[AWUOR]
"Justice for Luna Eniola!" The crowd joined in and Jer stopped trying to persuade Dom against it. Instead, he joined the chant of justice for the dead luna, the woman everyone had adored even the kids who knew nothing of life.
All this while, Awuor just stared at her people. She was thinking but nothing made any sense to her. She couldn't remember what had happened and how she had ended up killing her own mother. That was something she had never even given thought and now, it happened.
She knew the outcome and was done hoping for a better outcome. She was painfully aware of what was waiting for her, so it was pointless for her to hold on to hope. But did that warrant her crazy words later? Didn't she realize the implications of what she was doing?
'Forgive me, mother,' Awuor said to herself as she glared at the crowd before her, furiously rubbing off her tears. She knew they were thinking she was trying to buy their pity. But her mother had just died, apparently by her hands. She didn't need anyone's pity. She needed to get out of here.
If they were to kill her, she would accept it, but she was more than willing to do anything just to get away from their angry voices and glares. She couldn't take it anymore. So as the irrational girl she was at the moment, she spoke up.
"I killed her, so what will you do?" Awuor spoke up for the first time in the past three hours. She had been silent all that time, watching them call her names and treat her like shit.
In those three hours, she tried to think of what had happened but she couldn't remember anything. The last thing she remembered was that she had been at the gym, training for her next session with the Sicario warriors.
"The audacity!"
"Justice for Luna Eniola!"
The chants got even more aggressive and soon enough they started throwing things at the woman who had dared to say such a vile thing, she wasn't remorseful. She wasn't showing any signs of seeking forgiveness for what she had done and that clearly didn't sit well with the people of Sicario.
The alpha looked at his daughter, disappointment, and anger clouding his mind. How could his only daughter do that to him? How could she even think of killing her mother? That was the lowest of all lows and consequences be damned, the alpha had to do something.
"Silence!" Alpha Sicario growled at his people who responded with complete and utter silence. They were curious as to what the alpha would do, now that his daughter was being accused of murdering her own mother.
Alpha Sicario walked to the podium where his remorseless daughter was seated. She had maintained eye contact with him, even though that was considered unlawful and disrespectful. She didn't care, not here and certainly not this time. Besides, she was the reigning alpha, not him.
Looking at his people, the alpha wasn't sure he had the energy to stand here beside his daughter. She had taken away someone so important to him. She had denied him the chance to grow old and be happy with his mate.
His own daughter had forced him to be mateless without so much as an explanation. What was he supposed to do with her? Sicario was angry. If she was someone else, the alpha could have already had her beheaded, But this was his daughter.
The blood of his blood who had taken the love of his life.
Taking a deep frustrated sigh, the alpha began.
"My dear Awuor, I trusted you and you failed me. You stand accused of murdering your mother, luna, and my mate, Eniola Sicario. How do you plead?" Sicario asked. He knew he couldn't do anything unless he knew what his daughter was thinking.
If she pleaded not guilty, then he would keep her in the dungeons until she admitted to it. The stench of his mate's blood was evident on her body. She was covered in her mother's blood from her head to her toe.
It was pointless trying to deny it.
The alpha was just asking this, so the people would see that the alpha wasn't an emotional leader. He followed the law. But did he follow the law when he had already judged his daughter no matter what she would say today?
"I plead guilty, alpha," Awuor said in a bored and flat tone like all these people were just wasting her time.
The father and daughter held their stares together, one of them with eyes filled with pain, while the other, just had empty cold eyes. She didn't feel anything, or maybe she did but she didn't want to bother defending herself.
Awuor could see their faces and that was also how she knew that there would be no justice here. Her denying the murder would just result in her body being found somewhere in the bushes with a claim that she was attacked by rogues.
"Then in accordance with the justice laws of the werewolf kingdom, I, Alpha Sicario, banish you from our pack lands. You will not be stripped of your alpha title instead you will be the alpha of nothing. If you create a pack, we will kill all of them as retaliation for the murder of my luna and mate.
"Jer, your mate, will take over the throne since you were both already fully mated. If you are seen anywhere near the pack lands, the warriors have the authority to kill you on sight. So be warned, child.
"Leave this place this instant, and take nothing with you, except for the clothes on you and the crown on your head. May that be a reminder of what you did to your mother. The bloody crown," Sicario said while looking at his daughter.
Expectedly, the pack members were in complete silence.
What the alpha had just done was the worst that anyone could have done to any alpha or child. It was too cruel a punishment, but then she had taken away the one thing that could have kept Sicario peaceful. So now she had to pay the price.
"I accept," Awuor said, her head held high, once again, shocking the people of Sicario. She had stopped shedding tears and her eyes were still empty, besides she already knew the tradition was waiting for her.
So when her father finished stating her punishment, Alpha Awuor headed towards the clog of penance.
It was the one passage to the outside of Sicario, for the people who were banished. She would be walking on fire on her way out of the home that bore her and one she had loved for years. This was her damning sentence, and she had accepted her fate.
"Awuor," Jer called onto his mate. Once again, his voice was concerned but his eyes were full of joy for some reason. It was like he was glad she was going away. Awuor already knew that her mate was power-hungry and this was his perfect opportunity.
Sure, she was being sent out on murder charges, and her mate was weirdly happy, but a part of her was painfully aware that her mate would never do anything to harm her.
He had truly loved her, but he loved power more.