The Alpha Heirs’ Prize

CHAPTER 5

I had just six hours left to live, and it was final.

“To be executed in six hours,” Daniel passed the judgment in the official manner as he stood up and walked towards me with a silver-pointed knife and marked an X on my arm as I screamed out in pain and fear.

“Please, I didn’t do it!” I shouted as he instructed the warriors to take me back to the dungeon, where I would be kept for six hours until everyone in the pack would gather and watch me get publicly executed.

“I didn’t do it, I swear!” I shouted, but nobody was looking at me as if they wanted to pay me their ears. Even my parents didn’t seem to care, and as much as it didn’t surprise me much, it still stung me in the heart that they didn’t even try to stand up for me or beg for my life. They knew I didn’t do it, right? They had to.

As I was being dragged out of the room, I shouted out the last words that I hoped would make them rethink the decision they had just made.

“I WAS FRAMED!” I screamed on top of my lungs. “That’s the only way this could have happened! Tell them, Nathan! You know me!”

The doors were closing as I looked at Nathan, but he was staring down at the floor in disgust and shame.

I gave up as soon as the doors closed and I was back to the path which lead to the dungeon.

“I didn’t do it,” I muttered, over and over, until I was back in my cell.

My throat was heavy, and so were my eyes, but tears did not roll down my cheeks . It felt as if I was feeling everything so much that I didn’t even know how to react to them anymore.

I perked up as I heard footsteps, wondering if I had thought the time away and six hours had come without my knowledge, but all of the tension in my body disappeared when I saw Nathan standing in front of my cell with his hands in his pocket.

“I didn’t do it,” was the first thing I said to him.

“Why did you do it, Nailea?”

I froze at his question like a deer in the middle of the woods listening out for danger after a sound had been made.

“What…what are you talking about?” I stammered, my brows furrowed as I stared at him in hopes that he wasn’t asking me what I thought he was asking me.

“Did you think he was not going to let us be together? I’m still trying so hard to figure out what your motive could have been.” His eyes were not meeting mine. He was looking at the wall behind me, as if he would break down if he looked at me.

“Do you really think I did it?” I questioned.

“Maybe if you tell me why, I could understand,” he continued, ignoring my questions and further proving that he believed that I was guilty.

“I didn’t do it, Nathan!”

“A knife was found under your bed, Nailea!” he shouted, and he finally brought his gaze down to me. I immediately wished he had just kept staring at the wall. His eyes were filled with utter hate and regret. Not regret for fact that I was wrongfully sentenced, but regret that he had anything to do with me in the first place; I could tell.

“I have never seen that knife in my entire life, Nathan,” I replied.

“And you’re trying to say someone snuck into your house and into your bedroom to put a knife under your bed? Why you? Why would anybody want to frame you? You lied, Nailea. We have witnesses. You were caught up in your lie, publicly!”

“I only lied about one thing,” I admitted. “I was cornered and I didn’t know what to do. You have to believe me, Nathan. I would never hurt a fly. Do you really think I could have done it?”

He stared at me for a moment, contemplating it. For a split second, I could see him second-guessing the decision that had been taken, but he soon got a hold of himself and took a step back from the cell.

“You have been found guilty, Nailea. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can be done except for your execution,” he finalized, and my heart broke all over again.

This time, the dam that had been holding back my tears broke, and I started to cry. It all started to hit me all again that I was now helpless, and that would be the last day I would live.

“Good luck on experiencing time go by as you don’t even know when six hours will be up. I hope whatever you did this for was worth it, Nailea, but I wouldn’t know since you’ll be executed later,” Nathan said.

A small part of myself held hate for him as I watched him turn around and leave me all by myself. How could be believe something like that? He was so quick to discard my words and just leave me to rot. Was that how much he loved me or claimed to?

My mind redirected me back to the witness. I had questions to ask her, especially one of how she knew that it was me that she saw on the night of the Alpha’s murder. It was late at night, and it was easy for her to mistake me for someone else.

“I can’t die,” I said to myself, shaking my head in denial. I couldn’t accept a fate that wasn’t meant for me.

“I can’t get executed like this, I won’t!” I finally decided, making up my mind to appeal to the sentence. If they still didn’t believe me, I would have no choice but to run away from the pack and go as far away from them as possible.

“Hey! Is anybody there?!” I called out as I ran towards the bars that bound me in the cell, hoping to find a warrior on duty who was ready to listen to me and attend to my needs.

“What is it?” I heard a warrior bark at me as he approached my cell, glaring at me. “What’s all the ruckus for, young lady?”

“Tell Daniel that I wish to appeal. I have been wrongfully sentenced, and I would like to defend myself one more time before the judgement of execution is passed on me,” I said, my eyes wild.

“And what exactly do you have to say that you already haven’t?” he demanded.

“Please, just tell Daniel that I would like to appeal!” I begged, channeling all of my desperation to my voice and fueling him to go, though begrudgingly, and deliver my message.

The next time he returned, he unlocked the cell and gestured for me to follow him.

“Your defence better be good,” he said, and I could only hope that it would be. I was relying on cornering the witness who claimed that she had seen me that night. If it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, I would be set for immediate execution, and that was the last thing I wanted.

I was back in the trial room, standing in front of Daniel and Nathan. My parents had also been summoned.

“You want to appeal your sentence, and on what grounds would you want to do that?” he questioned.

“I believe that the witness made a mistake. If we could test her eyesight in the darkness to see how accurate it is, then I won’t argue if she identifies me.”

Daniel and Nathan shared a look with each other, silently conversing until they agreed to do it.

The witness was brought into the court, along with five other ladies who had similar builds to me. We waited for the sun to set and all of the lights were turned off in the court. I was shuffled among all of the summoned girls.

“You have thirty seconds to stand in front of Nailea,” Daniel told the witness. “If you’re wrong, it means there could have been a mistake on that night, and we might need to be open to her claims of being framed. If you’re correct, then Nailea will be executed with immediate effect. Your time starts now.”

I stood where I was, holding my breath and praying to the Moon Goddess that she would make the easy mistake.

“Your thirty seconds are up. Turn on the lights,” Daniel commanded, and his warriors followed his command.

My jaw fell to the ground as the woman was standing directly in front of me.

“I make no mistakes,” she claimed.