- Get Whipped
Jessamine
There’s a ruckus in the castle.
Someone stole a diamond bracelet from Lady Helen’s room. She’s raised an alarm and the guards are searching room after room.
I watch them scurry about the hallways, yelling and barking orders. Alpha Kier is gone from the castle, visiting the borders. There was a rogue attack in one of the villages, I heard. Two dozens injured, not deaths.
The attacks started two years before Alpha Kier’s father was sentenced. to his brutal death, and they haven’t let up ever since. A group of people. who were wronged by the previous Alpha King pulled quite a number of lone wolfs from here and there, all with the same vendetta, and created
a pack of haters
Their chosen Alpha, King of the Rogues, Atticus, used to be Alpha Kier’s godfather, his father’s best friend and Beta.
I’m unsure of the details since I gained most of my knowledge from. kitchen gossip, but it’s a whole messy story.
I can’t say I’ll miss Alpha Kier. He broke my fingers last night. Bending them back the right way had been an effort and I had screamed while I did. I’m not sure I got it right because it still hurts terribly and looks purplish.
He’s a jerk.
Doesn’t mean I don’t still want to be his woman.
A jar lands on my hand and I yelp, glaring at Layana. “What?”
“You stall all day and leave me to do the entire work. Could you at least
wash the jar you drank from, Jessamine? Or do you believe yourself better than us now?” Her black eyes are narrowed at me and her voice
is strained.
Everyone’s looking in our direction. Even Lovette and the Head Maid whose lips are pulled down hard in a frown. All I see in their eyes is judgement.
It hurts a little, because Lovette’s eyes judge me too. I look away, taking the jar and filling it with water. Pain throbs in my fingers and I wince, trying to lift it.
“Did you hear? She discarded her clothes in the lake and came out naked to entice Alpha Kier,” Amelie whispers in Rose’s ear, and I wonder why she’s whispering when everyone can hear. “Gave them quite the show.”
Amelia snickers, hand staring the large pot of soup and she whispers back, “The guards have begun to call her the Pack Slut.”
I go still. “What did you say?” I whisper faintly, looking at Amelie.
Amelie and Rose look at me, and just when Amelie is about to repeat that dreaded sentence that’ll have me hurl this jug at her head, half a dozen guards burst into the kitchen, Luna Renae and Lady Helen in tow.
My back straightens and everyone falls into a low bow.
“L—Luna, what brings you to the…” the Head Cook is stuttering, but Luna Renae raises a single finger, silencing her.
That finger turns in my direction and she nods, hazel eyes flaring. “Bring
the thief.”
I look back, confused. Perhaps there’s someone else behind or beside me that she might be referring to.
But the guards in their uniforms stomp toward me, pushing the maids
out of the way and kicking the pots and grains across the floors. I fall back by a step, but my back hits the counter. “Why…what have I done?”
Two men flank me and they grab my arms roughly, dragging me out of
the kitchen.
There’s a crowd in the hallway. Other contenders and court visitors stare wide eyed at the commotion; at me. Even I am wide eyed.
Luna Renae holds up a bracelet I have never seen before. “This was found in your quarters.”
I stare at the bracelet, trying and failing “I have never seen that before–”
“Do not bother with the lies. They will do nothing to help your case,” says Luna Renae with a simple wave of her hand as she turns away, Lady Helen in tow. “Take her to the square.”
“But I didn’t steal it! I’ve never even seen it before!” I yell at her back.
She pauses, angling her head toward me. “It was you who cleaned her room today, yes?”
“Yes, but-”
A small smile plays on her lips when everyone starts to murmur, and I know instantly who has framed me. She straightens, and the smile is gone. “You saw it. It was quite unlike anything you had encountered. You wanted it, and you stole it.”
“I did not!” Tears spring to my eyes but I don’t let them fall. I don’t tell lies. Or steal. Okay, maybe there was that one time when I took the dress from Gamma Lloyd’s study, but I returned it right after the dance.
But this situation is different. It is one I cannot win. With the Alpha, Betal and Gamma gone from the castle, Luna Renae is in charge. –
I’m done for. Royally damned.
+25 BONUS
“Take her and prepare the whip,” Luna Renae throws over her shoulder nonchalantly as she was walks down the hallway.
I go cold. The whip? Sweat breaks on my arms and neck as they pull me down the hallways and further down the staircase, halting only when we reach the hallway that only comes alive when someone has
committed a grave offense.
The square.
Sunlight streams in, and burns my skin. People pour in from all doors, all of them bristling with excitement. The last time there was a gathering in the square was when a rogue spy was caught and executed.
Dread grabs a hold of me as I sight the pillars. My legs lock under me as a burly male with a jagged scar across his cheek unceremoniously places a whip on the pillow that seats on a tall stand.
A ragged breath rips from me. Not the whip. Not the whip!
My wrist is yanked hard, cold iron chains that bite like hot coal clasping around them. I start to flee from the chains, adrenaline fueling me, but I can’t fight off a man. Even if I could, there are several others guarding every corner of the square.
They’d catch me before I even took a step out of here. And what comes after they do is worse than the lashings I will receive.
Lashings that scare the hell out of me.
I am chained between posts, hands and feet far apart.
And then, we all wait.
It isn’t a long wait. The Luna returns with the other contenders, bringing them to witness my punishment. My humiliation. This is no ordinary flogging. She means to bury my pride and honour six feet under, never to see the light of day again. She means to break me, ruin me, so that I
may never be able to look Alpha Kier in the eye again.
This is no punishment for stealing. She is punishing me for ever setting my gaze on her son. She is punishing me for defying her, and the other contenders are here to learn what happens when you challenge the Alpha’s mother.
*Jessamine Everhart,” Luna Renae says, the clicking of her heeled slippers echoing through the now silent yar. You stand accused of theft-
“I didn’t steal anything I yell, baring my teeth at her.
She goes on like I didn’t say anything, addressing the crowd. “Honesty and loyalty are the cornerstones of the Sunfire Pack Dishonesty breeds stealing and betrayal, attributes known to be possessed only by rogues. Luna Renae turns to me, hands folded behind her back. “Do you wish
to end up as a rogue, left to die in the wilds without honour, Jessamine?”
stare in her hazel eyes, and I see all that I am in them. A scapegoat didn’t steal that bracelet. I have worked here since I was little more than a child. I have never stolen. Not even when I cleaned your chambers and you would leave your gold out on purpose. I never touched them, and I didn’t touch that bracelet.”
Luna Renae nods towards the executioner. Put the bit in.” She walks forward, until she is in front of me, close enough that I can scent the oils she used in her hair. It saddens my heart to do this, but the values of the pack must be upheld”
For the first time in my life, I snart. “You are Something awful is shoved between my teeth, and my words comes out muffled and
unclear
“Twenty lashes,” she orders, and my heart races. I begin to pull at the chains, but they won’t budge
*Calm down, Jess. You have felt paint before. You can handle it again I
+25 BONUS
am trying to prepare myself for it.
I hear the whip crack first before I feel the pain. Someone has set my back on fire. It doesn’t matter how many times I have felt the cold, burning bite of the whip, it never stops feeling like the first time.
The pain is unreal, paralyzing.
I won’t scream or plead. I won’t give her the satisfaction.
But when the whip splits the skin of my back again, in the same exact spot, I can’t help but scream.
