The Blackfang Alphas and Slaves

Chapter 11

LIRA

I stared at Rhodes, waiting for him to say something, the man who had claimed my bed for years, but his face was a slab of cold stone. He didn't look like a lover or even a master; he looked like a judge who had already decided on the sentence. He didn't say a word to me as he turned on his heel and walked out, his heavy cloak swishing against the floor, and I felt a sharp pang in my chest that had nothing to do with the guards' rough grip on my arms. I knew then that resistance was a waste of energy, so I let my shoulders sag and stopped fighting as they hauled me toward the door.

The three wives were huddled together like a pack of hyenas sensing a kill, and their eyes were bright with a triumph they didn't bother to hide.

As I passed them, Ivara stepped forward with a lazy, mocking smile on her face. She tilted her head, looking me up and down as if I were a piece of meat that had gone rotten, and then she leaned in close enough for me to smell her floral perfume.

"Oh, Lira," she said, her voice dripping with fake concern. "Did you ever find that son of yours? You were so worried about him earlier."

She paused, tapping a finger against her chin as if she just remembered something, and then she let out a little gasp and covered her mouth with both palms.

"Wait, was he hiding in Garrik’s bed too? Is that why you were there?"

The other two wives burst into jagged laughter that echoed off the stone walls, and I felt the heat of humiliation crawling up my neck. Ivara leaned in even closer, her eyes turning cold and dark. "You should probably just forget about him, slave. You won't be around to see what happens to him anyway."

I wanted to spit in her face or claw those mocking eyes out, but I knew a reply would just give them more ammunition to use against me, so I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth and kept my jaw shut. I focused on the image of Kai’s face, praying to whatever gods were listening that he was far away from this trap and safe from their reach.

The guards didn't give me a moment to breathe as they dragged me down the damp corridor. They tossed me into a small, windowless room and threw a coarse, scratchy gown at my feet. It was the drab grey wool reserved for the lowest kitchen slaves, and I stripped off the ruined finery I had been wearing, feeling the cold air bite at my skin. I pulled the rough fabric over my head and felt the weight of my fallen status in every stitch. Once I was dressed, they shoved me back out and marched me toward the council elders' hall.

When the heavy oak doors swung open, the room felt like a furnace. The elders were seated in a semi-circle, their faces lined with age and judgment, and my heart sank as I scanned the row. At least half of them were men who had clashed with Kai over his arrogance or had hated me since the moment Rhodes first took me to his chambers. I stood in the center of the floor, feeling small and exposed under the high vaulted ceiling.

"Lira of the mountain tribe," an elder began, his voice rasping like dry leaves. "You stand accused of the highest betrayal. You seduced the Alpha’s Beta on the very night your son was meant to take his place as heir. Do you deny this filth?"

"I deny it," I said, my voice cracking before I steadied it. "I was drugged and taken to that room against my will. Garrik is a traitor who lied to you, and the wives.."

"Silence!" a female elder snapped, leaning forward so far I thought she might fall off her perch. She looked at me with pure, unadulterated loathing.

"A slave will always be a slave, Lira. You should have learned your place years ago, but instead, you let your ambition lead you to a man's bed. What else is to be expected from someone who uses her body to please her master? You think because you birthed a pup that you are one of us?"

I looked at Rhodes, who was sitting at the end of the panel, and I saw his jaw tighten until the bone looked like it might snap. The elder’s words were a direct hit to his ego, a public reminder that he had elevated a common slave to his side, and I saw the shame of it turn into a hot, blinding rage in his eyes. He didn't stand up to defend me or tell her to hold her tongue. Instead, he stood up and glared down at me as if I were the dirt beneath his boots.

For a split second, I had this delusional hope that he was going to see through the lies and save me, but that dream died the moment he opened his mouth.

"The crime of a******y and treason demands a heavy price," Rhodes announced, his voice booming through the hall and rattling the torches in their brackets. "Normally, the penalty for a wayward slave is a beating for ten days, fifty lashes per day until the skin is gone and the lesson is learned."

He paused.

"But Lira has insulted the crown and the pack," he continued, his eyes flat and dead. "She will be beaten today, and then she will be taken to the pack grounds to be executed by stoning in front of everyone. Let her blood wash away the shame she brought to this house."

The light in the room seemed to dim as all the hope left my body. I felt hollow, like a tree that had been rotted out from the inside, and I didn't even flinch when the gu

ards grabbed my shoulders to lead me away.