Sentenced to The Ruthless Alpha

Chapter 20: Trial by Silver

Thora POV

It all happened so fast. Thora stood frozen at the corner of the wall, her hands trembling, when her door burst open. Omegas poured in, their faces a storm of questions and accusations.

"What happened?" Rhea snapped, shoving past her to gape out the shattered window. Her hands flew to her mouth. Below, a body lay crumpled and bleeding. She screamed, and within seconds every window in the main pack house flared to life with lamps. Warriors surged across the grounds, torches burning bright at their tips.

"Oh goodness, who fell?"

"Are they dead?"

"Is that the alpha down there? Is that blood on his face?"

Thora's heart slammed against her chest. She shook off the daze and pushed forward until her head was out the window. She barely noticed the glass splinters biting into her palms. It was Alpha Roman indeed. Their eyes met and held, and for one unbearable second the whole world narrowed to that shared look.

Then Rhea yanked her back by the hair.

"You human trash! What have you done to Cecily?" She shoved Thora against the wall in anger. Then, she suddenly went still as her nostrils flared. "What is that smell? Is that Dusk bloom?"

Her gaze dropped to a single purple petal on the floor, and she recoiled from it like it might bite her. Panic rippled through the room.

"Dusk bloom? Who would bring dusk bloom in here?" an omega hissed, rounding on Thora with a look of pure venom. "How dare you bring poison into our sacred home?"

He drew his hand back to strike her but before he could, he froze mid-motion. Every head in the room snapped up at once, as though a silent command had passed through them all. They stood locked in place for a long, breathless moment. Then, one by one, they filed out. Rhea lingered just long enough to spit a curse at Thora under her breath.

The second the door clicked shut behind them, Thora dropped to her knees and snatched up the petal, hiding it in her fist seconds before heavy boots marched in. Dax looked down at her like he always had; like she was something scraped off a boot.

"Get her."

His voice was barely a whisper, but two guards were already hauling her up by the arms. They didn't stop dragging her until they reached the main hall, where the entire pack sat waiting.

She was left kneeling in the center of the room, caught between cold stares and low, simmering murmurs. Roman and the elders sat at the head of the hall.

She searched his face without meaning to, hoping to find something other than anger there. She found plenty of anger. So, she turned to Regan instead. His expression betrayed nothing at all.

Rhea was summoned to testify as head of the omegas. She bowed low before the council.

"I want to start by apologizing to the alpha, the high council and the entire members of this honorable pack. This tragedy happened right under my watch, and that is a failure of my duty." Her eyes cut to Thora, sharp with contempt. "I should have taken more precautions when we accommodated this human."

Thora's throat went tight.

Rhea continued after a bitter sigh. "The human was assigned to Matilda's quarters today. When she returned to our wing, it was already lights-out. Thirty minutes ago, I overheard voices. It was the human accusing Cecily of trying to frame her. Before I could reach them to break it up, Cecily had already gone through the window. It made no sense to me to me. This human shouldn't have had the strength to throw a wolf out a window, even in human form. So, I searched the room and I found a petal of Dusk bloom."

A ripple of murmurs tore through the hall.

"Yes, elders." Rhea's voice rose, trembling with conviction. "Part of her duties today at Matilda's was picking herbs. She must have found the plant and learned what it does to an omega's wolf on contact. I believe she brought it back on purpose, to hurt Cecily or even more wolves."

She spun and stabbed a finger toward Thora. "This human is vengeful. She means to end us all, if we let her." Then she sank to her knees, hands clasped and cried with a cracking voice. "Please, Alpha Roman. Cecily is on the brink of death. The human must pay for what she's done to one of us."

"Make her pay!"

"Kill her!"

The chant rose from the crowd. The omegas dropped to their knees, bowing their heads while wailing for Thora's execution. The noise cut off instantly when Roman lifted a hand. His gaze slid down to Thora, flat and unreadable, and something in it told her exactly what she needed to do.

Gasps rippled through the hall as she rose to her feet.

"Alpha, it is true that I was assisting Matilda today. She did send me into the forest to gather some herbs. Dusk bloom was one of the plants I discovered at Matilda’s today." Her voice shook, but she stayed strong and forced herself not to look at Regan, though she could feel his eyes on her the whole time. "That part is true but nothing else Rhea said is."

"LIAR!" Rhea's eyes brimmed. "How dare you lie before the council and the alpha?"

