CHAPTER 2: VERDICT

OPRAH’S POV

For the past days, I wasn’t sure how many, because I had lost track of time inside the dark dungeon, pain, agony, and suffering had become a part of me.

The stench of blood, dry bones, and damp stone filled the air, mingling with the sound of the guards’ whips tearing through my skin. Each lash burned like fire, slicing through my body. I had stopped counting after the tenth.

Every time Derrick came, I prayed it would be the last. Because whe would cone with Lilith, the woman who nade him unable to think for himself. But he always returned with her, anger in his eyes and a walking posion on his side. He demanded a truth I didn’t have. I tried to explain, tried to tell him I hadn’t done anything, that whatever was growing in my womb carried his blood, but Lilith wouldn't even let me explain myself. She made sure to make it hard for me.

He would grab me by my hair, his voice low and cruel.

“Why did you cheat on me after I trusted you wholeheartedly, Oprah? Tell me!”

"I-I swear on...."

"Oprah," the snake would interrupt, not allowing me to finish my words.

"Why would you cheat on an Alpha, seriously? Are you that ungrateful?" Goddess, I would try to speak but she would keep on making sure I couldn’t.

"And the way Alpha Derrick loves you so much?" She would add up, making Derrick tighten his fists, his wolf threatening to let go.

"Or maybe she has been cheating on you all this while, Alpha?" She would fake that innocent look on her face, making Derrick buy her story.

"D-Don't listen to her, sh-she is trying to...."

"He should. You know very well that you are lying and that's why he can't even smell the pup"

"Lilith j-just stop it..."

"I hate you!" He had said those words with a lot of anger that blinded his eyes last time when he was here, and they were like a blade in my chest, breaking me completely.

"Deal with her!" He had then said before standind away from me with Lilith on his side. And then he would watch when the guard start to whip me. As if not wanting to see the whole show, he would leave me in the hands of the guards who would do worse than whipping me, claiming that it was what the Alpha ordered them to do until pain became part of me, until I could no longer cry, until I surrendered to numbness.

The way his loving hazel eyes had once lingered on my blue ones the way they had looked at my lips, the way he used to desire me, the way his hands had claimed every part of me, was gone. Now, only hatred, betrayal and disappointment stared back each time he visited me, as if he were confronting an enemy who had murdered someone precious. His eyes killed something inside me I couldn’t name.

I never thought a day like this could come. And each time he left, I felt him take a piece of me with him.

And Lilith? She has successed turning him against me. That infuriating and annoying woman who wouldn't leave Derrick to even breathe alone without her being on the way.

How could I even talk to him if she made sure not to give me the chance? Tears threatened to come out, but I pushed them back. There was no need to cry anyway.

My body was weak, covered in cuts and bruises. My dress which was given to me later that day after they threw me here, had long torn away. Silver chains had burned deep marks into my wrists. My lips were dry and cracked, and I had long stopped trying to scream.

What kept me alive now was the life growing inside me. And each memory of it only clawed more pain into me.

How could I protect my pup? How? I had failed.

“Forgive me, baby… please forgive mummy,” I murmured, my heart shattering further.

“Forgive your father too…” I reminded myself, certain Derrick didn’t understand what he was doing.

But why couldn’t he smell his own pup? Why? I thought he would, he was an Alpha, after all. I sighed and wept even harder.

I knew that cheating on an Alpha was treason, and he was treating me like one.

When the iron door creaked open again, my body tensed. My heart skipped painfully. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt heavy. The world blurred around me as my hands protectively held my flat, trembling tummy. My heart had stopped throbbing, silenced by pain. Perhaps I was ready to give up.

Footsteps echoed closer. I wanted to move, to crawl away, but I couldn’t. My strength had left me. My hands trembled on my stomach as something warm trickled down my thigh,bblood again.

“Please…” I whispered, clutching my stomach weakly. “I’m sorry… I couldn’t protect you…” A dreadful realization dawned, my baby might be leaving me.

