3

The Elder's voice cut through the frozen air like a dull blade. "We now examine the first charge: defendant Aria misappropriated medical station funds left by her Alpha parents for personal luxury spending."

I heard suppressed murmurs from the gallery. Sophia coughed weakly in the plaintiff's section, and Kane immediately handed her a handkerchief, treating her like fragile crystal.

"Display the relevant memories," the Elder commanded.

Seven days after my parents' death.

Kane held our parents' will, his voice cold and detached. "According to their will, sixty percent of the inheritance goes to pack public affairs—medical station maintenance, territory repairs, and cub education funds. The remaining forty percent is split equally among the three of us."

I stared down at the document, my fingers trembling slightly. I was still drowning in grief over my parents' death.

Ryan suddenly spoke up. "Wait, what about Sophia's treatment costs?"

Kane frowned, as if just remembering. "The medical station funds can't be touched. That's pack common property."

"Then take it from Aria's share." Ryan said it like it was obvious, not even glancing my way.

I jerked my head up. "What?"

"You got the biggest portion, and you don't need it anyway." Ryan waved dismissively. "Sophia's silver poisoning can't wait. Are you going to let her die?"

"That's my inheritance!" I clenched my fists. "What my parents left me!"

Kane's expression turned ice cold. "Aria, don't forget how Sophia's parents died."

Those words hit me like a bucket of freezing water.

"They saved our lives. And you?" Ryan shot back. "You won't even spare a little money?"

I opened my mouth to argue—but I knew they wouldn't listen.

In the end, I signed the papers, watching helplessly as they took away the resources and property that should have been mine.

Months later, I snuck into the medical station's records room.

The numbers in the ledger made my fingertips go cold—funds meant for replacing silver toxin filters had all been converted into Sophia's specialty medication. Those pale gold liquids in crystal vials were worth a fortune each, while ordinary pack members couldn't even get basic painkillers.

"What are you doing?"

I spun around. Dr. Marcus, the pack's head healer, stood in the doorway, moonlight stretching his shadow long across the floor.

I instinctively closed the ledger, but it was too late.

He walked in silently, pulling another booklet from his coat and handing it to me. "This is the real ledger."

I opened it to find clear records of every misappropriated fund—Kane and Ryan's signatures prominently displayed.

"No one dares report them." The healer's voice was low. "You're their blood sister and former Alpha bloodline. Maybe..."

"I'll find a way." I cut him off, stuffing the ledger inside my coat.

I used my last three gold bars to contact the Northern Pack's Alpha, purchasing the missing medical supplies from him.

The "surveillance footage" Kane provided, showing me carrying luxury shopping bags into an "upscale neighborhood," was actually the Northern trading company's temporary warehouse. The luxury bags were just camouflage for transporting my gold bars.

The courtroom fell into dead silence.

On the projection screen, my encrypted ledger from years ago was clearly visible—every black market equipment purchase matched exactly with the medical station's missing supplies.

Pack members in the gallery looked at each other in confusion, their previous anger turning to shock and bewilderment.

Sophia's face changed color. She gripped her skirt hem tightly, her knuckles white.

Kane shot to his feet. "This is impossible! That money was clearly—"