Aurora's POV
My hands and legs were bound as I stood before the entire pack for judgment. My supposed brother – Kylian, was seated on my father's throne, his mother – my step mother, sat by his side.
I had been locked up in the dungeon for days, starved, and finally it was my time to be judged.
I went from being a princess, the heir to the Alpha's seat, to a dungeon prisoner with cow pies as my clothing. Persecuted for a crime I knew nothing about. My fate lay in the hands of Kylian and his puppeteer mother, who had orchestrated all of this.
Funny, that day was supposed to be my coronation, yet it was still going to mark another meaningful day of my life; my death.
Anger filled my heart because I knew it was a well-planned coup. I had hope because I knew one person wouldn't give up on me.
I trusted him the most, my mate, Alphonso. My eyes searched for him in the gathering, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Enough." Kylian stood up, gesturing with his hands to restore decorum among the crowd.
"I know many of you are already aware of the reason for this assembly," Kylian's voice floated through the air, causing all movement and whispers to cease.
"It is a sad week for us, as we still mourn the death of our great Alpha, my father, but we cannot overlook the necessary arrangements to be made after his passing."
I treated him with nothing but kindness and love from the first day they came into our home. I cherished him like my blood, never once seeing him otherwise. But at that moment, he stood before me as my judge, jury, and executioner.
"Greed is a very poisonous desire," he continued, his voice stern, his gaze fierce.
"My sister welcomed that greed. Impatient to wait for her time, impatient to calm the nerves of her lust for power and control. She killed the man who brought her into this world to achieve that power, a man we loved, a man I loved."
His words sparked murmurs and foul words from the people. Their eyes blazed with anger as they shamed me with abuse.
"Cursed child," they called me.
"Abomination."
It was astonishing how fast people could change. I remembered receiving gratitude and praise from these same people, yet now I was being tongue-lashed.
"Silence!" Kylian blurted, and they obeyed instantly.
"It was impossible to believe such an accusation at first, but I had to, because someone witnessed this atrocity. Someone who saw Aurora murder her father."
"Liar!" I shot to my feet, yanking hard against the chains as I lunged toward Kylian, desperate to crush his head where he stood. The restraints clanged and jerked me back, stopping me just feet from him as armed guards rushed in. My eyes locked onto his, burning with fury.
"You and your treacherous mother planned this!" I spat angrily, my ankles almost splitting apart from the force I applied in trying to free myself.
"I would never hurt my father. I would never!"
At that point, I confirmed my suspicions. They killed my father, and now they were trying to rope it around my neck.
"You can't prove anything because there is nothing to prove. I am not taking the fall for you," I said calmly as I took steps back. My vision had begun to blur from weakness, my legs quaking where I stood.
"How dare you think I would do such a thing?" Tears gathered in his eyes as he tried to blink them back. His theatrics only fueled my rage, but they made the people even more convinced.
"I loved Father. I loved you. I wouldn't point fingers when I have nothing to back it up. The witness came forward with proof."
From the look on their faces, I was sure he had a witness. Whose testimony could hold weight in court against me?
"Of course, sister, this is a fair court. You could always present evidence to back up your innocence," Kylian said to me.
There was none I could think of. I was with my father when he died; that was incriminating enough.
I took another look around, searching for Alphonso, but he was nowhere in sight.
"The court recognizes your silence as an absence of evidence, so—"
"So what?" I asked, interrupting him before he could finish.
"So I'm guilty? You have no proof either."
"I have proof." A voice that sent shivers down my spine spoke right behind me. I didn't want my eyes to confirm it. I was terrified to face him. The crowd gasped as he spoke, his approaching footsteps echoing through the hall until he stopped beside me.
"I have proof that my mate murdered the Alpha for her greed and lust for power."
He spoke firmly, and when I turned to him, the look on his face shattered my heart.
"Why?" I asked Alphonso.
"What did they offer you to betray me?"
With a fiery look, he retorted, "They don't have to offer me anything. I can't see the truth and turn a blind eye. You murdered our leader. You yearn to push our clan to war. For fame? For wealth?"
"You liar!" I roared as I sprang toward him, stopped an inch away by the chains binding me.
The eyes of the man I lay beside, the eyes of the man I loved, stabbing me in the back.
"Everyone, this is Alphonso," Kylian spoke as he climbed onto the Alpha throne.
"The mate of the accused, as some of you may know. A few days ago, he came to me to confess what he had seen. His selflessness helped us uncover this criminal."
I fell to my knees, my weakened body trembling as the void in my heart grew endless. I couldn't even muster the strength to raise my head.
"I loved Aurora, but her hunger to rule overshadowed her love for me. True, we are mates, but our bond couldn't satisfy her. Only power could."
All I heard was his voice. Nothing else. His voice and my own heart racing with anguish. Strange, that the one I placed my hope in was the same person who swung the sword that would end my life.
I looked up to see the hatred in the people's eyes. Their lips moved, but I couldn't make out the words over the loud buzz in my head. My mind slowly descended into madness as I took in the fury burning in their gazes.
"Guards!" Kylian's voice broke through the noise.
"It's time to pass judgment. But first, do you have anything to add, Mother?"
The room fell silent as everyone turned to the serpent seated beside my father's throne.
"She killed my lover. Let her meet her fate," she muttered, and her son nodded in agreement.
"Aurora, you took away a great man from this world because of greed. You will face a shameful death, executed and dumped like a bandit," he declared.
Instinctively, a smile crept onto my lips. It slowly grew into an outburst of laughter that made everyone gasp. The fear that crossed Alphonso's face was almost satisfying.
"What's funny about your shame?" Kylian asked, his expression pitiful.
"We have a goddess who sees our hearts, our truth. I will be avenged! The truth shall come out!" I spat in rage.
"Take her away," he ordered. Two huge men unchained me from the pillar and dragged me out of the Great Room.
"All of you will burn! You will all burn, I promise you!" I shouted as they hauled me away. Alphonso's face was the last thing I saw before I exited.
That face etched into my mind, the hate in my soul, and vengeance in my heart. I held onto it as they yanked my hair back and plunged a dagger through my heart.
*****"
People say death comes like a breeze, but I experienced something different. A strange burning sensation accompanied by the cry of a bird in the sky.
It might have been my imagination, but a burning bird flew over my head in the woods where I lay waiting for death to claim me. Its light burned bright like the sun, yet the sensation was almost freezing.
"No!" I blurted as I jolted awake in the dead of night. My chest burned with pain, yet there was no wound. I looked around in disarray, my head pounding as flashes of a man with silver eyes burned into my mind. He wore a coat of bearskin, an axe tattoo etched across his back.
I looked around in confusion. Everything was different. The trees smelled different. I was no longer among my pack. I was somewhere else, and then a troubling question surfaced.
"How am I alive?"