Chapter 2

*A day before* 

LYNE:

The open court house was silent, with only the sound of birds chirping, the icy gust of wind penetrating through the windows, and the rapid sound of my heavy breathing being heard within these walls. 

I stood anxiously in the middle, my hands trembling by my sides and my eyes already watery. Guilty of believing I was the pearl of the pack. Lucien stood beside me by my right with a sly smile spread across his lips as Alpha Elan granted him permission to reject me.

I wasn't surprised. He never loved me; he never even wanted me in the first place. Our union was forced upon us by the Alpha, his uncle. To him, I was only a filial responsibility to fulfill.

I know he was saying something along the lines of “I, Lucien,” but I stopped listening. Only waiting for the pain that soon embraced me.

I crumpled to the cold, hard floor clutching my chest as the excruciating pain of rejection surged through my veins. I have heard from the older werewolves that the pain was like a cold silver dagger embedded into the heart. Once, I had dared to imagine it. But now, it felt different than how I had imagined—like ten thousand silver knives piercing through my flesh all at once without mercy.

My only crime was being wolfless.

I caught another smile tugging Lucien's lips, wider this time, as though a heavy burden had just been lifted off his chest. 

After my fifteenth birthday, Lucien had started to see me as an embarrassment. A disappointment he so eagerly wanted to get rid of but just didn't know how.

Alpha Elan had arranged for me to be Lucien's chosen mate when I had just turned thirteen years old. It was a celebration of the last full moon of the season and my coming-of-age ceremony. 

To say I was most excited would be an understatement, as I have had my eyes on Lucien ever since I turned ten. He wasn't particularly thrilled to have me for a mate, but he didn't wear a frown either.

Being born under the blood moon, the first in one hundred years, meant I had to carry the many expectations of the pack, one of which is to birth the next heir. 

But everything turned sour when, at fifteen, I still couldn't feel my wolf. I am seventeen, turning eighteen by the end of the season, and also the laughing stock of the pack.

“What a shame!” They'd snarl whenever another full moon passed, and I remained the same.

“Fraud!” Someone in the crowd yelled.

“Murderer! Killed her own mother in childbirth only to be a shame,” another seethes in. The words stung. Hadn't they told me no one can birth a red blood and live? Now…

“Bloody liar!” A third joined, throwing a pebble at me, bruising my bottom lips. 

It wasn't long before the others followed, darting a barrage of stones at me, aiming to kill. 

A strangled cry escaped my lips. I lifted my head to take a last look at Lucien, my eyes brimming with tears. The feelings I once harbored crumpled along with what was left of my faith.

“Enough!” Alpha Elan's voice thundered through the hall, raising a hand to silence the bloody, thirsty crowd.

"Your life would be spared, only as a repayment of the debt I owed your father, who sacrificed his life to protect the pack. But you won't be escaping the wrath of deceiving your Alpha to be a red blood!” He scowls, signaling to the already waiting omegas to take me away.

My body brushed roughly against the polished marble floor of the courthouse and then into the harsh, muddy ground outside as I am being dragged on both hands stretched on ends to the punisher, a dreadful-looking gamma, less merciful than the executioner.

“Please—” My words weared out at the first lash of the leathered whip on my back. Exhausted, I let down the dam of tears I had been desperately holding back. My vision starts to blur out slowly from the salty streak, till everything fades into darkness.

            §. §. §. 

My eyes weakly fluttered open. The unpleasant sound of laughter coming from a fair distance away and the strong smell of ale irked me. I wanted to ignore it, but the clattering sound of coins stirs my senses awake.

“Alright, she's all yours now.” I heard the unmistakable voice of my oldest stepbrother, Leon, followed by the sound of more coins rattling.

What was going on? I whirl my head to my left, and there was a tree root that sprang out of the soil, very close to me. I reach out my hand to grab it and aid myself up, but to my horror, I feel stuck. Bounded by something squeezing my hands to my sides. 

Panicked by the thought of it being a snake wrapping me up as dinner, I turned my head down to look. 

It wasn't a snake. I had been tightly wrapped with a black leathered cord running from my chest down to the ankles. My brain freezes for a brief second. Oh, goddess, what now? 

Panic quickening my pulse, I try to wiggle free. Rapid, strained wimps occasionally escape my mouth even though I tried to stay as quiet as I possibly could. The hairs on my body rose, and I heard unsteady footsteps making their way to me. I tilted my head sharply in the direction, just in time to see a werewolf in wrinkled, patched clothing crouching above my head. 

The foul stench from his body made me feel nauseous and lightheaded. His beard was long, down to his chest, and without a doubt, is infested by fleas. 

“Ah, the beauty is awake.” He chuckled widely, baring out his yellow, meat stained teeth. I held my breath in disgust; his breath drove me damn near death itself. 

I quickly turn my face away, but not fast enough to avoid his finger from brushing against my skin. The feel of his rough, dirty finger touching my face caused me to shudder. I shot back a glare and spat in his face in return. 

A horrible mistake, because I am rewarded with a slap hard across my cheeks. 

“Stubborn, huh?"

I winced as He lifted me up to sit and looked to the side of him to see my other half brother, Maverick, and Leon, with two other rough-looking wolves walking towards us.