by Cara Wylde
“Lies,” one of the Elders shouted. “Shut up, woman.” He turned to the judge. “She is lying!”
“Order!”
“I will not stand by and watch as these awful, greedy people, these misogynistic relicts take advantage of an Omega and her pups. She is mated. No one should have any say when it comes to her fate, except for her Alphas.”
“Lying shrew,” the Elders raged all at once. “This is why we don’t have women in the Council!”
“Order!” It took the judge a few minutes to convince the courtroom to settle down. “We will take a break, and we will all return in thirty minutes with a clear head and, hopefully, more respect for what we’re doing here.”
“No, please!” Michaela shot to her feet. “I was supposed to go next after Miss Marcia Frost. Please. I am the last witness, and if you order us to leave this courtroom now, you order my demise.”
Everyone turned to look at Michaela. She was my father’s lover. The little boy sitting next to her must have been the child she’d had the night my father gathered his pack and performed the ritual. Wolf pups grew fast compared to human babies. The boy was almost a toddler. He was also… my half-brother.
The judge sighed, sat back down, and nodded. As Marcia left the stand, Michaela took her place. She didn’t need the lawyers to ask her any questions because she knew what she wanted to say and that she needed to say it quickly. There was an urgency to the way she moved and spoke. She kept stealing frightened glances at the members of the Council, who’d refused to sit down and were now hovering near the exit. Two guards were there, though, and the judge gestured to not let them pass.
“First, they tried to bribe me. They wanted me to lie about Sierra and the Wolf Spirit, about what Alpha Carmine, the father of my child, did. When bribing me didn’t work, they threatened to take my child. They wanted me to come here as the last witness and say that Alpha Carmine never initiated the ritual, and never even knew about the Wolf Spirit. They wanted me to say that Sierra has always been the one to want the power to herself, and that she hated her family so much that she performed the ritual on her own, allowed herself to be possessed by the beast, and then unleashed hell onto her pack. But none of it is true! None of it! They just want to paint this innocent woman as the villain, so that you’d lock her up in prison until her babies are born. They would then take them from her, take control of the Spirit born through her, and let her die in the pit. They want you to restore the death sentence.” She turned to the jury. “Please, you have to believe me. The Council of the Elders is guilty. Alpha Carmine, God rest his cursed soul, was guilty. Omega Sierra Carmine is not.” She turned to the judge. “Please, you have to make this right, save Sierra from these horrible, greedy people, and protect me and my son.”
It was chaos. The members of the Council were trying to get out, but the judge ordered the guards to seize them. Everyone was talking, some people from the audience tried to get to the Elders but were stopped, and all I wanted was to go to my Alphas. My lawyer stopped me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
“Don’t do anything stupid. Behave, and it won’t go unnoticed.”
“Court dismissed!”
With the help of a guard, my lawyer took me out of there. Once again, I was isolated from my Alphas. All I could do was cry and hope.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Officer Stone
I felt lost, confused. I felt useless. These feelings… they were overwhelming, and I’d never experienced them before. I could barely name them. I watched them take Wisteria away from me again, and Garrett and Callum had to hold me back, because I was determined to get to her. They grabbed me by the arms and held me tightly. I vaguely heard Callum tell me to calm down and not make things worse, but how could anyone make them worse? This was the Council’s fault. I turned to look for those old, decrepit bastards, but the guards had already taken them away, stuffed them in a room where no one could get to them.
“Let’s get out of here,” Callum said.
I shook them off, turned on my heels, and rushed out of there. I wanted to be alone. I needed to think. I went into the first bar near the courthouse and drank whiskey after whiskey. The alcohol did nothing to me. It made me feel more frustrated because it didn’t help dull my senses. I needed to stop feeling. I couldn’t deal.
A father. I was going to be a father. My Wisteria was pregnant with three pups, and one of them had to be mine. Was it a girl or a boy? It didn’t matter. I was going to love the hell out of that pup and protect him or her with my own life.
“She should be with us,” I spat between gritted teeth. The bartender gave me an odd look, and I bit my tongue. He was a wolf-shifter, and the customers were, too. The whole town was owned by us, and humans rarely ventured here. It was isolated, tucked away from prying eyes, it was small, and it had everything we needed. I pushed my empty glass toward the bartender. “Another.”
I drank all the cash I had on me. It was late, probably midnight, and it was time to leave. I went to the restroom to take a piss and noticed how I was just a little bit dizzy. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it would have to do. Instead of making me forget, the alcohol had increased all my worries, fears, and anxieties. What if we didn’t get Wisteria back? What if the Council still had enough influence to pull something and get their way? So many what ifs…
I stepped into the cool night air, stuffed my hands in my pockets, and walked to the hotel Callum, Garrett, and I were staying at. It was near the courthouse, too, which wasn’t surprising since our little town was literally little. I found them both in my room. I clenched my jaw, gritted my teeth, and tried to keep my temper in check. I just wanted to be left alone. Why couldn’t they understand?
