Elaris POV
I celebrated my twentieth birthday in the dungeon. Amongst the rats, as they scurried from hole to hole, wrapped in the headiness of accumulated putrid stench that held the dinghy cell to ransom.
This was a steep drop from the grand banquet I had been promised—the halls lined with decorations, the affluent of the lycan world parading the marble floor with their velvets and brocades, showering me with warm smiles and gifts, just so they could win the heart of the future Luna of the powerful Moonblood pack.
I had lost it all in the twinkle of an eye, all to a false accusation.
Tears burned my eyes, and this time, I didn't stop them. They just flowed down my cheeks, burning hotter as I blinked.
Yet, I wished this steep drop in my birthday plans was my only problem right now. But it wasn't. I might lose my father and the rest of my family. While I, my brother, and mother would likely be spared, and condemned to exile or slavery, my father wouldn't. Unless the killer was found, he was bound for the gallows.
I sat straight-backed at the center of the cell, nearly as stiff as a statue. I couldn't rest on the moth-infested walls or floor.
Sitting this way was pure torture, yet it was less than the torture of my heart squeezing into itself inside of me.
I could still remember the hate and look of betrayal in Karl's eyes. He was supposed to be my betrothed, my lover, yet he had discarded me sorely yesterday, refusing to hear me out. And then Torren, who was supposed to be my best friend, had ordered for my neck too.
I grabbed my chest, squeezing it tight, as if I could shut out the pain. The more I tried, the more it hurt. The cell gate rattled, and I looked up.
Darius stood before the gate, his eyes held fire as he looked to the guards. "I thought I asked you to put her in a nicer cell."
The guard dropped back with a face ashen. "I tried," he stammered, lips trembling. "But Prince Torren said no, and asked that I put her here."
Darius grunted through clenched teeth. He tried to rebuke the guard, decided against it, and yanked the gate open.
He made me a tight smile. He was the last one of the triplet I would expect to show me kindness, no matter how little. We rarely talked, especially after he'd confessed to me years ago that he loved me and wanted me to choose him over Karl, and I had calmly rejected him.
And yet, the brother I had rejected is the only one who dared to offer me even a smile.
"Get up, Elaris, today is your father's and family's hearing. The council is waiting for you," he said.
It was always customary that the council debated on a serious offence such as this before a judgment was passed, as a form of fair hearing. But it was only a formality.
No one had ever won a case tabled before the council. The elders weren't interested in listening, but passing judgment.
Lifting my legs felt like I was hauling a two-ton truck. Moss scratched my thighs as I tried to stand. I couldn't hold myself well, so I dropped and slapped the ground hard with my thighs. I whimpered at the hit.
"Ela!" Darius bellowed, running into the cell. Before I knew I had even fallen, I was in his arms.
He pressed me against his chest, and he carried me out. "Let me go, I can walk, Darius," I begged.
He stared down at me, expression stern. "I am carrying you, and there is no debating that, Ela. Your father might have killed my Dad, but not you. You and your brother are innocent in this, and I would do my best to save you both." He assured.
Just like his brothers, he also believed my father was guilty, and there was nothing I could say to change that, unless I provided the killer. Still, I couldn't tame the urge in me.
"My father didn't kill Alpha Kurt. I swear he didn't," I looked straight into his eyes, expecting him to believe me, expecting him to...
"Okay," he grunted simply. His brows furrowed until they almost eclipsed his eyes, and he said nothing further.
I knew then not to push it. My lips closed shut before another word could slip through in defense of my father.
The warmth of his body was tempting, and I fought the urge not to relax into it.
I jumped down from his arms when we got to the conference hall, and ran fast across to Mom and my younger brother, Nathan, who were already standing at the center of the hall.
"Ela!" Mom screamed happily, throwing her arms wide, her terrified face broken in momentary relief. I threw myself right into her.
"Thank the moon goddess you are okay, my girl." She breathed against my long, silver-white hair.
"Ela!" Nathan called too, his tiny voice tight. I pulled away from mom, and I gave him a warm smile. It didn't exactly ease the terror in his bright, big blue eyes, but given the situation, that was the only thing I could give.
"Don't worry, we will be fine, Nate. Darius promises to help us," I whispered to him, ruffling his hair as I hugged him too.
"Cut with the drama. We have a hearing to preside on." An elder snapped impatiently.
I forced an uneasy smile at the faces behind the semi-circular table resting on the raised dais. None of them bothered to return my stare, not even Torren and Karl.
Darius took his place beside his brothers. A second later, Father was pushed in by the guards.
"Darling," mom gasped painfully at father's bloodied and swollen features, covering her mouth to muffle her scream.
The sight of his tortured body ripped at my insides too, every breath I dragged into my lungs, more painful than the next.
Father had been severely tortured, his face was swollen, eyes bulging…
I had to look away and blink back my tears before they could spill from me again. Crying only makes the pain sharper.
The guards forced him to his knees, and then an elder cleared his aged throat noisily to declare the beginning of the hearing.
"You have been accused of killing your Alpha, Alpha Kurt Draven, Beta Rowan Vance. What do you have to say to that?" An elder began, throwing his arms on the table. Though his words said accused, his voice screamed guilty.
