Seven

The jeering from the crowd incites fear in me as I see the disgusted gazes of my pack members. These were the same people who gently referred to me as princess. Now they throw their waste at me, some getting tomatoes in my eye and squashing an egg on my head.

But still, I don’t give them the satisfaction of wavering, if crying. Although my eyes feel itchy, I blink it away and kneel ramrod straight.

I’m at the pack hall which is also the basketball court for the high school students. The pack hall is the place where all important decisions regarding the pack are helmed and everyone is supposed to be in attendance.

One of the elder stands up, he adjusts his cane and holds his hand to quiet the crowd. The boss reduce to a silent echo, leaving the only noise to be the elder’s tapping cane.

“ I am fully aware we know why we are gathered here this evening” he starts and his voice booms across the still hall. “ But for clarification purpose, we are here to try this pup here for the murder of our beloved beta and his mate. We have decided to come together as a pack to handle this delicate matter, since after all. The pup is still a child”

I gaze discreetly at the high table in front of me which contains the Alpha, his Luna, my uncle and the elders.

 Alpha Cain looked vaguely amused when the elder had called me a child, like being a child wasn’t enough to escape punishment. But I didn’t do anything.

“ Quiet!” the elder ordered and I realised I had spoken out loud ,looking back down in deference. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Luna's pitiful gaze directed at me.

“ From the evidence we gathered, this child led our Beta to some kind of forest where she probably called her fellow rogues and bit the hand that fed her” he continued.

I gazed firmly at the plank flooring, this was ridiculous. Surely, someone will notice it and call them out on this load of rubbish. Right? Right!

Someone stood up and I looked up and recognized him as one of my upperclassmen from school. I didn’t know him that well but he was one of the people that begged for my attention.

“ Let’s just burn her up on a stake or something,” he said. There was a loud chorus of approvals and his friend fist bumped him. Ok, it looked like this was probably not going to end well for me. There were other suggestions, each more grotesque than the other and my face turned even more flush at their lucid description of my death. I don’t know what hurt more, the fact that the people I had seen as close to me had never seen me as such.

“Quiet everyone!’ the elder hushed the energised crowd with loud claps of his hand. “ Our new Beta, beta Jerome has something to say”

I craned my head up and watched uncle approach, he walked solemnly to the middle of the large gym hands fisted at his side.

“ My dear pack” he started ushering in an eerie hush over the crowd, uncle Jerome always had such a presence, always able to steer the crowd into his bidding without so many loud empty words. It was surprising he hadn’t been made beta and dad had been.

“The death of my brother brings me great pain, especially coupled with the fact that we lost some of our members to these horrible rogues. I didn’t just lose a brother, but we all lost a leader, a friend and to some of us here, a family”

Someone choked back a gasp of tears, I realised it was me and I struggled to push back my tears. There was nothing they could help me do here. Tears were of no use but to clean my dirty face.

“But as appalling as this ordeal has been. We are not barbarians, we are not like the northern packs who deal punishments with brutality. No… we are more civilised than that”

Without my consent, hope began to fill me with steadying speed. Could it be… uncle Jerome would save me?

“ Our generous Alpha has given me the permission, his magnanimous consent to judge this case” he turns to look at me and our eyes clash, and for a moment I think they almost soften.

“So after deep thinking, I have decided that the criminal, Adeline will be degraded to the pack’s slave and will live out her life forever heeding to the demands of the pack and if she dares to reject it. I have given due approval for her to be punished in any manner that pack member benefits”

There is a mixed murmur of approval and disapproval, but I don’t hear what they are saying and I don’t care to know. I collapse on the hard floor with despair. Yes, I was saved from being mangled and burned to death. But let’s face it, was this really being saved? Uncle Jerome had made that long speech on civilization and the rest, but he had in just one moment incapacitated me of my basic human rights and made me less than a domestic animal in the pack.

I laughed loudly, my back arched forward and my dam of tears finally broke and cracked at that moment. This was going to be my life now, to be used and discarded at any time or moment. It was almost amusing that at that moment I realised I never did get to eat my birthday cake after all. And I will never be able to in a long time.