The Alpha Heirs’ Prize

CHAPTER 6

“No, it can’t be.” I shook my head. “It’s just a coincidence. I really didn’t do it, I swear!”

The witness, along with the other girls, were escorted out of the room by the warriors on Daniel’s command.

“Nailea, do you have anything else to say in your defence?” Daniel questioned, his eyes holding boredom. He simply wanted to get it all over with.

“I did not kill Alpha Marley,” I stressed, my eyes filled with tears. “Yes, I may have been caught in a lie the first time, but that was only because I knew my alibi wasn’t strong enough and everything was already being pinned on me!”

“I know how bad it looks for me right now,” I admitted, looking at everyone in their eyes even when they avoided my gaze, “but I will always stand by the fact that I didn’t kill your father. I have no motive, no good reason to do that!”

As if tired of my explanation, Daniel let out a sigh, looking at me with a strict expression on his face as he cleared his throat.

“Nailea,” he said, “did you want to take revenge on me by making me feel pain?”

His question threw me off guard, and I gave him a confused look.

“What do you mean? What reason do I have to exert revenge on you?” I questioned.

“Were you enraged that night, right after I rejected you as my mate? Is that why you killed my father?” he shed light on what he meant, and I could hear my parents gasping in surprise at the news of me being mated to Daniel.

“She was rejected?”

“That’s why she did it?”

I wanted to turn around and scream at them for being a part of the people who believed it, but I didn’t have enough strength in me for that. I was starting to get cornered again, and this one looked like a trap without a possible way of breaking free.

I looked at Nathan, and I could see his eyes wide open. He was thinking of it, considering that it could have been my motive. In that moment, I hated that I could read him like an open book.

“I was heartbroken when you rejected me,” I confessed, holding my ground and staring back at him as my way of admitting innocence, “but I was not angry. I was never enraged by your decision.”

I didn’t know whether it would be appropriate for me to mention that Nathan was there for me.

Daniel turned to his brother.

“Nathan, why don’t you shed light on this? You should know what she felt on that night. I left you two that night when I arrived from my journey,” he said.

Nathan nodded as he started to explain; “Nailea broke down when you left. She’s right about being heartbroken. I had never seen her react to something the way she did that night. She cried, hard. She was not in the best place, mentally, but am I sure that she could have grabbed a knife and stabbed the Alpha because of that?” There was a long pause as he thought about it before shaking his head.

“No. No, I don’t know if she was angry enough to do it. If anything, she could have channeled her anger and stabbed you instead, don’t you think, Daniel?”

I couldn’t tell if Nathan was subtly defending me or if he was genuinely trying to get to the bottom of why he thought I had killed their father, but I was still grateful that he was making his brother think about it.

“Perhaps she knew that our father was an easy target. He didn’t have enough strength in him to defend himself. She knew that I could take her down easily,” Daniel speculated.

“You’re wrong. You’re all wrong,” I spoke up, tired and frustrated by their words and how hard they were trying to pin it all on me.

“Well, then.” Daniel leaned into his seat. “Anything else you would like to say in your defence? Do your parents have anything to say?”

I turned to look at my parents, but they only kept looking at the floor in nothing but shame, and that broke my heart all over again – the reminder that I had nobody but myself, not even Nathan.

“We have no words,” Dad finally said.

“My brother and I will now take some time to discuss. Excuse us,” Daniel said as he and Nathan turned to each other and whispered lowly between themselves.

It took a few minutes of me standing there and knowing what my fate would be and the brothers whispering at each other before they both separated and looked at me with stern faces.

“You,” Daniel said to one of the warriors. “Take two other warriors with you and go around the pack. Summon everyone to meet at the pack plains. We have an execution to make.”

“No, no, no, no,” I muttered, each one coming louder than the last as I grabbed fistfuls of my hair and fell to the ground, helplessly.

“Nailea, you have been found guilty once again. You will be executed immediately. If you have final goodbyes to give to your parents, this is the time to do it. We’ll excuse you three to have your private family moment, but we expect you to be done in fifteen minutes.”

“NO! You can’t do this!” I screamed after them as they got off their seats and started to walk out of the room to excuse me and my parents.

I turned around to look at my parents, and they flinched at my sudden movement, a sign that they were afraid.

“Why did you do it, Nailea?” Mom asked me as she cried.

“Why did I do it?” I echoed. I was tired of that question.

“I didn’t do it,” I said as I walked towards her. My father stood up in alarm, looking ready to fight me if it came down to it.

“You can’t let them do this to me. I didn’t kill the Alpha. You know me, you know I wouldn’t hurt anyone. Not like this,” I cried, desperate for them to believe me or at least pretend to.

“What we didn’t know is the monster of a daughter that we had, Nailea. This is a disgrace. As much as it pains me to see things end like this, I hope it serves as a lesson to you whenever you’re reborn into this world,” Dad said, pulling Mom to his side as she wailed.

“You’re just going to let me die?!” I shouted, my voice holding agony as tears rolled down my cheeks, and I kept sniffling as I looked at them both.

“I can’t get executed,” I said.

I didn’t know if it was the finality in my voice, but something made my parents look at me in alarm, as if they knew what I was planning to do.

“Nailea,” Mom called out to me in a warning tone.

“They wanted me to say my last goodbye,” I said with a nod. “I’ll say it. Goodbye, mother. Goodbye, father.”

“Nailea, what are you—”

I turned around and took to my heels, bursting through the doors and running off before the warriors who were standing guard outside even realized what was going on.

The last thing I heard before panic set in was Daniel’s voice as he commanded his warriors:

“Bring her alive! She will die by my hands!”