Public Banishment
639 Words
The Pack Hall was completely packed with wolves. Hundreds of pairs of bright glowing eyes tracked me as the guards dragged me down the center aisle.
My feet dragged against the polished oak floorboards. People leaned in close to whisper. They hurled insults right into my face.
"Traitor."
"Dirty thief."
"She tried to trap our Alpha."
I kept my chin pointed high. My skin burned from their dark stares, but I refused to let them see me break. I pressed my palm hard against my stomach. I had to protect the tiny life inside me.
Lucas sat high on the carved marble throne at the head of the long hall. He wore his formal dark coat with silver buttons. He looked cold. He looked like an ancient stone statue carved out of ice.
Victoria stood right beside his chair. She wrapped her long slender arm around his shoulder. She looked down at me with a dangerous grin.
"Elena Vance," Lucas's voice boomed across the vault ceiling. The sound vibrated right through the heavy floorboards. "You stand accused of using dark herbal magic to seduce your Alpha."
A loud gasp ran through the big crowd.
Are you kidding me? Herbal magic? I barely knew how to boil tea without burning the leaves.
"That is a lie!" I shouted. My voice echoed loudly off the high stone pillars. "You came to my room, Lucas! You swore you wanted me!"
"Silence!" Victoria barked. She stepped forward to the edge of the high dais. "The Alpha would never touch a lowborn creature like you willingly. You poisoned his drink at the solstice feast. You tried to ruin his mate's bond with me."
I stared directly into Lucas's dark eyes. I looked for any sign of the man who had held me close in the dark hours of the night. I found nothing. His face remained completely dead and blank.
"How do you plead?" Lucas asked. His tone stayed smooth and detached.
"I plead that you are a coward," I said. Direct. Loud. Clear.
The entire room went dead silent. Nobody talked to an Alpha like that. Ever.
Lucas stood up slowly from his seat. His large shoulders squared off. The thick muscles in his neck tightened up hard.
"For your crimes against the Bloodmoon leadership, you are stripped of your rank," Lucas stated. Every word sounded like a heavy iron hammer falling on an anvil. "You are stripped of your pack name. You are banished from our territory forever."
Victoria let out a small, satisfied breath. She crossed her arms over her chest.
"If you set foot on Bloodmoon land again," Lucas continued, "any warrior has the right to hunt you down and kill you on sight."
The heavy guards grabbed my upper arms. They yanked me back toward the giant double doors at the front entrance.
"Do it," I spat toward the throne. "Throw me out. But remember this day, Lucas. You will pay for this."
They threw me out into the pouring rain. The heavy wooden doors slammed shut behind me with a loud thud. The iron deadbolt slid into place with a sharp metallic clack.
I fell forward into the thick brown mud. The cold rain soaked right through my thin shirt instantly.
I picked myself up off the wet ground. I didn't cry. Tears were a luxury I couldn't afford anymore.
I turned my back on the high wooden walls of the Bloodmoon pack. I walked straight into the dark treeline toward the human city boundary.
I covered my stomach with both hands to block out the freezing wind.
"We will survive this," I whispered into the howling storm. "And he will never know you exist."
I stepped past the glowing boundary stone. The magic link to my pack snapped completely inside my mind. Deep darkness swallowed me whole.
- Writer
