The Weight of a Fallen Name

The crowd murmured around them. Whispers spreading like wildfire.

The Beta’s wife fainted. The mate bond broke her. She can’t even stand to look at what’s left of him.

Gwen knelt on the ground with her mother’s head in her lap and tried very hard not to fall apart herself.

The pack doctor arrived within minutes....a thin, severe-looking woman named Dr. Hallow. She knelt beside Beatrice, checked her pulse, her eyes, her breathing.

"Mate bond shock," she said shortly. "Combined with emotional trauma. She needs to be taken to the pack hospital immediately."

Two warriors moved forward without being asked, lifting Beatrice’s limp body with practiced efficiency.

"Wait..." Gwen started to stand. "I’m coming with her..."

"No." Duncan’s hand landed on her shoulder. "You’re staying here."

She looked at him. "That’s my mother....."

"And there are things we need to discuss." His voice was hard now. All traces of sympathy gone. "Things that can’t wait."

The warriors were already carrying Beatrice toward the medical building on the far side of the square. Gwen watched them go, her mother’s body limp and lifeless in their arms.

"She’ll be taken care of," Duncan said. "The pack doctors will do everything they can."

Gwen turned back to him slowly.

There was something in his voice. Something that made her stomach drop.

"What things," she said quietly.

Duncan looked at her for a long moment. Then he looked at the crowd still gathered around them, watching, listening to every word.

"The pack council met this morning," he said. Loud enough for everyone to hear. Official. "We’ve made a decision regarding your family’s status."

Gwen went very still.

"Your father has been branded a traitor," Duncan continued, his voice flat and emotionless. "Evidence has been presented to the council showing that Arthur leaked the meeting location to the hunters. That he betrayed not only our pack, but also our allies. That his actions directly led to the death of the Fenwick Alpha and everyone else at that meeting site."

"That’s a lie," Gwen said. Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "My father would never...."

"The Fenwicks have provided proof," Duncan said over her. "Documents. Communication records. Testimony from their scouts." He paused. "The evidence is conclusive."

"It’s fabricated...."

"It doesn’t matter if it’s fabricated!" Duncan’s control cracked for just a second, frustration bleeding through. "Don’t you understand? The Fenwick triplets believe your father betrayed them. They believe Arthur got their father killed. And they want blood for it."

The crowd was completely silent now. Everyone watching. Everyone listening.

Gwen felt their eyes on her like physical weight.

"The council’s decision is final," Duncan said. "Effective immediately, you and your mother are stripped of your Beta family status. You are no longer recognized as Arthur’s daughter in any official capacity." He paused. "You are demoted to omega."

The word landed like a physical blow.

Omega.

The lowest rank in the pack. The ones nobody wanted. The ones who did the jobs nobody else would do.

"You have until the end of the week to vacate the Beta residence," Duncan continued. "You may take only personal belongings. All family property, all Beta privileges, all status protections are revoked immediately."

Gwen stared at him.

This man who had eaten at their table. Who had held her when she was a baby. Who had told her father he was the finest Beta Greywatch had ever had.

"My mother," she said quietly. "She’s in the hospital. She needs...."

"Your mother will receive basic medical care," Duncan said. "As long as the pack deems it necessary. But her treatment costs will be recorded as debt. When she wakes, she can work it off. If she doesn’t wake...." He left the sentence unfinished.

If she doesn’t wake, they’ll let her die.

Gwen understood perfectly.

"This is wrong," she said. Her voice was shaking now, the control she’d been holding onto starting to fracture. "Everything about this is wrong. My father didn’t betray anyone. He died serving this pack. He died protecting....."

"Your father died a traitor," Duncan said coldly. "And you would do well to remember that when you speak about him in public. The Fenwicks are watching, girl. They’re waiting to see how we handle this situation. If they think we’re defending a traitor, if they think we’re protecting his family...." His jaw tightened. "We can’t afford to make them think that. Do you understand?"

She understood.

She understood that her father was being sacrificed to save the pack’s skin. That his name was being dragged through the mud to appease three Alphas who wanted revenge. That everything he’d built, everything he’d worked for, everything he’d died for was being erased to protect people too afraid to stand up for the truth.

"Is that all, Alpha," she said quietly.

Duncan looked at her for a long moment. Something almost like regret flickered across his face.

"That’s all," he said.

She turned and walked away.

Past the body bags containing what was left of her father. Past the crowd of people who wouldn’t meet her eyes anymore. Past the guards and the whispers and the life she’d had just hours ago.

Behind her, she heard someone say, loud enough to carry: "Traitor’s daughter."

She didn’t look back.

She just kept walking.

And tried very hard not to think about the fact that she’d lost both her parents in the space of a single afternoon.

Her father was dead and being called a traitor.

Her mother was unconscious and might never wake up.

And she had just been stripped of everything that had ever made her safe.

She had nothing left.

Absolutely nothing.