[Elara's POV]
Giselle's face was a mask of pure disbelief.
The champion of the Wolf Wisdom Trials?!
Elara?!
Impossible. The worthless stray she had always looked down upon… how could she possess such an honor?
"You're… you're lying!" Giselle stammered.
"Why don't you ask your dear brother? He knows the truth," Liana sneered.
Giselle's head whipped toward Kaelen. His silence, his refusal to meet her eyes, was a damning confirmation. It was true.
But while Giselle was reeling from the shock of my credentials, the rest of the hall was fixated on another detail: the settlement was only one hundred and fifty-three Origin Crystals.
Kaelen had never specified the amount, and the crowd had assumed I was demanding a fortune large enough to cripple the Pack. Now, those who had seen me as greedy saw me as a victim. For a mate of an Alpha of his standing, a settlement that small was an insult. A standard dissolution would have entitled me to half his wealth.
"Kaelen, you can have the defense system," I said, my gaze locked on his, each word a piece of ice. "All I want is what we agreed upon. One hundred and fifty-three Origin Crystals."
His face flushed with shame and rage. The pitying looks from the crowd made him feel like a despicable, honorless thief.
"I'm not refusing to pay you, Elara!" he argued loudly. "Once the lock on the mining rights revenue is lifted, you will have your money! Why must you push me like this?"
"Push you?" A cold, sharp laugh escaped my lips. I reached into my bag and pulled out a thick stack of documents I had prepared.
"This is a record of all withdrawals from your personal account for the past two years. In here, you will find receipts for over twenty pieces of enchanted jewelry purchased for Seraphina, totaling more than five thousand Moon-crystals. And you're telling me you can't afford one hundred and fifty-three Origin Crystals?"
Kaelen's face went white. Before he could stop me, I flung the documents into the crowd of reporters.
The papers contained not just detailed invoices, but high-resolution images of every piece of jewelry, each clearly marked with its price. The very necklace and earrings Seraphina was wearing today were among them, worth over a thousand Moon-crystals on their own.
Every eye in the room turned to her. The whispers started, pointed and cruel.
Seraphina's face drained of color. Her hands flew to her throat and ears, fumbling to unclasp the jewelry. She had deliberately worn Kaelen's most expensive gifts today, a calculated display of her status meant to humiliate me.
Now, they felt like brands of shame, searing her skin.
"Lady Seraphina, are these documents accurate? Did Alpha Kaelen truly gift you so many expensive pieces?"
"Are the necklace and earrings you're wearing today also from him?"
"Is there a special meaning behind these gifts?"
The reporters closest to her swarmed, their amplification crystals thrust toward her face.
Trapped in the glare of their lenses, Seraphina could only stammer, "They… they were just gifts between allies. They hold no special meaning."
"Allies…" Ethan's voice was a low, lazy drawl. "What a generous ally Kaelen is. He can't spare one hundred and fifty-three Origin Crystals for his mate, but he can spare five thousand Moon-crystals for his 'ally.'"
Seraphina's face went from white to a burning red. She opened her mouth to argue, but no words came out.
Another reporter turned on Kaelen. "Alpha Kaelen, were any of these funds from Pack investors? You stated earlier that all your personal assets were invested in the Pack. Was that a lie?"
Kaelen's face was a thundercloud. "Those funds have nothing to do with the Pack! And I have never used a single investor's crystal for personal expenses!" He had to deny it. An admission would mean financial ruin; no one would ever invest in his Pack again.
"Then why were you willing to spend five thousand Moon-crystals on Lady Seraphina, but not one hundred and fifty-three Origin Crystals on your mate's settlement?" the reporter pressed.
Kaelen was speechless.
It was Giselle who broke the silence. "Because Elara cheated on him! That's why my brother won't pay!"
The hall erupted.
"I have proof!" she shrieked. "And the man she cheated with… is him!"
Her finger shot out, pointing directly at Ethan.
The "proof" was a series of images showing Ethan and me on a balcony, drinking and eating grilled meat. They were from the night before I moved out, taken on Liana's balcony. But the images had been cleverly cropped, completely removing Liana from the frame. One photo was particularly damning: Ethan, drunk, was leaning against my shoulder, my arm wrapped around his waist to support him.
I narrowed my eyes. I had been helping him to his room.
"See? She cheated with this pretty boy! The fault is all hers!" Giselle announced triumphantly. "My brother is being generous by offering her the mining rights at all. If it were up to me, a woman like that would be thrown out with nothing!"
"That's bullshit! What cheating? I was there the whole time!" Liana roared.
"You'll say anything to protect her. Your lies are pathetic," Giselle sneered.
"It was my house, you idiot! If you're going to frame someone, at least use your brain! The three of us were drinking together, and Elara was just helping Ethan to his room! His uncle came to pick him up right after!" Liana was practically vibrating with rage.
"You're her friend, of course that's your story! You're just covering for them!" Giselle shot back.
Liana's eyes were blazing. She was about to lunge at Giselle when Ethan placed a calm hand on her arm, stopping her.
"Pretty boy?" A slow, dangerous smile spread across Ethan's face. "That's a new one." His dark, narrow eyes fixed on Giselle, his gaze as cold and empty as a winter sky. "I'm looking at you," he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper, "but all I see is a corpse."
A shiver of pure dread snaked down Giselle's spine. Those in the crowd who knew of the Little Tyrant of the North looked at her with pity. She had just poked a sleeping dragon. She was finished.
"Are you prepared to stand by your words?" Ethan asked, his voice deceptively soft.
"Of course I am! The images clearly show you and Elara together!" she insisted, her voice cracking slightly.
"Slander, in the Elder's Court, carries a maximum sentence of three years in the Blackrock Prison," Ethan said, his smile widening. It was not a pleasant sight. "The man who came to retrieve me was my uncle, Wesley. As the chief counsel of the Wolf Law Guild, I'm sure he'd be happy to testify that Liana was present the entire time. Or do you think a man of his stature would lie for me?"
Wesley. The most famous, most feared lawyer on the entire Crescent Continent. Giselle had learned of his name during her recent detention, had even dreamed of hiring him to get her and her mother acquitted. But he didn't take cases like hers.
"You have no proof. Just a few cropped images, and you dare to accuse someone of infidelity?" Ethan took a slow, deliberate step toward her, his height and presence completely overwhelming her. "Tell me. Do I look like the kind of male who settles for being a third party?"