My Alpha Boss Gave Me Triplets – Episode 45
The missing pages turned the council hearing into a question of survival. If authentic, they gave frightened elders a reason to treat Evie’s death as a solution to the Stonehearth curse. Darleen had returned them at the moment fear could transform an ancient lie into policy.
Leopold wanted the pages destroyed. Evie stopped him. “If they are false, we prove it. If they are real, destroying them only lets someone quote them without challenge.”
Paper conservators examined the fibers, ink, and binding cuts. The pages came from the original ledger, and the edges matched the gaps in the archive exactly. Ultraviolet imaging revealed fingerprints removed with a solvent used by professional archivists. One paragraph, however, used ink decades newer than the surrounding text. The writer copied the old hand carefully but pressed harder on words concerning death and surrender. Someone had added the condition after the record was written.
Under magnification, the altered words covered a scraped section. Lara used filtered light while the conservator reconstructed the surviving strokes. The original line emerged slowly: the curse ended when the Alpha defended his mate’s free choice above bloodline, title, and pack survival. A second faded note warned that any attempt to coerce the mate would strengthen the curse and return its accumulated pain to the person seeking control.
Darleen had reversed the prophecy. Where the curse demanded sacrifice from the powerful, the forgery demanded sacrifice from Evie.
Max traced the newer ink to a formulation used by Blackhart archivists. It was not exclusive enough to identify a writer, but it tied the alteration to the same institution that benefited from it.
Evie added the analysis to the evidence file. Her hands shook as she read the authentic sentence. Leopold’s final test was not claiming her or securing the heirs. It was allowing her choice to matter even if that choice cost him everything his pack valued.
“If I decide never to become Luna?” she asked.
“Then I defend that decision.”
“If the elders threaten your title?”
“Then the title is the price, not you.” Leopold answered without hesitation, but Evie knew a promise before a hearing was easier than the consequence after it.
The council hall stood on neutral land surrounded by old stone. Its circular chamber had no raised witness platform because pack custom assumed rank, not evidence, determined who deserved attention. Human security found no electronics hidden inside, while Lara detected ceremonial herbs capable of increasing wolf aggression. The council called them traditional incense and claimed generations of Alphas had tolerated the smoke without harm. Evie answered that pregnancy and humanity were not failures of tolerance.
Evie refused to enter until the incense was removed. Darleen accused her of insulting sacred practice. Lara produced the dangerous-herb report and explained how “tradition” had already been used to disguise a threat against a human pregnancy.
The council reluctantly cleared the room. Evie entered beside her attorney, with Paula behind her and Leopold several steps away. Their physical separation showed she did not require his hand to speak.
Darleen appeared in black rather than ivory. She denied sending the pages and suggested Evie had forged the alteration to manipulate the prophecy. Her counsel demanded that the council examine Evie’s bond for signs of human instability.
Evie’s attorney challenged the phrase. No standard defined “human instability,” and no male Alpha had been asked to surrender medical privacy after repeated attacks. The demand treated difference as guilt. She asked the council to identify which alleged symptom belonged to Evie rather than to kidnapping, poisoning attempts, or magical assault. Darleen’s counsel listed fear, distrust, and refusal to accept pack authority. Evie answered that fear in danger was rational, distrust after betrayal was evidence-based, and refusing unchosen authority was a legal right. The council could not turn survival responses into proof she deserved less control.
The council granted Evie temporary standing to answer the allegations. Her attorney insisted the decision be written into the record rather than treated as a courtesy that could be withdrawn whenever an elder disliked her answers. Evie presented the timeline, beginning with professional interference because it established motive before magic entered the evidence. Dates, access logs, medical reports, and witness statements appeared beside every claim.
Darleen dismissed the scored drawing and supplier blockade as competition. Evie agreed that either might be lawful alone, then showed how the same guest credentials carried threats and accessed her medical routes. Procurement timestamps aligned with anonymous messages, while Cristin opened Evie’s accommodation files minutes after Blackhart meetings. The evidence did not require the council to believe every motive Evie suspected; it required them to explain why supposedly separate incidents repeatedly used the same access, timing, and beneficiaries.
Lara demonstrated the black residue inside sealed glass. When Leopold’s hair approached, the substance moved toward it like iron to a magnet. Several elders who had mocked witchcraft stood abruptly.
Darleen alone remained calmly seated before the frightened regional council. “Blackhart protected Stonehearth from its curse for generations. Naturally our materials react to his blood.”
“Then you admit knowing how to reach the bond,” Evie said.
Darleen smiled, finally realizing the carefully prepared trap too late. Before she could answer, the council doors opened. Her missing steward entered under police guard and announced that he would testify—but only if Leopold guaranteed protection from Darleen herself.