Suspicious

ELARA

"Let him file his report," Ronan said, his voice flat as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. "The council can't force her to go back to a husband who is cheating on her."

"You don't understand, Ronan," Louis said, standing up from his knees and running a hand through his hair. "Damian has already talked to three elders on the regional board. He told them Elara suffers from severe wolf mental decay, and that she ran away in a state of confusion. If he presents it as a medical emergency, the council will give him authority to take her back by force."

My stomach dropped, and I sat up straight on the couch despite the wave of dizziness hitting me again. 

"He can't do that, Louis. I'm not confused. I know what I saw in his office."

"I know that, Elara," Louis said softly, turning to look down at me with worried eyes. "I believe you. But the council looks at facts on paper, and on paper, Damian has been your primary caregiver for three years. Every medical document signed by Dr. Vance says your wolf is failing."

"Because Damian made sure those documents said that," Kieran spoke up, stepping forward from the hallway entrance.

Everyone in the room turned to look at Kieran. He walked over to the coffee table and set a black folder down on the glass top.

"What is that?" Jace asked, leaning over the back of the couch to look at the papers inside the folder.

"I spent the last two hours calling my contacts in Eldermere," Kieran said, opening the folder to reveal several printed medical charts. "Dr. Vance didn't just retire two years ago. He was quietly stripped of his medical license by the central wolf board for handing out illegal prescription drugs to pack leaders."

Louis frowned, looking down at the charts. "Are you saying Vance was lying about Elara's condition?"

"I'm saying Vance was never writing real prescriptions for her," Kieran said, looking directly at me. "Elara, you said Damian gave you two small white pills every night, right?"

"Yes," I said, my heart beating fast. "Every single night before bed. He always brought them with a glass of water."

"Did you ever see the original bottle from the pharmacy?" Kieran asked. "Did it have your name printed on the label?"

I paused, searching my memory. Every night, Damian brought the pills already pulled out of the bottle, sitting on a small paper towel or next to a glass on the counter. Whenever I asked to see the bottle, he told me he kept it locked in his office safe so I wouldn't accidentally take a double dose when my head felt cloudy.

"No," I whispered, the realization hitting me. "I never saw the bottle."

"Kieran, where are you going with this?" Ronan asked, his gray eyes narrowing as he looked at his brother.

"I sent a picture of the pill description Elara gave me to a physician I trust at the Ashen Peaks facility," Kieran explained, pointing to a line of text at the bottom of a page. "A naturally weak wolf experiences random energy drops, but it heals normally when the body rests. Elara's body hasn't healed in five years. Her wolf isn't naturally weak, Louis. Someone has been intentionally giving her a wolf-suppressant."

The room went completely dead silent.

I stared at Kieran, my mind going totally blank for a second. "A... a wolf-suppressant? You mean poison?"

"It's a low-dose compound made from silver-root," Kieran said, his voice dropping low. "Taken once, it just makes a wolf tired for a few hours. Taken every single night for years, it slowly shuts down the wolf's connection to the body, making the person feel completely exhausted, weak, and entirely dependent on whoever is around them."

Louis let out a terrifying growl from deep inside his chest, his eyes flashing bright amber as his hands curled into tight, trembling fists. "He was poisoning my sister?"

"Damian was poisoning me?" I repeated, my voice shaking so hard I could barely get the words out.

I looked down at my hands, my chest twisting with a deep, suffocating pain. 

For five years, I thought I was defective. I thought I was useless to my family, useless to my husband, and unable to live like a real wolf. I let Damian treat me like a fragile glass doll because he convinced me I couldn't survive on my own.

And the entire time, he was the one putting the poison in my body.

"That bastard," Jace said, his voice unusually quiet, but filled with a dark, violent rage. He turned toward the door. "I'm going to the club right now. I'm going to beat him until he can't walk."

"Sit down, Jace!" Ronan commanded.

Jace stopped in his tracks, glaring back at his brother with pure anger in his eyes. 

"He poisoned her, Ronan! For years! And now he wants to take her back so he can keep doing it!"

"If you go over there and beat him up, the council will arrest you for attacking an Alpha without cause," Ronan said, his face completely cold and rigid, though his jaw was clamped so tight a muscle twitched in his cheek. "Damian is waiting for us to make a reckless move. He wants us to act like criminals so he can look like the victim."

"Then what do we do?" Louis demanded, turning to Ronan. "We can't just sit here and wait for the council to show up at your gates!"

"We prove the poisoning," Kieran said calmly, tapping the folder on the table. "If we get a clean blood test from an independent doctor showing silver-root in her system, Damian loses all legal rights over her immediately. The council won't just deny his custody, they will strip him of his Alpha title and arrest him."

"How long does a blood test take?" I asked, looking up at Kieran with tears blurring my eyes.

"We have to drive to a private clinic in Eldermere," Kieran answered. "It will take six hours to run."

Before anyone could say another word, my phone rang loudly from my jacket pocket.

The sound made everyone in the room freeze. I pulled the phone out with trembling fingers and looked at the screen.

It was Brielle.

I swallowed hard, looking up at Louis and the triplets. "It's my cousin."

"Put it on speaker," Ronan ordered softly, stepping right up to the side of the couch.

I swiped the screen and pressed the speaker button, holding the phone out on my lap. "Hello, Brielle."

"Elara?" Brielle's panicked voice came through the speaker, accompanied by the rushing traffic in the background. "Elara, are you with Louis? You need to leave Blackridge right now."

I frowned, looking at Ronan. "Why are you calling me, Brielle? After what I saw you doing with my husband last night?"

"I don't care what you think about me right now, Elara!" Brielle yelled over the phone, sounding genuinely terrified. "Damian knows you're at the Blackwood compound! He didn't just call the council, Elara. He hired a group of rogue enforcers from the lower mountain pack, and they are on their way to the compound right now to pull you out before Louis can get you away!”