4 - The River

My arms were yanked behind me, rough hands binding my wrists.

The rope bit into my skin, raw and biting. I didn’t fight them anymore. What was the use? Mama and Papa.... they were gone. The images seared into my brain. Mama falling, the dark stain.. Papa slumping, so quiet.

The cold rage I’d felt moments before was still there, a hard, sharp stone in my chest, but a chilling numbness was creeping over me too. It was like watching things happen to someone else.

“Move ! traitor scum,” one of the guards snarled, shoving me forward.

I stumbled, my legs barely holding me. They were dragging me away from the clearing, away from… from them. I couldn’t even look back.

Alpha Henry’s voice boomed again, addressing the silent, watching pack. “This is what happens to traitors!! This is what happens to those who defile the pack with impure blood and deceit!” His words were for them, but his eyes, cold and hard, found mine. “Your daughter, Alfred and Juliet, was a mistake. A stain. And stains must be washed away.”

Washed away. I knew what that meant. The Grayling River. It bordered our territory, deep and fast-flowing, especially now with the spring melt. No one survived the Grayling if it decided to take you.

Rhys was still standing near Henry. My brother. Or half brother. Vorlag’s son. He watched me being dragged off, his face a mask. No flicker of regret. No hesitation. Just.... nothing. That nothing was worse than hatred. It was like I didn’t even matter enough to hate.

“Where are you taking her?” a voice quavered from the crowd. Old Elara, I thought, who used to give me sweet berries when I was a child.

“To her judgment,” Henry’s voice was flat, final. “Commander Valerius will see to it.”

A new figure stepped out from beside Henry. Commander Valerius. I knew him by reputation. He was Henry’s most loyal dog, and twice as vicious.

Tall, with a face that looked like it had been carved from granite and left out in a storm. His eyes were small and black, like a wolf’s in the dead of night, but without any of the wild beauty. Just cold, empty cruelty.

“My pleasure, Alpha,” Valerius said, his voice a low rumble. He gestured to the two guards holding me. “Bring her. And fetch the stones.”

Stones. My stomach lurched. They weren’t just going to throw me in. They were going to make sure I sank. Make sure I stayed down.

The guards jerked me along. We left the main part of the Omega sector, heading towards the path that led down to the river. A few pack members watched us go, their faces pale in the twilight. Some looked away quickly. Others just stared, their eyes wide with fear.

No one spoke.

No one moved to help. They were too scared. I understood. Henry had made his point.

“Faster,” Valerius ordered from behind us. His presence felt like a physical weight, pressing down on me.

The path was uneven, and I stumbled again, my knees hitting the hard dirt. One of the guards yanked me up so hard I thought my arm would pop from its socket. Pain shot through my shoulder.

“Careful with the merchandise boys,” Valerius said, a dry, humorless chuckle in his voice. “We want her alive when she hits the water. More...satisfying that way.”

Alive. So I could feel it. So I could know I was drowning.

The air grew colder as we neared the river.

I could hear the rush of the water now, a hungry sound. The trees thinned, and then we were there, on the muddy bank of the Grayling. It was wider here, the current swirling in dark, angry eddies. The last light of the sunset painted streaks of blood red on its surface.

“Here is good,” Valerius said, stopping. He looked at me, a slow, deliberate appraisal. “A pity, in a way. Such a pretty little Omega. Wasted.”

I stared back at him, trying to pour all the hatred I felt into my eyes. I hoped he could see it. I hoped it burned him.

He just smiled, a thin, cruel curve of his lips. “Spirit. I like that. It’ll make this more entertaining.”

The guards forced me to my knees. Another guard arrived, carrying a rough sack. The sound it made when he dropped it on the ground was heavy. Stones.

“Tie them to her ankles,” Valerius instructed. “Make sure they’re secure. We don’t want her washing up downstream and scaring the fish.” His men chuckled.

One guard grabbed my ankles, his touch rough. I flinched. He pulled my worn boots off, tossing them aside. The cold mud oozed between my toes. Then he started tying the sack of stones around my ankles with another piece of thick rope. It was heavy. So heavy. I could already feel it pulling me down.

“Not too tight on the knots Dante,” Valerius said to the guard. “We want the river to take her, not the ropes cutting off her feet first. Details, man, details.”

Dante grunted and adjusted the ropes.

I looked up at the sky, a sliver of deep violet visible between the dark, skeletal branches of the trees.

A single star blinked into existence. Was this it? Was this the last thing I would ever see?

My parents’ faces flashed in my mind. Papa’s gentle smile. Mama’s warm eyes. The pain of their loss was a fresh, tearing wound. And Rhys.... his betrayal was a venom that poisoned everything.