Alpha Torin sat back on his high-backed chair, hands on the armrest. He was dressed in a long black oversized cloak, his jet black half-length hair framing his gorgeous surreal look.

With a glance at him, anyone would know he’s demonic at heart. His cold golden eyes swept over the gathering of his pack members. Beside him, Caleb sat. And on the other side, draped in a sleek silver fitted jumpsuit, with a long cloak that matched the colors of her white hair and hazel eyes was Luna Athena, with her big black cat nestled in her hand.

Luna Athena held her crested black cat against her lap like a queen cradling a crown. The feline purred softly, eyes gleaming like coals as the Luna’s smug smile curled wider.

“The girl you have arrested in the dungeon is a threat, Alpha. We all felt what happened as she woke from the dead.” one elder barked.

“Even in the dungeon, we don’t know what happened there days ago, but we felt the floor shake and even the sky turned scanty black when you and the pack witch attended to her. She’s one with death in her veins and no known allegiance. We let her fester, and she’ll destroy us from the inside.”

One woman looking her forties insinuated.

Another voice rang out. “She played us. She disguised herself and walked through our halls as a man. That’s treason. We don’t know why she’s still kept alive, that’s what baffles us.”

“She’s too dangerous,” a woman also snapped from the back.

“Alpha, it’s clear that she’s a threat. All we want is for her to be gotten rid off.” The woman named Leila added.

Heads nodded, and voices merged into a chorus of agreement.

“She should die.”

“It’s the only way.”

“Kill her and be done with it.”

Still, Alpha said nothing. His jaw flexed once, then twice. Beside him, Caleb’s gaze had hardened to a furious glare as he listened to the pack members.

Athena leaned forward, stroking the head of her cat with a perfectly painted nail. Her voice slid into the conversations like silk dipped in poison.

“Of course, she will die,” she said, her eyes never leaving the crowd. Caleb glanced her way once but quickly looked away.

“My mate, our Alpha, is not a man who tolerates traitors. He’s only disciplining her for now.” She cast a coy glance at Torin’s profile, making sure her voice was as soft and convincing as she could make it. “Isn’t that right, my love?”

But Alpha Torin didn’t answer. His eyes had fallen somewhere far, as if he was way in his head than here with them.

Caleb was so alert that he sensed Alpha Torin’s hesitation and contempt. Even he was surprised. This was an opportunity. He was his Beta, he could talk him out of listening to the pack members.

He stood, and the room quieted at once.

“If I may,” Caleb started, his voice clear and laced with steel, “perhaps death isn’t the best punishment for someone like her.”

A murmur of confusion rippled through the crowd. Luna Athena’s smile faltered.

Caleb went on, ignoring them like they were nonexistent. “She might have tried to deceive us, and that was no small sin. However, I find pride in the suggestion that we make her useful while she suffers. She would become a martyr to whatever power she answers to. Let her live, and she learns what real submission is. She will learn to respect the pack law and be a lesson for others who try to underrate the Twilight essence pack again. I do believe death isn’t the worst punishment. Living and a rare kind of sufferness is.”

Caleb stopped, hating his own words but hoping the Alpha saw meaning in what he had just laid down.

A Gamma stood to support Caleb’s suggestion. “ I agree to what our Beta said, Alpha. Let her serve publicly. Let the pack see her crawl. Let the wolves she defied watch her clean their boots and scrub their blood. Let her earn every breath in this territory as a slave to the very Alpha she once deceived.”

A low, drawn-out silence followed.

And then another from the crowd said, “That might actually be better.”

“Shame her.”

“Strip her pride first.” They all took turns to speak.

Luna Athena who had been having a hard time withstanding the Beta’s opinion, rose slightly in her chair. Her cat hissed.

“This wasn’t the plan,” she said, eyes narrowing at Caleb.

“Humiliation isn’t enough! Let’s save that energy for other important matters in the pack. Freya should be killed!”

“I think it’s more entertaining than a clean kill,” Caleb returned calmly. “And if she steps out of line, we still have the gallows.”

Athena’s eyes darted to Alpha Torin, waiting for him to put an end to this, needing his voice to dismiss Caleb’s suggestion.

Alpha Torin, who had be silent all along finallu looked like he would say something without moving an inch from his position on the throne.

“She lives,” he said with finalty, his low tempo but commanding baritone voice filled the room. “but not as one of us.”

A rustle of surprise moved through the crowd.

“She will serve us,” Torin continued. “She’ll work for the warriors she once lied to. She’ll serve with no name, no rights, no shelter beyond what she’s earned. And if she disobeys…” He turned his gaze on Caleb for a brief second, then back to the crowd.

“She dies by my hand.”

The decree fell like thunder.

Athena’s knuckles whitened but she dared not defy the Alpha, not when his time screamed finalty that left no room for argument. Her cat leapt from her lap with a screech and padded away.

But beside Alpha Torin, Beta Caleb’s gaze lowered, his breathing relaxing now that the Alpha didn’t agree that she dies. He didn’t flinch, not even when heads turned and growls rumbled beneath their breaths. Not even when Athena’s narrowed glare tried to peel his skin from bone.

Only the faintest smile crept into the edge of his mouth with relief.

Atleast, Freya was still breathing. And he could make plans on how she won’t have to suffer under the Alpha’s lair.