Chapter 6- Treated like a criminal.

"I know nothing about the scorpion venom, Alpha Gabriel! Trust me!” Ella stammered out of fear as she spoke.

“Don’t just try to cook up excuses, you girl! I know that the witch has already given you enough training to abstain from speaking the truth in case you are caught. I think that I have already tolerated you enough, and I will have to use assault against you to extract the truth from you."

“Soldiers! Just take this girl away from my sight. Imprison her and use all forms of torture that are possible, but make sure that you extract her whereabouts and, more specifically, about the scorpion venom, or else be ready to be beheaded yourselves."

“But Alpha! She is a human, and the torture we use is difficult, even for the werewolves to endure. How will she sustain it? She will definitely die.” interrupted Beta Leon.

“How dare you question my command, Beta Leon? Don’t you think you are trying to exceed your authority? It seems like I will have to order the soldiers to imprison you along with this girl.” The voice of the Alpha shivered as he spoke in a towering temper.

“I am sorry, Alpha! I didn’t intend to question you. Soldiers! Do as per the order! Alpha seems to be disturbed at this moment.” Beta Leon said it in a subdued tone.

The soldiers dragged Ella along with them as if she were a criminal and took her towards the area where the prisons were built.

Beta Leon turned towards Alpha Gabriel and patted his shoulders, trying to console him. “Everything will be alright, Alpha. We will soon discover the scorpion venom, and our Luna will be cured. Try not to stress yourself so much, Alpha. It will be detrimental for our pack. You might end up punishing our brave, honest soldiers without a reason. It is important that you remain calm and composed.” Beta Leon tried to remind the Alpha of his duty towards the pack.

“I know, Beta Leon, that I am supposed to remain calm as an Alpha. But besides being an Alpha, I too am like other werewolves. I, too, have sentiments. My ‘to be Luna’ is lying unconscious. She has been poisoned, and I am sitting here helpless, unable to heal her. I am too disturbed." Alpha Gabriel turned out to be expressing his emotions to Beta Leon as he turned towards Lara, placing his head over her chest, and started sobbing like a child.

On the other hand, Ella, who was already chained, was gagged and thrown into the prison like a rug. For hours together, she was not offered even a drop of water. She was famished and felt like screaming at the top of her voice and demanding food, but then she felt helpless as she was gagged.

“I wish I could escape from here. Heaven knows what their torture methods are going to  be."She thought as she felt butterflies in her stomach out of nervousness.

The prison was dark, but there was a small aperture in the wall, allowing a ray of light to enter inside. Ella got startled to see that the light fell exactly on the bones and skeletons scattered around the floor. The skeletons were huge in size compared to human skeletons. "She should be the skeleton of a werewolf!”  She thought.

She could now feel the stink inside, and a nauseating sensation gripped her. She felt like spewing. But she was gagged and couldn’t even breathe properly. Her stomach was growling. She was gripped by anxiety and fear of the unknown torture that was to follow. She felt like screaming her lungs out and reaching out for help.

“There are only werewolves around. Even if I could scream, nobody would reach out for help. They would all obey the orders of their Alpha.” She considered.

It was already dark by now, and the ray of light enabling a little visibility fainted, making the prison completely dim.

Just then, Ella could hear some commotion at the door. She felt her heart race.

“Are they going to torture me now? What will they do to me? Will the next morning see me alive, or would they feed upon my corpse in their breakfast?” She felt a thousand questions arise in her little mind.

A soldier opened the lock and hung the key on the key hanger. He was carrying a flambeau in his left hand. He then entered the prison and placed the flambeau on the holder attached to the wall. Ella felt a little relieved at the heat emanated by the same. Her frozen body felt a little warm. He then ungagged her.

“Your men are going to offer me food, isn’t it? The prisoners in our city are offered food and water at least twice a day.” She gathered her guts and asked.

But to her disappointment, he didn’t reply. He simply stood there still, as if waiting for something.

Ella hoped against hope that another soldier would bring her some food and water. She waited anxiously. After ten minutes, another soldier entered with an iron rod in his hand. There was complete silence. Without speaking a word, the first soldier took the iron rod from his hand and held it over the flambeau. Soon, the iron rod turned red. The soldier now lifted the rod and placed it right on Ella’s arms. Before Ella could realize what was happening, she was already burned in several places on her arms.

The grueling and agonizing pain seemed unendurable for Ella, and her screams echoed throughout the prison. She was being punished and treated like a criminal for no fault of hers. Despite all her efforts to remain strong, she started whimpering.

“Hey! You are not a petty prisoner, so we should offer you food. You are a hard-core criminal. You have tried to murder our Luna, and you deserve much harsher punishment than this. You will be tortured even more severely until you utter the truth about the availability of the scorpion venom." The soldier warned her.

“Trust me! I am innocent. I am not a criminal. Why would I tolerate this harsh treatment if I knew the whereabouts of the scorpion venom?” Ella tried to explain as her voice cracked out of the excruciating pain.