THE TRIAL, OVERTHROWN FROM POWER
1599 Words
I shivered beneath the weight of his gaze.
Noah looked like a storm barely leashed—a tempest of fury, lightning cracking in his eyes. If hate had a face, it would wear his. His stare flayed me alive. Not even the sacred bond of mateship could shield me from the venom burning in his expression.
He looked at me as if I were the cause of all ruin. As if loving me had been a curse written into his fate.
He knew.
The whispers must have reached him. The lies twisted into truths by sharpened tongues. And now, I stood at the center of his rage, every ounce of his hatred crashing down on me like a tidal wave.
“Alpha—” Grace's voice trembled, but she stumbled back, even though this was her room. Even she feared what he might become.
Noah didn’t need to run. Each step he took was heavy enough to shake the earth. He closed the space between us like death itself. And before I could draw a breath, his hand seized my throat, lifting me, forcing me down onto the bed like a criminal caught red-handed.
The softness of the mattress mocked the agony that bloomed through my spine. His grip—once a symbol of passion—had turned into shackles of pain.
There was a time I would’ve melted under his touch. Now, all it did was set my skin ablaze with terror.
“Did I not tell you to stay away from her?” he snarled, his voice dark as midnight thunder. “Are you so selfish you'd gamble the fate of this pack just to satisfy your jealousy?”
His face was shadowed in fury, eyes blackened with betrayal.
“N-Noah...” My voice cracked like glass. “I—I can’t breathe...”
But my pleas were feathers against the storm. He was deaf to mercy. Blinded by wrath.
“You think you can threaten the mother of my child and walk away unscathed?” he roared into my face, and spat hot with anger. “You think I wouldn’t burn the world down for her?”
He saw Cassidy’s tears.
But not once had he seen mine.
Not once had he noticed the way I broke every day, just begging to be loved by him. I had reached for him through the darkness. I begged for his warmth. And he’d turned his back, finding comfort into the arms of another woman instead of.
“You’re not worthy of your title,” he hissed, releasing me with a disgusted shove. I crumpled like paper to the bed, breathless and shaking.
My body still trembled as his breathing fanned my face. The scent that once made my soul dance now made my stomach churn. I looked into the eyes of the man whose fate bound me to—and saw nothing but a stranger who wanted me dead.
Why, Goddess? Why pair me with someone who sees me as the villain in a story I never wrote?
“I didn’t mean to...” I stammered. “I was just angry... I never meant—”
“Don’t.” His voice cut through me like a blade. “Don’t speak. You sicken me. Let this be the last time you ever cross her, Catleya. If you so much as breathe the wrong way near Cassidy again—I’ll rip our bond without any hesitation infront of the pack and the moon goddess.”
And with that, he left me shattered in the ruins of my pride.
***
I couldn’t go back to my room. Not when it reeked of emptiness and betrayal. I wandered toward my grandfather’s home—searching, longing, but it was futile.
Not when it seems like our encounter has not ended yet. Rounding around the corner, I heard blood-curdling screams and cries, the clamors that made me freeze in my spot instantly when I heard the cause of it.
“She’s bleeding! Cassidy—she lost the baby!”
“The future Alpha is dead!”
The words froze my blood.
I turned, panic burning my lungs, and it seemed like my feet had their own life. I found myself running towards the commotion—until a wall of muscle blocked my path.
“Theo,” I gasped. “Let me through. Is she—”
“Where do you think you’re going?” His growl cracked like a whip. The crowd’s attention turned toward us, everyone stared at the both of us.
“Theo, please, I heard what happened—how’s Cassidy? The baby—”
“You dare to ask?” he barked. “You have the gall to play innocent when you’re the one who murdered my nephew?”
“No! I didn’t do anything!” My voice rose with desperation.
He shoved something under my nose. The bitter, familiar scent slapped me across the face.
“M-Moon’s Bane...” I whispered, my blood running cold.
A deadly herb. Illegal. Lethal. Treasonous.
And now? It was pinned to me.
“Cassidy was poisoned,” Theo snarled. “For days. And this was found in your belongings.”
Gasps fell like hammers from the mouths around me.
“No—no, it wasn’t mine! Someone planted it!”
But no one listened.
My arms were seized, yanked back like I was a rabid rogue. The world spun. The betrayal seared deeper than any wound.
“Catleya Lockhart, you are charged with the murder of the future Alpha,” Theo declared, binding my wrists. “Take her to the cells.”
“No—please! I didn’t do it!” I sobbed, thrashing against their iron grip. “I’m still your Luna! I need to speak to Noah! He’ll believe me—he has to!”
But even I no longer believed that lie.
“So, what sweet little story are you going to spin now?” a voice sneered, laced with venom.
Noah.
My eyes shot to him—tearful, broken, clinging to the last string of hope.
But he wasn’t alone.
Cassidy lay in his arms like a fragile doll, her face pale, her eyes hollow. Her pain was real. But so was mine—and no one cared.
Noah’s eyes met mine, and the last flicker of hope inside me died.
He hated me.
The way a man hates the thing that ruined him.
“I didn’t do it,” I whispered, barely audible. “I was framed. You know me... she’s my sister—”
“But you’d dance in her grave if it meant taking her place,” my mother’s voice rang from behind him.
I turned in horror.
“M-Mama... how can you say that?”
“Don’t pretend,” she spat. “You’ve wished her dead before. Don’t deny it.”
My knees buckled.
Everything I loved was turning its back on me.
Noah stepped forward.
“Then let it be done,” he growled. “I, Noah Alard Cardnell, revoke your title as the Luna of the Blood Moon Pack...”
“No... please, no,” I begged, my voice is already hoarse. “Don’t do this—”
“—and I reject you, Catleya Lockhart, as my mate.”
The bond snapped.
It was like someone took a blade to my soul. I screamed, silent and raw, as pain unlike anything I’d ever known swallowed me whole. My knees hit the stone floor with a crack. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see. The world blurred.
“Make it stop... please... just make it stop...” I begged to no one.
But all they did was continuously watch as I writhed and suffered the unimaginable pain, burning alive with all their backs turned against me mercilessly and cruelly.
***
The prison was hell wrapped in a stone. A cesspool of rot and waste. I was given rags to wear and stale food meant for rogues.
They left it to spoil.
I hadn’t eaten in days.
It had been a week since they threw me here. A week of silence. A week of watching hope bleed from my veins.
“It’s time.”
I looked up at the familiar voice.
Theo.
My brother.
“You came...” I whispered.
His eyes were cold and cruel. “Don’t get it twisted. I came to make sure justice is done.”
“You know I didn’t kill him!” I screamed, lunging against my chains.
“Tell that to the court, bitch.”
He grabbed me like I was filth. Dragged me through the halls as if I weighed nothing.
“Walk or I’ll break your legs,” he snapped.
I walked.
When the great doors opened, I was hit by a wave of hate.
The pack. My people. The ones I had protected. Guided. Smiled for.
Now? They looked at me like I was the monster beneath their beds.
At the far end stood Noah. Regal. Cold. Dead behind the eyes.
Cassidy stood beside him—pale, weak, and still mourning..
And I?
I was the villain of this tale.
I saw the bowl. The cup. Even before a word was spoken, I knew my punishment.
They would make me drink Moon’s Bane.
Poisoned like the child I was blamed for killing.
And they would watch.
Watch me beg.
Watch me writhe.
Watch me die.
I looked around the hall—at the faces I once called family.
And I made a vow in silence.
If I survived this... I would never beg again.
- Writer
