Liana’s POV
“If you plead guilty, you will endure 200 lashes with a silver whip. If you plead not guilty, you face death. Liana Waters, Omega of the Red Blood pack, do you plead guilty?” The judge’s voice echoed in the silent courtroom as the air became still.
I took a deep breath as I stared down at my chained hands, the iron biting into my skin, blood seeping from the wounds. My eyes, once gentle brown, now blood red from punches from the guards.
Up ahead, the judges sat in judgment, their solemn faces betraying no hint of mercy. Behind them loomed the alpha and Luna, their imposing figures casting a shadow over the courtroom. The pack members, my kin, watched with scornful eyes, their whispers of condemnation echoing in my ears.
My heart pounded in my chest as I grappled with the weight of their ultimatum. Guilt would mean agony, but innocence would mean death. I had not killed a council member but no one believed me, no one wanted to listen. The unfairness of it all threatened to suffocate me, choking back the words lodged in my throat.
I glanced back down at my hands, tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision as they spilled down my cheeks. How could they accuse me of a crime I did not commit? How could they condemn me without a shred of evidence?
But as I looked around the courtroom, at the faces twisted with hatred and suspicion, I knew that justice would not prevail here. The truth mattered little in the eyes of those who sought to see me punished.
The only omega in the pack, the only stain in their perfect bloodline, to be cleaned and wiped away.
With a heavy heart, I finally spoke, my voice barely a whisper in the oppressive silence, “I plead guilty.”
I heard the gasps of some people, followed by the screams of others in the courtroom. It was the only choice I had, a bitter realization that clawed at my soul.
As the judge’s gavel fell with a resounding thud, sealing my fate, I dared to look up at the Luna of my pack once more. Her face was as beautiful as ever, those rare violet eyes watching with coldness. Luna Amira and her mate, Alpha Max Hawthorne watched
They watched as I was sentenced to such fate. No reaction what
“It is done,” the judge declared, his words echoing through the courtroom like a death knell. “Liana Waters is sentenced to constant whipping every week, starting now.”
The guards wasted no time in seizing me, their rough hands wrenching mine behind my back as they chained me to the cold, unforgiving walls. My torn shirt hung loosely from my shoulders, my face was against the wall and my back was exposed to the people.
Through tear-blurred vision, I watched as a masked figure stepped forward, his eyes gleaming with malice. “You better count now, darling,” he taunted, his voice dripping with sadistic pleasure.
And then the silver whip descended, slicing through the air with a sickening crack. Agony ripped through my flesh as I bit back a scream, my world consumed by pain and darkness.
“Ahhh!!!” I groaned as another hit my flesh, the searing pain lancing through me like white-hot flames.
“Count!” the masked man demanded, his voice a cruel command slicing through the agony.
How could I count when tears choked my throat when pain filled my brain like a relentless storm? Each strike of the whip tore at my resolve, each blow eroding the fragile barrier between consciousness and oblivion.
“If you don’t count, darling, I am going to start all over again, and it’s going to burn,” he taunted with cruel laughter. “I am starting all over now, so you better count!”
Oh goddess, I could feel my skin trying to heal against the threads of the whips, but couldn’t as the silver was burning away my flesh.
With trembling lips, I forced the words past the agony that threatened to consume me.
“One,” I gasped, my voice barely a whisper against the cacophony of pain.
“Two,” I choked out, each syllable a battle won against the darkness that threatened to swallow me whole.
“Three,” I screamed, the numbers a mantra of suffering that echoed through the depths of my shattered mind.
It went on and on, an endless cycle of agony and torment, until finally, my battered body could withstand no more. With a final, gut-wrenching scream, I surrendered to the darkness, my consciousness slipping away into blessed oblivion.
*****
I woke up with my head bleeding and my hands chained to the stone wall. It must have been hours or days since I have been imprisoned and tortured, I could not tell what time it was. It could be the same day for all I care, but my head was too heavy to think.
No food or water was given to her in the castle dungeons. All I was left with was pain, injuries that refused to heal, and memories of the pack members throwing food at me.
I tried to pull my chains to relax my hands but it wasn’t possible. I was only left to look up at the moon, whose beauty was shining down on me.
