Taken away

LARISSA

The impact of my body crashing to the floor painfully woke me up. I winced in pain as it was my arm and head that had the most contact with the floor. The room was filled with light, even with my eyes closed, I could feel the brightness of the room on my face. Then slowly I tried to open my eyes, they felt heavy but I took it slow. There were two figures in front of me. I blinked severally and saw Katya and Stefan watching me. 

Katya had a smirk on her face and I knew she was the one who pushed me from the bed. But when I looked at Stefan, I felt a great pain in my chest and suddenly all the memories of last night came back to me; the assault on me, watching them both make love and Stefan agreeing to divorce me and marry Katya. 

I remembered the things they said and it brought tears to my eyes. They both watched.

"Please Stefan d–don't do this." I cried, grabbing him by the leg.

He stared at me in disgust and withdrew his leg from my grasp.

I turned my eyes to Katya instead, surely she still had a heart, all I needed was for someone to stop Stefan from calling anyone and just take pity on me.

"P–p–please Katya, don't let this happen to me, I don't have a–anywhere to go. I can't go back, I just… "

She landed a dirty slap on my face before I could finish talking and said, "Why the fuck would I do that? You had the chance to be the wife of an alpha, to rule by his side, to be a queen and yet somehow you blew it. But don't worry, I won't." She said and kicked my arm away from her.

I fell back in pain, sprawled on the floor holding my arm. More tears fell from my eyes.

Stefan pulled Katya close and whispered something into her ears. She nodded, gave me one last dirty look and left the room.

Stefan's phone rang again just as he was going to say something. He picked it up and started walking towards his room.

I had to know what he was talking about so I closed my eyes and focused my mind towards there:

"What have you found?"

"Uh... Good morning alpha. We're still working on it."

"I pay you fools for feedback during situations just like this and now it is needed you can't even get me the fucking name of the person or at least what the fuck they look like."

"Forgive me, we have something we just…"

"Sorry for yourself. Do you have something useful to tell me or not?…You said he walked her back to the pack and kissed her?"

"Uhh… Yes my lord."

My heart skipped at those words. I put two and two together and knew what they were saying. But before I could do anything, Stefan entered the room. He was already fully dressed. 

He eyed me and said, "Better don't get any stupid ideas. If you try to run, you will be caught and your punishment will only be worse." He said and left.

When I was sure he was gone, I quickly dialed Joy on my phone.

"Hello, Good morning ma'am."

"Joy, I need your help."

"I'll be right there." She said and the line went silent.

In about twenty seconds, she was already in my room. I pulled her in, checked if anyone was watching then shut the door.

"Kylian is in danger."

I watched as her eyes widened in surprise.

"I don't understand ma'am. Did something happen?" She asked with concern in her voice.

I sighed, "I'm sorry Joy. I shouldn't have let him walk us back that night, now people are saying he's my lover. Stefan's already heard about it and now he's searching for him. I need you to go warn him, Joy. Everyone is already whispering about this  but none of them knows the full story.  They are going to twist this and make it look very bad, Joy. You have to warn him. "

I half expected her to run off immediately, instead she just stood there staring at me with glassy eyes. Then all of sudden she enveloped me in a hug.

"It's not your fault, Larissa, I won't let anything happen to any of you." She said quietly then bolted out of the room at once.

Joy had never called me by my name before, but from the look in her eyes it was almost as if she knew what I was going through, like she understood.

Stefan came back later. He made a phone call before driving with me to the meeting hall.

It was a very quiet drive. All I could think about was the amount of shame my family would feel when they heard what Stefan had to say. No doubt the footage from the other night had been edited to support his accusation against me. Denying the accusations would only make me look more shameless. 

The car came to a stop and I knew we had arrived but when I finally looked up, I saw that we weren't at the small meeting hall, but at the square. Then it dawned on me. This wasn't a meeting with the elders, it was a trial with the pack! 

When everyone settled down, Stefan began, "I'm sure you are all wondering why I insisted on having this meeting right away. That is because it is an urgent matter. Larissa and I are getting divorced."

