A heavy door opened before me and rough hands shoved me inside the cell. The room smelled faintly of lavender, an ironic attempt at comfort that made bile rise in my throat. I collapsed to my knees, too spent to keep my balance and too weak to fight back.

Footsteps paused at the cell in the next minutes.  Alpha Alex's shadow fell across the room first, long and exacting, then a second shadow joined his, broader and familiar, My father. The shock of seeing him struck deeper than any lash.

He looked at me the way the town dogs looked at a dead animal. Alpha Alex probably told him what I did.

“Alpha,” he said as he stepped closer. there was no warmth in his voice as usual. “Punish her until she is dead,” he told Alex plainly. “If you spare her, our name will never wash clean. Let the pack see justice. Let her pay.”

The words landed like a blow that pushed the air from my lungs. My wolf howled inside me, not in the keening of pain now, but in stunned disbelief. She curled inward as if the sound itself could not reach her. It was as if the last tether between us had frayed and snapped; the creature that had always answered when I ached, that had been my one unashamed company through every humiliation, recoiled and turned away.

“She killed her own mother and I forgave her,” My father continued, voice flat. “But not this time. She is so dangerous. My name and my legacy, will not be shamed by harboring our stain. Make it public. Make it final.”

Something cold moved through Alex’s eyes. “She will be punished. Publicly. Brutally. We will break what stubborn pride remains and strip whatever dignity is left from her bones. After that, we will decide her fate.”

My father’s jaw tightened; he nodded once, satisfied in the way of men who’ve set a price and had it met. “Make it so.”

The room spun and my wolf fell more silent.

Alpha Alex turned to the guards. “Prepare her for the public belt and the humiliation,” he ordered them.

They moved me from the cell immediately. My father stood a few paces away, hands folded, eyes fixed on the floor as if the sight of me annoyed him. He wouldn’t meet my gaze. He had no need; his instructions had been given. He had absolved himself by pronouncing judgment.

They led me from the room, past  the faces that watched with narrowed, satisfied eyes faces that had once, perhaps, been friends. No one cared as the guards took me to the punishment area.

The pole stood tall at the center , weathered, stained, and waiting. I’d seen others tied there before. Rogues. Traitors. Never an omega. Never someone like me.

They threw me forward, and I hit the dirt hard, the impact jolting through my bones. My body ached everywhere, each breath a struggle.

“Strip!”

I heard the command from the guards but I  didn’t move. I couldn’t.

It wasn’t just fear that paralyzed me, it was the last shred of dignity clinging to my skin.

One of the guards stepped forward, impatience radiating from him like heat. When I didn’t obey, he grabbed the collar of my tunic and tore it down the middle. The fabric shredded like paper, leaving my shoulders exposed to the cold air and watching eyes.

Gasps rippled through the gathered crowd. Some from disgust. Some from twisted delight. 

I wanted to disappear. I wanted the earth to open and swallow me whole.

> Please, let the Goddess strike me dead. Please...

But no divine mercy came.

Another guard yanked the rest of the cloth down my arms. Bruises from earlier blows bloomed purple across my skin, stark against the pale surface.

Tears burned behind my eyes and just flowed down my cheeks freely.

Caring less, they forced me up, pressing my body against the blood-stained pole. Cold metal cuffs snapped around my wrists, pinning my arms high above my head. My toes barely grazed the ground. Every shift of my weight sent pain rippling through my shoulders.

Then the whip came.

The first strike tore through the silence and through my skin. A scream wrenched from my throat before I could swallow it.

I heard laughter. A few murmurs of approval.

“Let them see,” My father said, voice full of pride. “Let every omega remember their place.”

Was this what I was born for? To be broken, be punished then be killed later?!

I thought of my mother in the shard-memory moments when the pain dulled, the last breath she’d taken, the look on her facenand the same terrible question that had haunted me since that night rose again: if I had not done what everyone knew I had done, who was to blame for the life I had been given?

But the pack had chosen their answer. They wanted an image, not justice. They wanted a lesson to hold up to every trembling omega who might dare to raise her eyes.

I curled into myself and let the tears come, because there was nothing else left to give.

The whip fell again. And again. Until I wasn’t sure if I was screaming or if those were just echoes of someone who used to be me.

Strike after strike came relentlessly. My back was on fire.Warm liquid trickled down my leg continuously and I felt like I was losing my consciousness. 

Tears streamed down my cheeks. With each kiss of the whip, my resolve to remain silent became more and more impossible, but I held on. Blood dripped freely from my mouth, where my canines had gnawed my lips to keep me from screaming.

My Wolf was crying out in my head, howling her pain, hurt and devastated. 

Almost continuous low growls came from my audience. Some elders were voicing their displeasure, but neither could help me...

...not without challenging Alpha.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the strikes stopped coming. The guardsstepped forward and cut my bindings.

I fell to the ground in a heap, groaning loudly at the impact. I lay there in the dirt, breath shallow and my vision fading.

But before the darkness took me, I heard Alpha  Alex's voice one last time, loud and final. “Take her back to cells, punish her again early in the morning", He ordered.

And then he was gone.

I couldn’t open my eyes. I didn’t want to. It hurt too much. Every inch of my body screamed in agony. Death was an alluring promise of peace, a sweet dream.

Why was I the holding on?