5. Accusations

5 days later

When I arrived, the yard was empty.

The laughter that usually greeted me was gone.

Inside, the children were sitting in rows behind desks while an instructor stood in front of the room.

“Extra lessons,” one of the caretakers explained when she noticed me standing by the door. “The Alpha ordered a new program for the younger ones.”

I nodded, pretending it made perfect sense.

Of course it did.

The children barely looked up when I waved. They were already busy copying something from the board.

Training. Lessons. Discipline.

Order above all. 

I stayed only a minute before quietly stepping outside again.

The walk back to the house felt longer than usual. By the time I reached the door, the sun was already setting.

For a moment I simply stood there, staring at the dark windows.

He is doing it on purpose, I thought. He is taking everything from me.

Slowly.

Methodically.

Maybe the nostalgia for what I once had — and the primal need to belong to a pack — were the shackles that kept me in this prison.

Is staying just to fulfill the duty I once had as a future Alpha really my only right move now? 

Werewolves live in packs because isolation slowly kills the wolf spirit.

And I may be wolfless, but I can still feel the crushing weight of loneliness.

My presence is unwanted.

I gave them what they needed — a rightful Alpha.

Do I need to lose the last pieces of who I am, of my soul, before I can truly let it go?

And would they even let me go?

Still, I hoped my parents would somehow appear soon.

And I should have tried harder before accepting defeat, right?

So, with tears streaming down my face, I walked into the empty house once more.

---

The next day I decided I will try harder.

So one morning I walked to the healing house.

It had always been one of the calmest places in the pack. The scent of herbs filled the air, and soft voices usually replaced the noise of the training yard.

But the moment I stepped inside, the atmosphere felt different.

Two warriors sat on the benches with minor injuries. A healer was wrapping a bandage around one of their arms. 

No one was speaking. 

“I can help,” I said quietly and moved toward the shelves of herbs, trying to remember the mixtures my mother once showed me.

The healer didn’t look at me.

“We have everything under control.”

His voice was polite. Too polite.

Behind him, one of the warriors glanced at me briefly before looking away again.

No one said anything else.

After a moment I understood.

This was оne more place where I was not needed.

But before I could leave, a young girl approached me.

“The Alpha from Dark River will be visiting tonight. The dinner will be ready and waiting at the pack house at 18:00.” Alpha Aron asked me to inform you, Luna, that you should take the meals and prepare that table at the main salon. 

“Thank you”, I said and she fled away I was a burning fire.

--

I greeted the visiting Alpha as protocol demanded.

With a firm clasp of the forearm, he greeted me back.

A heavy pendant rested against his wrist, the chain disappearing beneath the cuff of his sleeve.

For a brief moment, the metal brushed against the fabric of my dress before he released my hand.

“It is a family piece.” He announced sensing my look.

“It is beautiful,” I replied.

“Welcome at our home,” I invited him in.

This Alpha was older than Aron, but his aura was not less strong, and his eyes calculating.

His Beta stood silently behind him.

After the introductions I set the table and served the food.

Then Aron dismissed me with a brief glance.

“Good night, Luna.”

The door closed quietly behind me.

---

A commotion interrupted my reading. I set the book aside and stepped out of my room just to hear their Beta saying 

“My Alpha’s pendant is missing.”

The words fell into the room like a stone.

A brief search around followed.

Nothing.

Then the visiting Beta spoke.

“Nothing here. But there is one more place we should have checked.”

His eyes shifted toward the corridor leading to my chambers.

For a brief moment Aron said nothing.

Then he nodded once.

“Search the room.”

The Beta returned a moment later.

In his hand was the pendant.

Silence fell over the room. 

The visiting Alpha did not look surprised.

His gaze moved slowly from the pendant… to me.

For a long moment Aron said nothing.

Our eyes met across the room.

I waited.

He looked away first.

“Every crime must be punished,” he said calmly.

“Especially one inside my own house.”

“Aron,” I said quietly.

Just once.

He did not answer.

Instead, his eyes flickered, showing he was mind linking. In no more than a minute, a pack guard appeared at the door.

“Luna, please follow me to the courtyard of the pack house.”

I looked at Aron.

“Go.”

He did not look at me when he said it.

I turned and followed the guard.

Begging would disgrace my father.

And I had already failed him — enough.

--

The courtyard was empty when we arrived.

Only a few warriors stood near the walls, looking at the ground.

The visiting Alpha and his Beta came two minutes later.

No crowd.

No witnesses.

Just enough people to enforce the law.

“Thirty lashes,” Aron declared. 

“Delivered by me.”

I spun around and stared at him, unable to believe what I had just heard.

“No one else has the right to touch you,” he said, answering the question I was too stunned to ask.

Never in the history of our pack had punishment been passed without questioning or proof. 

And no Alpha would ever willingly hurt his other half.

But he was never truly my mate, right?

He never gave our bond a chance.

He refused to even speak with me.

He never marked me.

So here I was — the exception.

He was turning away from every tradition we had, so why was I still surprised?