The Wolf Bloodline DNA Report flew through the air, grazing my cheek beforending at my feet. A thin line of blood trickled down my chin, but I remained motionless.
My amber eyes stayed fixed on Olivia, her emerald gaze challenging me to deny the truthid bare before the entire pack. The sacred space of the Stone Ancestral Hall had fallenpletely silent.
My wolf, usually so quick to react, remained eerily still within me. The clinical words on the report were unmistakable: "Blood type ipatibility confirmed. Subject A cannot be the biological father of Subject B."
Emma was not my daughter.
Olivia stood before me, her white dress making her look like an avenging spirit. I couldn''t tell if she was waiting for my anger at Victoria''s deception or my continued defense of the she-wolf who had manipted me for years.
"Well?" Olivia''s voice cut through the silence. "Do you have nothing to say?"
I remained silent, the weight of seven years of deception pressing down on me like a physical
force.
Victoria clutched Emma to her side, her scent shifting rapidly between fear and calction.
Her eyes darted between me and my father, searching for an ally.
My father''s growl broke the tense silence.
"You!" Elder Richard Stone pointed a trembling finger at Victoria. "You dared to present another
man''s offspring as a Stone?"
His wolf''s rage manifested in the low, threatening sound that reverberated through the
ancestral hall. The pack elders shifted ufortably, their own wolves responding to the
dominant Alpha''s anger.
"Elder Stone, please," Victoria''s voice took on the pleading tone I''d heard so many times
before. "There must be some mistake with the test-"
"Silence!" My father roared, his partial shift causing his ws to extend. "You and that... that
< Chapter 81: Blood Truth
imposter will leave this sacred space immediately!"
+8 Points >
He strode forward and grabbed Emma roughly by the arm, pulling her away from Victoria. His ws dug into her small arm, drawing tiny beads of blood.
Emma cried out in pain, her young wolf whining pitifully. "You''re hurting me!" Victoria rushed forward. "Don''t touch my daughter!"
She pulled Emma into her arms, cradling her protectively. Her scent shifted to distress – a calcted move that didn''t escape my notice or that of the pack elders.
"Ethan," she pleaded, her eyes wide with manufactured fear. "Don''t let them hurt our little girl."
Despite knowing the truth now, my Alpha instincts responded to a pup in distress. I moved forward to protect Emma, regardless of bloodline.
Before I could reach them, Olivia physically blocked my path. Her emerald eyes shed with the pain of her wolf as she shoved the DNA report in my face.
"Are you serious?" she hissed, her voice trembling with rage. "You would still choose them? After everything?"
Her scent was thick with grief and fury. "You denied our daughter - your true daughter - the
attention she desperately needed during her illness. You refused to believe she was dead. And
now you''ll protect another man''s child who was falsely presented as yours?"
Bernard Sheppard cleared his throat ufortably. "Perhaps we should continue this discussion in private-"
"No!" Olivia''s voice rang out. "Let everyone hear the truth. Let them all know how the great
Alpha King Ethan Stone abandoned his dying daughter for another man''s child!"
Emma began to sob, her small body shaking with the force of her tears. Victoria whispered
something in her ear, and the child looked up at me with wide, tearful eyes.
"Daddy," Emma whimpered, her young wolf whining pitifully. "Do you not love me anymore?"
The practiced delivery didn''t escape Olivia''s notice. Her face contorted with pain as she recognized the maniption that mirrored what her own daughter had faced.
"Don''t you dare," Olivia whispered, her voice breaking. "Don''t you dare use that child to manipte him the way you''ve always done."
I looked down at the DNA report in my hands, the clinical evidence of Victoria''s deception.
Then I looked at Emma''s tearful face the child I had raised as my own for seven years.
< Chapter 81: Blood Truth