The Alpha Heirs’ Prize

CHAPTER 4

I heard collective gasps from everyone in the room. The people who were sitting around me started to leave, one by one, until all of the chairs surrounding me was empty, and I was now in the limelight.

I turned to look at my parents, but they only looked away as if they barely even knew me.

I finally looked at the witness who had pointed me out of the crowd as the killer.

“Is this some kind of a joke?!” I asked her, standing up sharply. This caused everyone to move even further away from me for fear that I would do something aggressive and kill someone just like I was being accused of killing the Alpha.

“What kind of a witness doesn’t even know what they’re saying? If you were sure of what you saw, you wouldn’t have pointed at me. I was nowhere near the Alpha’s house late at night!” I spoke, looking around for someone, anyone, who could back me up, but nobody looked to be on my side. Nobody was considering the fact that I couldn’t possibly be a killer, let alone the killer of the Alpha?

“What is wrong with all of you? Say something! I wouldn’t hurt an ant!” I yelled, and the room burst into a cacophony of mumbles as they all started to gossip with each other as if trying to draw up a conclusion.

I couldn’t believe it.

I looked at Nathan and Daniel, a frown on my face. They were as surprised about the news as I was, but they were just better at hiding it than me. Of course they were. They weren’t the people being accused of something they would never even dream of doing.

“Nailea,” Daniel called out to me. “Step forward, calmly and slowly.”

I walked forward, escorted by the guards who had gathered around me.

Just then, a group of people burst through the door and headed for Daniel and Nathan.

“We searched her house!” They announced, revealing that they were the people who had been sent to search my house.

“Did you find anything?” Daniel asked.

“We found this.”

The crowd erupted into a chaos of screams and curses at me as the soldiers brought out a bloody knife wrapped in a cloth.

“No.” I shook my head, drawing their attention to me. “No, that is not mine! That’s not mine. I have never seen that knife in my entire life. This isn’t me! I didn’t do it.”

“Where did you find it?” Daniel questioned the soldiers.

“Under her bed,” they replied.

I turned around to the crowd, still looking for one person that wouldn’t say that it didn’t make any sense, but they were all looking at me in disgust, as if I had done it. If I were asked to point out what knife was used to kill the Alpha, I would most likely choose wrong because it wasn’t me.

“I am not a murderer!” I screamed out loud, as if being any louder about it would make them believe me.

“Nailea, who or what is your alibi?” Nathan demanded, and I turned to him. It was as if he was giving me one chance to prove to these people that I didn’t do it.

My alibi was practically nothing to them. I had spent most of my night under a tree, dealing with the pain of the rejection, and my parents were asleep when I went home. I wished for the first time that they had been awake when I went home. Then, they would have to tell everyone that they didn’t see me with a knife.

I decided to lie because whether I liked it or not, if I told them the truth, I would be found guilty.

“The last person I saw last night was Nathan.” Nathan nodded to the crowd to confirm to them that he had seen me last night. “I went home right after that and fell asleep. My parents would confirm that, but they were asleep when I got home.”

“That’s a lie.”

My head turned in the direction of the person who had spoken up.

It was a middle-aged woman. She stood up and shook her head to dispute what I had said.

“I saw you last night. You were sitting under a tree shade, crying, remember? I asked you what it was, and you said it was nothing before you left.”

I almost cursed myself for not remembering that part of the night. The woman was telling the truth, and I had just been caught in a lie. I had just put myself in even deeper trouble than before.

“Is this true, Nailea?” Nathan asked, his eyes begging me to deny it. He was begging me to be innocent, and I was. Just not to them. To them, they had caught their killer, and the only thing left was execution.

“It’s true.”

Once again, everyone lost their senses as they started to question what was wrong with me and how I had managed to do what I did. Most importantly, they asked why I had done it.

“I had no motive. I did not kill the Alpha,” I said, but they didn’t care. My lie was enough proof for them to be sure.

“Take her to the dungeon. Her trial is set for the next two days,” Daniel ordered his soldiers, who took my hands and dragged me towards the dungeon.

“I didn’t kill him! I didn’t kill the Alpha! I’m not a murderer! Please, you can’t do this!” I begged, but nobody heard me. Nobody wanted to.

When I was thrown into a cell, my body was weak, and I had lost all the fight left in me.

I waited for my trial, making up my mind. I couldn’t die for something I didn’t do. The trial was only their official way of passing the judgement of execution. They were not going to find me innocent.

~

“How do you plead, Nailea?”

“Not guilty.”

The only people in the courtroom were Daniel; who had been made Alpha so that he could pass my judgement; Nathan, my parents, and the witness who lived right across the Alpha’s house and had claimed to see me.

I had raised everything that I could raise, asking her how she had seen me even in the dark, but she confirmed that werewolves could see in the darkest rooms.

I had denied the knife, but they still took it into consideration because it had been found under my bed.

My parents were quiet throughout the trial.

“You ran away after you were rejected by Daniel last night as his mate. Were you vengeful about it?” Nathan asked, surprising me with his question at first that I provided no answer.

“Answer the question, Nailea.”

“I was not vengeful,” I said, giving Nathan a disappointed look.

It took only a few minutes of deliberation between Nathan and Daniel before they turned back to me.

“Nailea, you have been found guilty of killing Alpha Marley. You are hereby sentenced to death by hanging in front of the pack members in the next six hours.”