The magistrate cocks his head. “Was he truly just a boyfriend?”
Cali’s jaw tightens. “Yes, although I thought we were more. He told me we were fated mates.”
My heart stops. So here it is—what Cali was claiming. But Cali had to be a jealous ex-girlfriend when she told me that. She was trying to shake my faith in Collin.
But the magic shines green.
I drop my head to my chest and squeeze my eyes shut, but I still hear the collective gasp in the courtroom.
“So like Brianna Drummond, Collin Ward also told you that you were his fated mate?” the magistrate asks her.
“Yes.”
“And are you? His fated mate?”
“No.”
“Yet he was insistent that you were?”
“Yes.”
“And did you believe him?”
Cali’s chin quivers. “Yes.”
My heart is in pieces by the time the magistrate finishes with Cali, but the torture doesn’t end there. He calls another woman to the stand, and then another. They all testify that Collin told them he was their fated mate.
After the fourth woman, the queen justice intervenes before the magistrate can call his fifth witness. “May I ask where this line of questioning is going?”
“Of course, Queen Justice,” the magistrate replies. “I’m merely convincing the court that Collin Ward is not in fact Brianna Drummond’s fated mate. As we all know, fated mates are rare. Most packs only see one or two every century. Yet Brianna Drummond claims that it was because she and Collin Ward were fated mates that Collin Ward is no longer a rogue, but as you can see Collin Ward has told most females that they were his fated mate. So how can we trust that this time it’s true? And if Brianna Drummond is not Collin Ward’s fated mate, then how could she have saved him as she claims? Unfortunately, the reality is, is that Ms. Drummond was another one of Collin Ward’s victims. Even if she wasn’t a murder victim, he still abducted her and manipulated her, which we all know is very common rogue behavior.”
“Very well,” the queen justice says. “Are you done? I do believe you’ve made your point.”
The magistrate bows. “I have three more witnesses who also attest to Collin Ward telling them they were his fated mate, but if it pleases the court, we can move on.”
“Yes, that would please the court,” the queen justice replies.
With tears in my eyes, I glance at Collin again. I’m desperately hoping that he’ll deny all that’s been said, that he’ll tell me that even if he did trick those other women that I truly am his fated mate.
But he still refuses to look at me.
His expression is blank and his demeanor rigid as he leans back in his cage.
After Collin’s women are walked out, I feel so sick I fear I’ll barf right there in the courtroom.
The queen justice calls a short break, and as each minute ticks by, I struggle to breathe. While everyone else stands and stretches, I stay as I am, watching my mate with my heart in my throat.
But Collin continues to ignore me. And any emotion I’d seen prior in him has vanished.
I can’t help but fear that I’ve been made the biggest fool of them all, but then I shake my head. No. What we have is real. I am his fated mate!
Everyone returns and the judges emerge from their deliberation room. After settling her robes around her, the queen justice eyes Collin then the magistrates.
“Thank you magistrates for your time and expertise in the matters of the community versus Collin Ward,” she says just as the clock chimes two in the square. “Collin Jared Ward, please rise for your sentencing.”
My hands turn to ice. Collin stands, his expression blank.
My heart aches, and my stomach drops. Everything about him calls to me, and I will him once again to look at me—to reassure me, to tell me that everything I just heard isn’t true, that I’m his only fated mate, and that I wasn’t just another notch on his belt.
But his same indifferent expression remains.
Oh my God, I can’t breathe! Why? Why won’t he look at me? I’m trembling as I stand there, my body at the point of collapsing, and my grandparents grip me tightly around the waist, keeping me upright.
The queen justice eyes him shrewdly. “Collin Jared Ward, you are judged as guilty and hereby convicted of murder on twenty-three counts.” The queen justice’s icy voice cuts down my spine like a knife. “The usual sentencing for such a crime is gargoyle leeching