Virgin Sacrifice to the Last Lycan - Chapter 35: Chapter 35

Helen POV
We ran through the village in the dead of night.
The moon was a fingernail of a sliver, thrown into the stars above without a care of our actions. I had to cover my lingering heat in the heavy perfumes littered in the bathroom closet, my scent terrible now and even more of a headache for Justin, his powers more acutely tuned than most and overwhelmed by the smells stuck to his mate’s body.
He held my hand and pressed me close to his body all the same, dodging through the estate until we could rush back to the court.
“In here,” he rattled, opening a back room full of file boxes and mounds of manila envelopes sealed as evidence to crimes that happened ages ago. He shut the door behind me, pointing to a desk on the far wall. “That box there.”
It read in clear, bold font, Lycan Mate Case.
I turned my nose up at the causal way they seemed to label my status. I was his mate, sure, but I had a name and my fur was finally acceptable in their minds. Yet still, the only way to degrade me was to forget my name, forget my newfound strength, and keep me as a simple Lycan mate.
Justin focused little on the box label and went straight for the files inside of it. He pulled out stacks of medical documents and legal claims I had trouble wrapping my head around.
“White tuff of hair, unidentifiable,” he read aloud, holding a crime scene investigative report to the light. “Considerable amount of blood in the grass, traceable in the soil samples collected as well. All blood connected to that of Helen in Fiery Cross pack.”
“What? How could that be?” I gasped, pulling for the photos of the blood that did indeed cover the grass and the tree nearby.
It was everywhere, an unfathomable amount. I would notice that much blood lost from my wolf, and yet, they claimed it was all mine. I grabbed another photo, a body laid under a sheet siting on top of the same blood stains in the grass. Do to the shape, I could morbidly assume it was Donna’s remains.
“How is it possible that you would have left so much blood behind at the scene and yet hers was not picked up from the same samples?” Justin pondered to himself. “Doesn’t make any sense, little wolf.”
I swallow hard, feeling the phantom pang of pain from when Donna’s pack had attacked me in a ruse to take me to the King Alpha. He snapped my leg in a spot similar to this one—if not, exactly like it.
“That’s because she wasn’t killed there,” I barked. “She was placed there because my blood was spilled in that spot days prior.”
His eyes widened at the photos, connecting the dots as I had.
“They used the incident with the attack on your leg as a scene to create evidence that you have killed Donna,” Justin breathed. “It was a pathetic framing attempt.”
“That means whoever did it, knew of the attack on me,” I said. “They would have to know because how else would they just stumble on my blood in the woods?”
“We never told anyone who was at fault for the attack.”
“Didn’t seem useful to do so, with the fight between my sister and I happening the next day,” I admitted. Thinking of Diana, my fingers instantly held my necklace in response. “She isn’t satisfied with just having my first mate. She wants to take everything from me.”
“Perhaps even your innocents in this crime.”
I nod along to Justin’s claim. “But she looked terrible in court. She would have had to be in the hospital still from our duel when this happened to Donna.”
“So we need to know who was capable of killing Donna, setting her up in the woods where you were attacked, and doing all of this when you were preoccupied with the fight against Diana?”
I shook all over, overwhelmed.
“That could be anyone,” I groaned.
“It could be anyone,” he repeated, “Or it could be someone obvious. Someone who didn’t act in proper function when you beat your sister in a fight.”
“What are you talking about, Justin?”
He set the papers aside, his inquisitive smile threatening another wave of heat to flow over my system.
[Joy, please tone it down]
My wolf whimpered, turning her back on our mate as to not feel too overwhelmed in his charisma. [hurry this up, I’m still on edge]
I laughed at the brief distraction in my head.
“Let’s say you were to lose that fight,” he said pitifully. “What would be the first thing you expect to happen when the fight was over.”
I shrugged, hoping I’d never have to experience anything like that at the hands of my wicked sister. “I guess I would look around for you. You’re my mate, I would think you’d come rushing to my aid.”
“Exactly!” he burned. “And when you left your sister in the arena, who came up to her side?”
I swallowed hard at the memory. “No—no one!”
“Your wannabe Alpha of a first mate wasn’t anywhere to be seen.”
I shook my head, hopeful, though still dunked in reality. “He could have held back and been ashamed. He wouldn’t have liked everyone watch him fuss over my sister in defeat. It would make him look stupid and like he picked the wrong sister.”
Justin looked wildly at the case of files at our fingertips. “Or, because of that fight, he realized he did choose the weaker sister and he needed to disparage your name to make it look like he didn’t mate with you because you’re a monster. A murderer.”
I felt achingly like his words rung with truth.
“It does sound low enough for his standards to go.”
“We have to tell the Alpha King,” he said, unwavering in his plan. “With the grass and your blood, it could be enough for him to look into this ordeal at a different angle.”
My stomach dropped with that idea. “What if he gets mad and rejects to hear our plea? He could attack us both for leaving the estate and coming out here. I don’t want you getting hurt again by his methods.”
“I’m willing to take that risk for you,” he breathed.
We met in a kiss, our lips fighting for one another to stay put but we had to push onward. We raced through the morning dawn to the Alpha King’s quarters, a hoard of guards waiting in the hallway, displeased with the sight of us.
“We’re going to need to see my father,” Justin snarled, holding up the file in his hand. “Anyone who tries to stop us will be killed.”
I winced at that threat. I didn’t want to accumulate more death in the path to clear my name as a murderer.
Justin made it clear he had no limits to how far he would go in an effort to shut this conspiracy down. He charged through the guards without hint of stopping, nor did any of them try. He burst through the wood door and sent splinters flying in recourse.
The Alpha King looked down at us from behind his desk with an expectant look, as though he knew we were coming for him and his slanderous charges against me.
He eyed the file in Justin’s grasp carefully.
“Come to discuss legalities, dear boy?”
“More like falsities,” Justin fired back, “something tells me you were waiting for this conversation to happen.”
The Alpha king settled back into his chair and motioned for us to do the same behind his desk. “I have certain measures I have to take for my peers who worry over your condition.” I subdued a chill at his reference to Justin being a Lycan as nothing more than a condition.
He bore holes through me with his gaze.
“Tell me then, what do you think you know, and I’ll tell you how we will solve this.”
Justin gave me a glancing look of pride, one that reminded me of our conversation before court. It’s all a performance, as he had implied, and it was clear to me now that he had been right.
It’s for the Alpha King’s peers.
None of it was in the effort for truth.