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She raised her eyes to meet Ronan’s.

“Congratulations, Alpha Ronan. You have truly worked hard to make me out to be the villain.”

“Madam Lucrethia Woodland, what do you say about Alpha Kieran’s testimony just now?”

The elderly laughed.

“I don’t even know that girl by name, let alone that she was part of another pack. All I knew was that she found a job in my household. We were very generous to her, but she had the audacity to steal a precious belonging of mine.

When confronted, she tried to kill me. Naturally, I had no other choice but to kill her in self-defense. Now do tell me, Mr. Gravecrown, is that wrong?”

Gregor parted his lips in amazement.

“No, of course not...”

.....

“Pray tell, what is this precious belonging of yours that Shayla stole?” Elder Aaron asked.

Lucrethia turned to look at him and flashed him the sweetest smile.

“A belt with an emblem that is engraved with the sigil of the Silverback family.”

Both Ronan’s and Kinnon’s faces darkened in an instant.

Lucrethia had twisted the story so much that she now became a robbery victim instead, pushing the blame onto Shayla and Gavin entirely.

“This can’t be,” Elder Jonas gasped. “That belt was found within Gavin Ashmore’s belongings. He carried it with him when he attacked little Ralph.”

“There you go,” Lucrethia said victoriously. “Just what I said just now.”

Amused, Dane Silverback smiled at Lucrethia.

“Madam, do you know something that never ceases to amaze me?

People, who spoke in this case, have had glaring loopholes or their testimonies carried an ulterior motive. What about you?”

“What glaring loopholes and or ulterior motives can you detect from my so-called story, Dane Silverback?” Lucrethia returned the smile. “I would love to hear them.

“Well, for example, the fact that a young woman from another pack could easily become one of your maids and she just had to steal something with a Silverback sigil on it instead.”

Lucrethia shrugged.

“I reckon that she planned to avenge his lover all along by adding oil to the fire. Young people tend to be hot-headed and rash enough to do that.”

“I see, I see. It still doesn’t explain how she found employment at your estate so easily.”

“What can I tell you, Dane Silverback? Why don’t you ask our then Beta Kieran here? Or our Gamma? They are responsible to keep outsiders out and do any background screening to prevent intruders from coming in. Or am I supposed to do that myself?”

Kieran gritted his teeth in fury.

“I already said that she was received by the Alpha.”

Lucrethia gave Kieran a puzzled look. “Interesting, so just because Conrad was foolish enough to pick a stray kitten from the street, you then thought that you didn’t need to do any background check?”

The new Alpha swallowed hard. The jut at his throat bobbed up and down nervously as he received the harsh scolding.

“I...”

A smirk spread across the elderly’s face. She cocked her head to the side and spoke in a tone that dripped with poison, “Not very confident anymore, are you ‘Alpha’ Kieran?”

“I...”

Dane Silverback scoffed.

“Can you describe this precious belonging of yours, Madam? How does it look like?”

“It is made of buffalo hide, black in color. The emblem with the sigil serves as the buckle.”

“And it has been in your possession for quite some time already, right?”

“Oh yes. Your late grandmother gave it to me as a token of affection.”

“Mhm. Oh, the bad habit that old people used to have, distributing pack items with emblems to people who they like without much afterthought.”

The corners of Lucrethia’s lips were pulled into a sneer.

“Why, one might mistake you for criticizing your ancestors, Dane. That is unbecoming of someone in your position.”

“Well, isn’t that utterly reckless, though? I mean, it is exactly this kind of gift that may land the generous packs in trouble. A very special gift that ends up being a knife in the back. It can be ‘stolen’ so easily and used to frame the original pack.”

At the end of Dane’s sentence, Elder Aaron had to interject.

“Excuse me, Mr. Dane, but what you said was inaccurate.”

His response drew a quizzical expression on Dane’s face.

“Oh? How is it inaccurate?”

“Just like every other ancient werewolf family in the community, the elder generations of the Silverback family believed in the notion of ‘Heartmates’, denoting people who do not share the same bloodline but are so close and dear that they might as well be family.

They gave these ‘Heartmates’ a gift to consider them a part of their family. These gifts were not handed over casually. They were typically locked inside a special enchanted box that the High Seer personally designed.”

“Heartmates” was an outdated expression that was no longer used among the werewolves.

As the number of items that bore family sigils became less and less with the passing time, such traditional gifts too were no longer exchanged between packs.

It thus did not surprise anyone that the newer generation had no idea about this special enchanted box that Elder Aaron was talking about.

“What special enchanted box?” Annalynne asked dumbly.

Elder Aaron continued with his explanation.

“Commonly known as ‘Trust Box’, each box is hand-made for every occasion and is debossed with the sigil of the family that requests it.

After the box is finished, the High Seer will personally put her spell on it, thus the enchantment.

A Trust Box is meant to be locked forever after a select gift is laid inside.

This symbolizes the sincere wish of the person that bestows the gift to maintain an affectionate relationship with the person who receives the gift.

For as long as the good relationship lasts, the gift will stay with the family of the werewolf who received it and then be passed to the next generations.

The box will only be opened when the involved werewolves or their descendants wish to end the good relationship.

It will only open once to the corresponding family sigil.

The family will take the gift back, and the locking mechanism box is then destroyed forever, just like the ties between the two parties.”