CHAPTER 4 - deceit
1297 Words
I woke up in an unfamiliar room, my head pounding and my body aching. I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain shot through my head, forcing me back on the bed.
Trying to remove the sheets, I was naked, but how? Just then, I noticed a guy lying next to me, his chest rising and falling with every breath.
I started to panic; I didn't understand what was happening. The last thing I remembered was Alpha Jael cheating on me.
With a smirk that bespoke sinister amusement, the stranger stirred, advancing towards me with predatory intent. His eyes, deep pools of darkness, held me captive in their inscrutable depths, a harbinger of ominous revelations yet to come.
Abruptly, the tranquility of the room shattered as the door burst open, Alpha Jael's furious presence filling the space with palpable hostility.
“I always knew you were nothing but a b***h!!” He cursed, and my heart broke into pieces.
Accusations hurled like daggers, each word a searing condemnation of betrayal. My futile attempts at defense crumbled beneath the weight of his wrath, my voice reduced to a mere echo of disbelief.
"What?" I managed to utter, a feeble protest drowned out by the tumult of emotions crashing over me.
"How dare you defile my wife's honor!" Alpha Jael's voice thundered, punctuating the air with venomous accusation as he thrust a damning pouch towards the interloper. His glare pierced through me, a silent condemnation that shattered the fragile remnants of my world, leaving me adrift in a sea of uncertainty and regret.
Some of the pack members flooded into the room and said, "I knew she was a b***h the first day I saw her." One of them said.
“Exactly, to think she's our Luna!" Even the maids said, giving me judgmental looks. How could they say such a thing to me? I have been nothing but good to them.
"I didn't do anything... who are you?" I questioned, and the man rolled his eyes at me.
"You're asking him like you don't know who he is!" Alpha Jael retorted. In a quick movement, I felt a slap on my cheek.
Tears stung my eyes, and I didn't even know when I fell to my knees. I didn't care anymore how they saw me.
I was naked, vulnerable, and shattered. He had wronged me so badly, and I didn't want to think about it, but what hurt me more was the fact that I had been lying with someone I didn't even know.
A stranger. How on earth had I been sleeping with a stranger in my bed? I couldn't remember anything. The last thing I recalled was seeing my so-called husband on the bed, being intimate with someone I didn't recognize.
I can remember how pain consumed me as I climbed the stairs, my heart bleeding so much that I screamed loudly.
I didn’t do anything!” I cried out, desperately trying to defend myself. But it was as if my words were falling on deaf ears. No one wanted to believe me.
“Shut up!” he barked, and I flinched, shrinking in on myself like a lost puppy.
The others began chanting in a language I couldn’t understand, and a strange, pulsating energy wrapped around me, suffocating and terrifying.
“Alpha, she forced me to sleep with her by threatening the life of my family,” the man beside me accused, his voice steady and cold.
My heart sank. What was happening? How could this be real?
“Someone take her away!” Alpha Jael commanded.
Hands grabbed me, dragging me out of the room as I struggled and kicked, trying to break free. Panic clawed at my chest.
“This is a set-up, please,” I pleaded, my voice breaking. “I didn’t do it!”
But my efforts were in vain. No one listened. No one cared. I was alone, fighting against an inevitable fate, my cries lost in the void.
“Alpha, isn't this too harsh for her!” One of the elders who was among us questioned.
"If she doesn't survive, it's her problem. Her loss will not be felt by me and the pack." His nonchalant statement cut through my heart like a dagger.
I was left to wonder why the Moon goddess gave her such a cruel and selfish man as a mate.
Alpha Jael was right, though. My loss would not be felt by the pack or him.
"If you apologize, I could reduce your punishment," he mocked me. It was obvious, but others thought he was being good.
"I am not sorry at all! I didn't do anything," i refused to plead for a crime I didn't commit while shaking in fear.
"You think apologizing will fix this? I will show you what happens when a wretch like you does such a thing again." I only looked up to see Alpha Jael's cold face."I want you to give her two hundred and fifty rounds of floggings just with her undergarments," he added, his eyes locking mine.
Despite his blue eyes, they seemed to darken like charcoal. I should have heeded the warnings about his heartlessness and lack of empathy, but my infatuation with having a mate clouded my judgment. Now, where has it led me to?
The whip lashed down like a bolt of lightning, striking my flesh with a force that ripped my skin open. Agony surged through me, tearing a primal scream from the depths of my soul. In that moment, I knew I was experiencing a torment beyond the bounds of any earthly suffering.
"More!" The Alpha's command reverberated through the room, a cruel decree that made my blood run cold. I could only blink, the world around me a blur of unbearable pain and relentless torture.
Each second felt like an eternity, a slow, agonizing journey to the brink of death. My heart faltered, each beat a struggle, my skin burning as if consumed by an unholy fire. I was trapped in a nightmare, unable to move, unable to plead for mercy, condemned to endure a punishment for a crime I hadn't committed.
Despair gripped me as I lay there, each lash a reminder of my helplessness. I wanted to cry out, to beg for it to stop, but my voice was lost in the torrent of suffering. All I could do was endure.
Days passed in a blur as I languished in a cold, dark cell.
Finally, my parents arrived, and I cried out, "Father, Mother, it's all a lie! Please help me. I was set up; I didn't do it. I would never do anything like that; you know me." Their faces were etched with disappointment.
"We thought we knew you, but I don't think you're our daughter anymore; you've changed," my mother said. "You betrayed us, our pack, and your mate. How could you?" Hearing her words, a tear fell from my eyes.
Why was all of this happening to me? I didn't understand.
"Father, you believe me, right?" I looked at my father, waiting for him to say something.
"You brought shame to our family and pack. May the goddess never forgive your soul." With that, they turned their backs on me and left.
"You! Why are you setting me up?" I asked Alpha Jael, my heart breaking.
"What did you think? I'd let you ruin my reputation? Among all my wives, you were the sweetest, but I guess it's my fate to watch my wives die. Anyway, I'll leave you to your misery now." He laughed as he walked out of the cell, and I helplessly fell to the floor as tears streamed down my face.
How did my life spiral out of control so quickly?
- Writer
