Chapter 215

Grace

Her words struck a chord in me, but they didn't make me want to comply exactly. Sean was twisting my words, skewing them. Esme wasn't going to do what needed to be done. She couldn't. She was just a witch. What did she know about werewolf hierarchy and respect? The words were on the tip of my tongue as I stared into her eyes. They flashed with light. A spike of fear went through me. Would she curse me?

I shut my mouth, and she gave me a warning look.

"You said answer," I ground out. "So I did."

"Succinctly," Esme said. "And you didn't. You are playing into his hand and making things worse."

"I know what I'm doing?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "So I should leave you to it then? I'll go meet up with Eason to start working on the petition for his ascension then. It'll go much easier. One of you has a stack of evidence against them, and the other doesn't."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You wouldn't."

She smiled, cold and cunning. "Do you really want to make another bet with a witch you don't really want to win?"

I ground my teeth, baring my teeth and feeling the anger surge in me.

Her eyes flashed back at me.

"Spare me the theatrics. Am I putting Eason in the alpha position, or are you going to shut up and let me do my job?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. She squeezed my arm a little tighter.

"Not a word until I reopen questioning, understand?"

I clenched my jaw and glared at her, but she seemed satisfied enough to turn back. Sean looked smug, and I wanted to kill him even more. If she didn't get me out of this, I'd deal with him myself.

"I'm interjecting to this line of questioning."

"Cause?"

"Missing evidence necessary to redirect this line of questioning as it has little bearing on the case."

She opened an envelope. "I have here a statement from the late Alpha Wolfe which accompanied his will regarding Eason Wolfe's ascension as stewardship."

I looked at her, eyes wide and shocked. She had a statement from my father? Did Eason know about this? Had he known all along?

I hadn't been there for the reading of the will, at least not that I remembered...

But how? I set my jaw. More importantly, why would Dad have drafted something like that? Had he thought me so incapable, too?

"And how do you have such a document, Counselor Brighthollow?"

"The late Alpha Wolfe's will was altered and recorded at the Stormclaw Office a year before his death." My eyes widened as she produced the document. "Under magical timestamp and oath. It holds a provision for Eason Wolfe to act as steward over Mooncrest if the heir, Grace Wolfe, was incapable."

I blinked, unsure of what to think, as a bailiff came over and took the document from Esme. Sean looked put out about it. Sean set his jaw and looked down at the document.

"Under what grounds are you considering her incapable?" Sean asked. "She returned to school, met her former husband, got married, and so on."

"I'm stating that she's been incapable by way of magical instability caused by a psychotic break, and I'll be using the Wolf-Lang Test to verify, done here in court." Sean flushed as she turned to look at me as the words sunk in.

I wasn't crazy! I turned to her, ready to give her a piece of my mind, but she kept speaking.

"The test is a series of questions, asked under truth cuff and trance if necessary." She met my gaze, eyes glowing. "Do you submit to this test, Alpha Wolfe?"

I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell her that she could go to hell. I'm not crazy, no matter what. More importantly, what kind of defense was it against these charges to call me crazy? That would just make sure I couldn't take the position at all.

"You--"

"A yes or no question, Alpha Wolfe," Esme said and leaned closer. "Or it'll be Ms. Wolfe sooner rather than later."

I bared my teeth at her, but I said nothing. Her eyes were absolutely blazing, vicious, and angry. I had no doubt that if I said no, she'd get up and leave me here. Would she be able to put Eason in my position over Wolfe Medical? Over Mooncrest? Would he take it?

I could see him sitting at the desk talking to the chief of police and so many others. I could see him standing at the podium giving addresses in my place, but there would be no one there coaching him through his addresses. I set my jaw.

Mooncrest was mine.

"Yes," I hissed.

I was the heir. I was alpha. There was no one who could take that from me. Not Eason, not Sean or Esme. If I killed the entire Senate, would they be able to do anything? If I wasn't running Wolfe Medical, there would be no other company capable of saving them.

Someone would pardon me.

Everything would be fine. I'd be doing Charles a favor by getting rid of Sean. Then, Alpha Shadow--

Wait.

I swallowed, catching a hold of that thought and stepping back from it. It wasn't the murder. It was something else. Something else about the way the thoughts had come together. Whispers from the dark, too familiar, too subtle.

I saw a red light flash through my eyes. Moonlight seemed to scream in my head. I pushed the thoughts and images away, but it left my mind full of a haze I couldn't explain.

Esme stood and turned. "King Charles, if you'd please?"

Charles came forward with a small box and offered it to her. She set it on the table to be looked at by the bailiff and the Chief Justice.

"Enforcer truth cuffs," the Chief Justice said. "I certify that they appear to be in working order."

Were they? Was this another trick Esme was playing? Sean tapped his hand on the desk, looking disgruntled as if he would rather not let this stand. Esme held out the cuffs to me and opened them, staring me down. I hesitated but set my wrists in them, and as soon as they closed, a different sort of haze fell over my mind. The courtroom felt too close and yet worlds away. I felt heavy, as if I wouldn't move from this spot again. I blinked slowly. Exhaustion I hadn't ever felt before dragged at my eyelids.

"Alpha Wolfe, I need you to think back to the year your father died."

My eyes welled with tears. A great well of grief and regret welled up in me. My heart felt like it was in a vice. I could see him lying in the hospital room, barely breathing. I saw Eason's face, younger than it was now, much younger. I heard his voice as if far away. Light and time swirled. Had I been there when he stopped breathing? I couldn't remember. I smelled the antiseptic. I felt the tears rolling down my face. Someone gasped. I could hardly breathe.

"Who planned your father's funeral?"

"Eason."

"Can you tell me why?"

I closed my eyes, seeing the walls of my childhood room in disarray.

"I... couldn't."

"Why not?"

"I couldn't... move," I said, slumping forward, feeling that weight settled on my shoulders again. My head fell in my hands. My body shuddered with sobs.

"I couldn't... I couldn't see him. I couldn't...move."

"Did you attend the funeral?"

"Yes," I croaked. "Eason... Eason brought me."

He'd picked out the dress and the shoes. He'd practically dressed me and carried me out of the room into the car. I hadn't said a word, but I remember the casket, covered in white flowers, right next to Mom's plot. The headstone. The rain. The cold. The darkness.

"What happened after the funeral?"

"People," I gasped. Faces flashed through my mind. Faces I'd forgotten. Eason's back. Voices were swarming, swirling. Words I couldn't make sense of. Words I didn't have answers to.

Alpha.

Future.

Funds.

Something else. Some other word that had made me hear nothing. It had all been too much to handle, too much to think about. I remember escaping up to my room as soon as I could and the way time seemed to melt and flow together for days, maybe months...

"People," I said again. "People came. They were... Asking me something. They... It was... I could think. I couldn't answer. Eason... Eason took me home."

"Can you tell me how you ended up returning to school?"

I blinked. Time blurred through my mind. It felt like I was drunk. Maybe high. Had I been high? Had I been drunk? Drowning in my grief. Then, I saw my face in the mirror: gaunt, dark-eyed, so much thinner, sickly. I looked like Mom had at the end. The fear. The worry. The wracking coughs.

"I was sick."