Chapter 11 Time For Trial
Meira’s POV
My trial was today.
I sat on the cold, rough floor of the dungeon, my body weak from days without proper food or water. Only on rare occasions did the palace servants bring me scraps, always in secret, as if even their sympathy was something to be hidden. I didn’t blame them. Who wanted to risk being caught helping a cursed hybrid girl?
Of course, I knew my fate. Auctioned off or tortured to death, whichever the Alpha King decided would be more fitting. I closed my eyes, trying to make the stench of fear in the dungeon fade, but it clung to me like a second skin.
Mr. Sherlock, or rather, the prince, had watched silently as I was dragged here. He didn’t say a word. Why would he? Nobody would believe me. A cursed hybrid girl’s word against a normal wolf’s? Not a chance.
I had cried until my body felt hollow, like I’d lost all the water inside me. My throat was raw, my eyes stinging.
“I’m sorry… about how this will end,” I whispered to Roxy, my wolf shifting uncomfortably beneath the surface. I felt hopeless, defeated. “I don’t think there’s any light at the end of this tunnel.”
“You don’t have to say that, Meira?” Roxy asked softly. “We could still be lucky.”
“Lucky?” I scoffed, bitter humor cutting through my fear. “Have you ever seen a cursed hybrid lucky?”
“You’re a gift, Meira,” she said firmly, her voice like an anchor.
I shook my head. “You don’t have to lie to me, Roxy.”
She tilted her head, eyes sharp. “Then are you going to ignore the pull you feel toward the Alpha Prince? You can’t deny it, no matter how much you fight it.”
I laughed, a hollow, bitter sound that echoed off the stone walls. “Pull? Do you have any idea what that would mean? If the Alpha King even knew I felt anything towards his son… that alone could be enough for him to end me.” I clenched my fists. “Roxy, do you understand the word ‘cursed? Do you?”
Before she could answer, the rattling of keys broke the moment. My stomach sank. The delta had come to take me to the courtroom. My heart raced, and I felt a strange mix of fear and anticipation coil tight inside me.
The heavy door was dragged open with a screech, revealing the first glimpse of the outside world I’d had in days. A grating voice accompanied it.
“You have a visitor,” the delta said, his disgust evident as he looked at me.
My legs wobbled as I stood, the last shreds of energy in my body straining to carry me forward. I wondered, briefly, who would possibly come to see me.
And then I saw them.
Aunt Elizabeth and Claribel.
Their smiles were smug, rehearsed, and perfectly cruel.
“Look at you,” Claribel said, eyes sweeping over my thin frame, her tone dripping with mockery. “So much thinner. So fragile. Honestly, staying with us obviously didn’t suit you. But I think this fits you better.” She leaned slightly forward, as if savoring my discomfort, and I could feel the venom in her words piercing straight through me.
“Since you didn’t like being with your nice, beautiful aunt and her daughters,” Aunt Elizabeth chimed in, her voice sharp, “I hope you’re enjoying your stay here. It seems… appropriate, don’t you think?”
I wanted to spit at them. To tear their smug faces apart. But I was too weak, too tired, too trapped.
“I didn’t kill Lord Whitmore!” I yelled, the words leaving me before I could stop them. Anger surged through me, hot and electric, chasing away some of the fear. “I had nothing to do with it!”
"I know," she said with a mocking tone.
Tears pricked my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. Not now. Not ever.
Aunt Elizabeth smirked slowly, deliberately. “Sweetheart, do you really think anyone would believe a cursed hybrid girl over the members of a respectable family?”
Claribel laughed, a sharp, grating sound. “Yes, Meira. How clever of you to try and convince them.
But really… It’s amusing. You thought you could play the part of the calm, obedient wolf, but look at you now: angry, weak, and pathetic. Perfectly fitting your little cursed role.”
I wanted to lunge at them, to rip the smirks off their faces, to make them feel even a fraction of the humiliation they’d made me feel. My wolf growled low in my chest, and my hands curled into fists so tightly that my nails dug into my palms.
“So you know I... I didnt” I started, but they weren’t finished.
Their smirks only widened. Aunt Elizabeth’s slow, deliberate smile made my stomach twist. “Oh, sweetie. Of course you didn’t. Why would we assume otherwise? Guards arrived the second he was found dead, didn’t they? And who confirmed him… dead?”
Claribel’s grin was sharp enough to cut glass. “We did. And yet here you are. Alone and locked up, and properly banished from this pack, your little rebellion, your little cursed nature… it got you exactly where you belong.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat, fury and helplessness mixing into a bitter knot. My body trembled, but I forced myself to stay upright. I wouldn’t cry. Not in front of them. Not now.
The delta from before reappeared, his presence a dull, grinding reminder of reality. He glanced between me and Claribel, expression neutral, before saying, “Time for her trial.”
My chest tightened, sweat prickling on my skin. My heart raced, each beat pounding against my ribs like a drum. The floor seemed to tilt beneath me as I followed him toward the courtroom, every step heavier than the last.
What was my fate going to be? Auctioned? Banished? Or worse… left to rot?
I clenched my jaw, every instinct in my body screaming. My wolf growled low, restless, and demanding. And as I walked, I vowed silently: whoever had hurt me, whoever had set me up, whoever had decided my fate… they would pay.
The courtroom awaited, cold and merciless. But I would face it. I had to. I had no other choice.