Chapter 729 A disgrace to the Alpha title
Bella paused, her hand hovering in the air, trembling. She spoke truthfully, her voice carrying across the silent pack grounds. “That is true, Beta Kael.”
In a situation like this, the truth had to be spelled out. It wasn’t just about Cleopatra anymore.
It was about other innocent she-wolves, women who had suffered in silence, women who had been threatened into submission.
The weight of that responsibility pressed down on Bella’s shoulders, but she did not buckle. She stood tall.
For a moment, Kael felt something twist inside him. Pity. Was Cleopatra a victim in all this? Had she been shaped by horrors beyond her control? The thought lingered, uncomfortable and unwelcome. But he was a beta.
He had no right to summon and question an Alpha. That was a matter for the king. And the king handled it flawlessly.
“Alpha Corvine, can you…”
“On it,” Corvine responded without being told. He moved with purpose, his strides long and quick, disappearing into the guest quarters. Moments later, he returned, dragging Alpha Dean behind him.
The man stumbled, his feet catching on the ground, and Corvine threw him onto the floor with a force that echoed through the pack grounds.
The shame on Alpha Dean’s face was clear, but it lasted only a second. He rose to his feet, standing proudly, his chin lifted, not a single trace of regret on his features. Voren asked calmly, his voice steady as stone.
“Have you abused your daughter since she was fifteen?”
Alpha Dean was a middle-aged man. It was a shame for him to be embarrassed like this, to be dragged before the pack like a common criminal.
The noise had drawn middle-aged couples as well, including their Alphas and Lunas. Vladimir and Oriana stood beside Voren and Seraphine, their expressions cold and watchful.
Alpha Dean challenged Voren, his voice dripping with arrogance. “Alpha King, if you find out I am innocent, will you pay for the shame you have caused me?”
It was not only his pack members and beta watching. Other pack members, Alphas, and betas had gathered. Everyone was watching. Everyone was waiting.
For a moment, Voren doubted the claim. A flicker of uncertainty crossed its features, brief but visible. But after everything Damon had said, after the evidence laid before him, he held his ground.
“Alpha Dean, if you are innocent of all these charges, I shall compensate you for the embarrassment and have all videos of this moment destroyed.”
Dean smiled It was a slow, triumphant smile, the smile of a man who believed he had won. He rose to his feet, brushing dust from his clothes.
“Then you should all know that Cleo is not my daughter.”
“But you raised her,” Voren growled, his voice low and dangerous. “She called you father, and yet you had the shame to sleep with her. Are you not supposed to take pleasure from your wife alone?”
Alpha Dean showed no remorse. Not a flicker. Not a twitch. “We are not related by blood, so even if I raised her, it is my call to do as I please with her. If not for my wife, I would not have accepted her calling me father. It was just to please her. So I am not wrong in sleeping with her.” He looked around, searching for his wife. “So, what is my compensation?”
The mate bond had weakened between him and Cassandra. Now it was close to breaking, fraying at the edges like a rope stretched too thin.
Voren shook his head, disappointment and disgust clear on every line of his face. “Cleopatra is one of my beta’s mates. That should have been enough to stop you, even if you never got caught. Besides, you started it when she was fifteen. That is an offense under pack law.”
“King Voren, he sleeps with us all,” Bella cried, her gaze lowered, her voice trembling with years of swallowed pain. “He threatens to banish us if we ever speak of it. That is why I pleaded with Beta Kael to make me his pack member before revealing the affair to him.” She lifted her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Honestly, Cleo saved us all because since she turned twenty, he has only taken pleasure from her.”
The shock of the matter shook the very foundations of the Grimroot pack. Voren could not believe that something like this had been going on. It was already shocking enough that Alpha Dean had been sleeping with a girl he raised since she turned fifteen.
But now it wasn’t just her. It was another pack she-wolves. So what had Alpha Jaron been doing all this while? How had this gone unnoticed for so long?
The shock cast a thick layer of silence over the pack. Everyone stood frozen, processing the words of the young maid, the magnitude of the horror she had just revealed.
“You,” Alpha Dean raged, his face twisting with fury. He slapped Bella so hard that she lost consciousness, her body crumpling to the ground like a discarded doll.
Seraphine rushed to her side, dropping to her knees, her hands reaching for Bella’s face, checking for a pulse, for breath, for anything. Voren’s gaze darkened, his eyes turning to ice.
“Alpha Corvine…”
“I will do it,” Vladimir said before Voren could finish.
“I will help,” Humphrey added.
The two of them slapped Alpha Dean at the same time, their hands connecting with his face from both sides. The force of it sent him stumbling, his eyes rolling back, seeing stars. He crashed to the floor, his body heavy and useless.
“You are a shame to the Alpha title,” Vladimir raged.
He pulled Alpha Dean by the collar to his feet, hauling him up like a sack of grain. Humphrey kicked him in the stomach, a brutal, driving blow that folded the man in half. Alpha Dean coughed, blood spattering from his lips onto the ground.
“It is my pack’s affair. It has nothing to do with anyone.” Alpha Dean barked, still showing no sign of regret. “Where is my wife?”
“You have no right to speak, Alpha Dean,” Voren said coldly, his voice cutting through the air like a blade.
He looked at the gathered Alphas, at the Lunas, at the betas and pack members who had witnessed everything. His voice rang out, clear and commanding.
“All Alphas in favor of stripping Alpha Dean of his title, say yes.”