Once a Rogue, Now an Alpha

The Rejected and Banished Prince

LENNOX

Being dragged back to the throne room like a common criminal was not something I ever envisioned for myself. Not even if I had actually committed the crime.

The chains burned my skin, bruising the flesh until I started to bleed. What will become of me now? I wondered.

Thousands of questions reeled through my mind. I had been sure everyone would see my innocence once they saw the rogue's body, but how did it disappear? Did the other return to the spot and clean the mess? That’s not even possible. Rogues never acted like that. They were too primal to know what a cleanup was, much less do it after one of their own died.

Someone had to have helped them out, this I was certain. And I resented the feeling that accompanied this thought. I knew who it f*****g was, but there was no way to prove it. Anything I was going to say after this was not only going to be hearsay, it would be humiliating.

“The law of the pack is clear, and we must follow it…” started Beta Orion the second everyone was seated back in their seats. “It states that a crime of this gravity is unforgivable. And where I would have loved for the punishment to be served as it should, I must appeal to the court and everyone to reconsider...”

I turned, shocked to say the least. Was he trying to help me right now or was I hearing things?

“I beg to differ. I say we have him executed exactly as the law entails…” Came Weston’s voice next. He really had this all planned out so that he now knew what the pack law was. For someone pretty dumb since we were kids, he outdid himself this time. Now he was feigning pain from the loss of his parents. But of course you would want me dead.

I was about to argue with them, and to let them know that whatever they thought had happened was false and that I had been framed. I wanted to clear my mother’s name as well, but all of that would have been vain.

“No, Alpha Weston…” Beta Orion sighed, his eyes dancing with something I couldn’t quite place. Alpha? The second he called Weston Alpha, my brother visibly relaxed, walked over to my chair, and he sat on it once again like it was his birthright. “I have a proposition for you…” then he turned to me, with his expression sour like a man who had tasted an undiluted lime juice. “A word please...”

Weston’s eyes traveled to where I was, before nodding at Beta Orion’s request. The Beta, his mate and mine and a few other elders – I watched her mother drag her with them – and they disappeared into a room. Right away I had an idea why and my heart sank.

June’s head was cast low as they passed, almost as if she was too ashamed to even look in my direction. June, don’t let them do this to us. I thought towards her as they walked away.

Silence reigned when they disappeared and my heart felt like it was in my throat, forcing it way out from inside me. I wanted to know all that they were talking about. The waiting was killing me. Literally. I was in pain.

A few minutes passed before they returned, some holding a smile and my mate with the most broken look ever.

I eagerly waited for her to look up at me. For me to tell her that it didn’t matter what her parents told her, things between us would never break. But when she did raise her head, disgust towards me was written all over her face.

Her expression looked nothing like the girl who loved me or that I fell for. She was a completely different person with so much hate and anger in her eyes I worried she might stab me if she got the chance.

What did they tell you?

I wanted to ask her but again before I could, someone spoke. “We have come to a consensus about this case…” once again Beta Orion spoke like the man in charge. “…as you all know, my daughter June is mates with this…” Criminal? Murderer? Which one would he call me this time around, I wondered. “…boy. It would be devastating to kill him because that would leave a scar on her soul. I really would not want that for my daughter. So instead, since she is destined to become Queen some day, it has been agreed by us, her parents and the next Alpha King, for her to wed Alpha Weston someday instead.”

What? No. It can’t be. June wouldn’t do that to me, right?

There was a ringing in my ear for what seemed like forever. And the only sound I could hear was that of my heartbeat and my uneven breathing. “June?” It came out more like a question. Like I was asking her if this was true when I had heard it. Maybe I heard wrong. My heart was racing, the ringing in my ear only seemed to be getting worse and louder. “Is this true? Are you leaving me for him?” I found my voice by chance and, without even thinking, I asked her. I had to know.

Was she leaving me for the man she swore was a pervert, and she hated his guts? Was she leaving me for the crown since I suddenly couldn’t become Alpha King anymore, and she wanted power?

“f*****g answer me!” I roared, having lost control of my wolf. The rejection wasn’t final yet, but it might as well be from the pain we both were feeling. The veins on my forehead popped out like they always did whenever I was enraged and had lost it. I truly have lost it. I have lost it all, haven’t I?

June flinched even with anger in her eyes before she spoke. “What did you think was going to happen, Lennox? That I, June Orion the Beta’s daughter, would settle for a murderous low life like you?” No, please, it can’t be.

This had to be a dream. I desperately wanted it to be so. I pinched myself hoping that, despite the pain in my heart, soul and body, I would not feel a thing from the pinch, but I did feel it. I felt it all. She really was doing this to me.

How could she not see what they were doing to me?

Weston smiled at her. “Come here, love. With me is where you belong…” he beckoned to her, and she spun on her heels and confidently marched up the stage where he was.

“We’re mates…” I started and tears burned the back of my eyes. No, Lennox, don’t you dare let them see you cry because of her. “...how could you do this to me?” I had been slapped a few times on the face by shock and I could not believe what was happening to me?

Last night, I should have known my life was about to take a f*****g three hundred and sixty degrees turn.

“Don’t make this harder for anyone else, Lennox. I have made my choice. You mean nothing to me now…” June spoke with no emotion but hate in her eyes. Weston pulled her onto his lap, and she smiled sweetly at him before turning back to me. “I think it is time to end this…” then she paused as if looking for the word. “…whatever. I, June Orion, daughter of Beta Orion, reject you, Lennox Bloodmoon, as my mate. From this day onward, we have no bond or ties to one another.”

As if my initial pain wasn’t enough. As if they hadn’t broken me enough. I dropped on my knees and screamed out in pain at the top of my voice.

One of the pack’s elders that had earlier disappeared with them stepped forward with a book in hand. He had been waiting his turn to speak. “Here’s the verdict as the law demands.” Sure, go ahead and bring me down even further. I hadn’t even caught my breath yet and another bombshell was about to drop on me. “For the sake of Miss June Orion, the suspect shall not be killed but banished and exiled from the park for five years. He is hereby stripped of his title as the next Alpha King until those years have been exhausted. And even then, he shall undergo trial before contending for the title.”

And my mother?

“What…hold on..what happens to my mother?” There was no way in hell and back would I leave her in this pack alone without any sort of protection.

The elder who had spoken turned to face me, his expression was nothing like the rest of the people around. His was much kinder and somewhat more understanding. And it was almost like he knew something.

“Your mother will remain here as an omega, stripped of her privileges as well. Or she can go with you. It really doesn’t change anything.” Spoke Weston so casually and with a smug look on his face.

I hadn’t seen my mother since I was dragged back here. But she appeared with her hands free from the chains she had been locked in, much to my relief. “I refuse to stay here any longer.” She spoke, resting the palms of her hands on my cheek, wiping off the sweat that trickled down my face. “I agree to leave with my son.”

An hour or so after we had been pushed out of the pack, my mother and I stared at the enormous gate that housed the Royal BloodMoon Pack. There and then, with my pain and my mother’s, I made a vow to return. I was going to come back to take it all.

“You just wait, June, I will make you pay for choosing him. Together you will suffer with Weston. Just you wait.”