CHAPTER 2

SERAPHINA 

Every time I looked at my mom, my heart squeezed with pure terror. She was still so weak, but she was breathing. She was alive.  And right now, that's all that matters.

I kept telling myself that my silence was keeping her safe. I was carrying the heaviest secret in the world, burning a hole in my chest, but as long as Beta Harold stayed away from our lives, it was worth it. 

I would suffer in silence forever if it meant keeping her alive.

Then, one morning, the tiny bit of peace we had was ripped away.

The wooden door to our house was kicked open with a loud bang. The force of it shook the whole frame of the house.

Four heavily armed pack guards marched inside. They were huge, wearing their warrior armor, and their faces were completely blank, cold as stone. I knew these men. They used to nod at me when I walked past the guard towers. Now, they looked at me like I was a monster.

"What are you doing? Get out of our house!" I shouted, dropping the bundle of firewood I was holding. 

They didn't say a single word to me. Two of them stepped forward and grabbed my arms. They ripped me backward so hard my left shoulder popped with a sharp burst of pain. 

I gasped, trying to pull away, but their grip was like iron.

The other two guards went straight for the bed. They grabbed my mom. She was so frail, her thin body looking tiny against their massive hands. They dragged her out of her small bed, not even giving her a second to stand on her own feet. 

Her favorite wool blanket fell onto the dirt floor, getting trampled under their muddy boots.

"Leave her alone! She’s sick!" I screamed, kicking and thrashing against the guards holding me. 

I bit down hard on one of their hands, but he didn't even flinch. He just tightened his grip until my bones ached. 

"Where are you taking us? What did we do? Someone answer me!"

They didn't answer. They just dragged us out into the freezing morning air, pulling our bare feet through the freezing mud. Pack members were standing outside their houses, watching the commotion. I looked out at the faces of people I had known my entire life. 

Neighbors who used to trade bread with us, children I used to play with. But they weren't looking at us with pity. Their eyes were wide with a sickening disgust. Some of them spat on the ground as we passed.

What's going on?

As we got closer to the center of the pack grounds, my stomach completely dropped. We weren't going to the Alpha's office for a fair trial. 

We were being dragged straight toward the slaughterhouse—the horrible, bloody building with concrete floors meant for executing the pack's worst criminals and traitors. 

The moment the guards pushed us through the doors and into the center of the room, the crowd inside erupted. 

A sharp stone flew through the air, cutting through the space, and struck me right in the forehead.

Sharp pain flared up, and warm blood immediately started trickling down between my eyes.

"Murderer!" someone screamed from the crowd.

"Monster! You killed our Alpha! You killed our Luna!" another voice yelled, full of pure hatred.

“Your father must be ashamed of you.”

“Kill her the same way she killed our beloved Alpha and Luna.”

More stones came raining down on us from every direction. People were shouting, their faces twisted in rage. 

One big rock hit my mom directly in her weak shoulder, and she let out a small, painful cry, her legs gave out completely as she collapsed into the dirt floor.

"Mom!" I choked out. I wrenched my arm free from a distracted guard and threw my entire body over hers. I pressed my chest against her back, trying to shield her from the rocks, letting the heavy stones hit my own back and shoulders instead. 

I got cut and bruised all over, but I didn't care. I just needed to protect her. My mind was spinning in complete confusion. What was going on?

How could they think I did this? How could anyone believe I was a killer?

"Stop!" a deep, commanding voice boomed through the slaughterhouse.

The crowd went dead silent. I peeked out from over my mom’s shaking, coughing body, wiping the blood from my eyes so I could see.

Walking toward us was Alpha Malakai, the twenty-four-year-old son of the late Alpha. He was the man I had secretly crushed on for years from afar, the one whose bright future I always admired from the shadows of the village. I used to secretly watch him train, thinking he was the most honorable wolf in the world. 

But right now, his eyes were bloodshot, surrounded by dark circles, and filled with a terrifying hatred. And walking right behind him, like a loyal shadow, was Beta Harold.

Beta Harold stepped forward first. He had tears rolling down his cheeks, his shoulders slouching to make him look like a grieving, broken uncle who had lost everything. He pointed a shaking, accusing finger right at me.

"Why did you do it, Seraphina?" Harold cried out, his voice cracking perfectly in front of the crowd. "Why did you murder your Alpha and Luna? Was it for revenge? Was it because your father died years ago while serving the Alpha in the war? Did you blame our pack leaders for his death all this time?"

My jaw dropped. The horror of his lie suffocated me as I realized what he was doing. He was framing me. He was taking the honorable death of my father, a warrior who had willingly given his life to protect the Alpha, and turning it into a disgusting motive for murder. 

He was making me look like a bitter, vengeful traitor.

But why? What have I done to deserve it? I'm just an ordinary Omega, the lowest of the rank. Why would he frame me for a crime he committed?

I looked up at Alpha Kai, my chest heaving as I begged him to look into my eyes and see the truth.

"Kai, please! Look at me!" I screamed, the tears finally bursting out. "There is no way I could do this! Look at my hands! I am an ordinary Omega! I don't have the powers, the speed, or the strength to stab a powerful Alpha and his Luna to death! I was just gathering herbs for my mom! Please, Kyle, you have to believe me! Beta Harold is lying to you!"

Before I could even finish my sentence, Beta Harold rushed forward. He swung his hand and slapped me across the face so hard my vision went completely black for a second. 

The force spun my head around, and the metallic taste of blood instantly filled my mouth. I crashed hard into the dirt right next to my mom, my cheek burning like fire.

"Silence, traitor!" Harold yelled, wiping his fake tears and looking up at the angry crowd. "Your lies won't save you now. The evidence was found near your hut. Your own basket was at the crime scene!"

Kai didn't even blink when Harold hit me. He stood there like a statue, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't look at me like I was a person, or a pack member he grew up near. 

To him, I was just the disgusting monster who had ripped his parents away from him. He turned his head slightly toward the pack executioners, his voice completely cold, flat, and dead.

"Slaughter them both," Alpha Kai ordered, without a single shred of hesitation. "Kill the mother, too. She raised a monster, so she shares the guilt."

Hearing him sentence my innocent mother to death broke something deep inside my soul. The world around me slowed down. I crawled frantically to my knees, reaching my bloody hands out toward him, crying so hard my chest was heaving in painful gasps.

"No! Kill me! Please, just kill me!" I shrieked, my voice breaking. "My mom didn't do anything! She doesn't even know anything! She’s been sick in bed for months! Please, Kai, I beg you, don't kill my mom! Take my life twice, just leave her alone!"

“What are you waiting for? Slaughter them both,”