chapter 2: Banishment

Alisha's POV

I'd knelt here once before when Joshua claimed me as his mate. Now I knelt again as he destroyed me.

"This hearing will determine your fate." Joshua's voice was empty, dead.

My hands pressed against an ancient stone. Another contraction rolled through me.

Twelve minutes since the last one. The twins weren't due for four weeks. But stress had triggered labor.

Joshua had taken thirty minutes to organize this trial while my labor progressed. Without medical care or water. Not even a chair.

"Alpha, please." Nathan's voice cracked. "This is a medical emergency."

"Silence."

Joshua's Alpha command rippled across the clearing.

Nathan's mouth snapped shut. His eyes blazed with rebellion. But his body froze.

"My former mate stands accused of adultery and deception."

"Former mate?" The words cut deep like a knife in my chest.

Three hundred wolves filled the clearing. A semicircle of judgment. Not one would meet my eyes now.

Irene stood beside Joshua, possessive and triumphant. Her hand rested on his arm.

She'd changed clothes and wore formal black. Like she was attending a funeral.

"Present the evidence," Elder Zack commanded.

Joshua held up photographs. Each one was projected onto a screen behind him. My face, my body with a stranger.

"These photos were taken over three months," Joshua said.

"They show Luna Alisha with an unidentified male."

"Meeting secretly, acting with clear romantic intent."

"That's not me!" My voice broke.

"I mean, it is my face. But I was never at those places."

"I've never met that man."

"The photos are fake."

"A convenient excuse," Irene said smoothly.

"Technology can fake anything," I gasped.

"The metadata will prove..."

"The metadata shows these are authentic." Irene produced a tablet.

"I had them analyzed by a forensic expert."

Had to be lies. Another contraction was building, stealing my breath, my words.

Joshua watched me struggle. Something like pain flickered in his eyes.

For a moment, I thought he might stop this. Then Irene leaned close and whispered in his ear. His expression hardened again.

"I saw her with this man myself," Irene told the pack.

"Three weeks ago."

"Downtown restaurant." She paused for effect.

"But then I saw them again. And again, always hiding."

"Always secretive."

"You're lying." I managed through gritted teeth.

"You know it."

"Why would I lie?" Irene's voice was honey-sweet.

"What mother wants to see her son hurt?"

The false sympathy was worse than open cruelty.

But I couldn't speak; the contraction overwhelmed everything.

I doubled over and cried out. My hands pressed to my belly where the twins fought.

Joshua took half a step toward me.

It was an automatic instinct, then stopped.

His face twisted with anguish.

"Are they even mine?" The question was raw.

"The twins. Tell me the truth."

"Are they mine or his?"

The question shattered something in my chest.

"How can you ask me that?"

"How can you even think..."

"Because I don't know you anymore!" Joshua's roar echoed.

"I thought I knew my father."

"He destroyed our family with his affair."

"You come from the same bloodline."

"Your aunt seduced my father...Why wouldn't you..."

"I'm not Lisa!" I screamed it.

"I'm not your father's mistress. I'm your MATE."

"Your partner. The woman you swore to trust above all others."

"Trust goes both ways."

The contraction eased, leaving me gasping. Liquid soaked through my dress. Pooled on stone beneath me.

My water was fully broken. The blood was visible now and

much blood.

"Alpha." Nathan's voice strained.

"She needs medical attention."

"The twins..."

"Will be DNA tested the moment they're born," Joshua finished coldly.

"If they're mine, they'll be returned to pack territory."

"If not..."

He didn't finish, didn't have to.

I tried to stand but couldn't. My legs wouldn't hold me.

Celine was crying, but her mate held her back.

Even Elder Zack looked sick. But no one moved. No one dared defy their Alpha.

"I'm ordering you," I gasped.

"As your Luna, I'm ordering someone to help me."

"You're not Luna anymore." Joshua's voice was quiet and

final. The words fell like stones.

"I'm stripping you of your title with immediate effect."

"You can't...." Nathan started.

"I can, and I am."

Joshua turned to face the assembly. His Alpha presence expanded.

"I invoke my right as Alpha to dissolve this mating."

"Grounds of infidelity."

