Edith's eyes reddened on cue. "Dear pack-sister, you don't actually think I'm the one who withheld your allowance, do you?"
"I'll send someone to investigate at once. Whichever wretched servant intercepted that money and pocketed it will answer for it."
She hurried off with her attendant in tow. Half an hour later, she returned and had a scrawny young she-wolf dragged before me, bound and trembling.
"Pack-sister, it was this worthless wretch all along! She stole every coin the Alpha sent you, moon cycle after moon cycle, to pay for her mother's healing. I'll have her beaten to death right here. Consider it justice served!"
"That won't be necessary."
My voice was ice. Even I wasn't foolish enough to miss it. The girl was skin and bone, a scapegoat shoved forward to take the fall. Her scent was thin with hunger and terror, nothing like someone who'd been skimming gold moons for years.
I turned to carry my daughter toward the banquet hall, but behind me, Edith flicked a glance at her children.
In the next instant, her son and daughter charged at us, stones already in their fists, hurling them straight at my head.
"You evil woman! You're trying to steal our daddy! In your dreams!"
"Beat her dead! Don't you dare bully our mommy or take our daddy away!"
Stone after stone flew at us. I twisted to shield Hildegarde, but one rock caught her square on the forehead. Blood poured down instantly.
Hildegarde wailed, her small body shaking with sobs. The two brats grinned at the sight and scooped up more stones, throwing harder.
I turned and fixed them with a stare cold enough to freeze marrow. "Do you want to die?"
Something in my voice must have carried the weight of the Silvercrest bloodline, because both children flinched as if struck. They scrambled behind Finn, clutching his collar and whimpering.
"Daddy, that woman said she's going to kill us!"
Finn dropped to his knees at once, pulling them close, murmuring comfort. When he finally looked up at me, his brows were knotted with fury.
"Narelle, are you done making a scene?"
"Since the moment you set foot in this den, you've turned the whole pack upside down. Take your daughter and get out of here!"
Hildegarde's forehead was split open. Blood ran down past her eye, tracing a thin red line along her cheek. Finn didn't spare her a single glance.
He only had arms for the two children in Edith's brood.