This statement was visibly shocking to the crowd and immediately murmurs erupted throughout the gathering. Everyone was talking to each other, already trying to gossip about something they only just heard seconds ago.

Everyone except my family. They were one of the elders of the pack so they had a seat close to the alpha. My father sat calmly, his glasses reflecting in the sunlight, waiting for Stefan to state the reason for the divorce before he protested.

Stefan raised his hand and the murmurs and whispers slowly came to a stop. He continued, "The grounds for my divorce is infidelity. She has been cheating on me!"

The people gasped at these words. Some covered their mouths with their palms in surprise, others shook their heads in disappointment.

"My daughter would never do that!" My father's voice rang through the square like an electric gong and everywhere went silent again. All eyes turned to him.

"You will sit down while I address you, Tobias. Or do you think I'm here to make jokes?" Stefan spat in a threatening voice.

My dad looked around angrily and sat back on his seat. He knew couldn't challenge his alpha.

Stefan continued, "She was caught on camera kissing the person just outside her home. Only God knows how long this has been going on." He said, throwing me a dirty look. And I felt everyone's eyes on me at that moment, some stared in shock, some in amusement and the rest in disgust.

"You know, It's funny you should talk, Tobias as her lover is from your household."

Now it was my dad's turn to look surprised.

"T–that can't be possible… my lord." He added out of courtesy but the anger in his face couldn't be hidden.

"Does the name Kylian Ortega not ring a bell?"

My heart skipped at those words. Now Kylian would definitely become a wanted person. Oh no. 

"Uh K–kylian is my stable boy h–he would never—"

"He is your daughter's lover!" Stefan thundered. "Where is he, by the way?" 

"His father is ill, he visits him every week to help… "

"You will summon him to answer for his crime." Stefan cut him off rudely.

"Yes alpha."

"I gave your daughter everything." Stefan said, turning to me. "I made you a queen, I made you my luna. I gave you my heart and this is how you chose to repay me? You weren't even able to give me a son or even a daughter. Nothing. Barren prostitute."

Whispers filled the square with those words. It had already brought some people to tears. Elderly women looked at me with disgust in their eyes, snapping their fingers furiously. 

I could hear them, "Who knows if she hasn't already damaged herself while whoring about…This can't have been the first time she did it. She just finally got caught this time. Unbelievable."

All this talk hurt me to the core. And there was absolutely nothing I could say in my defense. Nothing. It would only make things worse and Stefan was well aware. 

Stefan signaled and there was silence again.

"Before all of you gathered here today, I reject Larissa Tokenmoon as my mate. From this day forward she is no longer my mate or wife or your luna. I divorce her before the eyes of the elders and the pack!" 

He pulled out his wedding ring, walked up to me, yanked mine out of my finger and crushed it in his fist.

"It. Is. Done." The pack chorused.

"You will be punished for this." Stefan said to me, his eyes flashing. "Not only have you insulted your alpha but your pack as well."

"It. Is. Done." They chorused again.

"Divorce isn't punishment enough. Since you have proved to be a fucking whore, you will be auctioned off in the brothel where you and be bought for pleasure. That should be suitable. Take her away!" He roared. 

It took some time before I fully understood what he was saying. I felt my blood run cold when I saw two hefty guards marching towards me at Stefan's command.

"N–no! Please. Mom, Dad help me please. You know I could never do this. Please don't let them take me away!" All the tears I had been holding back came loose then. But my parents couldn't even look me in the eye. 

My eyes met Katya's and she smirked wickedly at me. But I refused to give up.

"Richie… Richard!" I cried, turning to my brother desperately. Please tell them it's not true. They don't believe me. Look at me Richard! Look at me!" I pleaded but he wouldn't. The guards were already behind me by now. 

"Don't make this any harder." One of them said coolly and tried to grab my arm. 

"No! No! Don't you dare touch me!" I slapped him hard across the face.

He just wiped it off and grabbed one arm and the second guard grabbed the other arm. I kicked, screamed and spat but they wouldn't let go. They dragged me out of the square towards a car parked closeby.

Most of the people followed behind to watch as I struggled with all my power to no avail. They opened the car, threw me in and locked the door. 

"Take her straight to the brothel."