2 = Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Flashback cont…

I whimper again as he pushes me chest-first against the punishment pole. He let go of my hair only long enough to grab my wrists, force them above my head and connect the iron shackles. I scream as the iron burns and the metal digs into my skin as he tightens them making sure that I can’t slip my hands free.

He then steps back and to the side. Tears stream down my cheeks as I turn my head to watch as Mane Beatrice walks out of the Den, freshly changed with Nala and Chloe and the entire Pride walking behind her.

Again I tried to say that I was sorry, however, she didn’t want to hear it as she whistled calling the rest of the Pride to the centre of the village. Once everyone is encircled around the village centre she looks at Duke and says,

“Expose her back.”

Duke’s stern stone face mask cracks just a little as he looks into my eyes. Being the only Father figure I have known, I know that Duke doesn’t want to do as she says as he steps up behind me once more whispering,

“I’m sorry.”

Before repairing the cracks in his mask and then using his claws he swipes them down my back just missing the skin as he tears through the material of my shirt, revealing my back. Knowing that he has no choice and wanting to avoid at least a little embarrassment I turn my head toward the pole and close my eyes, my heart sinks as Mane Beatrice then says.

“10 lashes for the embarrassment… 5 lashes for the mess and wasted food… And another 5 for trying to blame one of my daughters for your clumsiness… That’s 20 lashes, Duke, if you please.”

My eyes go wide as do a lot of the others watching, I watch Lucy’s face as she steps to Mane Beatrice’s side once more and whispers,

“Beatrice, that’s too much. She’s only a cub…”

Mane Beatrice smirks and says so everyone can hear,

“Would you like to take her place?”

The small flicker of hope that rose in me at the prospect that Lucy could talk some sense into her dies as Lucy shuts her mouth slightly shakes her head and steps back. My attention is then brought back to Dad as I watch him move over to the side and pick up one of the whips, Mane Beatrice growls making Duke look at her as she says,

“Use the other one…”

I don’t miss the shock in his eyes as he says,

“But Mane, the other one is infused with iron, it’s for adults, not cubs. The iron in it will prevent her from healing.”

“Are you disobeying an order Warrior?”

“No, Mane… But she is still…”

“I said use the other one and if you don’t then I will have Graves or Anton relieve you of your position.”

I watch with tears streaming down my cheeks as he reluctantly replaces the whip for cub punishment and picks up the other. I look over at Mane Beatrice again and beg knowing that with the combination of the iron in the shackles around my wrists and what is in the whip my healing would be that of a human as iron suppresses our WereGene.

She just smirks and watches. I scream as the first lash of the whip cracks across my back and I then scream until the very last one, whimpering that I was sorry and begging for her to make it stop. She didn’t and about halfway through my knees collapsed and I just hung from my wrists.

When Duke had reached the total of 20 lashes, he curled and hung up the whip next to me so that I could see the blood dripping from the long thin iron-infused leather whip. He then moved placing his hands on my wrist but stopped shocked when Mane Beatrice said.

“No. Leave her there. Let her remind everyone what the penalty is for breaking the laws…”

Duke seems to sigh before removing his hands from my wrists and stepping back whispering.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart."

I know he didn't want to leave me there and walk away but he had no choice but to do so. I don’t remember how long I hung there before I passed out from the pain.

>End Flashback<

I am brought back to the present when I move and a sharp ripping pain waves its way through my body from my back. I never saw Lucy after that incident and found out a few months later that Mane Beatrice had sold her to another Pride.

After that Duke gave me my punishments up until I was 10 before Mane Beatrice gave Graves the job stating that Duke was going easy on me due to him seeing me as his daughter and he would always try to make the punishment less.

I learned after the first few times Graves punished me that he loved to hear me scream and beg, however, when I screamed he would make my punishments go either of two ways; he’d either make the punishments last longer, saying that only the weak showed weakness but it was more that he liked the sound. Or he would stop and walk away leaving me hanging.

However, as I got older I realised that he was enjoying and getting off on my screams so I stopped giving him the satisfaction and started holding in my screams for as long as I could.

This then backfired a little as he started taking his time, making the punishments harsher than needed and lasting longer until he could finally make me scream and that usually ended up being just before I would pass out from the pain, making him work to get his pleasure and his high but taking its toll on me too.

I know that I was probably just causing myself more pain and anguish by doing that but even though I suffered because of it, he did too. I continue to let myself hang by my wrists as I slip in and out of consciousness from the pain that radiates through me in waves. I don’t know how long I was hanging by my wrists when I heard her soft voice.

“Oh, my Goddess… Izzy… What did you do this time?”

Kyria is my best friend, my only friend, my sister. She is Duke’s Omega daughter. She still gets all the benefits of being the Alpha warrior’s daughter, however, she is like all Omega’s within the Pride, a servant.

I hadn’t really done anything other than throw out a crumpled piece of paper from off the desk as I was cleaning the Pride’s main office. It wasn’t even that important, it seemed to have just a few scribbled notes here and there on it.

I lift my head a little and look at her, knowing that she could get into trouble for helping me but I would be given the punishment for apparently asking her to set me free, I rasp.

“Kyria, you shouldn’t be here… You’ll get into trouble…”

Tears fill my eyes as I feel Kyria continue to move standing in front of me before getting me to lean on her. I flinch and whimper a little as she reaches up and touches the binds on my wrists undoing them and allowing my arms to fall so that they are draped over her shoulders.

“It’s okay, Daddy sent me down. Told me to take you back to your room and to treat your wounds, we don’t want them to get infected like last time.”

A shiver goes through me at the reminder, I had just received 25 lashes the last 5 as always the whip was soaked in our diluted Deaths Door Serum delaying my healing, Graves had then thrown me personally into my room.

I landed on the floor and before I could move to my cot I passed out. Dirt and bacteria seeped into the open lash wounds causing them to become infected. Not wanting to get into more trouble and face more punishment I worked as best I could until the fever the infection caused made me pass out in the laundry.

Kyria found me and treated my back, however, due to the severity of the infection I was bedridden for over a week as my body fought off the infection and healed. I was then punished for not doing my chores by them being tripled and a beating from Nala.

I groan as Kyria again brings me out of my head as she moves her grip on me so that she can hold me still for a moment allowing me to get my wobbly legs underneath me. Using her as support Kyria helps me out of the cell, past the other cells, up the clay stairs and into what I guess would be a basement in any other location.

I wasn’t as privileged as the others in the Pride even the other lower female warriors were given more than me, once Mane Beatrice relocated me from sharing Dad’s chamber. I was the Pride’s outcast, the runt so I was worked off my feet and bullied by nearly everyone, especially Nala. I was also given the smallest room within the Den.