Accidentally Mated To Four Alphas-Chapter 271: _ The Knife

Heidi lifts her chin. "I didn’t try to kill Sierra," she says clearly.

She might not be as confident as she seems, but she’ll be damned before she lets them see her role.

The lawyer arches a brow. "You injured her permanently, yet you claim you didn’t try to kill her?"

"She attacked me, and I was left with no choice but to defend myself," Heidi replies.

The lawyer paces slowly. "You expect us to believe that you, unarmed, frightened—somehow overpowered her?"

Heidi swallows."I think it turned out that way because I had already been aware of her intentions." she says carefully. "I went downstairs for water that night and I heard Sierra on the phone with Ivy."

Sierra jerks violently. "You liar..."

"She said she was going to kill me," Heidi continues, trying to keep her emotions at bay despite the pounding in her ears. "She said I was ruining her family. That I was the reason things were falling apart."

"That’s hearsay," the lawyer cuts in. "And if you heard such a threat, why didn’t you raise an alarm?"

There it is. The trap. Heidi’s breath stutters. For half a second, her mind blanks.

Her wolf hisses. "Careful. Don’t let them think you’re acting guilty."

"I was scared," Heidi says finally. "So I went back to my room and pretended to sleep. It’s the shock. I couldn’t think straight or fathom why she would harbor such malicious thoughts towards me."

Another round of murmurs springs to life amidst the crowd/

The lawyer smiles wider. "Interesting. You were scared... yet you’re the one who inflicted life-altering injuries?"

"I defended myself."

"By pretending to sleep?" he presses. "After hearing a threat on your life?"

Laughter breaks out from one corner. Heidi’s cheeks burn. Dammit. She should have done something. Hell, she had Morgan’s phone and contact. There was the group chat with her friends too.

Pretending to sleep was the last thing she should have done.

The lawyer spreads his hands. "Does that sound like the behavior of a terrified victim, or someone with something to hide?"

To hell with keeping calm. Raw anger shoots through Heidi and she snaps. "I was alone in a house where no one liked me. Where people already wanted me gone. Who was I supposed to trust?"

The lawyer tilts his head. "The Goddess?"

That gets a reaction. Rowen’s eyes gleam faintly.

Heidi’s wolf bares its teeth. "Not funny."

"I trusted myself," Heidi says quietly. "And I was right to."

The lawyer circles her. "Then explain the wolf’s death."

The air turns razor-sharp. Heidi’s chest tightens painfully. That part still hurts. That part always will. She killed a wolf and be it Sierra or not, she’s not proud of herself.

"It wasn’t intentional. My power reacted when Sierra lunged at me with a blade." She counters.

Gasps erupt.

"A blade?" someone shouts.

Sierra’s lawyer freezes.

Heidi presses on, voice a little shaky now despite wanting to maintain a bold front. "I slapped it off her, the energy surged, and I... I lost control for a second."

"A convenient second," the lawyer sneers.

Darien moves.

Rowen raises a hand instantly. "Sit."

Darien, not wanting to make things harder for Heidi, is forced to pause.

The lawyer faces Heidi again. "So you expect this court to believe you’re innocent. That the Goddess herself made a mistake."

"No," Heidi replies, voice breaking. "I think people did."

The room holds its breath. Heidi looks around at the elders, the crowd, the boys who have become her anchors.

"If I lose this," she thinks wildly, they take everything.

Her freedom. Her voice. Her place beside them.

Her wolf presses against her ribs, fierce and shaking. "We don’t bend."

She straightens. "I didn’t start this, but I survived it and that’s not a crime."

The lawyer smiles like a man who believes he has already won. It is not a warm smile. It is not even a confident one. It is the kind of smile meant to corner a prey that has run out of clever answers.

"So far," Sierra’s lawyer says smoothly, turning back to Heidi, "you have repeated the phrase I defended myself no fewer than seven times."

A ripple of quiet laughter moves through part of the crowd. Heidi feels the hair on her nape stand on end.

"But a court does not survive on repetition," the lawyer continues. "It survives on proof." He stops directly in front of her. "So I’ll ask you plainly, Heidi of the Moon Blessed—where is yours?"

The silence that follows is heavy. Heidi opens her mouth but doesn’t know what to say. Her heartbeat thunders in her ears, loud enough she’s half-convinced the entire room can hear it.

Her gaze drifts, helplessly, to the only place it feels safe to land. Darien. He is already on his feet before she even realizes she’s looked at him.

"We have proof," Darien announces and the effect is immediate.

Elder Rowen snaps his attention toward him, eyes flaring. "You will sit..."

"I formally request permission to speak," Darien cuts in, voice ringing across the court. "As an Alpha heir. As a witness. And as someone directly involved in the aftermath of this incident."

A murmur spreads like wildfire. Rowen hesitates. That half-second hesitation is telling. The room sees it.

"Proceed," Elder Mavren says before Rowen can object. "Briefly."

Darien steps forward.

The air changes when he moves. There is no other way to describe it. He doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t bare his teeth. He simply exists in the space with a quiet, lethal authority that makes several wolves instinctively lower their gazes.

"We request the knife recovered from the crime scene," Darien says evenly. "The same knife logged into evidence the night Sierra Castell was injured." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Sierra stiffens.

"And," Darien adds, eyes flicking briefly to Heidi... "the fingerprint analysis conducted on it."

The lawyer scoffs. "Objection. That knife..."

"...was found beside Heidi’s blood," Darien continues, unfazed. "And submitted per protocol."

A court official hesitates and glances toward the elders.

Rowen’s jaw tightens. "Bring it."

The room exhales as one.

The knife is produced carefully, sealed, and handled with ritual precision. It isn’t large. That almost makes it worse. A simple thing. Household sharp. Ordinary enough that it could disappear into a drawer without a second thought.

It hums faintly with residual energy. Even now.

"The fingerprint results," Darien gestures to the officer and Heidi exhales through her nose.

This could be it...

"Or not." Her wolf counters.