Skinned

Valerie

How I thought that a Beta’s younger brother was worth my own trust had brought me only punishable consequences.

And now I was going to bleed for Heath’s betrayal.

I lowered my head when I heard the Alpha wolf’s bones snap, fur replacing skin as I remained kneeling in front of him.

I gritted my teeth as I waited for his judgement, my shame curling itself tight around my throat and preventing any more words from escaping my mouth.

His growls refused to cease as I locked my entire body down into a position that suggested my own submission, conpletely surrendering myself to the Alpha that had witnessed my wrong.

I flinched when I heard another person enter the area, and I looked up to see Emma with features that bore her dread. Her hair was stuck in different directions, eyes glossy and red as she looked at me hopelessly.

I smiled at her reassuringly, “It’s okay, Emma. Go back to your sister.”

Emma’s face further paled and opened up her mouth to speak, but no words managed to roll off of her tongue. The Alpha let out a laugh as she choked on her words, and I turned to look at him questioningly with my eyebrows furrowed.

“Go back to her sister?” Alpha Azeil sneered with a dark glint passing over his gray eyes. “She came here to have you caught and witness it herself. Isn’t that right, Em?”

A grim look had overtaken my features, shoulders slumping as I looked back at Emma and waited for her oncoming truth.

“You told them?” I questioned, refusing to believe that she had done something against me.

Emma sobbed, her guilt washing over me as she stood weakly by her Alpha with her shoulders hunched and her posture rigid as if she was ready to crumble at any second.

“I did.”

Even the person closest to my heart could betray me.

It was her all along.

It was ironic how Heath was much more skilled at keeping a secret despite holding himself with great mischief.

I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes before turning my head away from her, “You’re no friend of mine.”

“Valerie, please,” Emma winced. “I told them because I wanted to keep you safe. You don’t know what he is, I was just trying to protect you!”

“Stop,” I spat. “Don’t fucking talk to me.”

“I w-wanted to keep you safe, I-”

“Enough,” Azeil snarled at Emma and looked over at the newly arrived men that stood closely behind them. “Take Valerie to the main grounds. Tie her up.”

“What?” She said with a tone that was laced with horror before turning to her Alpha and landing a tight grip on his arm.

“You promised me you wouldn’t hurt her,”

“Punishments apply to werewolves who have done wrong, and that bitch,” Alpha Azeil let his scorching gaze land on my distraught figure kneeling before him, “is never an exception.”

“Why don’t you watch while you’re at it?” Beta Reed gave a hard look at Emma.

“Throw that thing back in the penitentiary section, we’ll deal with it later,” Alpha Azeil ordered Reed, who had his arm planted tightly around the back of Killian’s neck.

The Alpha let his eyes land back down on me again, the weight of his rage forcing my own shoulders to curl even further.

“I hope he was worth it, Valerie,” Azeil spat, and I nearly winced when I heard Killian’s familiar growl from behind me, and the sound of it alone has sent everyone to take an involuntary step back.

“You don’t want to hurt her,” Killian said, his words sounding more of a threat as he kept his tone somewhat strained. Slowly, his head rose and let his eyes meet Azeil, his right blue eye taking on a brighter light, “If even a drop of her blood touches the ground, I’ll make sure you’ll bleed for it completely.”

Cold cutting menace.

It wasn’t Killian, but it was his wild’s intentions reaching out to be acknowledged by many.

His new voice had brought a strong threat to them all, and the werewolves surrounding us were fighting themselves from yielding to the teeth of the King that wore no crown.

Silence settled upon us all, and after a brief moment, Alpha Azeil decided to let out a deep laugh.

“Not if you bleed first,” he snarled and nodded his head at Reed to gesture for him to send Killian back into his cell.

Killian’s breathing was shallow, his features pulled up into a look that displayed his internal tremor as he fought something that was raging beneath his skin. Beta Reed paid no regard to Killian’s buzzing figure and pushed him up to his feet to drag him out of the area. As their distance began to increase, I could feel the heat of Killian’s gaze on my figure, and it took me a lot of effort to keep myself from acknowledging his attention.

Emma ran to block me from Alpha Azeil’s approaching figure, her body shaking relentlessly as she faced the man that could be the reason for the last breath of her life.

“Don’t do this to Valerie,” Emma cried, “she’s our only doctor. She won’t do it again, I promise. Give her a chance, please.”

A deep growl had escaped Azeil’s throat, displeased to find a mere Omega making an effort to protect me; a werewolf of iniquity.

“You either get the fuck out of my way or I’ll tie you up with her as well,” he bit out, his lips curling back to flash his teeth.

Emma’s shoulders were shaking from her incessant sobbing. I knew very well what kind of female she was; always the wolf easy to be bent by the touch of threat, and I wasn’t expecting anything from her anymore.

She always had her tail tucked between her legs.

Emma shook her head and sent me a glance that I refused to meet, and I already knew that she had given up with her backbone already gone.

