Chapter 2. Punished

Chapter 2.

Punished.

It was a week. In the lone cell, Emaline had only been fed small portions of food that was already going bad once a day. Even though she didn’t want to eat such things, she had no choice but to eat them for her baby’s sake.

It was time for her daily meal. The assigned guard brought stale bread and threw it at her. She grabbed it from the ground and tried patting off the dust.

“This is yours too,” he threw a small canteen at her. There was very little water in it and it wasn’t that safe for drinking.

“T-thank you,” she managed to whisper while trying to hold back tears. If she didn’t thank any assigned guard who gave her food, then she’d starve the next day. She already learned that the hard way.

The moment the guard left, Emaline began to eat the bread slowly. It was difficult to swallow even though she’d long become used to the smell.

“Are you having fun?” she heard a familiar voice say. She looked up and saw that it was Nadia.

“L-Luna Nadia…” she called out in a hoarse voice.

“It’s so nice seeing you in here. You’re eating something that even my pet dog, Maya, wouldn't eat,” She shook her head in fake pity.

“Luna, you know that… I’m innocent. I-I didn’t push you,” Emaline cried.

“I know that. I just wanted to get rid of that stupid child,” she laughed, much to Emaline’s dismay.

“W-what?”

The Luna raised a brow, “Why’re you surprised? I killed two birds with one stone. I got rid of the baby and also got rid of you as a rival,”

“Luna, how did I wrong you?” Emaline asked with a trembling voice.

“Why should you be the Alpha’s mate and not me? The biggest mistake you made was accepting to become his mate. You should have rejected him and just stayed as the ugly, trashy slave that you were,” Luna Nadia answered. The malice in her tone was as plain as a pikestaff.

“Luna… the goddess…”

“Oh, please save it, you trash. The goddess is sometimes drunk and makes mistakes in pairing. I know I’m the one who’s supposed to be the Alpha’s mate and not a nobody like you. I know you want to live, and I’m not an entirely bad person. So you’ll live only if you accept the Alpha’s rejection. And you have to accept that you murdered the Alpha’s precious child. Can you do that? It’s quite simple,” Luna Nadia shrugged.

“You ended the life of an innocent child and you pinned it all on me. And you want me to admit to a crime I know nothing about?”

“If you don’t want to agree to my terms, that’s okay. Say hello to my bastard child in hell for me,” with a mocking chuckle, the Luna turned to leave.

“You…” Emaline gritted her teeth, “I wish you never become a mother. You don’t deserve to have children,”

Immediately, the Luna turned to look at a peeved Emaline, “What did you say?”

“Your ears aren’t for decoration, are they?” Emaline raged.

“You wish me to have no kids? Who are you to say that? Someone, get me the keys to this cell, I’m going to teach this bitch a lesson before she goes to hell!”

At that moment, an announcement was made by a guard declaring that Emaline was to be let out of the cell and taken to the public square of the pack.

On hearing that announcement, the Luna panicked. Turning to Emaline for the last time, she spat, “You’re lucky. I would have ruined that face and pulled out your tongue,”

With a harrumph, she flicked her sleeves and left, using another path.

Two guards rushed towards the lone cell. One of them was wearing black leather gloves. He immediately took out a large key and used it on the giant padlock that kept the cell’s gate shut.

The moment the gate was opened, the guard rushed in and dragged Emaline out by her hair.

“Please…”

“Shut up!” the guard spat as he dragged her along. The other guard simply followed along, his face donned a stony look.

…

At the public square, many were gathered, eager to watch the drama that was soon to transpire. Emaline had been thrown roughly to the ground by the ruthless brown-haired guard who had several scars on his face.

Emaline struggled to get into a kneeling position and stared at the ground, trying to ignore all the hurtful remarks and mockery from the crowd.

“One truly can’t judge a book by its cover. She looked so innocent. Who knew she was capable of something this atrocious?”

“Murderer! You deserve to die a thousand times!”

“It’s good you weren’t chosen as the pack’s Luna. A bad example you would have become,”

Someone threw dirty water on Emaline, completely soaking her from head to toe, “Dirty pig! You need to be slaughtered like one,”

At that, some others began to throw small stones and even eggs at her. Whatever was throwable, but wouldn’t kill her, they threw at her. At a point, she began to weep, after the reality of her impending doom sank in even further.

Soon, the Alpha arrived and everyone turned silent. He soon stood before a pathetic-looking mate of his with a peeved look on his face.

“Tell me, Emaline. Why did you push my Luna? Why did you kill my child?” he questioned.

Emaline looked at him with trembling lips. She wanted to deny his words. She knew she didn’t cause the miscarriage; It was the Luna who fell by herself and had her own child killed.

