Sold to Bastard Alpha after My Divorce!-Chapter 176

Kael’s POV

My legal team had worked through the night. Every statement. Every photo. Every neighbor’s testimony. All of it compiled into a case file so airtight that even the best lawyer money could buy wouldn’t punch a hole through it.

I stood in the war room of Blood Crown Industries and looked at the arrest orders sitting on the table in front of me.

Finn Nightfang. Child abuse. Child neglect. Child endangerment.

Celestia Thornwood. Same charges.

Damon leaned against the doorframe. Arms crossed. That serious expression he only wore when he understood exactly how bad something was.

"Get the enforcers ready." I grabbed the warrants. Folded them. Slid them into my jacket pocket. "We move in an hour."

---

Finding Finn was easier than I expected.

He was home. In that pathetic apartment that Lilith had described. The one three floors up with no working elevator and bars on the windows.

The two enforcers I’d brought with me didn’t knock.

They kicked the door open.

Finn was on the couch. Half asleep. A beer bottle in one hand. He lurched upright when the door crashed inward. His amber eyes wild and confused.

"What the—"

"Finn Nightfang." I stepped through the door. Let the silence do its work. "You’re under arrest."

He scrambled to his feet. Beer bottle clattering to the floor.

"Kael Blood Crown." His voice cracked. Tried to recover. Tried to find that old arrogance. "You can’t just barge into my—"

"I can." I held up the warrant. "And I just did."

He stared at the paper. His face going pale as he read the charges.

Child abuse. Child neglect. Child endangerment.

"This is insane." His voice pitched higher. Desperate. "I never—I didn’t—she’s exaggerating! Kids always exaggerate! You can’t believe a child over—"

"Which child?" I asked calmly. "Because I have testimony from her teacher. Her neighbors. Multiple witnesses. And photographs of her bruises." I paused. Let that sink in. "Photographs that don’t lie."

Finn’s mouth snapped shut.

He looked at the enforcers. Looked at the door. Calculating.

"Don’t." I said it quietly. Pleasantly.

He didn’t.

Celestia was found twenty minutes later in the parking lot of a discount salon. Still wearing the cheap dress from yesterday. Still trying to hold herself together with habits from a life she no longer had.

She screamed when the enforcers put her in restraints. Cursed. Called them names that would have impressed even the roughest pack members.

None of it made any difference.

---

The Pack Tribunal assembled within the hour.

Blood Crown Pack didn’t use human courts. We had our own. The old stone chamber at the heart of the territory. High ceilings. Cold walls. Rows of benches filled with pack members who had answered the Alpha’s summons.

And they had come.

All of them.

Every elder. Every senior pack member. Warriors and betas and ordinary wolves who had heard the word spread through the territory like wildfire.

*The Alpha calls a tribunal.*

*Two are charged with harming a child.*

The benches were packed. Standing room only at the back. Whispers bouncing off stone walls and creating a low, constant hum of sound.

I stood at the front. Behind the Alpha’s seat. Waiting.

Two guards brought Finn and Celestia in through the side door.

The whispers turned sharp the moment the crowd saw them.

Finn looked terrible. Like he’d aged ten years overnight. That sharp-faced arrogance completely gone. In its place, a man who knew he was cornered. Who’d run out of money and connections and excuses.

Celestia kept her chin up. Kept that brittle smile. But her hands were shaking. I could see it from here.

They were pushed into the defendant’s seats. Stone chairs facing the bench. Facing the packed room. Facing me.

Finn’s eyes found mine immediately. Something ugly flickering in those amber depths.

I stared back. Gave him nothing.

I sat.

The room went quiet.

"This tribunal is called to address charges of child abuse, child neglect, and child endangerment." My voice carried through the chamber without effort. "Finn Nightfang and Celestia Thornwood stand accused. Evidence has been presented to this court. Witnesses will be heard."

I paused.

"Then judgment will be rendered."

The pack elder Judge Orion sat at my right. Ancient. Weathered. The kind of man who had heard a thousand cases and let nothing shake him.

He nodded. "We will hear the evidence first. Then the witnesses."

Damon stepped forward. Laid the folder on the judge’s table. Photographs. Written statements. Testimony transcripts. All of it.

Judge Orion reviewed it without speaking. Page by page. His expression never changing.

When he finished, he set the folder down.

"We will hear from the witnesses." His voice was dry. Precise. "First witness. Please approach."

The side door opened.

And Aria walked in.

---

She looked beautiful.

That sounds like the wrong thing to think in the middle of a tribunal. But it was true.

She wore something simple. Dark. Professional. Her silver-gray eyes were steady. Her chin was up. Her hands weren’t shaking.

She had Lilith on one side and Lina on the other.

Lina walked with her usual confidence. Small shoulders back. Those black-gold eyes taking in the crowded room like she owned it.

But Lilith.

Lilith was different.

She was holding Aria’s hand so hard her knuckles were white. Her face was pale. Her eyes darting across the rows of strangers watching her. She pressed herself close to Aria’s side like she wanted to disappear inside her.

Aria led them to the front row of the witnesses’ bench. Sat down. Said something quietly to Lilith. Smoothed the girl’s hair back from her forehead with careful hands.

Lilith nodded. Stared at the floor.

Aria gave her testimony first. Calm. Clear. Every detail. The night Lilith arrived at her door. The wet clothes. The bruises. The things Lilith had said about food. About fighting. About being told she was too expensive.

The room was dead silent through all of it.

Judge Orion asked questions. Aria answered each one without flinching.

When she finished, she turned slightly in her seat. Said something low to Lilith that I couldn’t hear from where I was sitting.

Lilith shook her head once. Fast.

Aria said something else. Still quiet. Still patient.

Lina leaned over. Took Lilith’s other hand. Three years old and already braver than most adults I knew.

Judge Orion’s voice carried across the chamber. "Will the second witness please approach?"

Lilith didn’t move.

The room waited.

Finn was watching her. That amber gaze sharp and calculating. A muscle jumped in his jaw.

Aria put her arm around Lilith’s shoulders. Bent close to her ear. I couldn’t hear the words. But I could see Aria’s expression.

A full ten seconds passed.

Then Lilith stood up.

Slowly. Her knees visibly shaking.

She walked to the witness stand. Each step like it cost her something.

She sat down. Folded her hands in her lap. Looked straight ahead.

Not at Finn. Not at Celestia.

At me.

I held her gaze. Gave a single small nod.

She took a breath.

And she spoke.