“I’m so sorry, Valerie. I wish I hadn’t done this to you.”

With posture remaining rigid, she stepped out of the way with her back facing me, refusing to witness the consequences that she had inflicted upon me.

Alpha Azeil knelt down in front of me and grabbed my jaw to tilt my head up and meet his darkened gray eyes.

“Shame welcomes you, Valerie,” he said, and I didn’t have any more time to react when someone had hit me from the back of my head and swiftly sent me out cold.

The sound of werewolves whispering to one another surrounded my ears as my weakened body felt like it was laid onto a saturated ground.

I groaned when I felt a sting as soon as I had attempted to move my wrists, and I forced my eyes to fly open to see that they had been bounded by silver shackles that had once been on Killian’s skin.

I was tied against the large post in the middle of the main grounds, and all the pack members were circled around me to witness my show of punishment.

“Everyone’s ready, Valerie,” Alpha Azeil said behind me, “I hope you are as well.”

His forward motion as he approached me was loud and clear, each drop of his foot sending all the color of my face to drain out as I waited for his attack.

A claw was hooked at the collar of my shirt and I clenched my jaw when it had went all the way down to rip the material off completely, baring the skin of my back for the werewolves to see completely.

The bruises that decorated my body were free for everyone to see, and they observed it with their own judgement as I remained kneeing and vulnerable for all the eyes to feast upon.

“Valerianne Array Press,” Alpha Azeil called out, his tone laced with a malice that he did not even hide. “For putting the safety of our pack in danger, involving yourself for the benefit of an enemy, and denying the Moon, you will be punished for your crimes with the agony of the silver lash.”

I kept my mouth shut and closed my eyes as I heard the silver tip of the whip drag against the ground, my fingers curling deep into my palms as I waited for the first kiss of the whip.

I knew I wasn’t going to make it. After all, I was too far lost in the antiserum. I was as vulnerable as a human being.

I could never heal.

And I was going to bleed to death.

I raised me head and found Heath at the very back of the crowd, his physique taut and unwavering as he watched what was happening before him. His jaw was set tight, eyes dark and brooding as if the mere sight of me about to be punished had brought him pain as well.

That was our deal.

If I was caught, he was no longer going to interfere. All the consequences were for me to bear.

Emma was off to the side with her sister, she was still crying while her sister remained standing by her side and refusing to offer her any form comfort.

All the air had left my lungs when I felt the silver meet the skin of my back, and I swallowed down my scream as I planted my head against the post and tried to block my own agony.

“Was he worth it, Valerie?” Alpha Azeil questioned me as he circled around my trembling figure with a sickening smirk plastered on his face. Luna Celeste matched his expression well as she stood within the crowd of her own loyal followers of female werewolves, she was watching me as if I was her personal entertainment.

I gritted my teeth and took in a sharp breath when another whip had landed on my back, blood was already running down and meeting the ground beneath me, and I fought the urge to cry as I refused to meet the eyes of my Alpha.

“Is he worth every damned lash of a silver?” Azeil laughed darkly and sent me another lash.

Again and again, I was met the harsh lick of the silver whip. Turning skin into strips and smothered with my own blood.

I counted every single hit.

And by the thirty fourth lash of my punishment, I was already slumped against the post with my breathing already uneven and my eyes ready to close on its defeat.

I groaned when Azeil had reached out to grab my hair and pull my head back, letting my eyes meet every member of my pack.

“Look at them, Valerie,” he bit out, “they’re all watching you for all the shit that you’ve done. You have nothing to be proud of, and you have nothing to be praised for. The Moon will never welcome you.”

When he had finished his words, I felt the weight of my hair become lose, and it took me a moment to realize that Alpha Azeil had chopped off my hair, cutting it short to the nape of my neck.

My head dropped back against the post, and I made no effort to make any movements to avoid causing myself more pain.

“She’s not healing,” I heard Emma shout. “Please, she’s had enough!”

“Nothing’s enough for a traitor,” Alpha Azeil snarled and landed a painful lash on my mutilated back, the force of it much worse than the rest that I had let out a pained cry.

“Was he worth it, Valerie?” He questioned once again, and I couldn’t find my voice to speak anymore.

I waited for the rest of my blood to leave my body, the pain too much that it had caused me to become numb. I was just waiting for my death, and I was more than willing to welcome it.

“This is the example of the consequence of a betrayal,” Alpha Azeil told the werewolves surrounding us. “I hope this doesn’t happen again.”

I heard a deep, foreign growl that had me clinging tight against the post, everyone’s posture had stiffened as they acknowledged the strength of its voice.

And I looked up to find the direction of the sound, only to find out that it came from the place of Killian’s cell. The sound of his threat alone forcing the trees to sway with the tone and the birds to take a flight and escape the danger that they had strongly felt.

Everyone stood in silence as they eyed the empty forest, and I merely watched in my own daze as I waited for Killian’s oncoming war.

And his wrath was going to be the havoc that no pack ever wanted.