Did the little life inside me even know I was speaking to it?

Each time Derrick's emotionless state hurt me, I feared losing the only piece of him that had once been love.

Then a voice thundered through the dungeon.

“Take her to the lawn!”

I didn’t need to see who it was. I knew that voice.

Alpha Derrick.

The man I loved.

The man who now hated me enough to kill me.

"Be careful so she doesn't escape." That bitch, she was of course with him as though she were his shadow.

The guards grabbed my arms and dragged me through the corridor. My body slammed against the stone floor more than once, each bump shooting sharp pain through my wounds. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

When we reached the open air, sunlight stabbed my eyes. I winced, blinking rapidly. The cold wind brushed my skin, carrying whispers from the crowd already gathered. My knees hit the grass as the guards threw me down.

This was it. My last verdict. Whether I lived or died would be decided here.

“Bring her sister,” Derrick commanded.

For a moment, hope flared in my chest. My eyes flew open. Emma. Emma would help me, right?

I had raised her after our mother died. Shared my food, my clothes, my little space. Protected her from those who buried her and called her a slut like our mother, taking the blame myself.

She walked out slowly, my Emma, my only hope.

Our eyes locked. Mine weak and blurry. Hers full of life.

But the hope I clung to crumbled under her glare. It was as if she didn’t even know me.

“It’s true,” she said.

“She cheated on the Alpha with your guard.”

For a moment, I thought I hadn’t heard her.

“She’s a slut just like our mother!”

What?

“E-Emma! W-what are you saying?” I forced my remaining strength to speak, struggling against the guards, desperate to reach my little sister as my heart crumbled.

What had happened to Emma? Who had made her lie like that?

My gaze shifted, searching for someone, and landed on Lilith. A broad smile played on her lips, sending a shiver down my spine. My knees buckled.

It was her again. She had poisoned my sister, turned her against me.

“She deserves to die! She committed treason!” the crowd shouted, pulling me back into harsh reality. My fleeting strength evaporated.

I turned to Emma, humiliation and betrayal clawing at my skin. “Emma… please… no…” I whispered. But she didn’t look at me. She had walked to Lilith and now stood beside her.

“E-Emma,” I called, my voice trembling. Nothing.

Then footsteps sounded behind me. Another figure was dragged to stand before me, battered and barely alive.

It was Liam, the guard Derrick accused me of sleeping with. I gasped at the sight of blood coating his body as he landed on his knees, looking weak, defeated.

Our eyes met for a split second. I saw pain, hopelessness, and what I could only call hatred.

Goddess! He too blamed me!

A tear slipped from my eye, blocking my vision, intensifying the ache in my chest. He blamed me too. And that alone shattered my heart a thousand times over.

Derrick’s voice cut through the noise, colder than anything I had ever heard. I turned slowly to him, held in place by the guards. I had stopped fighting. No one would listen.

“The final judgment has been made,” he said.

“Liam will be burned alive…” He paused, his eyes turning to me.

“And Oprah will be buried alive for committing such an atrocious crime!”

Gasps rippled through the crowd. My mouth opened, but no sound emerged. My body trembled violently.

“No,” I whispered. “Please… Derrick… please…”

But he didn’t even look at me. His jaw tightened. His eyes held nothing but hatred.

Then his voice roared again, tearing through the air.

“But first…” He stepped closer, until I could smell the iron and smoke on him.

“The bastard will be removed from her womb, so she can be cleansed before her punishment.”

The words hit harder than any whip.

I froze. My heart stopped.

“No!” I screamed, my voice breaking. “No, please! Don’t… please don’t touch my baby! Derrick, please!”

The guards didn’t listen. The crowd watched in silence as they moved toward me. I kicked, screamed, begged but my body was too weak.

Through the blur of tears, I saw Derrick’s face one last time. Cold. Empty.

And I realized, the man I loved was gone.

The life I once had was gone.

All that remained… was betrayal.