Probably, she and some other man had an affair and the child was the unknown man’s child. She couldn’t risk giving birth to the result of her affair and decided to send it to the afterlife.

Luna Nadia was too wicked!

“I…” Emaline was at a loss on how to answer.

“Bring the bowls,” the Alpha suddenly ordered and two guards came over, each of them was carrying a huge bowl containing a highly poisonous and even lethal liquid- wolfsbane.

At that, Emaline began to shake her head. No, she couldn’t drink those. That would lead to the loss of her baby.

“I admit!” she cried frantically, “I pushed her out of envy. I didn’t know it would cause the death of your son. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, Alpha,” she pleaded.

The Luna had promised that one of the ways to survive this ordeal was to plead guilty to the charges. She hoped it would work.

“A life for a life,” the Alpha spat.

“No, please, have mercy, Alpha. I’ll do anything. Please, don’t kill me,”

“Did my heir ask to be killed?” the Alpha questioned her.

“I’m sorry,”

“I made a mistake keeping you around as some silly concubine. I showed you respect because you were my mate, even though I didn’t like you, a mere slave. You had good food, a good roof over your head and pricey clothing to keep you warm, and this is how you repay me?”

“Alpha, please,” Emaline clasped her hands around his right leg, tears flowing more profusely down her cheeks. “Please mercy. I’ll do anything. Just please don’t kill me,”

“I, Alpha Phaedro Woods, of SilverGlow, hereby reject you filthy slave, Emaline, as my mate,” he suddenly declared.

At that, Emaline felt like someone had hit her chest severally with a huge hammer and then ripped her heart. The blinding pain that coursed through her body made her collapse to the ground with blood flowing from her mouth.

After a few minutes, she struggled to sit up after spewing out blood. Then she looked at the Alpha with difficulty. “I, Emaline… accept… your rejection,” she managed to voice out before collapsing to the ground again, trying hard to catch her breath while clutching her chest.

“Whip her a hundred lashes,” the Alpha ordered as he turned to leave, “If she expires at the end of it, then feed her body to the snakes. At least, she’ll have some use,”

“No…” Emaline sat up and looked at the Alpha’s back view, “What if I survive?” she inquired, even though she wasn’t even optimistic.

The Alpha scoffed, “You? Survive? If you do, then you are to flee from my pack. If you can’t run fast enough, don’t worry, the whip will motivate you. But it’s best you die, so my child can be avenged,” with that, the Alpha left the scene, ignoring Emaline’s pitiful cries as her hands got tied to a stake.

Alpha Phaedro headed to his Luna’s room where she lay on the bed, looking at the ceiling with eyes devoid of happiness.

“My dear, I have rejected that bitch and I have punished her. Even if she somehow manages to live, she’ll be haunted for the rest of her life. She’ll never have peace and no one will accept her into their pack because I will declare her as a criminal who should be killed on sight,” he spoke soothingly to his Luna.

“Phaedro…” Nadia said with a quivering voice as a tear slid down her right cheek.

The concerned Phaedro wanted to wipe off the tear when she held his hand.

“Honey, I want you to be intimate with me right now,” Nadia said with a grave expression.

“Nadia…”

“You have to do it or I’ll kill myself,” she warned.

“Okay. Let’s make another baby,” he finally agreed and she immediately got herself to a seated position. The Alpha then dipped his head to kiss her passionately while she seemed anxious to get his clothes off.

Minutes later, the loudly creaking bed was having trouble staying intact because of the intense activity going on atop it, with harsh slapping of skin and fevered feminine cries of bliss filling the room.

“Oh, Phaedro, fuck. Ah~! Ah~!”

“Quite naughty, aren’t you?” Phaedro asked amidst grunts.

“I’m always… naughty. Ah~! It’s feels so good. Yes, fuck me harder, baby!” she cried out in ecstasy as her husband held her trembling legs and did a beautiful dance between them.

“Ah~! So deep. Fuck~!”

As the bed creaked faster than before, syncing with her scatter-brained cries of delight, Emaline let out heart-rending cries of agony from being hit by the thorny red whip for the 30th time.

‘Goddess, please help me survive this. I have to survive; I have to live,’ she cried in her heart as tears blinded her vision.

Her bare back had been tarnished by the whip for the 31st time and she felt like fainting. But she had to hold on; She couldn’t get fed to starving snakes!

‘Emaline, I hope you don’t survive. You have to die, only then can I have peace of mind. I deserve to have the last laugh and all the good things. Here I am, fucking your ex-mate while you’re out there clinging to the tiny thread of life,’

Nadia thought as she rode her husband’s shaft like it was nobody’s business.