Sold To The Ruthless Werewolf King

11

Emily

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd, followed by furious whispering. Everyone knew what happened to the Nightclaw King’s queens. None of them survived.

“She had a terrible accident a while ago,” Josh added, his voice smooth and fake as he gestured to my face. “She suffered injuries to her beautiful face. But even with that mark, she is still as precious to us as a rose.”

The hypocrisy snapped something inside my brain. The white-hot flame in my chest exploded.

I smiled, slowly rising to my feet. The see-through fabric of my dress fluttered in the wind, but I didn’t care. “Thank you, Alpha,” I said, my voice clear and dangerously sweet, hiding the absolute rage pouring through my veins.

I turned around, turning my back on the stage to face the hundreds of pack members staring at me.

“A gentle, noble Alpha like him...” I mused loudly, my voice carrying across the silent courtyard. “I’m almost jealous of you all. You have such a brave leader.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Sit down!” Anna snapped from the stage, her face turning purple with rage.

“I’m just letting the pack members know who their Alpha truly is,” I said, a dark smirk cutting across my scarred face.

I took a step closer to the crowd, my eyes wide and unblinking. “I’m just letting them know that this ‘noble’ Alpha is the exact same man who murdered our former Alpha and his two brothers!”

The entire hall went completely frozen. The silence was terrifying.

“Don’t listen to her!” Josh roared, his alpha aura flaring as he marched down the wooden steps toward me. “Her brain was severely injured when she fell! She doesn’t know what she’s saying!”

“Yes! Yes, she’s out of her mind!” Anna screamed, rushing down behind him. “My sister is lying! How could our Alpha kill his own father? She’s insane!”

“I speak the truth!” I shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at them. “My father helped him do it! They slaughtered the Alpha’s bloodline to steal the crown!”

“Oh?”

A deep, heavy voice cut through my screams. My father stepped forward from the shadows of the stage, his face a mask of cold, disappointed sorrow. He looked out at the murmuring crowd, completely unbothered.

“You claim I killed the Alpha, Emily,” my father said, his voice echoing with authority. “Where is your proof? Where are your witnesses?”

I froze. My breath hitched in my throat. I looked at the crowd, then at my father, then at Josh.

I had nothing. No letters. No recordings. No witnesses. I was a wolf-less slave with a broken mind and a ruined face.

I stayed silent, the trap closing around me.

“My daughter has always been deeply jealous of her sister,” my father added, turning to the elders with a heavy sigh. “She cooked up this disgusting lie just to watch Anna suffer on her wedding day.”

He lifted his hand, dismissing me like a bug. “Don’t mind her. She hasn’t been in her right senses ever since her accident.”

“Are you really saying you want to send a mentally broken, mutilated woman to the Nightclaw King?” a warrior in the crowd called out, his brow furrowed in disapproval. “Isn’t that an insult to their pack? He’s our king.”

“She is a woman with no sense, but her bloodline is still Beta blood,” my father replied coldly, his eyes locking onto mine with hatred. “Our King will be pleased to do whatever he wishes with her.”

“I know what you did—” I began, opening my mouth to scream one last defiance.

But I never got to finish.

A massive, heavy hand clapped tightly over my mouth, cutting off my air. Before I could kick or fight, a powerful arm wrapped around my waist, lifting my small body completely off the ground. I thrashed, driving my elbows back, but it was like hitting solid stone.

“It’s time to go serve your new king, Tenth Queen,” one of my father’s elite guards hissed in my ear as he carried me away from the crowd, dragging me toward the heavy iron transport carriages waiting at the gates. “Let’s go.”