as I continued, “Just because your friend was a loser doesn’t mean I have to get into trouble to kill her. I’m not a pacifist, but I believe in the sacredness of life. Angelique only aided a setup. If I wanted to kill her, wouldn’t I have had to kill everyone else who participated?”
“See what I said?! Why would someone talk about killing people with that kind of expressionless face? I say she . . .” Nathan started talking again, but I interrupted him with a chop to the back of his neck, grabbing his arm and shoulder with my gloved hands to ease his fall to the ground.
“You—” Harper started saying as she stared at me with wide eyes as if I was a monster with eight arms.
I interrupted her with a careless shrug. “He was emotionally unstable, showing harmful intent toward me, so I put him to sleep so he wouldn’t hurt himself or someone else.”
The stagnant atmosphere in the room, similar to the calm before a storm, was interrupted when someone swung the door open.
