The Awakening
The cellar stairs stretched before me like a descent into the underworld.
Each step echoed off ancient stone, a countdown to something I couldn't name. Behind my eyes, the images flickered without mercy, the courtyard, the post, the whip rising and falling. June's back splitting open. June's blood painting the stones. June's eyes, even then, even at the worst moment, looking at me with something that wasn't quite defeat.
I had ordered those lashes. I had stood there and watched them fall. I had told myself it was justice, necessary discipline, the hard cost of maintaining order in a pack that needed to know its Alpha would not be challenged.
Sikat na Kabanata