Page 43 of Shattered

Charles held up his hand. “I explained everything to her, and she willingly said if there were charges, she’d accept them. She is also willing to leave pack lands as a punishment, too.”

“Banishment doesn’t sound like too bad of an option right about now,” Royce grumbled.

“After she testifies,” Hayden said. “You can kick her out then.”

Kalkin scrubbed his chin. “I need to think on this, kid. Give me time to process this.”

“It’s a lot to digest, but I couldn’t allow any of you to enter the court room tomorrow without this little nugget of information. I have already sent it on to the judge, and he has accepted it. It won’t be brought up until you testify, Hayden. I’ll use it to show how manipulative your aunt was at the time and how far she was willing to go to get her way. It’ll also bolster your testimony, Mackenzie. She did this right under your nose with the understanding of what kind of blowback there’d be.” Charles folded his hands. “Before we start tomorrow, is there anything else I should know about?”

Mackenzie shook his head as did the others. The admission of Justine threw Mackenzie for a loop. He hadn’t been expecting that type of information to be shared between them, but as the main witnesses in the trial, they all had to be made aware. He sat back in his chair and grunted. Again, his fuck-up reared its ugly head.

“I will see all of you bright and early in the morning then,” Charles said, dismissing them. “Get some rest, Mackenzie. You look like shit.”

If only Charles knew the truth of the matter.

The first day of Mackenzie’s testimony for Holly Geithner’s trial...

Mackenzie stood before the judge, jury, District Attorney Charles Franks, and Holly’s PBH lawyers. He raised his right hand, swearing to tell the whole truth—even if it cost him his relationship with Royce and Hayden.

They had to know everything.

After his little tête-à-tête with Aurora the other day and the argument with Danielle, he’d kept to himself, mostly. All of his plans to explain what happened the day Hayden arrived, went out the window. He’d been angry. So fucking filled with rage, he even stopped speaking to Riley and Liam because he didn’t want to take it out on them. Mackenzie didn’t get a happily ever after. He didn’t get to have a mate. He didn’t deserve one. What he did warrant was a bullet between his eyes to finish off what Raymond started the night Marjorie turned on him. Then, everyone in the Raferty family could move past his transgressions.

He sat in the chair on the stand and adjusted the mic. When the district attorney asked his name, he said it. “Mackenzie Raferty.”

“Thank you, Mr. Raferty,” Charles Franks said. “We’re going to start from the beginning. When did you first meet Holly Geithner?”

“The same day the whole family did,” he replied. “When she and Hayden Raferty showed up in town going on almost twelve years ago.”

“Did anything appear out of the ordinary?”

Mackenzie shook his head. “No. Both appeared afraid. Said they were being chased by PBH and needed help.”

“You believed her?”

“Yes. I didn’t scent any deception in her statement.”

“Objection your honor,” the defense attorney said. “He might be a shifter, but in the court of law, we don’t go by smells.”

“Sustained,” the judge said. “Mr. Raferty, given you’re a wolf-shifter and we’re not, please stick to answers not pertaining to your heightened awareness.”

Mackenzie grunted. “Hard not to when it’s who I am, but okay. Since I didn’t know her at the time, I didn’t have any reason to doubt her, especially after all my family has endured at the hands of PBH.”

Back and forth they went. Charles would ask him a question and he’d answer. The majority of them were mundane, related to Holly’s involvement in the PBH. Most of them he couldn’t answer. For all intents and purposes, he’d turned a blind eye to Holly. He kept himself in the dark, not wanting to hurt Hayden. In the end, it hurt all of them instead—Hayden the worst.

When Charles sat down, the defense attorney stood up. The man wore a sharp suit and smelled of ill-begotten money. He had beady eyes and carried himself with an air of superiority Mackenzie wanted to beat out of him. “Mr. Raferty, what made you decide to welcome Holly into your home and how would you categorize your relationship with the defendant?”

“How would I categorize it?”

“Yes,” the man said. “Were you lovers? Friends? Mates?”

Mackenzie licked his bottom lip. “We were friends. Never lovers and definitely not mates.”

“But, you told everyone you were? Why is that?”

Mackenzie shrugged. “Guess I couldn’t stand to see a young girl lose her aunt. Holly was going to leave Hayden with us and go wherever she wanted to. I told her she–they–could stay with me for the time being. The rest kind of just happened.”

“You mean the fake mating and fake family,” the defense lawyer said. “Tell me, Mr. Raferty, are Liam and Riley yours or yours and Holly’s children?”

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