Father grunted mildly from the pain, gnashing his teeth. "Please just let my family go." He said. It was the first time I would ever hear his voice so thin. They hadn't just tortured him, they'd killed his soul too.
There was hardly any spark of life in his eyes.
"You are not in the position to make such demands, Rowan Vance." An elder cut him short.
"Just admit you killed father, bastard," Torren yelled at him. "The maid saw you stabbing him. There is nothing to deny. Just admit you did, and we can call this whole charade of a hearing off."
Karl stared hard at Torren, and Torren dropped back to his seat, grunting aloud.
His eyes strayed to me, paused for an interminable second that wrenched out every breath from my lungs, then he grunted and turned away. He hid his trembling fingers under the table.
Karl leaned his arms on the table, and he said. "Confess to your crimes, Rowan Vance, and your family shall be spared immediately."
"Yes," Father screamed immediately, filling the whole hall with his voice. "I killed Kurt. I stabbed him until he died because he was spineless, refusing to fight the Silverfang for the death of my subordinate. I accept the blame, just let my wife and kids go. They have nothing to do with this."
I blinked back the tears staining my eyes again, understanding Dad was gambling his life away, just so that we would live.
I wished I could stop him from doing that, but I couldn't bring myself to.
Instead, I pulled Mom and Nathan closer, trying to be strong for all of us.
"We have a confession then." Kael declared. He snatched the gavel before the elder presiding over the hearing, and he struck on the block.
The slam echoed loudly in the hall, resounding powerfully against the walls.
The presiding elder took back the gavel. He looked to my father again. "Your family is very much in this, too, Rowan. Killing the Alpha because you disagreed with his policy is an outright treasonable offence, to which the family bears responsibility as much as the individual. The family of a traitor cannot be allowed to live."
"No! They are innocent…" Father was screaming, struggling to rise from his knees while the guards pushed him back down.
The elder ignored him, only speaking louder to drown father's voice. "For the murder of Alpha Kurt Draven, you, Rowan Vance, shall be quartered at the pack's square and your family beheaded right after."
My heart sank to the bottomless pit of my stomach, my blood freezing into ice. "No," I screamed, even before I knew I was doing that. I yelled alongside my father. "We are innocent," I screamed, while holding tight to Mom and Nathan's trembling bodies.
The elder made to slam his gavel home to finalize his order, but Darius snatched it midway. A network of thick veins stood on his arms and neck as he held against the elder's strength.
"At least, let Ela and Nathan live. They had no hand in this. Show them mercy." He yelled at the elder.
When the elder still wouldn't budge, he looked to Torren and Karl.
Torren tried to look away, but Darius's stare was so penetrating that he couldn't. He looked to me again, his painful gaze was scalding, but I didn't dare look away.
I begged him to listen to my plea, to trust me, to believe me, as a friend, as an elder brother. He'd always liked to refer to himself as the elder brother I never had.
Finally, he grunted, words ground to muffle from tightly clenched teeth. "Perhaps Ela and her brother should be allowed to live. They are innocent."
Before everyone could finally turn to Karl, he'd reached for the gavel between Darius and the elder, jerking it off from them.
"Perhaps we shouldn't be too hasty in our judgment. We should temper justice with some mercy." He said. Like always, his voice held no emotion, not hate, not pity, not anything.
He refused to look at me, placing his gaze just over my head.
"For the murder of Alpha Kurt Draven, you, Rowan Vance, shall be subjected to a lifetime of servitude to the pack, along with your wife. Then your children, Elaris and Nathaniel Vance, will be stripped of their class and become mere Omegas, and then exiled from the pack, never to return to the Moonblood pack again."
"That is too lenient on them, Karl Draven. That…" The presiding elder was yelling, face contorted in rage.
He tried to stop Karl from slamming the gavel on the block, but Darius held him back.
The gavel hit the block, and the slam thundered through the hall, jarring against my eardrums. It wrenched a sigh of relief from the rungs of my lungs. I held tight to Mom and Nathan, my arms quivering. We might never see each other again, but at least we were alive.
We broke apart when the guards stomped closer to us.
"We'll see again, Ela," Mom whispered, pulling desperately at my sleeves, her whole body trembling as badly as her voice. "Take care of Nathan until then."
"I will, Mom."
Just as they were about to lift me, something quaked inside of me. I slipped from the thick hands grabbing me, and I fell to my knees.
My heart raced faster than it had ever done, slamming against my chest with a tenacity that warned me it meant something.
At the same time, a sudden heat claimed my nether regions, as three distinct but familiar scents bombarded my nostrils.
A force wrenched my head up, and I looked up to three equally perplexed faces.
They all clutched their chest, their eyes tearing into the skin of my face, Karl, Darius, and Torren.
My wolf emerged in my chest like a hurricane confined to just my body, and it roared "Mine" to not just Karl, but Darius and Torren too.
Cold hand gripped my spine, spreading through me, my confusion pressing me down with a weight that trapped me in a spot.
"Mine," my wolf roared again to the three of them. Just how was this possible?