Chapter 7: Marked as the Murderer.

The stench of the pack dungeons is suffocating, forcing itself down my throat and nose as my body hangs limply.

Tears of pain are streaming down my face and the hard stone floor digs into my knees, but that's nothing compared to what is about to happen next.

Crack!

The sting of the whip tears across my back and the pain forces a scream out of my lips.

The whip comes down again and again, hard and relentless, and all I can do is scream.

By the time it stops, I can hear the sound of my tormentor's ragged breathing, and I can taste the blood on my lips.

Tristan comes to stand in front of me, and I can see his body is shaking. His whole form is vibrating, not with exhaustion, but with fury. 

"I never should have let you go," he snarls, grabbing my bloody chin and forcing me to look at him, "I should have left you in that room instead of trusting you. 

My kindness was only repaid with evil."

Tristan looks at me for a long moment, the anger in his eyes as if he has just seen through a person he has known for years and finally come to a realization. An evil, worthless bitch like me doesn't deserve his kindness.

He tightens his grip on my chin, and I swallow the cry of pain that is about to escape my lips, looking at him defiantly instead. 

He seems to be burned by the pain in my eyes and abruptly turns his head away, throwing my head back in the same motion and making the rest of my body follow.

The shackles around my wrist dig painfully into my skin as I force the same words I have been saying since I got here out of my mouth again.

"I didn't kill Tracy."

Tristan sharply turns back to face me and responds with another lash down my back, "Liar!"

Heavy tears come rolling down my cheeks more from the pain than from the sound of raw anguish in his voice as he continues, "Tracy was weak, Destiny.

She was weak after childbirth and you took advantage of that to kill her. Be brave enough to admit it!"

Those words make something in my chest break. Tracy? Weak? 

Isn't she the same woman that asked for a party to be thrown the minute she gave birth because she was so strong?

"Tracy is a trained warrior wolf, Tristan. I wouldn't be able to defeat her in combat, not even on her worst day."

The words scrape out of my hoarse throat as my body trembles from pain but it's true. He knows it's true.

Tristan's voice only cracks with more emotion as he responds, "Do you expect me to believe that? 

I know you and Tracy have your issues, but she just gave birth, Destiny. Her child isn't even a month old and now she will never see him again." 

He lets out a bitter sob at that, and even through my pain I can see how this kind of guilt could break a person.

"Tristan, please listen to me," I begin. The pain of losing his sister has made him irrational but if I could just reason with him….

"If Tracy is dead, then someone killed her, but I promise you, it wasn't me. Please, calm down, and find the real killer."

I'm hoping he can listen to my words and see the sense in them but he only stoops lower, staring me straight in the face with icy blue eyes as he grits out harshly, "I trusted you.

I defended you, Destiny.

And now my sister is gone."

Tristan reaches to his belt for the whip again and my body shudders violently at the thought of the incoming pain. 

Before he can pull it out, a heavy scent invades the dungeon.

It's pine and smoke, the scent of burning pack forests and rage. It's a scent I know all too well.

Coren appears at the dungeon cell doors and the torches flicker as he stops behind Tristan, "That's enough. Unchain her."

Tristan whirls around, shock in his eyes. "You want to release her?"

Coren is staring at me, his face unreadable but a look of anguish in his eyes as he looks at my bloodied back. "There isn't enough evidence to keep her locked up in here."

Tristan explodes immediately, "She's barely been here a day. 

Her blood was found at Tracy's murder site. How isn't that enough evidence?"

Coren's voice hardens like steel as he turns to his beta. "We couldn't find a body. 

There are no witnesses that can say Destiny was there. There's no evidence that Destiny can attack a warrior as skilled as Tracy and survive. Destiny is weak.”

He scoffs bitterly, “She couldn't even give me a child. How could she have killed a woman who fought by my side in the war?"

I close my eyes tightly, looking away to keep the shame and pain that courses through me off my mind. My mate just called me weak.

"Her blood was found at the crime scene, Coren. Are you going to let the only suspect in the death of my sister go scot-free?"

Tristan isn't backing down and for the first time I see him openly disrespect his Alpha. "It's because she's your mate, isn't it? 

My sister is only the woman who gave your precious child so she's dispensable, but this murderer right here means something to you because she's your mate!"

Coren's gaze hardens drastically as he gets right into Tristan’s face and growls, "I am the Alpha of this pack. 

We still haven't found Tracy's body and Destiny's blood at the scene wasn't enough to have indicated an attack. It's my duty to make sure no one is falsely accused in this pack, and we are not going to convict someone without proof.

Now, unchain her."

Tristan goes still. 

His throat bobs, flickers of emotion rolling across his face before he walks over and unchains the shackles around my wrists.

My body sags to the floor the moment the iron leaves my arms, but the next second, a warm hand at the small of my back stedies me as Coren guides me forward and out of the cell.

The sudden release from restraints and the whip does not immediately relax my body; instead, i feel my muscles tense even more. I blink, trying to clear my vision and maintain some consciousness.

Neither of us speak until we get to the pack infirmary, and as Coren places me on the bed, healers running around gathering supplies to treat the wounds on my back from the whipping, I move away from his touch.

I expect him to leave but he doesn't. He only closes the door and sits on a chair beside my bed, his eyes hollow and the line of his jaw ticking as he watches the nurses work.

 "The elders and the warriors are convinced you killed her." He says, his voice empty of emotion.

A chilling cold invades my heart because even now, I still can’t believe that Tracy is dead.

I saw her before I left the packhouse. 

She was only one step away from becoming Luna. How could she die?

"Tracy's parents are pushing for capital punishment on you. An eye for an eye, according to the pack's rules, but I've managed to make it clear that you have nothing to do with Tracy's disappearance."

A bitter chuckle slips past my lips despite the pain I'm currently in, "Disappearance? So you're not calling me a murderer anymore?"

Coren's jaw tightens as he huffs tiredly, "Destiny, please..."

"Without any of you finding Tracy's body, you allowed Tristan to lock me up and torture me simply because I was a suspect and had a grudge against her." 

My voice breaks, and a stronger emotion beneath my sadness reveals itself - Anger. I’m angry at how unfair this is. 

Rage radiates through every word I speak as I ask, "Where were you when I was being questioned with whips and bound in shackles? Is this really how the pack treats everyone suspected of a crime, OR is this just for me?"

Coren turns his face away from me, leaving my question with an answer of silence.

Tears shimmer in my eyes but I refuse to let them drop, not any more. 

I have endured enough. From pack members' gossip, to the cheating and betrayal of my fated mate, even the evil words of my husband's mistress and the whips of the wrong accusation, all of it forced on me like I’m not someone that can make a choice..

"I met with the Pack Council this morning and I managed to convince them that you didn't have anything to do with Tracy's disappearance.”

My heart feels dead as I listen to his words.

“Everyone has agreed to put off your imprisonment for now until more evidence is found, but on one condition.

You must remain in the pack."

A gut feeling in me told me this was coming. 

This is all so wrong... it's wrong and unfair. If I haven't done anything wrong, why am I being held prisoner in the pack? 

It just means they don't believe I didn't do it.

Rhea's words fill my mind, coming stronger as she rages through our bond. "We must escape, Destiny. 

We can't give up on being free."

I agree with her, but one question hangs in my mind like a knife about to plunge down.

How do I do that?

How do I escape when no one will allow me to?