"Betrayal of pack trust."

No....This couldn't be happening. My hands scrabbled against the stone

trying to rise.

"Joshua, please."

"The babies."

"Whatever you think I did, our children are innocent."

"Please don't do this."

Doubt flickered across his face, and his eyes dropped to my belly.

I saw him waver, but Irene's hand tightened on his arm. Her nails dug into his suit jacket.

"She's manipulating you," she murmured. Soft enough that only we could hear.

"Using the pregnancy to make you weak."

"Like Lisa made your father weak."

The doubt vanished. And Joshua's face became stone.

"I, Joshua Williams, Alpha of Black Gold Pack, reject you as mate and Luna."

His voice echoed. Formal, final.

"You are hereby banished from pack lands."

"You are stripped of rank and title."

"You are forbidden from contact with this pack or its members."

He paused. His eyes swept across assembled wolves.

"No pack member will offer her aid."

"No one will assist her departure."

"No one will contact her after she leaves."

"Anyone who defies this command will be exiled themselves."

The command was suffocating. It settled over the pack like a weight.

The mate bond began to tear.

Not clean, not merciful, but ripping.

Agony stole my breath. I screamed not from labor or physical pain.

I screamed from soul-deep agony.

My mate was being torn away while he stood ten feet from me.

The bond ripped further; something inside me broke.

The connection that had made me feel complete, whole, and loved was being destroyed.

"Joshua, please." I sobbed.

"Please don't do this."

"I love you. I've always loved you."

"Only you."

"If you loved me, you wouldn't have betrayed me."

He turned his back; the symbolism was clear. The rejection is complete.

Another contraction hit stronger than before. Ten minutes since the last.

The twins were coming whether anyone helped or not.

The mate bond gave one final, agonizing twist and then went silent. Not broken completely.

True mate bonds couldn't be severed without both parties' consent, but they could be suppressed.

Reduced from symphony to distant, aching void.

Another contraction began building. Eight minutes since the last.

"Get up."

I raised my head, found Irene standing over me, and her smile was gentle. Concerned, the perfect mask.

"You should go," she said softly.

"Before the contractions get worse."

"I do hope you make it somewhere safe."

The false kindness was more chilling than any insult.

Joshua stood with his back still turned. Shoulders rigid, he didn't intervene. Didn't stop her.

The contraction eased enough for me to move. I got my hands under me, pushed up to my knees.

My dress was soaked with blood and amniotic fluid.

I looked at my car, fifty yards away.

"She's really doing it," someone whispered.

"The blood..."

"Alpha's command. We can't help."

Their voices followed me as I started crawling.

One hand forward, then the other. Dragging my knees across rough stone.

Blood smeared behind me, leaving a trail marking my path.

"This is wrong," Celine sobbed.

"Someone has to..."

"Don't." Her mate's voice was tight.

"You heard the Alpha."

I focused on my car, on survival, the twins fighting inside me.

Another contraction seized me. I collapsed. Face pressed to stone. It lasted for six minutes this time.

I started crawling again, the clearing was silent except for my ragged breathing.

The scrape of my hands on stone. I reached the grass. My arms shook.

The car was twenty yards away. And it was fifteen, then ten.

My hand closed around the door handle. I pulled; thankfully, the door opened at once.

I dragged myself inside but collapsed across the front seats.

My keys. Where were my keys, my purse?

Still in the passenger seat. My hands shook so hard I could barely grip them.

I got the key in the ignition. Turned it, the engine started.

I put the car in drive. My foot found the gas pedal.

The car lurched forward, away from Joshua's cold eyes and Irene's gentle smile.

And from the pack that had watched me crawl.

I drove, my vision blurring with tears and pain.

Another contraction hit. I swerved, nearly hit a tree, but kept driving.

The road wound ahead. Curves I'd driven a thousand times.

But my vision was blurring, darkening at the edges.

I pressed the gas pedal harder, too hard. The speedometer climbed to forty. Fifty. Sixty.

I didn't see the road curve ahead until it was too late. My hands yanked the wheel.

Tires screamed, the car didn't respond. Trees rushed toward me.

The world tilted, metal shrieked.

and glass shattered.

Then everything went black.