Back and Stronger: Alpha's Daughter
Chapter 76

Sophia’s attorney called Leo Tibald to the stand. The bailiff swore him in, and he took his seat in the witness stand. Sophia let her eyes roam over him. Oh, how he’d grown in such a short time. He was at least three inches taller. His hair was styled in a more mature fashion, and the round face of his youth had disappeared, and his strong angular jaw was a prominent feature. Her baby brother wasn’t much of a baby anymore. It was hard to believe that such a short period of time made such drastic changes. Then she laughed at herself for thinking such a thing. She had changed drastically as well.

Sophia watched in agitation and more than a little bit of awe as Benny gestured for the prosecuting attorney to move over, then took his seat. She propped her black booted feet up on the table and twirled the attorney’s pen through her fingers like it was a miniature baton. How does she have that much confidence? How does anyone have that much confidence?

Defense counsel began questioning Leo and Sophia’s attention was drawn back to the witness stand.

“State your name and age please.”

“Leo Tibald, 13 and a half.”

The spectators jittered at him adding the ‘and a half’. Sophia smiled at that, as well.

“It is my understanding, Leo, that you were a witness to your mothers murder. In your own words, can you please describe what you saw that day?”

The spectators were fidgeting in their seats and Sophia sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth and grazed her teeth across the top. Leo’s eyes glazed with tears, and he looked at a spot in the back of the room, above the door. Sophia knew he was going back in time, to the day that her world crashed around her, but his drastically changed as well.

“I was supposed to be in my room, but our mom had just cooked Irish Lace Cookies, and they were my favorite. I couldn’t ignore the sweet smell any longer, so I went to the kitchen. She was rinsing the dishes in the sink and loading the dishwasher. The plate of cookies was on the counter, and I thought I could just sneak one, maybe two, then go back to my room.”

The entire courtroom was on the edge of their seats, waiting. Everyone knew what happened next. Mrs. Tibald was brutally murdered in her own kitchen; but Sophia knew that regardless of what Leo said next, it would be different than what most, if not all the Lucian pack thought. Because it wasn’t her that killed their mother. Leo sniffled and Sophia’s eyes watered. She hated that he had to go through this. She hated that he had seen their mother murdered. She hated all this circus of a trial, trials, because Neil’s was a circus too.

The judge pulled a tissue from the box and leaned over to hand it to Leo. He showed some compassion, and for that Sophia was grateful.

“You just take a minute, son. You can go on when you’re ready.”

“I’d rather just get it done, Your Honor, if it’s all the same to you, that is?”

The judge nodded and Leo continued.

“As soon as I snatched a cookie, I heard the door to the kitchen open. If my father had caught me sneaking cookies, he would have taken my dessert away from me after supper. I don’t know why I didn’t hightail it back to my room, but I didn’t. I snuck in the closet where the broom and mops were kept. I saw it. I saw everything.”

“What did you see, Leo?” the weasel defense attorney asked.

“I saw my father, Thorin Tibald, alpha of the Lucian pack, pull a bowie knife from behind his back as he snuck up behind our mother and grab her by the hair.”

“How would you see this if you were in the closet?”

“I left the door cracked because it would sometimes lock by itself, and I was afraid to be locked in there. I could see through the crack, and I was watching for when I could get back to my room.”

“Okay, go on. What happened next?”

“Mom started to struggle and Thorin, I stopped calling him dad almost a year ago, was trying to drag her across the room. Mom had knocked the plate of cookies onto the floor in her fight and it shattered all over the floor. She knocked chairs over too, making a loud crash. She tried to get him off her, but he held her by her hair and was dragging her. She scratched him and he called her a bitch and smacked her across the face.”

The observers, werewolves and the unshifted alike were whispering amongst themselves. The courtroom was anything but quiet. Sophia closed her eyes and forced herself to take a deep breath. She couldn’t believe her baby brother had witnessed this, she just couldn’t. Leo continued without being prompted.

“When he smacked her, she fell back and hit the back of her head off the counter, and he was on her in a second. He was stabbing her with the bowie knife, repeatedly. After the second stab, she stopped fighting. She was still, not moving. But he kept stabbing her.”

“Then what happened?”

“There was a knock at the door. He dropped the knife and slid back out the kitchen door. I ran to her and shook her hard. She didn’t move. She was already feeling cold, but at the time, I was too young to know what that meant. Then I thought I heard him coming again and I ran back to my room. I guess, I guess that was you, Sophia.” Leo said as he looked at Sophia at the defense table.

The courtroom went crazy. Some were calling him a liar. Her father’s most devoted followers were raging in anger. Some were crying. Sophia only assumed they were crying for the little boy who watched his father kill his mother. Then let his sister take the fall. Benny was still sitting casually in the chair, rolling that fucking pen between her fingers, completely untouched by any of this.

Sophia’s attorney had to yell to be heard over the craziness in the courtroom.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone what you saw?”

“I tried. They told him and he threatened me that if I ever said a word, he’d kill Sophia too.”

Everyone really went crazy at that. People jumped to their feet, the prosecuting attorney was yelling objection over and over, though no one paid the slightest bit of attention to him. The judge started slamming his gavel repeatedly, yelling ’Order! Order in the court!” Nobody paid attention to that either. Sophia hadn’t thought that it could get crazier, but the goddess must have felt that was a challenge, because the courtroom door slammed open with such force the walls reverberated and the floor rumbled under her feet. Sophia turned to the door and her breath caught. Neil. Holy shit. How did he get out of his cell?

Sophia saw him yell something, but she had no idea what, because he couldn’t be heard over the noise. He stormed up the center aisle and yelled again, announcing that Sophia’s mom was the elusive Lycan, and so were Sophia and Leo and it was them and their kind that Thorin had ordered him to hunt down and kill.

Leo looked stricken, shocked, but all Sophia could think was holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Then it sunk in, if Scott and Neil had been ordered to hunt and kill the Lycans, which included her and her brother, her mother, that meant that Benson had been ordered to as well.

Sophia’s gaze darted to her, and she was no longer sitting casually and the prosecutor’s seat. She was standing in the aisle, toe to toe with Neil. They were looking furiously at each other. What the hell?

Then all hell really broke loose...

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