My Alpha Boss Gave Me Triplets – Episode 32
The ledger made Leopold’s solution seem simple. A formal claiming would close the opening Darleen might exploit. Pack law required the Alpha to mark his mate before witnesses, announce her as Luna, and bind their authority together. What tradition treated as one ceremony, however, contained three decisions Evie had never agreed to make.
“No,” she said before Leopold finished explaining.
His expression hardened from fear, not anger. “If the bond remains unfinished, she can attack you through it.”
“Then we find another defense.” Evie closed the ledger. “I will not marry you, become Luna, and let you bite me because a dead ancestor wrote that it is safer.”
Max turned away to give them the illusion of privacy, but the archive was too small to hide the conflict. Leopold’s wolf wanted the threat sealed immediately. The man had promised that Evie’s choices would survive even his strongest instincts.
“I am not asking you to pretend affection,” Leopold said. “The ceremony can be protective.”
“A claiming is permanent. Calling it protection does not make it temporary.” Evie touched the place on her neck where wolves carried mating marks. “You are asking me to change my body and my life because Darleen refuses to respect either.”
The words stopped him. Forcing the claim would make Darleen responsible for the timing but Leopold responsible for the violation. He stepped away from the ledger. “Then no claiming unless you want it.”
Doctor Lara examined the old text and found notes describing temporary wards used for pregnant mates. They required no bite or title, only voluntary contact between the bonded pair and an object tied to the Alpha’s home. Unlike a claiming, the ward could be ended by either partner and carried no authority over the protected mate. Lara translated each archaic phrase into plain language and wrote the conditions beside it so tradition could not conceal consequences. The ritual could strengthen a bond for several days, giving them time to investigate without making a permanent decision under threat.
Evie agreed only after Lara translated every instruction. In the library, she and Leopold placed their hands on the Stonehearth seal while Max witnessed their consent. Warmth traveled through Evie’s palm, followed by three small pulses. The pressure around her chest eased.
Leopold’s relief came through the bond so strongly that Evie nearly mistook it for her own. “Better?” he asked.
“Quieter.” She withdrew her hand. The ward protected the connection without settling what the connection meant.
They spent the morning cataloging the archive. Evie created a searchable index while Max photographed every fragile page, turning family secrets into evidence that could not disappear again. Records showed that Blackhart witches had advised Stonehearth leaders for generations, treating spells as political instruments rather than superstition. They blessed treaties, concealed injuries, and sometimes altered memories after violent disputes. The original curse and the Blackhart bloodline were connected, but several pages describing the relationship had been cut cleanly from the ledger.
Only someone with access to the mansion could have removed them. The dust around the missing pages was lighter than the surrounding paper, suggesting the theft was recent rather than historical. Darleen might have entered the archive during an earlier visit, or someone inside Stonehearth had helped her.
Evie examined the cuts with a designer’s eye. The blade had followed the binding without damaging adjacent pages, work done by someone patient and familiar with valuable documents. A faint trace of ivory thread remained caught near the spine, matching the suits Darleen favored but proving nothing by itself. Still, it belonged in the evidence record.
Max reviewed security records and found that the archive door had opened six months earlier while Leopold attended a regional summit. The access code belonged to an elder who now claimed not to remember the visit. His fear smelled obvious to every wolf in the room.
Under questioning, the elder admitted that Darleen had asked to review old alliance agreements. He had allowed it because everyone expected her to become Leopold’s Luna. She spent less than an hour inside and left carrying nothing visible. The elder remembered her wearing gloves and asking whether Leopold had ever reacted to pain that was not his own. At the time, he thought she was researching the curse to help him. Now the question revealed that Darleen had been searching for signs of Evie before either pack knew her name.
“You gave her access to a curse involving my mate without telling me,” Leopold said.
“At the time, you had no mate,” the elder replied. “Only Darleen had the blood and training to help the pack if the curse awakened.”
Evie understood the deeper danger. Darleen had spent years preparing for the possibility that Leopold found someone else. Her obsession was not a sudden reaction to pregnancy; it was a plan built while the Stonehearth family welcomed her into every vulnerable place.
Paula entered with an urgent call from the office. Blackhart had frozen delivery of materials for the hospitality project and demanded an emergency board meeting. The official notice cited safety concerns about Evie’s design, but the attached condition was personal: the suspension would end if Stonehearth removed Evie as lead designer.
Darleen had failed to force a claiming. Now she was using the company to prove that every choice Leopold made for Evie would cost his pack something tangible.