CHAPTER THREE

Framed and Banished

Emery’s POV

I don’t know how, but I make it to the basement and throw myself into my cot. I can hear the celebration upstairs vibrating through the cold, stone floor of the room. Every thud of the bass feels like I am being repeatedly punched in the ribs and I swallow another round of screams.

Growing up, you hear stories of the horror of what it is like for lycans to be rejected by their mates. We are taught to love and cherish whoever it is that the Moon Goddess sends your way in her infinite wisdom. We are told that rejecting your mate comes with a pain unlike any other and in most cases it leads to death.

Why would Alpha Silas sentence me to death?

No matter what we were taught, nothing prepares you for the visceral, gut-wrenching sorrow and ache that burrows deep within your bones and latches itself to your very being once you are rejected.

I recall his cold face, even more colder was his voice as he looked through me and shattered every piece of me.

What have I ever done that was so bad that I deserved a life of such misery?

I slowly rise to my feet and begin to move about the room. I shove a blue sweater into my backpack. My hands shake uncontrollably but I take a breath and try to calm myself. I will no longer give them the satisfaction of breaking my composure, my dignity.

It was all I had left.

The heavy wooden door swings open, the rusted hinges crying out for mercy. Noelle stands in the doorway, looking like a goddess in shimmering silver silk.

She already looked stunning in the black lace dress she was wearing just a few minutes ago, but a wardrobe change?

This bitch.

Behind her stands two of the pack’s most brutal enforcers, Kade and Lowe, their arms crossed over their chests.

Noells tosses a velvet box onto my cot. Inside lies the shattered fragments of the Moonstone Chalice, the pack’s most sacred heirloom.

“What’s this?” I ask, my voice flat.

“Your parting gift,” Noelle purrs, stepping into the cramped space. She looks around, the side of her lip lifting into a sneer of pure disgust. “The elders are already furious that a weakling humiliated our bloodline tonight. Imagine their outrage when they find out you stole the sacred chalice and smashed it out of petty jealousy of your kind, loving sister.”

I stare at her in a sort of stunned silence. I take in her flawless face, her high cheekbones, full lips and beautiful eyes and not for the first time, I wonder how possible it is for so much hate and bitterness to be encased in someone so gorgeous.

“No one will believe I did this.” my voice is tired, worn.

“They will believe whatever I tell them, Emery. My voice makes them want to believe,” she whispers, a sickening trace of her power humming beneath her words. She steps closer, her eyes flashing with a sudden, vicious heat. “Do you know what I hate the most about you? It’s this right here. You’re framed for treason, your life is over, and you just stand there with that blank look on your face. Where is your anger, your fury? It is so pathetic the way you let everyone trample over you, it makes my stomach turn. You won’t even beg.”

“Never.” I say quietly.

Noelle’s jaw tightens, her perfect facade cracking just a fraction of a second. “We’ll see how quiet you stay at the border when the rogues tear you to shreds.”

Heavy footsteps echo in the corridor, and my heart gives a pathetic, traitorous flutter. Alpha Silas steps into the room, immediately filling the space.

He is different, the brilliant fierce silver of his eyes are gone, replaced by a dull, misty grey. He looks straight through me, his expression as cold as ice. Noelle promptly slips her hand into his, her fingers stroking his wrist and I clamp on the urge to reach over and snap the whole appendage off her body.

“Darling,” she says, her voice dripping with honeyed sweetness. “She confessed. She destroyed the relic.”

He doesn’t react, he is an unreadable stone wall as he holds up a paper I failed to notice he was holding and lays it on the wooden table.

“Emery of the Silver Moon,” he declares, his voice a hollow, robotic rumble that tears my soul in half. “For the crime of desecration and high treason against the pack, your status as a member is permanently revoked. You are hereby exiled to the Black Ridge borders, effective immediately. If you return, you will be executed on sight.”

I stagger towards him, desperate, reaching out to grasp his forearm, but Noelle is there in a blink, grabbing my arm in a painful grip.

“Don’t even think about it.” she snarls, but I don’t care.

“Alpha, look at me. Please just once, look at me.” I plead, struggling against her hold. The moment my skin brushes his, a violent jolt our rejected bond flares between us, making him gasp. For a split second, the glassiness in his eyes shatters, and a look of sheer agonizing terror washes over his face.

But before I could get my hopes up, Noelle drags me away and he returns to as he was before. Silas violently shakes his head and glowers at me, his voice dropping to a harsh, freezing tone.

“Remove the criminal from my sight,” he commands and I am thrown into the enforcer’s rough hands.

They drag me up the stairs as I buck and struggle against their vice-like grip, calling to Silas.

“Don’t do this, please,” I scream again trying and failing to catch Kade’s meaty forearm between my teeth. The big idiot takes a fist full of my hair and yanks me backward and slams me so hard into the wall, a hot pain explodes across my face.

I fall backward, my vision swimming and black spots dance in and out in a way that makes me nauseous instantly. This time when they reached for me, I didn’t fight, I let them pull me to my feet and lead me outside.

My feet are unsteady, a tell-tale wetness slides down my nose and I try to not let any of the blood into my mouth. I am thrown to the ground harshly, my knees, face and hands meet rock and dirt.

I close my eyes tightly, letting the pain rock through my body, it is much more bearable than the tearing sensation spreading inside me from the shattered mate bond. It is completely silent outside, eerily so and I open my eyes and come face to face with the whole pack.

They stand off to the sides in two opposite rows with me on the ground in the middle and they stare down at me with mixes of disgust, hate and pity. I look down at my hands, caked in dirt and trembling and I suddenly feel so alone.

The click of heels breaks the silence and I’m surrounded by the cloying scent of fake vanilla and gardenias.

“And so your road comes to an end, sister,” Noelle squats to be eye level with me, reaching out and grabbing my jaw in her cold hands as she looks me over, like she is trying to memorize my face.

I take her in too, every smoother and harsh feature and our eyes meet and hold. O try to communicate everything into that look, the fear and hurt, the betrayal, the complete anguish I am feeling.

She motions behind her and Lowe takes a step back, Kade doing the same. They begin to strip and their backs hunch over as they begin to shift.

Noelle’s hold on my jaw loosens and she says it in such a light tone, one would think she is offering me sweet platitudes.

“Run.”