"I am not lying." Thora's voice rang out sharply. The weakness had drained from her limbs, because she understood now that if she didn't fight for herself in the room, no one else would. She turned to face the council, to face Roman.

"I never brought any plant back to the omega wing. I've never done that, not once. I didn't even know it was dangerous to omegas. All I was told was that it could be used as a mild tonic for sprains and minor injuries."

Her eyes stayed locked on Roman, because she'd seen him leaving Matilda's earlier while Regan explained everything to her. She needed him to know she remembered that. She needed him to affirm it.

"The petals were already in my room when I got back. I couldn't sleep. I heard someone at my door, and then Cecily came in. She didn't look alright. Her eyes were wrong, and her words didn't make sense. She lunged at me and tried to strangle me."

She didn't bother lifting her chin to show the fingerprints bruised into her throat. Her short hair left them plainly visible already.

"Then she saw the petal on the floor and panicked. She went wild with dread and jumped before I could stop her."

The words were barely out of her mouth before the hall erupted. Omegas and betas alike hurled insults at her, defending Cecily's name with a fury that made it clear exactly how this would end if left to them. Thora didn't need to look around twice to know she stood no chance of a fair hearing here. She turned back to Roman, who was still watching her, unmoving.

You said you'd protect me, she thought, wishing he could hear it. He gave no reaction. So, she turned to Regan instead and spoke aloud to him.

"You know I'm telling the truth. You told me about the Dusk bloom yourself. You saw me leave Matilda's with nothing. The patrol guards would have smelled it on me if I'd carried it, right? But they didn't, because there was nothing on me. I know my heart is racing right now. It's not because I'm lying. It's because I just witnessed someone leap out a window and almost shatter her skull. Please. You have to believe me."

He parted his lips but before he could speak, someone else did.

"She's telling the truth."

Every head in the hall turned toward the alpha as he rose from his seat. "I understand and share this pack's contempt for the human. But we are not a people who pretend not to know truth from lies when it's inconvenient."

He descended from the platform and stopped directly in front of Rhea, who visibly swallowed.

"I was patrolling the grounds when Cecily fell. I caught several scents outside, moments before her scream tore through the night." He caught Rhea's jaw between two fingers and tilted her face up to his. "You claim you only rushed in after she fell. Then why does her scent cling to you as though the two of you were together well before she ever entered that room?"

"A-Alpha…"

"Think very carefully before you lie to me, again."

Rhea's whole body shook. "C-Cecily told me she got punished with harder labor because of the human. She wanted revenge. She was… she was willing to hurt herself to see the human punished severely…"

"You mean killed."

"Y-yes. She followed the human into the forest, saw her picking herbs for Matilda, and snick in the Dusk bloom herself into the room using piles of cloth. She only meant to—AHHHHHHH—"

Rhea's scream tore through the hall. It took a full second for anyone, including Thora, to understand what had happened. Rhea collapsed to her knees, clutching her bleeding hand to her chest. Her teeth gritted against the pain.

The elders murmured among themselves as Roman calmly wiped a small, silver blade against his coat. It was the same one Thora had snuck in her boot a while back.

"Rhea Gorden, you are hereby punished to spend seven nights in the dungeons. There shall be no medical attention for your silver burn until your release. Food and water will only be served once in two days."

"Alpha, please." Penny stepped forward. "Surely you don't mean to defend the human over one of our own."

"I am punishing an omega for disturbing this pack's peace and lying before the council and myself." His voice cut through the hall like a blade of its own, and Penny plunked back on her seat, embarrassed.

Roman’s gaze swept the room, slowly and deliberately. "That applies to every one of you. Hate the human all you like, but you will not step outside our laws to punish her, or you will answer to me directly. We are a pack known for our order and our laws. Her presence in here does not give any of you license to abandon said laws."

His eyes settled on the elders. "The high council has made it clear: if the human dies before my divorce is finalized, it will stain the Valcourt name for another generation. So, I will say this once. Anyone who gets creative ideas about ending her life will regret it far more than she ever could." His voice dropped, quiet and absolute. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, Alpha!" Everyone echoed.

"Take her away." He gestured toward Rhea, who was dragged out sobbing, her bleeding hand pressed to her chest.

The trembling in Thora's own hands had finally stopped, but there was no time to feel relief, or to sit with the strange, fragile warmth of watching Roman keep his word to protect her. Before the doors had even closed behind Rhea, and before Roman could resume his chair, another voice rang out across the silent hall.

"Alpha Roman, is it true the human is your long awaited, fated mate?"

The entire hall went still.