THALIA
The courtroom was filled with loud unbelievable gasps and all eyes were directed towards me with disdain.
In my room?
My knees grew weak, suddenly unable to carry the weights resting upon my shoulders.
"I didn't steal your bracelet, Lena!" I fired relentlessly. If no one was going to believe me, I couldn't just easily give up on myself.
"Then how did the guard find it in your drawer?" Alpha Logan demanded, his voice cold as ice.
My throat went dry while I blinked my eyes. This was a setup. "So-someone must have put it there," I said firmly, and the voices in the courtroom erupted again.
"I didn't steal the bracelet," I raised my voice in defense, glancing at every one of them.
"Oh, yeah?" Lena snickered, and I redirected my attention to her. She walked down the few steps, marching over to me, while I stared at her, my chest rising and falling with an unbearable ache.
"That's something every liar would say," she sneered.
Lena stopped right in front of me, and what she did next made the entire room go silent. A stinging pain coursed through my face and my eyes watered.
Lena ha-had…
Lena had slapped me?
It feels like an electric shock. I turned my face slowly to her, shockingly. I tried all I could not to let the tears in my eyes fall, but a single tear betrayed me.
"Le—"
She slapped me again and I gasped.
"That's for lying to the Alpha of the pack and thinking you could ever steal what belongs to me." She snarled.
My left hand came up to the cheek she had slapped, and I staggered backward. I stared at her, trying to process what had just happened.
"I'm your sister, Lena. Why won't you believe what I say? I would never steal anything from you." My chest constricted painfully as I looked at her, bewildered.
She crossed her arms over her chest and laughed. "Did you just say I should believe you? Like trust, you?" She flapped her extended lashes at me and laughed again.
Her face hardened within seconds, "I would never believe a sister who had tried to kill and leave me all alone in the forbidden forest," she stated, sternly.
I never did that!
"Did you know how much it hurts to realize the sister I cherished so much and always looked up to tried to hurt me?" Her face had gone from anger to pity engulfed with sadness and my lungs squeezed with a throbbing effect.
"No, n-no, Lena…" I tried to reach out to her.
"It was a mistake, I-I shouldn't have taken you to the forest in the first place, it was my fault… I will never—" Someone pushed me out of the way and I stumbled, falling flat to the ground, and I looked up, a slight gasp leaving my mouth.
It was Ryder, he had pulled Lena into his embrace, placing her head on his chest while she sobbed and my face twisted in guilt.
Hurtyou. I completed in my mind.
"Stay away from her, you filth!" Ryder growled at me, his eyes were burning with murderous intent, and I swallowed the bile stuck in my throat.
"After so much she's been through, you still put her up to this and remind her of painful memories, you don't deserve to see another light of the day!" he seethed angrily and my body convulsed.
"I-I'm sorry," my lips trembled as I looked at the floor instead.
"Guards, grab her!" Alpha Logan barked, and the two guards behind me pulled me to my feet.
I was helpless, there was nothing I could do, and no matter how hard I tried to prove my innocence, it was useless.
"She will be whipped fifty times with the stainless chain, naked, and in front of all the pack members. That would serve as your punishment and a lesson to anyone who dares to steal in this pack ever again," Alpha Logan pronounced, and my eyes widened in fright.
Stripped naked and whipped fifty times in front of the whole pack? For something I knew nothing of?
"No!" I screamed.
I squirmed and fidgeted against the guards holding me up. I slipped through their grasp, and fell to my knees, crawling forward.
"Please, Alpha, I know nothing about this, I-I didn't take the bracelet… I swear on my life!" Tears streamed down my face like a dam as I begged desperately for my life.
"You should be grateful, I didn't order you should be flogged with silver chains," I gaped speechlessly.
I bowed my head to the ground, "No, Alpha! I didn't do anything, I swear on the moon goddess, I didn't do anything…" I cried out.
"Take her away!" Alpha Logan commanded. The guards dragged me from the ground yet again.
I fought against them, struggling my way through them. "Please!"
"I beg of you!"
The guards began to drag me out of the courtroom, and I turned my face towards Father and Mother, and they had a sour look on their faces.
My miserable eyes met with Father, hoping he would do something… anything.
I'm still his daughter, right? The daughter he always read bedtime stories to and kissed on the forehead before bidding goodnight.
To my dismay, he looked away. He didn't say anything. My heart shattered.
"Mother!" I called her for the first time in eleven years, and she snapped her glaring eyes at me viciously.
"You deserve whatever comes your way, witch!" She spat.
I weakened.
None of them believed me. Resorting to my last hope, I turned to him, I turned my face to Sage. I didn't know why I did that but I looked at him.
His face was squeezed tightly, and his expression wasn't one I could read as our eyes met.
The last straw in my hat broke when he looked away too.
Why are none of them believing me?!
How heartless could they be?
I didn't steal! I didn't steal the fucking bracelet!!
I choked on a sob as the guards dragged me out of the courtroom. I glanced towards Lena who was still in Ryder's embrace, and she was looking at me, and not only that, she was smirking.
Smirking!
Wait, what?
What was with that smirk?
Before I could react, the guards stationed at the door had shut the door in my face.
Had she set me up?