Chapter 250 The Deliberate Version
Claire walked elegantly to the front of the hall, and the entire chamber fell silent.
Every eye in the room followed her, Alphas, Betas, Lunas and Gammas alike, all of them watching her as if they were looking at a literal ghost.
No one dared to breathe. The intimidating atmosphere from moments ago vanished, replaced by pure shock, and the only sound in the whole hall was the soft click of her shoes against the marble floor.
Rolf, having finally regained his footing with the help of his Beta, Jake, stared at the woman with wide eyes.
He pointed a trembling finger at her, his voice cracking loudly. “What sorcery is this?” he croaked. “You’re dead! You died twenty years ago!”
Kira only smiled as her mother reached her, and the two of them embraced, right there before the whole of the Eastern territory.
And as she held her mother, her memory carried her back once more to the study the previous night. Because this moment, this exact moment, had been Derek’s idea.
“How am I ever going to win this case without a single document to prove the pack belongs to my mother?” she had asked him.
Derek had lifted his eyes from the laptop. “You said Claudia kept photographs. You could start there. Pictures taken on Rolf’s coronation day.”
Kira had thought about it, then clicked her tongue. “I don’t know if photographs will prove anything on their own.”
Derek had gone quiet for a moment. “Do you want me involved in this? I can step in from the background and pull some strings if you need me to.”
“Of course I do. I need all the help I can get right now.”
“Then tell me. Has Rolf, or anyone from Moonfang, seen or heard that Claire is alive?”
Kira had shaken her head.
Derek had nodded slowly, and she’d watched the strategy assemble itself behind his eyes. “Then I have an idea that buys us time to dig further and gather proper evidence.”
Time is exactly what I need.
“Then listen to me,” Derek had said. “Don’t walk into that Council Hall with Claire at the start of the hearing. If she’s sitting next to you from the start, Rolf will have time to prepare a lie.”
Kira had stared quietly at him.
“It won’t land half as hard as it will if she enters while the hearing is already underway. Let him present his fake papers first. Let him lie to the elders. Then, right when he thinks he’s won, bring Claire in. He will be so disoriented he won’t be coherent enough to continue the case.”
Kira had blinked, her mind racing as she processed the trap. “What if he doesn’t panic? What if he regains his composure?”
Derek had smirked at her. “You give Rolf far more credit than he deserves. Trust me, it’ll work. Have you forgotten it’s the same pattern you used to dismantle Ruby?”
Kira had laughed. “That case is quite different from this one though, and I never actually planned. It all just… played out that way.”
“Then consider this the deliberate version.” His voice had softened. “You’ve got this, Kira. Don’t give up. You’re fighting a good fight, and your name’s going to go down in history as the woman who broke those rigid werewolf customs apart. If werewolves had allowed women to rule packs, your mother would never have lost her birthright, her family name, or her place.”
Kira had felt a swell of emotion in her chest, her heart fluttering at his sincere support.
“Thank you, Derek. Truly.” Then she’d grinned and placed her head on his shoulder. “Do you want to hear a story?”
Derek had let out a dramatic sigh, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. “No. Please.”
Kira had gone ahead to tell him her story anyway until she had slept off.
In the present, Kira’s smile widened at the memory.
“This isn’t real!” Rolf was shouting now, still jabbing a finger toward Claire. “Whatever is being displayed here, the elders should not believe a word of it! It’s a trick! An impostor!”
The presiding elder cleared his throat and turned to the woman standing at the front.
“Madam. Kindly tell this Council who you are, what your relationship is to the claimant, and what your business here is.”
Claire turned to the panel and inclined her head. “Forgive my intrusion, honoured elders.” Her voice carried clear through the hall.
“My name is Claire Ironfang. Daughter, and original heir, of the late Alpha Logan Ironfang. The Alpha of all Alphas of the Eastern territories.”
Murmurs began to run through the room at the name.
Claire turned toward Kira and Braxton, who now stood together, hands joined. “And these are my children.”
Jessica stepped forward with two sheets of paper and handed them to Claire, who passed them up to the presiding elder.
“Those are DNA results,” Claire said, “to show this Council that I speak the truth.”
She drew a breath. “My father was the Alpha of Ironfang. He gave my hand in marriage to Rolf, who was then the Beta’s son, because he was judged the most eligible man in the pack, and because of my father’s long friendship with Rolf’s father. That marriage is how Rolf got his hands on my pack. And once he had it, he tried to eliminate me, and take everything.”
The murmuring grew louder across the hall. Bewildered Eastern Alphas leaned into one another, whispering furiously, glancing between the woman at the front and the man swaying on his foot.
Rolf looked around the chamber, and from every indication, he could see the tables were turning against him, seat by seat, whisper by whisper.
His eyes darted about the room as though some rescuer might simply materialise from the crowd and carry him out of this nightmare.
The presiding elder looked down at the DNA files, then fixed Rolf with a level stare. “Alpha Rolf. Are this woman’s claims true?”
“They are not!” Rolf barked. “She’s a liar! An impostor hired by the Lycans!”
The elder raised a sharp eyebrow, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
“And yet,” the elder said mildly, “you confessed with your own mouth, before this entire Council, not fifteen minutes ago, that you were married to one Claire Ironfang. You further admitted that she died during childbirth.”
“Yes!” Rolf said, sweat pouring down his temples. “Because she did! Claire died during childbirth, everyone knows that she—”
“Liar!” Claire’s voice cracked across the hall like a whip. “You strangled me!”
The chamber went dead silent.
Kira immediately moved to her mother’s side, wrapping her arms around Claire’s shaking shoulders. She gently rubbed her arm, whispering soothing words to calm her down. “It’s okay, Mum. Hold your emotions in check. Don’t let him see you cry. We’ve got him trapped.”
Claire nodded, squeezing her daughter’s hand, drawing herself upright again. “I’m ready,” she told the elders, her voice raw but firm, “to narrate everything that happened that night. Every detail. And I have a witness.”
Seeing his Alpha completely lose his mind and fall into panic, Beta Jake shot to his feet at once, hurrying forward.
“Honoured elders,” he said quickly, “my Alpha is clearly not in his right frame of mind. He cannot process these proceedings in his current state. I appeal, respectfully, for this hearing to be adjourned.”
The presiding elder stroked his grey beard, looking over to where Kira and Claire were standing.
“Serene Ironfang, as the claimant, are you and your mother ready to let this case be adjourned today, or do you wish to proceed with the testimony?”
Kira only shrugged, an easy smile settling on her face. She looked directly at Rolf, at the grey, sweating wreck of the man who had tormented her for twenty years.
“We have no problem with an adjournment, respected Elder. Go ahead,” she said pleasantly.
“Because I know for a fact that no matter how many times Rolf pleads for an adjournment, I’m still taking my mother’s pack away from him in the end. He can’t run from his karma.”
The presiding elder brought down his gavel on the desk.
“This case is hereby adjourned to five days’ time. Both parties are to return fully prepared with their witnesses and legal documents.”
The hall burst back into noise, benches scraping, voices rising, and Kira turned her head toward the gallery, her eyes scanning the rows for one face in particular.
But Derek was no longer in the seat where she’d seen him.
Her gaze swept on toward the entrance, and there he was, already walking toward the doors, slipping out quietly the same way he’d slipped in.
And then, as if he could feel her eyes on his back, he stopped and looked over his shoulder, across the whole churning hall, and found her instantly. Their eyes met, and he lifted a hand and waved.
Kira smiled back at him.
But deep inside, beneath the victory and the noise and her mother’s hand still warm in hers, a small, quiet part of her wished he had stayed. Stayed, and celebrated with her.