Blood Moon Falls (Book 1 in the Original SOCIETY Series) ✔

☙18❧

The silence in the ballroom was deafening.

No one moved, breathed, or spoke after the councilwoman's shouted words.

I stared up at the glaring woman; her blue eyes shimmering gold, with my brows slightly furrowed and my body numbing. The life in the room drained with the hot glare I was receiving and I honestly didn't know what to say anymore. Not after hearing something about my mother that I, before finding out about werewolves, would have had a hard time believing.

Did i truly believe that my parents knew about a world that I had thought was non-existent, and that they both had something to do with werewolves; whether it was befriending them or killing them?

I didn't know.

And that is what scared me.

A shaky breath left my mouth before I warily eyeballed the councilwoman and the way her stance had gotten defensive. The way she was standing... It almost resembled someone preparing to counter an attack. Though I wouldn't know from who since I certainly wasn't going to be fighting her. Even if my mother was who this woman claims she was... I didn't have any fighting abilities. And I wasn't very violent. At all actually.

The last fight i got into was the night that I wielded that giant branch to rid Nick from attacking Auric.

Licking my lips out of nervousness, I glanced at the other councilmen. They sat in their throne-like chairs, leaning to the sides to get a better view of me. Their eyes staring me down, watching my every move.

I looked back at the councilwoman stammering, "My... My mom? She---? She couldn't have been what you say! Up until now i didn't know your species existed! How could she possibly be who you say when I've never heard of any of you or what you are?!"

The men still seated sneered, turning their eyes to their head council member just as she held her head high and began making her descent from her chair steps. Without taking my eyes off her, my feet took a step back and I noticed that the corner of the woman's mouth curled up into a smirk.

She held out her arms slightly from her sides and the elegant gown she wore became much more distinctive. With her arms barely extended, the black material that hugged her tall, thin frame had a see-through, red, satin-like material, attached by one end, to the black bands around her wrists and the other side connected to her gown. Her long dark hair swayed off one shoulder and down to her waist.

For someone of such high importance, I wasn't expecting her to be dressed as though she were royalty. But perhaps her position required her to maintain such elegance that I got over quickly with the way she approached me.

The councilwoman's gold eyes studied my face the closer she got, her arms dipped back to push her train back with them. She bent her head to get it closer to mine and my eyes involuntarily narrowed, my jaw setting from the close proximity.

When her eyes locked with mine, she spoke.

"Emeel Ray-Saranto was a wanted human. She took the lives of those who wanted to live in peace! Her idea of a perfect world was with our blood soaking its soil!"

I flinched as she snapped this at close range.

"Then why didn't she say anything?!" I retorted, frowning as the woman slowly circled me. "Why keep it such a secret if she wanted nothing more than to be rid of you all?"

Her close-lipped chuckle was unnerving, and it didn't help that she kept circling me with her slow steps like a vulture scoping out its carcass.

"Because of you."