Chapter 4 The Decree

Ava POV Yes, omegas were slaves. This was an outdated social class still existing in Wolf Territory Alphas and Lunas could easily make any werewolf citizen into an omega as a punishment. After that, the kids of these omegas would continue to be omegas and served as slaves. I did nothing wrong, and now I was going to be punished by the one who had wronged me. Though it wasn’t a psychic shock this time, the pain of realizing what my ex-husband and friend wanted from me now pierced my mind and body, leaving me weak. I felt a hand on my arm and turned to see a good friend of mine, Beatrice, standing nearby and looking at me with concern. “Ava?” she whispered, reminding me of school days when we had whispered secrets to each other when the teacher’s back was turned. “What is this?” Before I could answer, Olivia continued, “Later today, my brother, Chris, who left us ten years ago to find his life in the Human World, will return to transfer ownership of the Moonstone to my husband, Ethan. With that, my husband and I will take our rightful places as Pack Alpha and Luna.” “What’s going on here?” Beatrice demanded, her hand still cupping my elbow and her bright red hair helping others locate the source of her voice. “You can’t just decide you’re going to lead this pack!” rang out the voice of a man I didn’t recognize. “This isn’t how things are done!” shouted Juniper, daughter of Elder Degas. She was a mother of three I’d worked with on a daycare program. I looked up but couldn’t see her in the crowd, and now several people were complaining. Ethan stepped forward in the black ceremonial garb of a pack Alpha and held his hands out and down. His black cape swept the ground as he moved, and I realized he had a proud contentment on his face I had never seen before. The crowd quieted. “Olivia and I have been chosen by her brother, Chris, to lead Moonstone Pack. She is the daughter of the late Alpha Adam. As her husband, I assure you, this is how things have been done for centuries. We will have order here. “I know Ava has made herself seem like a good leader to you,” Olivia said next, looking like she didn’t appreciate Ethan’s interruption of her moment. “But she has lied to you and manipulated her way into your hearts. Consider this: she is now rejected and unbonded! It is only right that she serve the ruling family.” “Go back to the Human World and buy some shoes!” Beatrice shouted, making some Wolves around us laugh in scorn. “Yes! Leave pack leadership to the leaders!” a new voice called, strong and authoritative. I saw Leonard step forward, tall and sturdy, his arms crossed over a barrel chest. As owner of the largest farm in Moonstone Pack, he commanded instant respect, and many turned to acknowledge him. “You have no experience, no position in Pack matters” he continued. “You’ve never even held a job. What do you know of the Pack’s needs?” Olivia’s cheeks flamed bright red, and that look of hatred I knew from the night before returned to her eyes as she glared first at Leonard, then at me. I moved in front of Beatrice instinctively, pulling my arm from her grip. “You’re right!” Olivia shouted, silencing the crowd. “Ava does not deserve an honored place in our household! She has turned the pack against the daughter of our late Alpha Adam.” She held out her arms. “Ava’s punishment is clear!” While I and many other people stared in astonishment, Olivia ran down the stairs of the portico, her long dress flashing bright green in the sunlight while her white robe billowed around her, and strode to the flames of the brazier. People backed away as she took a red-hot poker from the flames and held it up. “In accordance with Moonstone Pack’s intolerance of treason, Ava is to be banished!” She then turned to two omega guards I hadn’t noticed before, who turned and began walking toward me. For a moment, I felt like I was in a movie while two omega goons from Central Casting were coming to arrest me. I looked into their blank faces and over their wrestler-like physiques and felt my blood pounding in my ears as I realized Olivia’s intent. She was going to remove my pack tattoo and expel me from the pack forever! I backed away, only to realize how thickly the crowd had gathered behind me. There was nowhere for me to run. “Olivia!” I shouted into her venom-filled face. “Don’t do this, please!” My left hand wrapped around my right forearm, covering the tattoo that marked my place in the pack. Beatrice and others were shouting, but the guards had reached me and took my arms in their hands, revealing the tattoo to the sun and to Olivia as she approached me, poker held high. “Hold her down!” she commanded, and the crowd began to shout now that this was wrong and not how things were done. While burning off one’s pack markings as a sign of exile was the punishment for treason, that happened after a trial and was done carefully in the clinic under anesthesia to prevent infection. It was meant as exile, not torture or a death sentence. The guards shoved me to the ground where I landed on my bag as their hands held me down by the shoulders and feet. I was trapped, vulnerable, and getting close to hysteria. My view was blocked, and Leonard was standing there between me and Olivia. “You can’t do this!” he objected. “You have no right!” “If you want to protect her so badly,” Olivia sneered, “you can leave the pack with the traitor!” Looking up, I wondered how I could ever have thought this Wolf was a sweet, somewhat silly girl. I realized the woman with a branding iron in her hand, eyes flashing with triumph and scorn, was the real Olivia. Again, more than anger, I felt grief. The crowd hushed as they realized they could actually do nothing to stand against the future pack Luna. Olivia stood over me now, smiling proudly. “You see?” she asked me, and her voice had gone oddly quiet. “No one can disagree with the Luna’s judgment.” The poker started to descend toward my exposed arm. I could actually feel its heat. “And what if I disagree?” asked a calm, familiar voice that I knew had no place in this nightmare. Olivia spun around, almost swatting a woman standing near us with her smoking poker. The woman leapt back, and the crowd parted slightly to reveal a tall, blond man standing there, arms hanging almost causally at his sides. I recognized that impossibly handsome face instantly. “Chris?” Olivia asked. Oh Goddess. No wonder he had seemed familiar last night with his blond hair and green eyes. The young man standing there was Olivia’s brother and supposed Alpha of the Moonstone Pack.