“Where were you?” Callum asked. He scrunched up his nose. “You reek of whiskey.”
“Fuck you. Get out.”
“We need to talk,” Garrett said.
“What about?”
“This new… situation.”
I shrugged as I made my way to the bathroom to splash cold water onto my face. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I’ve prayed. I will pray all night.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I heard Callum curse. “Would you stop with the prayers? I told you a hundred times, and I will tell you a hundred more: it isn’t helping!”
“Yeah,” I said, emerging from the bathroom, a towel in my hand. “Besides, you’re not a priest anymore. You said so at the trial.”
“I am still a priest. Yes, I will request to be removed from my clerical state as soon as our Omega is released. She must be our main concern now. The rest is details.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Do what you want, but not in my room.”
“She is pregnant with our pups,” Callum said out of the blue. His voice sounded solemn. He looked up at me, and there was pure awe in his green eyes. “Can you believe it? And they tried to keep it a secret from us. The Council of the Elders must be dissolved.” He turned to Garrett. “Can your pack do anything about it?”
“My father, you mean. Of course, if I ask. But I don’t think it will be necessary. What was revealed today is monumental. They tried to make Marcia Frost lie. Their own representative. They tried to bribe Michaela Thistle, and then intimidate her. They tried to poison Wisteria, they put our pups at risk, and they threatened to take a pup from his mother. Michaela did the right thing, even though she was terrified. The Administration will make sure all six members of the Council will suffer the consequences of their actions. Mothers and pups are sacred in our society. No one is above their lives. They are our future.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked. I was tired. I plopped onto my bed, fully dressed. I didn’t even bother to remove my boots.
“Because I know how the Administration works,” Garrett explained. “I know what it stands for. That much I learned from my father. They will always protect the mothers, the pups, the wolves from the humans, and the humans from the wolves. It�
�s the only way to ensure that we, as a species, endure. The Administration will never allow one group to acquire the sort of power that comes with having possession of the Wolf Spirit. Not that anyone could own the ancient beast. If Alpha Carmine had managed to achieve his goal, the Administration would have found out and taken care of him.”
“Taken care of him… how?” asked Callum.
Garrett shrugged. “Dark Moon Prison for a while. The death sentence, in the end. The Administration isn’t fooling around. They stand by some very strong values.”
I shot to my feet, crossed the room, and grabbed the priest by the shoulders. He was standing by the window, a glass of water in hand. He dropped the glass, and it shattered into a thousand pieces.
“What are you saying? That they’ll restore Wisteria’s death sentence? Because she still has the beast inside her? Because it won’t leave her?”
“Calm down.” He pushed me away. “After what happened today in that courtroom, they know it’s not her fault. They know she doesn’t want the power of the Wolf Spirit. Also, they would never condemn a pregnant Omega to the pit.”
“How do you know that? Huh? Maybe they’ll just wait for her to give birth to the pups.”
The priest crouched down and proceeded to gather the broken pieces.
“There must be a way to force the Wolf Spirit out of her,” he said in a more quiet, calculated voice. “Maybe Callum knows more than he lets on.”
I turned to Warden Green. “What is he talking about?”
He sighed. “There are ways. Marcia Frost mentioned a sorceress.”
“Witches don’t exist,” I said dryly.
“Of course not. I believe she used the word as an insult. But there are old female werewolves in some packs who know the secrets of the Wolf Spirit, who know more than was ever recorded in books and studies. The Council probably found one of those women.”
“And can you find one, too?”
“I can try…”
I nodded. For now, this was the best we could do. The judge and the jury were going to give their verdicts the next day, and I needed to sleep. Seeing how there was no way I could convince the two idiots who’d taken over my hotel room to get the fuck out, I decided to ignore them. If I was to be honest, though, I didn’t mind their presence as I slipped into bed fully clothed. I knew they didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t want to be alone, either. I kept thinking about Wisteria and how much we all wanted to have her here, with us, to hold and protect.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Wisteria
I couldn’t sleep that night. I tried, but every time my head hit the pillow, the most horrible scenarios invaded my thoughts. The Administration had put me in a decent room, with a single bed, a table, a window, and a small bathroom attached. They had fed me well, too. They hadn’t taken the collar off, but that was okay. I understood their fear and that they had to take precautions. I paced the floor frantically, waiting for the rays of dawn. Everything seemed to be in my favor, but I still couldn’t rest. The lawyer had told me that we’d won for sure. What did it mean, though? He had no idea. My case was unique. Even if I was found innocent – which I was, – I still had the beast inside me, and it could come out randomly, when it pleased, for whatever reason. And then what? The truth was… I didn’t belong to myself anymore. I wasn’t just Sierra Carmine, and I wasn’t just innocent. I was two things at once: myself, and the Wolf Spirit. And the Wolf Spirit was guilty of unspeakable atrocities. But the beast wasn’t of this world. It didn’t care about our rules and laws, about justice the way we saw it. Could anyone condemn it? I doubted it.
