𝙴𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜𝚎𝚍

Chapter Seven

Father swirled his whisky around in his glass before he took a sip, and the Alpha did the same.

"Is this a local Whiskey? Or did you purchase it from another pack?" Alpha Randel sniffed the brown liquid. "It tastes like it's at least seventy years old."

"Indeed. You have a keen sense of taste." Father grinned, "It is seventy-eight-year-old Whiskey from Old Crecendea."

Alpha Randel's eyes grew wide at the mention of the name Crecendea, a pack town or city that I had never heard of before. "I did not know that any of their high-quality liquor, or anything they produced really, had survived the decimation that befell that entire pack, what eighteen years ago now?"

"Several barrels were recovered by the king." There was a twinkle in his eye, as if father had intentionally set all of this up to remind the Alpha that he had friends in the highest of places. Though, how high even I was not sure.

The Alpha's face soured at the subtle mention of father's connections. "As you know," He completely changed the topic of the conversation making me wonder if father had made a mistake, "What your daughter has done, regardless of her age, is far too grievous of an act to go unpunished."

The entire mood in the room shifted, the friendly attitude that had started to take hold of the both of them had disappeared. The seriousness that flooded the room was nearly suffocating.

"I understand." Father admitted, "If one breaks the law, they must pay the price. If not, more will start to step out of line due to perceived weakness."

Alpha Randel grinned at father's compliance, "I am glad that you-"

"However." Father cut him off, "My daughter was protecting her sister after she was wrongfully assaulted."

"Wrongfully?" Alison spat, eyes glowing in a pale green, making the hair on the back of my neck stand. "That filthy mutt had the audacity to strike me."

All three of us looked at her in confusion. I was completely dumbfounded by her accusation so much so that my mouth had almost fallen open out of shock. There was no possible way that she could have misunderstood the situation at the time, I had even apologized for accidentally bumping into her, so where she got that I had hit her was completely beyond me.

"And where exactly did she strike you?" Father asked politely, trying not to outright call the Alpha's daughter a liar in front of the man himself.

"Here." She pointed to a small little circular discolored splotch on her collar bone, while a faint crooked grin crept onto her smug face.

Father leaned in to inspect it, then clenched his jaw in frustration while he glanced over at me. I tried to get a better look at the spot without anyone noticing, when I recognized what it had been instantly.

A mark left from a lover's mouth.

She had used a love bite, from who only the Goddess knows, to back her outrageous narrative. It took everything in me not to scream in outrage, to call her a liar right where she stood and, frankly, a bitch too. But oddly enough, I also wanted to burst into laughter from how overly dramatic everything had become.

"Correct me if I am wrong, Alpha, but is that not a mark that can only be left by suction, not force?" Both Luci and I almost lost our composure, she forced air out of her nose in shock and I looked down at the ground with wide eyes and gritted teeth to keep from laughing. "And even if it was a bruise, I doubt a strong wolf such as your daughter would have allowed a mutt, as you call them, to land a hit hard enough to leave a mark."

Alison looked shocked at my father's retort. As if she expected everyone not to know the difference between an actual bruise and something left in the heat of passion.