Scarlett’s POV
We all marched into the large, private office. The air was thick with pure, choking, angry tension.
Sir Lennox walked straight to the large desk. He didn’t sit, and he didn’t try to order them around. He knew his place—he was the former Alpha, but his sons were the reigning Alphas of this pack now. He couldn’t command them, but as a father, his heart was clearly breaking. He just glared at his three sons, his eyes heavy with worry.
"Explain," Sir Lennox said, his voice rough. "What happened out there?"
"Liam sold us out," Leo snapped immediately, his hands still clenched into tight fists. "The Shadow Pack had our exact movements, Dad. If we hadn’t flipped the script at the last second, the Full Moon vanguard would have been wiped out. The enemy knew everything."
"Because it was a perfect setup," Leonard added, his voice low, steady, and dead serious. "We only shared that final plan with one person. Liam. Then we captured a high-ranking warrior, and he named our brother as the source. It is too clean to be a coincidence."
"It’s a setup, alright, but I’m the one being set up!" Liam shouted, his face pale as he stepped forward. Blood was still tracking down his chin from his split lip. "Look at me. You guys know me. I would never sell out my pack. I would never try to kill my own blood! That warrior was lying to break us apart from the inside!"
Honestly, watching Liam break down like this was tearing me in half. He looked so genuinely hurt and confused. But when I looked at Leo and Leonard, covered in dirt and dried blood, I knew they weren’t lying either. They had almost died.
"Liam, where were you today?" Sir Lennox asked, stepping in before the brothers could tear each other apart. "Did you leave the packhouse at any point after your brothers marched?"
"No!" Liam argued, shaking his head. "I stayed here the entire time. I checked the perimeter guards, and then I spent the rest of the day right here. Ask the sentries! Ask Scarlett!"
"He was with me," I spoke up, my voice loud and clear as I stepped closer to Liam. I had to defend him. "We trained on the field, and then he left for a bit to check the security. He never left the packhouse grounds."
Leo let out a harsh, mocking laugh that cut right through me. "Oh, how sweet. His mate protecting him. Scar, he didn’t need to leave the grounds to send a message! All he needed was a rogue messenger, a hidden phone, or a mind-link connection to someone on the outside. He stayed here to build a perfect alibi while we got slaughtered!"
"Leo, stop it!" I yelled, my anger flaring. "Liam loves you guys! Why would he ever do something so horrible?"
"Because of you, Scarlett!" Leo roared, turning his fierce, sea-blue eyes onto me. "He didn’t want to share you anymore! He wanted us dead so he could be your only Alpha!"
The room went completely quiet. The accusation hung in the air like a heavy weight.
Sir Lennox looked at his three sons, seeing the dangerous, dark Alpha auras flaring around each of them. He knew he couldn’t force them to do anything, but he couldn’t let them destroy the pack either.
Sir Lennox rubbed his face, looking older than ever. "Boys, stop this. A house divided cannot stand. You are the Alphas of this pack, but right now, you are acting like enemies. You guys need to fix this. We cannot run a pack when the three leaders are ready to kill each other."
Liam looked at Leo, then at Leonard, but both of them crossed their arms and refused to look him in the eye. The trust between them was completely shattered.
Finally, Liam’s gaze landed on me, filled with a deep, silent agony. "I need some air," he muttered, his voice thick with heartbreak. Without another word, he turned on his heel and stormed out of the office, slamming the heavy door behind him.
I stood there, my hands shaking. I looked at Leo and Leonard, who looked completely drained and angry, and then at the closed door through which Liam had just left. The bond inside me was screaming, pulled in two different directions by the men I loved.
Sir Lennox walked out of the office, his heavy steps fading down the long hallway. The door closed softly behind him, leaving just the three of us in the room.
The air felt like a tight wire ready to snap. Leo and Leonard stood side by side, covered in dirt and the metallic smell of blood, their faces hard and cold. They looked like two strangers, not the sweet, loving mates who had held me so close just last night.
Instead of backing down or crying, I took a deep breath and stood my ground. A spark of hot fire flared up in my chest. I wasn’t that weak girl anymore, and I wasn’t going to let them tear this family apart.
I stepped right up to them, looking between Leo’s sea-blue eyes and Leonard’s dark brown ones.
"Are you guys completely crazy?" I snapped, my voice loud and fierce. "Listen to yourselves! You are accusing Liam—your own brother, your own blood—of trying to murder you. Think about it!"
"The evidence doesn’t lie, Scar," Leonard said, his voice flat and dead. "Only Liam knew the new plan. And the enemy warrior named him."
"I don’t care what some lying enemy warrior said!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air. "Seriously, use your brains! We are a triad. We are fated mates. Our souls are literally glued together by the Moon Goddess. Do you honestly believe the bond would allow Liam to do something so horrible? If you had died out there, the bond would have broken, and it would have killed him too! Liam loves you guys!"
"Then how did they get the plan, Scarlett?!" Leo suddenly roared, taking a massive step toward me. His Alpha energy flared so hard it made the papers on the desk shake. "How? He stayed behind. He had the perfect chance. Maybe he didn’t want us to die; maybe he just wanted us captured or out of the way. But he did it. The facts are right in front of our faces!"
As Leo yelled, a sharp, stabbing pain suddenly sliced through my chest.
I gasped, stumbling backward and clutching my heart. My wolf let out a loud, agonizing scream inside my head. It felt like a hot iron was being dragged across my soul.
Leo and Leonard winced at the exact same time, both of them gripping their chests as their faces turned pale.
We all could feel the pain of Liam. The beautiful, warm connection that linked the four of us together was twisting and breaking under the weight of their hatred. It felt like our souls were tearing away from each other, leaving a cold, bleeding hole behind.
Leo looked down at his shaking hands, then looked up at me, his eyes full of a scary, stubborn anger. The pain of the cracking bond didn’t make him back down. It just made him angrier.
"It doesn’t change anything," Leo hissed, his jaw clenching tightly. "Until Liam is completely proven innocent, we will continue seeing him as a traitor. We have to protect the pack first, even if it breaks us."
Leonard nodded slowly, his face like stone, though I could see the pain dancing in his eyes. "He is dead to us until we find out the truth, Scar. We won’t share a table with him, we won’t fight beside him, and we sure as hell won’t let him touch you."
I stared at them, my heart breaking into a million pieces. They were completely blinded by their rage, and whoever had set Liam up was currently winning.