ELORA
“Kain!” A masculine growl came, piercing through the fog of pain I was under.
I recognized the king’s voice without looking and as I lifted my head, I saw him march forward, his fiery red hair floating in the wind. He looked deathly handsome in the black robes he wore with a murderous glint in his azure blue eyes.
Is he angry…on my behalf?
The crowd that had gathered just outside the palace included staff of the palace, and nobles who had just come out of the meeting with the King.
The sound of his voice made everyone jump, the rage he wore so well causing a few to take tentative steps backward. He approached the crowd, followed by a red-haired woman, Teriel, and members of the King’s guard.
“How dare you?” He demanded, “Skye, grab him!” he said to the red-haired woman.
I realized she was his sister, the one I had heard about.
Kain was rooted in the position he had been in, his cane lifted about to give another lash.
At the King’s command, Skye went ahead of him, pushing Kain away from me and lifting him by the collar. His walking cane drooped to the floor, feet hung in the air as Skye lifted him above ground. I watched her awestruck by the poise and strength she displayed. The lady was fierce. Her red hair and her regalia made her look untouchable.
“Your Majesty! I assure you, there’s a perfectly sensible explanation,” Kain said from mid-air, where Skye suspended him by the collar. He didn’t look all that strong now.
King Rome turned to the guards holding me. “You let her go or lose your heads.”
They dropped me immediately, releasing my hands and steadying me on the floor.
“Are you okay, Elora?” The King asked as I rubbed my hands to get the blood flowing again.
“It’ll heal, Your Majesty,” I replied as I coughed up a bit more blood resulting from Kain’s boot to my torso. Thankfully my wolf was unblocked, so I could heal fast.
“What is the meaning of this? Is she your child, Kain? Do you want to languish in one of my dungeons?” The King thundered, anger flashing in his eyes, and for the moment, I thought he would shift to his Lycan animal.
“Ellie!?” I heard Olivia call and felt her hand on my shoulder. Beside her were Bennett and Brian.
I felt Brian’s hands on my face as he touched me. “He hurt you?”
“Are you okay?” Bennett asked.
The sight must have infuriated the King. He turned to Kain again.
“What is this you’ve done? These people are under my protection!”
Kain tried to speak, but he had to mutter words as Skye tightened her grip on his collar.
“Yyyy…” He choked out.
“Speak up, Kain!”
“Her father is a traitor,” He managed to get enough breath to put out the same lie that had been propagated against my family for over two years.
“Lies!” I yelled feeling the walls of safety I thought had been erected around me and my siblings crack right through the middle.
Olivia cried with tears in her eyes. “All lies!!!” She’d begun to sob. “It’s a lie, Your Majesty!”
Kain continued the lie, stating it exactly how it was told in Alkarod.
“Her Father was a Beta. Bernard, I hear. He was selling slaves. So he was killed and labeled a traitor.”
“You, liar! You’re in league with Alpha Rasmus!” Brian screamed. His face had gone red with fury.
At this point, Skye let go of Kain and he clattered to the ground, hobbling on one foot.
“By Law, Your Majesty, she and her siblings should be slaves for seven years. They’ve only done two. They became violent in Darwin’s pack, so their Alpha sold them to me. But they escaped.”
On cue, Olivia, Bennett, and Brian, ran to attack him but were restrained by the guards.
“Liar!” Olivia yelled. “You wanted to buy us to work at your brothel.”
“Our father wasn’t a traitor!” Brian screamed!
Tears escaped my eyes as I blinked.
It was happening all over again.
Where could we hide from this evil?
**********************
ROME
The words stung Rome as a bee sting would hurt in winter. The only difference was that the hurt was in his heart. The words rang in his ear over and over. They were being punished for their family’s deeds. She hadn’t told Rome; she’d made it look like they were being illegally sold as slaves.
The king was hurt, Elora had lied to him. He couldn’t understand why he had trusted her. He had even given her an important job at the palace without making proper investigations, cared about her siblings, and gave them a comfortable room where they could recuperate.
She’d had all the time in the world to tell him the truth yet she hadn’t. Maybe he would have been able to help them if she had but like all women, she was a conniving snake using her weakness as a weapon to trap weak-minded fools like him.
Never again!
He turned to her where she stood surrounded by her family, “Is this true, Elora?”
Her eyes seemed to beg and plead but he didn’t let that fool him. Her long hair had been ruffled by Kain’s beating but she still looked strong and unshakeable, with a protective arm around her siblings but her eyes were asking to be rescued from all her troubles. Even as her tears flowed uncontrollably like a stream downhill, he refused his heart’s cry to believe her and let her go.
He hated that she had lied but it was also disheartening watching them weep.
He only asked for formalities sake and to appeal to the irresistible attraction he felt for her but knew deep in his heart that there was nothing he could do at that moment. The law was firm on the punishment for slavers. He had made that very law branding slavers as traitors and punishing their children to serve as slaves for seven years.
Even if he didn’t trust Kain, the Alphas of Alkarod had told him the same story. This same Beta Bernard was her Father. The same werewolf they had told him sold slaves, tortured them, and killed them. Such despicable acts deserved whatever sentence he got, including death. He hated slavers. It was the reason he had made the law, to stop people from engaging in slavery or treating anyone as one. It had worked because everyone knew the king would enforce it. He couldn’t show weakness now no matter how they cried because if he did, these vipers at court would be all too happy throwing this case back in his face and would be comfortable breaking the law then eventually the rot of slavery would return to destroy the peace that he had struggled to build.
Rome knew that eyes were on him.
Everyone wanted to know what he would do.
“No, Your Majesty. My Father was a good man. He was no slaver,” She cried. Her weeping and heaving interjected each word.
“Was your father, Beta Bernard?” He asked her.
He already knew that as long as Kain had paid for them, they would have to go with him. If he needed to make any findings, it would be done later. That was the law and even the king couldn’t just break it without consequences. He already had to deal with the court from the results of the day’s meeting.
Elora answered amidst her tears as her siblings clung to her. “Yes. That’s my father. But–”
“You’ve heard it, Your Majesty,” Kain cut in.
“You made this law yourself. Would you bend it for them?” He smirked, watching the king, daring him to make a bad move. Rome wasn’t sure he planned it but it felt like the right chips kept falling into his hands.
Skye looked at Rome at that moment. Her eyes said, “Fuck them.” He had known her long enough. He knew she didn’t care for such laws. She wanted the king to dare Kain and free them. If not for anything, he knew it would please her that they had gotten Kain riled up.
But the king knew that half the members of the court were there already. If eventually the current issue of getting a mistress by the fortnight didn’t happen, and it came to a vote- this decision could make him lose it. The king turned to Teriel and saw he understood. He nodded at him with a grave look. The law had to run its course first. At least in the face of all the people.
Rome had to let Kain take them.
“The boys are still too young,” he said to Kain. “You can take the girls. I’ll find out how true this is.”
He walked back in, with not even a glance at Elora and her siblings as they began to scream and weep. He continued his walk into the palace as the yells and screams increased. Not even turning back when the brothers began to scream. They yelled for their sisters. He walked up the flights of stairs and didn’t turn back until he had entered his chambers alone. Then he closed the door against it all and sank till he was sitting on the floor his face in his hands.
It was hard to rule.