The crowd nodded, hissed, growled and murmured. Anticipation, and anxiety filled the air that it was all I could breathe in until it filled my insides. We all wanted to hear what the beta was going to say, who he was hinting at and I had a feeling that I already knew what was coming.
"Would you believe," he began, "if I told you our Alpha fell at the hand of his very own daughter?"
The crowd gasped and I was sure I heard my voice there too. I was taken aback by the revelation of the beta. Although, I had expected it, but still –
"No!" I shouted. "That is a lie."
The beta turned slowly towards me and bared his teeth in what he believed to be a smile. He looked more like a clown and I had the sudden urge to claw at his face. I hated clowns.
Sudden rage soared up inside me and I jumped towards him, but he quickly covered his face and I tore his hands instead. The crowd roared and hands held me back from inflicting more harm on the beta.
"How could you?" I spat. Tears were rolling down my face as I spoke. "What did I ever do to you?"
"Nothing." He spat back. "This is for justice. You killed your own father! For what? Power?"
The crowd roared again.
"I did not kill my –"
"You cannot deny it." He raised his voice over mine. "You can't." he repeated quietly and walked towards where I stood with my arms restrained behind me. He grinned in my face, confident that no one could see his face from here, not even the moon priestess.
Once he was close enough to me as he liked, close enough that I could smell what food he had for lunch, close enough that I could feel his ragged, excited breath fanning my exposed neck, he began to whisper. "They would not believe you, Amelia. Even if you scream from now till tomorrow."
He stepped back and I hissed regretfully.
"You are going to leave." He said audibly for everyone to hear. Once the crowd roared their agreement, he drew himself towards me again, and whispered. "If you do not want the same thing that happened to your father to happen to you."
I growled angrily and struggled against the cuffs. My wolf was still too weak, still subdued by whatever the priestess had given me to drink. I glanced at where she sat, and our eyes met. Her cold eyes bored into mine until I could take it no longer and looked away.
"You will be banished from this pack. You know what it is to be an omega? A wolf without a pack?"
A chill ran through me and I gritted my teeth.
"No." I pleaded. "Let me see my father, at least give me a chance to explain. We were attacked…" I was beginning to ramble.
"Lies!" Beta Blade shouted. "All lies, do not let her tears deceive -"
"Let her speak." A voice shouted, cutting off the beta.
I saw the priestess stand from her seat and begin to walk towards us. The air fell silent , the beta hung his head and I raided mine defiantly.
"Speak, child." She commanded. "Let us hear what you have to say, although there's no excuse for this crime that you have committed." Her voice was soft, lilting. Different from the voice I had heard in the room. While her voice suddenly had a warmth to it, her demeanor remained freezing.
"I did not kill my father." I squeaked. Where had my voice gone? Now that I had a chance to tell everybody that they were wrong to accuse me of murder?
"I would never do that. We were attacked by rogue werewolves and father fought him off. He told me to run and I did, I came here to get help and, and…" I trailed off, unable to – to remember the events which must have taken place after that.
"- and what, Amelia?" the priestess asked. Her voice was cold now, and her demeanor, colder. "and what? You must finish what you were saying."
"That is all I remember." I shouted. I was trembling and my head would not stop pounding, "that is all I remember." I repeated quietly. "I remember waking up and you were sitting by my side." I added hurriedly.
The priestess said nothing and began walking away, back to her seat.
Desperately, I shouted after her. "Read my mind! Is that not an ability you have? Read my mind and see that I am saying the truth! Read it!" I cried.
Without turning, she answered, almost inaudibly. "I do not read minds."
That was it. The beginning of the end.
Without warning, and without hesitation, the same men who had dragged me out from the room this morning, rushed forward and pulled me to my feet. No one wanted to listen to my pleas of innocence, no one believed in my innocence.
In just one day, I was stripped of everything that mattered to me – things I never thought for once to value. As the men dragged me away, farther from the pack house, farther from everything that was familiar to me, farther from my life, I began to grow tired and weary.
Slowly, the aching in my heart began to reduce and soon I could no longer feel my heart pounding in my chest or the comfort of my wolf. I had fallen deep within myself that I was beginning to lose grasp of reality and unconsciously welcoming what comfort death might offer.
I thought of how fast my own people could throw me under the bus – as humans would say – how quickly they were to judge me, to think of me as a murderer rather than as one of their own. I felt betrayed, angry, lost, tired, most of all the pain that I never got to say goodbye to my father weighed more on me.
The men dragged me far. Farther than I could keep track of and dumped me roughly on the cold, hard ground. Immediately, I curled myself into a ball and let my eyes drift into the nothingness which seemed more comforting than my life.
When I woke up, the day was retired and night had taken over. The moon spread itself out in the sky, content, contrary to how I and my body felt. My wolf was still down and my tongue felt heavy in my mouth.
It was only then that I noticed the wolf over my head. Saliva dropped from its bared teeth and its eyes were fixed on something behind me. The wolf was ready to attack and thankfully, its fury was directed on something else – I didn't think I could find a wolf with the state of my body at that moment.
I looked behind me, towards where the wolf was concentrated and was incurring the wrath of the wolf. Far from me, standing close to a large tree, was a topless man, staring us down – I and the wolf – as though we may be his enemy.
I jumped to my feet and regretted it immediately. My shaky legs lost balance and staggered, my eyes swooned and I was falling back to the ground even before I had the chance to stand. The strange man never lifted a finger to help.
Instead, he huffed and said in a burly voice. "You're trespassing."
I nodded, "This is not what I want either. I –"
"I don't care." The man said flippantly, cutting me off. "This land belongs to my family and you are trespassing. You need to leave now, you and that animal of yours, else you will not like what we do to humans."
I smiled, thankful that he had not caught on to the fact that I was a werewolf. Werewolf could tell that there was another werewolf in close proximity with them from their smell. And I could scent this man like a bee would smell nectar.
"I am sorry." I pacified. "I didn't mean to trespass, I am just in a situation. My –"
"And as I said before, I don't care."
"Well, mister." I began, getting pissed at continually getting cut before I could begin my plea. "If you would let me speak?"
For the first time, he seemed to see me. I saw the blood rush to his face and his eyes dart everywhere but to where I sat on the ground. "Please."
"Thank you." I answered. "I – I." I began, suddenly not sure what to say.
"You what?" he queried, obviously impatient.
"I am not human as you are thinking."
I saw his eyes dart to the wolf – which still stood protectively beside me for some reason and then back to my face and then his eyes widened in realization and his face grinned with something I imagined to be embarrassment.
"You are a were?"
"Yes." I answered.
"Then why can't I smell you?"
"Because I was drugged?"
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"Never mind."
He looked away and then around, clearly not happy with the way the conversation was going.
"Why are you all the way out here? Far from your pack?"
"Long story." I decided telling a stranger about the last twenty hours of my life wasn't such a good idea. "And, I wouldn't mind getting out of here, but as you can see. I can barely hold myself to stand."
"Look, whoever you are, I need you to leave. You're not welcome here."
I nodded. "Right. I am not welcome anywhere."
He stepped closer, instinctively, I backed away. "What do you mean? Were you kicked out of your pack?"
"Yes."
"What?"
"It is Complicated."
The man's face was getting redder. "I need you out of this property ma'am."