My Alpha Boss Gave Me Triplets – Episode 13
The room fell silent after Evie collapsed. Blood marked the floor around her, too much for any of the she-wolves to dismiss as a minor injury. Evie no longer had the strength to shield her abdomen, and one hand lay open beside her as if the fight had finally left her. One she-wolf stared at the motionless human and backed toward the door, horror finally overwhelming the cruelty that had brought her there. They had followed Francesca expecting intimidation, not a scene that looked like death.
“There’s blood everywhere,” she whispered. The stains led from the corridor to the room, documenting Evie’s attempt to escape more clearly than any witness could. “What are we going to do?”
Francesca looked down at Evie. Calling for help would expose the stolen designs, the fall, the hunt through the office, and every person who had helped her. The blood made it impossible to pretend nothing serious had happened, but panic pushed her toward an even greater crime. She chose concealment without sparing a thought for the three lives in danger. To her, Evie’s death was now less frightening than Leopold learning the truth.
“Throw her out and hide the body,” Francesca ordered. “Then clean up all the blood.” Her voice shook, but the plan grew colder as she spoke. “It will be like she never existed.”
The other women stared at her. Workplace bullying had become attempted murder, yet fear of punishment held them in place. Any one of them could have refused, but doing so meant admitting her part and facing the Alpha alone. One reached reluctantly toward Evie while another searched for something to wipe the floor. Their obedience made each of them responsible for what happened next.
Before they could move her, Leopold’s voice sounded in the corridor. The command carried through the damaged door, and every wolf recognized that their Alpha was already close enough to discover the truth. “Where is Evie?”
Every she-wolf froze. Leopold had arrived before they removed Evie or erased the trail of blood. Francesca pushed the damaged door nearly shut and stepped outside, forcing confidence onto her face while her pulse hammered visibly at her throat. The others followed, arranging themselves between their Alpha and the room. Behind them, Evie remained silent.
Leopold approached with Max close behind. The bond had brought him to the design department, but Evie was nowhere in sight. He recognized several women who had stood by when Francesca burned her, and their nervous formation made the hidden door more suspicious. Pain pulsed through him, accompanied by a terror so intense that his wolf strained against his control. If they had harmed his mate again, rank and company policy would be the least of their concerns.
“Tell me,” he said. “Now.”
Francesca bowed her head. “Alpha Leopold.” She needed time to move Evie, destroy the evidence, and make the lie believable, but his unexpected arrival had denied her all three. Respectful posture could not hide the blood scent clinging to the corridor. “I really don’t know where she is.”
Leopold stepped closer. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Where is she?” The promise of consequences in his voice made one of the women flinch. He did not yet know exactly what had happened, but their fear told him they were guarding more than an empty office.
Francesca forced a confused smile. “She didn’t come to work today. Right, girls?”
The others agreed too quickly. “No. We haven’t seen her.” Their voices overlapped, turning the answer into the obvious lie it was. None could hold Leopold’s gaze, and one kept glancing toward the door Francesca had tried to conceal.
The pain inside Leopold spiked. He could feel Evie’s fading consciousness on the other side of the wall and knew she was close. Beneath her suffering ran something even more fragile, a set of faint lives he did not yet fully understand. The old curse had once seemed like an abstract threat, a reason to avoid the mate destined for him. Now it was the only reason he had reached her at all.
“She is in there,” he said. “And she’s in pain.”
Francesca shifted to block the doorway. It was a reckless attempt to delay an Alpha, but panic had replaced judgment. “There’s really nothing to see—”
“Get out of my way.” Leopold’s command carried the full power of the Alpha. When Francesca still hesitated, he moved her aside with one hand. “I said move.”
He forced open the damaged door. The metallic scent of blood reached him first, but Evie was no longer there. Broken wood, overturned furniture, and the marks of her attempted barricade revealed how desperately she had tried to protect herself before someone moved her. For one suspended second, the most powerful Alpha in the region forgot how to breathe. Every harsh word he had spoken to her became insignificant beside the possibility that he had arrived too late.
“Evie.” Leopold dropped beside the bloodstains, the anger in him giving way to fear as he searched for any trace of where she had been taken. Then another scent emerged beneath the blood—faint, unmistakable, and carrying the mark of his own bloodline three times over. The truth struck with absolute certainty. Evie had not been carrying a stranger’s child, and the danger burning through their bond threatened more than his mate. “I can smell my pups.”