Chapter 2 #4
“Ah, you don’t want to make this easy,” the King muttered the words mostly to herself.
“Considering the extensive evidence against you, witnessed by both the Cliff Warriors, my men, and your own family”—Ren sucked in a quick breath as the image of Lee’s shocked face crossed over his mind— “I am ruling you guilty.”
Ren’s entire world seemed to sway at the word and he tried to raise his head up in question, but the tight grip on his neck prevented it. His pulse pounded against the pads of the guard’s fingers as his words got stuck in his throat: could they really find him guilty? Just like that?
“I am sentencing you to death. Our Warriors will carry out this sentencing in the courtyard at high noon tomorrow.”
Ren’s head whipped up at that, his entire body moving forward so violently, the Alpha’s hands slipped away from him. Ren took a stumbling step forward. “Death? You didn’t even ask for my side of the story! You didn’t even ask?—”
“I do not need to ask anything,” the King cut him off, lips pulled up in a smirk of curiosity rather than anger like Ren had been expecting. “You murdered five Alphas.”
“I didn’t!” Ren yelled. The guard behind him tried to grab him again, trying to wrangle him back into place. “They—they?—”
“Nothing condones murder,” the King said simply. “Nothing would make murdering five individuals okay.”
“You can’t punish me and not them!” Ren argued, voice echoing in the room around them. Tears gathered behind his eyes. The hands trying to force him back into submission softened their grip. “How are Omegas ever supposed to feel safe when you Alphas never do anything to help us!”
“I have stated my decision,” the King said, voice hardening. She looked past Ren, “Falk, please take him?—”
“I’m only seventeen!” Ren yelled, struggling against the guard’s hold which had tightened again. He wasn’t sure why he lied—a lie that was over two years incorrect—but the words slipped past his lips before he could catch them. “You are going to sentence a child to death?”
The King shook her head, “Murder is not something we can look past due to age?—”
“Let me work, I can do something in the castle, or I could?—”
“Enough,” the King said, raising a hand.
Ren trembled where he stood, staring up at the Wolf in terror—she couldn’t do this, she couldn’t do this to him.
The King seemed to hear his thoughts, seemed to actually consider Ren’s words.
“Because you are a child,” she hummed, eyes grazing over Ren’s form like she didn’t fully believe it.
“Because you are under the age of eighteen, I suppose I can spare your life.”
Ren took a sharp breath, heartbeat slamming in his chest. He felt light headed, and a bit like he was going to faint as he tried to listen to what the King said next.
“I will take pity on you,” the King continued. “Rather than death, I will sentence you to life in prison.”
Ren’s heart dropped to his feet, the breath he took leaving his lungs all at once.
Life in prison was perhaps even worse than death.
“Falk, take him back to his cell.”
“No!” Ren screamed, struggling against the guard’s hands. “You can’t do this!”
“Calm down,” he heard the guard—Falk—grunt when Ren thrashed against the grip trying to pull him away from the scene. Ren’s bound wrists weren’t helping him as he tried to get away from the Alpha. “You are going to hurt yourself.”
“Let go of me!” Ren hissed, kicking his feet and shrieking in anger as the Alpha lifted him up entirely with his arms around Ren’s waist.
“Stop embarrassing yourself in front of the King and Queen,” Falk whispered to him. “You are not proving to them that they should reconsider their decision.”
Ren screamed and kicked the whole way, shrieking his lungs out until his throat felt raw.
He clawed at Falk’s hands that were wrapped around him, cursing him out as he did.
Ren only stopped fighting, only finally calmed down, after Falk had carried him all the way back to the stairwell leading to the prison beneath the castle.
He set Ren on his feet and pointed down the stairwell, urging him forward.
“I do not want to carry you. If I fall, we will both get hurt.”
Ren glared up at him but did as he asked, marching forward so that the Warrior wouldn’t see his glassy eyes.
He wasn’t sure if it was the anger that had built up in his chest, the feeling of how unfair it all was, or that the rest of his life was going to be spent below the castle, but the moment he stepped off of the last stair, he crumpled into a heap on the floor.
The sobs wracked his body, loud and hysterical they echoed.
He pressed his hands to his eyes, trying to will the tears back inside as he curled in on himself.
He could barely breathe, his tears choking him.
Ren flinched, when he felt a hand on his back.
He looked up, tears streaking down his face, and saw Falk on one knee beside him.
The Alpha looked genuinely concerned with his lips turned down and a soft look in his eye, as he tried to give Ren a small, tight smile.
It almost made Ren feel a bit better about everything—almost.