IMPRISONED by the ALPHA

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Answer me," Kaelen said. His hand was still on her throat.

"I can't," Elara gasped. "I don't remember."

"You don't remember."

"He asked me to meet him. Then everything went dark."

"My brother, the golden son of Moonreach, asked an omega to meet him in the dark." Kaelen's laugh was short and ugly.

"It's true!"

A broad-shouldered man pushed through the guards and knelt beside them. Marek, the Beta, worry written across his face. "Let her go. You'll kill her before the council hears her."

"That is the idea."

"Not without a trial. You know the law."

Elara felt Kaelen's pulse through his fingers, fast and angry. Then he let go, and she fell back into the grass, coughing, the cold air burning her throat.

"Chain her. And no one touches my brother until I say so."

Iron cuffs closed around her wrists, freezing cold. She tried to look at Soren one last time, but someone stepped in front of her.

"Poor boy," said a gentle, shaking voice. Elder Thorne Vance leaned on his cane beside the body, tears running down his lined face. He had raised both Draven brothers after their father died, and the whole pack respected him. "I warned him. I told him to stop wandering at night."

"You knew he was out here?" Kaelen asked hoarsely.

"I knew nothing. I only feared." Thorne wiped his eyes. "Let us take him home."

"Yes," Kaelen said quietly. "Do it."

"And the omega?"

Kaelen didn't look at her. "The Hollow."

The Hollow was the dungeon beneath Moonreach Keep, and it smelled of wet stone and old fear. Water dripped somewhere in the dark, slow and steady, like a clock counting down. Elara sat on the floor of her cell with her knees pulled to her chest, her dress stiff with Soren's blood.

Why can't I remember?

The lake. The tea. Soren whispering run. A snarl. A thud. Then nothing, like a page torn from a book.

"Elara."

A small figure stood outside the bars with a lantern. "Sera?" She stumbled to the door. "What are you doing here?"

Seraphine's face was white, her eyes red and swollen. "I bribed the guard. I only have a minute."

"I didn't do it. I swear on the Moon Goddess."I know." Seraphine's voice cracked. "You couldn't hurt anyone."

"Then tell them!"

"They won't listen to a healer. Everyone is saying you lured him there, that you're a jealous omega who..." She shook her head. "It's all lies."

Elara swallowed. "Sera, the tea you gave me. I drank it by the lake. Right after, I felt dizzy. Then I woke up beside him."

For a moment neither spoke. The lantern flame trembled.

"It was only mint tea," Seraphine said, very thinly. "People faint when they're scared. Don't say that to anyone. Promise me."

"Why?"

"Because they'll only hurt you more." She backed away. "I'm so sorry."

"Sera, wait!"

But the lantern was already disappearing up the stairs. Elara stood alone in the dark, gripping the bars, an uneasy feeling twisting in her stomach. Sera had never once lied to her. Why did that answer sound so rehearsed?

They came for her at noon.

The council chamber was packed. Every wolf of rank sat on the curved stone benches, and behind them the common pack crowded in, glaring. When Elara was dragged through the doors, the room hissed like a nest of snakes.

"Murderer!"

"Hang her!"

She was pushed to her knees in the center. At the high table Kaelen sat in the Alpha's chair, motionless as a statue. Thorne sat at his right hand, and seven other elders watched her with hard faces.

"Elara Voss," Thorne said sadly. "You are accused of killing Soren Draven. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty," she said, her voice small. "I didn't do it."

"Then how did you come to be found beside him?"

"He asked me to meet him. He said something was wrong in the pack."

"Convenient," an elder woman sneered. "A dead man cannot confirm it."

"He was afraid. He looked behind me and told me to run. Then I felt dizzy, and I woke up and he was..." She couldn't finish.

"Who attacked you?" asked a gray-bearded elder.

"I didn't see."

"You saw nothing. You remember nothing. Yet you were covered in his blood, holding the dagger."

"It was only near my hand!"

"Enough." Kaelen's voice was quiet, but the room fell silent. His eyes were flat and gray. "Did you hate my brother?"

"No, my lord."

"Did he ever mistreat you?"

"Never. He was kind." Tears finally spilled down her face. "Why would I kill the only person in this keep who ever spoke to me like I was a person?"

Nothing in Kaelen's face moved.

The elder woman rose. "She was found with the body. She has the weapon. She has no defense. I call for execution at dawn."

"Agreed," said another. "Agreed." One by one the elders voted, and each word fell on Elara like a stone. She stopped trying to count them.

"Thorne?" Kaelen asked at last.

The old man sighed. "My heart is breaking, Kaelen. But the law is the law. I agree."

"Then it is decided," the gray-bearded elder said. "Alpha, you need only pronounce it."

Silence filled the chamber. Elara could hear her own heartbeat. Kaelen stared straight at her, and something dark and cold moved behind his gaze, something she could not name.

He stood.

"The council has spoken. But the Alpha holds the final word." Marek murmured a warning. Kaelen ignored him. "Elara Voss will not be executed."

The room exploded.

"Impossible!"

"She killed your brother!"

"Silence!" Kaelen's roar shook the walls. Gold flared in his eyes, and even the elders flinched. He stepped down from the high table, one slow step at a time, until he stood over her.

"Death is too easy," he said softly. "Death is a mercy. And you do not deserve mercy."

Elara's heart stopped.

"By Alpha's decree, this omega will serve me for one full year. She will live in my chambers. She will obey my every command. And every day of that year, she will pay for my brother's life."

He bent until his mouth was beside her ear.

"Welcome to hell, little murderer," he whispered. "I promise you'll beg for the rope."