5

April 

“Get up!” 

My breath gets knocked out of my lungs as Scott kicks me into my stomach, and he repeats his order louder, growling it right into my face as he pulls my hair to make me look at him. “Get up!” 

With an ungentle push, he makes me hit the dirty floor again, making me cough as I’m ringing for air as the pain governing my body is making it hard to breathe. 

Groaning I push myself off the floor, only to be grabbed by Scott and dragged to my feet as he loses his patience. 

“You are too slow,” he growls into my ear before pushing me towards the exit. 

I take slow and steady breaths to be able to cope with the pain as I let my voice die in my throat, not wanting to anger him further. He shouts at me again, and I finally move, walking to the exit of the dungeons as fast as I can without passing out because of the pain. 

Holding my side, I feel blood seep through my fingers as my wolf-less body struggles to regenerate. 

“Move!” he snarls as we step into the sunlight, leaving the scruffy underground and I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with clear air. 

He grabs my arm again, making me wince, and tears me to the town square. The pack members who are standing around watch us with shocked and disgusted looks. I can recognize their disparaging judgment clearly as the rumors about me being involved in the killing of their beloved future Luna must have spread like wildfire. My heart squeezes painfully as I see my mother push through the crowd to reach me as Scott pushes me gruffly, making me hit the hard ground. 

I sob as my ribs scream at the impact, making me roll into a ball to alleviate the pain. 

“April,” I hear my mother call my name desperately, her voice dripping with sorrow. “April, I’m here.” 

Her hands reach out for me and remain lying on my side as she looks up at Scott. “How can you treat her like this after all you two have been through? After all, you were inseparable just a few days ago?!” 

“Nobody asked for your opinion, Hazel,” Scott discards her words coldly, straightening himself as he speaks to the people who have gathered around us. “April Foster lured my beautiful mate and our Luna into a trap to kill her out of jealousy. I had intended to execute her to make her pay for it as she didn’t show any remorse.” 

I cough as I hug myself on the ground, whimpering. My voice fails me as my body has long given up fighting to prove my innocence. If they are so set on wanting to blame me and kill me for it, so be it. 

The only thing I really worry about is my mother as she doesn’t deserve any of this. 

Hasn’t she suffered enough already as you took her mate from her, Moon Goddess? 

I can feel the hate rolling off the pack members in waves as they keep cursing and spitting venom at us. I realize that in just this short time, my mother must have become an outcast as well. These must have been difficult days for her, living with the burden of the thought of the crime I am accused of having committed. 

“This is enough!” a loud voice booms over the town square, making me flinch. 

Kane, who used to be my father's best friend, steps next to my mother, coming into our defense. “You can’t treat April like this! Look at her wounds. Haven’t you tortured her enough?” 

Scott growls, not approving of Kane’s biased demeanor in my favor, but even as Alpha he has to show some respect to the strongest warrior of his pack. “Get back in line, Kane.” 

“I don’t think that Alpha Kelvin would approve of this. What the hell got into you, Scott?” Kane argues, trying to get Scott off my back. 

“In case you forgot, Kane, I will gladly remind you that I’m the Alpha now!” Scott growls back, straightening his spine. “She got her trial, and she failed to prove her innocence. So. Get. Back. In. Line.” 

Kane casts us a pitiful look before he takes a step back and Scott clicks his tongue, turning back to address the crowd around him. “My father, as the merciful man he is, convinced me to not execute the death sentence I had condemned April Foster to. In great respect for my father and your former Alpha, I have decided to simply exile April and Hazel Foster from this pack.” 

Scott crouches down and is already reaching out to lay his hand on my head to sever any bond I have to him as my Alpha and to the pack as I jerk back, shaking my head. “No, I beg you! My mother didn’t do anything.” 

“Just shut up and sit still,” he growls threateningly, but I gulp down my fear, shaking my head even harder. 

“Please! Scott, she has nothing to do with all this. Don’t let her go rogue,” I shout pleadingly, but my mother sighs, laying her hands on my shoulders, making my erratic breathing calm down. 

“Honey,” she says with a soothing tone, smiling at me. “I asked the Alpha to do that. Don’t worry about me. We will get through this together.” 

With a deep breath, she squeezes my arms, nodding at me. “You have to be strong now.” 

I gasp as I feel Scott's hand grabbing my head and I clench my eyes closed, bracing for another wave of pain to ripple through me. “I, Scott Walker, Alpha of the Blue Amber Pack, banish you April Foster from the pack’s territory and prohibit you from ever setting foot on my land again, for the rest of your pathetic, and hopefully short, life.” 

My heart has barely broken into thousands of pieces, causing a stinging pain to expand in my chest as it gets suppressed by another, even more intense, burning pain that surges through me, making me feel as if I’m about to be burnt alive. I scream at the top of my lungs, my senses giving out to a blending light and a shrill ringing tone bursting my eardrums. 

As I fall to the ground powerless, I sense Scott move, about to do the same ritual to my mother. 

“You will regret this, Alpha Scott,” I whisper, but I’m sure that he can hear it loud and clearly. My heart stills in my chest as my bad conscience wraps its tentacles around me, suffocating me to the point that I faint on the spot. 

*** 

The low roaring of the engine wakes me softly.

Opening my eyes, I recognize that I’m sitting in my mom’s truck, tucked in a warm blanket, about to leave the pack in which I grew up, fell in love and was betrayed by it. 

I push out a shaky breath just as we pass the statue of my father’s wolf, which was erected to honor my father’s sacrifice for the pack and his Alpha. Touching my chest, I press onto my skin above my heart as it twists painfully in my chest at seeing that it has been completely destroyed. As we pass it with the car, I sit up to look back at the pieces of it shattered on the floor, and my mother sighs sadly. 

“This was just mean,” she whispers as she has her eyes still set on the road before us. “And unnecessary. There was no need to drag him into this situation after what he did.” 

I blink repeatedly, looking up at her with a heartbroken expression. “I’m so sorry, Mom. Please forgive me.” 

My mother shakes her head, shushing soothingly as she reaches out to caress the top of my head. I can hear her voice heavy with sorrow as she speaks, fighting back her tears. “Don’t worry, my love. Everything will be alright. It’s not me you have to ask for forgiveness. I will always be here for you.” 

Her words hurt me badly, but I take comfort in her having my side, even if she doesn’t believe me. Flinching, I reposition myself in my seat, and take a deep breath, waiting for the pain streaming through my body to fade. 

“Unfortunately, we can’t do anything to prove our innocence, but we got away with our lives, and that is all that counts. We can start over in a new pack, find a new home and live a good life nonetheless, I’m sure about that.” 

She flashes me a smile as we pass the pack’s border, feeling one last tug which makes us go rogue.