I had questions no one could give me answers to, so I paced and paced, until my feet hurt. When the guards came to escort me to the courthouse, I’d been dressed and ready for hours.
This time, my Alphas were seated right behind me. If I tilted my head just right and inhaled, I could smell them. Alaric was all musk and cigarettes. A hint of alcohol, too, although I could tell he’d showered this morning. Father Rivera smelled of mint and incense. He was going to renounce priesthood, he’d said… I couldn’t imagine him without his clerical robe and the white collar that looked so sexy on him. Callum smelled like coffee and expensive cologne. I wanted to turn around and bury my face in his neck, so I could breathe the scent of his body forever.
The judge came in, and we all stood up. The jury gave their verdict first – not guilty. The judge was the one to make the final decision, and when he too said “not guilty”, I almost fainted. I grabbed the edge of the table and held on to it tightly. I heard my Alphas sigh in relief behind me.
“Order, please.” The judge wasn’t done. “This is a delicate situation, one I have never before encountered in my career. Yes, Omega Sierra Carmine was found innocent, but we cannot set her free.” He fixed me with a kind, gentle gaze. “As long as the Wolf Spirit resides inside you, child, I cannot in good conscience allow you to roam freely.” He spread his arms. “You’re like a ticking bomb. So, I have decided to send you to a prison facility in the north, in the cold, frozen Alaska. There is a lot more space there, very few prisoners, and miles upon miles of uninhabited land. I will personally talk to the warden there and make him promise to offer you one of the cabins on his land. You will not spend your life in a cell. You will have everything you need and enough freedom, albeit limited and controlled, to raise your pups in peace. In the great north, with no one to disturb you, the beast might never want to come out again.”
I shook my head. “N-no.” I could barely manage to form words. I understood his logic, but this was terribly unfair! Would my Alphas follow me? How could I ask them to give up their jobs and life here and come with me to Alaska? It was a barren land. No hopes, no dreams, just survival. “Please no. I don’t want to go.”
“I’m sorry, child. I don’t see any other way.”
I heard Callum stand up. “If I may…”
The judge sighed and nodded. “Go ahead.”
“As her Alpha and soulmate, I cannot allow this exile. I’d rather have her spend the rest of her life in a cell, if that means she’s here, with me.”
“A cell? That’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. Yes, life is tough in the north, but she wouldn’t live inside the prison, she would live in a cabin of her own.”
“No. I’d rather have her back at Dark Moon Prison.”
“You cannot put her with the other inmates. She is dangerous. I mean, the beast is dangerous. And you cannot possibly keep her in solitary confinement, either.”
“I know. But I can build a special cell in the woods, away from the prison, away from anyone the beast might hurt if it ever comes out again, and I can keep her there.”
The judge shook his head.
“I’ll make sure the walls are strong enough to contain the Wolf Spirit, and I will build an electric fence around the cell for extra protection.”
“It sounds horrible,” the judge said in a grave voice. “I’m offering her freedom, you’re offering her a cell, and you expect the Omega to…”
“I accept,” I said quickly. “I want the cell. I prefer the cell and the electric fence. Please don’t send me away from my Alphas.” I touched my belly. Was it me, or was it getting round? I was almost sure my waist was thicker than a few days ago.
Alaric and Father Rivera stood up, too.
“The mating of an Omega to her Alphas is sacred,” said Callum. “She is ours now, and we are the ones who should decide her fate. You declared her innocent, so the system doesn’t own her anymore. We do. And we demand that you release her in our care. We will make sure that she is safe, and that the world is equally safe from her. And if anything ever happens, we will be held responsible.”
After a minute, the judge let out a sigh of defeat. “Very well. You are allowed to take Omega Sierra Carmine back to Dark Moon Prison. Until the structure you’ll build especially for her is ready, she is to be kept in solitary confinement, away from the guards and inmate
s.” He looked at me, and his eyes were filled with sadness. “I hope this is what you want, child. You’ve fought so hard for your life and for the life of your pups. I’m sorry to see you choose a dark cell over the freedom of feeling the sun on your skin every day.”
“It’s what I want,” I said confidently. “I would die if I were separated from my Alphas. So, in the end, you could say I do choose life.”
The court was dismissed, and more than a few people were in tears. I was one of them. One of the guards removed my cuffs and my collar, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I could breathe. I turned to my Alphas, and I couldn’t decide in whose arms I wanted to jump first. Alaric smiled at me. I could see it in his eyes that he wanted to grab me and pull me against his chest, but we were in public. I knew he wasn’t going to show any emotion when so many people were looking. Father Rivera nodded at me. For the time being, he was still a priest. I couldn’t possibly jump into a priest’s arms and kiss him passionately. So, that left Callum. I stepped closer to him, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. He pulled me in gently, as if he were afraid he might hurt me. I placed my head on his wide chest and sighed. He kissed the top of my head.
“So, you’re pregnant.”
“Mhm.”
He squeezed me. I could hear his heart hammering in his chest. His adrenaline was probably through the roof, but he was hiding his excitement well.
“Let’s get you home, Omega.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
