Chapter Forty Mine
Chapter Forty Nine
I woke up only to discover that I was alone. It was few hours to dawn.
Where was Thane?, I sat up from the bed.
“You need more sleep.” Axel who I hadn’t realized was in the room, said to me. How did they always go in and out without me noticing?, was I really that deep a sleeper?
“Where is Thane?” I asked.
“Gone”
“Gone, where?”
“You don’t need to worry; he’ll be back in a while, and I’ll be here with you,” Axel said.
I put on a coat over my nightgown and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Axel asked
“I know he is about to be punished; I need to be there.”
“He doesn’t want you there,” Axel answered.
“I don’t fucking care what he wants,” I said. The movement was fast. Axel had been over there a while ago, and now he was standing right before the door, startling me. With his intense gaze on me, I swallowed. I always had to remind myself that Axel was just as dangerous and scary as Thane. “I’m sorry. Could you just take me there, please?” I begged, force couldn’t exactly do it.
Le
“He would be mad,” Axel warned, but I nodded. “You are very determined to watch Thane being punished; I wonder why,” he says as he throws the door to our room open and lead out. I had forgotten to ask how he had moved so quickly. No werewolf I had ever seen had such speed.
“It’s taking place on the training grounds,” Axel said casually. We might as well be talking about the weather.
“The training grounds?” I questioned, “Before everyone?”
“Yes. Usually the younger ones won’t be present
“But that’s just so… wrong.” He was the Alpha; being punished was bad; but being punished. before the whole pack was another thing.
“Just like what Thane had done, it was so… wrong.” Axel imitated me.
“Nothing could be done?” I questioned; it seemed strange for Thane to be put under the law; he always seemed above everything.
+25 BONUS
Chapter Forty Nine
“If Thane wanted this blown over, trust me, it would have been so He simply wouldn’t show up and the elders would eventually get tired of waiting and leave, but he chose to respect this law to prove to them he couldn’t be affected by it.”
It makes so much sense now. “You don’t seem bothered by this,” I said, noticing how calm he had been.
“Oh, I am.”
“Well, you’re doing a very good job hiding it.”
“What do you suggest I do?, Tremble?”
He could at least show some kind of sign that he was bothered.
I looked down at my choice of dressing. It was horrible. “I should have picked out something better to wear“, I mumbled.
“Don’t worry, the last thing anyone would be doing is looking your way,” he said, and I didn’t know if I should be comforted by that.
“Riley, do you think you can handle this?” Axel asked.
“I’ve watched people been whipped before; I can handle it,” I said, even if deep down I didn’t think I could.
Axel paused to stare at me; he seemed about to say something before deciding against it.
“We would get a better view here,” he pointed out.
We would be the only ones standing there, overlooking the pack members that were already present. I gulped.
Thane was nowhere to be found. I noticed the thick iron pole standing conspicuously on the dais, I wasn’t really sure I had seen it there the last time I came here; even if I did, I wouldn’t recognize it. Now it had thick chains wrapped around it; the chain had been sprawled out on the ground, and only then did I realize that Thane was going to be chained here, to those heavy looking chains I surely couldn’t lift.
My stomach sank. Thane had told me it was just the regular whipping. I had never stopped to ask what he meant by regular.
Just then I spotted Thane; it was hard to miss. He walked in shirtless, escorted by a group of people, but then these people looked very unfamiliar. They had too many piercings, and I could tell they were all males–they weren’t from this pack. Thane towered over them all though.
He didn’t look like a man about to be punished, but rather a king about to give a statement to his people–yes, that was exactly how he looked all shirtless and powerful.
+25 BONUS
Chapter Forty Nine
The pack members bowed as he passed by.
The guards weren’t just his escort; I realized that when they picked up the heavy chains and bounded his hands with them, also his legs and every other part of his body. Any other person would sag under the weight, but not Thane.
Another set of people walked in, and I could tell just by looking at them that they were the elders. They were in white cloaks that trailed behind them; their movement was graceful, almost like they were floating and not really touching the ground; they moved as one, but there was something off about them–something scary about them–that made others look away while they walked past, but I stared.
The elders stood on the dais, before the whole pack, a small distance from where Thane had been chained and also where I stood with Axel.
“Alpha Thane of the Nightshade Pack, your punishment is due. You answer with only two words: ‘guilty‘ or ‘blameless.” The one in the middle began.
There was a complete silence, and I could hear my own intake of breath.
“You instigated a battle with the Alpha King.”
“Guilty,” Thane answered; his voice sounded a bit… bored..
“You interfered between the Alpha King and his moon chosen,” the Elder said. Thane wasn’t guilty of that; I had done it; I had intervened, not him.
“Guilty,” he said, and for a reason I can’t understand why my heart skipped a beat. D
