"The bitch beat up her maid?"
"Like father, like daughter."
"Serves the wicked right."
"Silence," Terrivan commanded and the courtyard plunged into a vacuum of silence immediately.
The only noise remaining was the rhythmic snap of the birch torches and the metallic clink of a guard's greaves. The air was thick with damp hay and the bitter, medicinal tang of silver from Reina's shoulder clashing with the acrid smoke from the fire pits.
Reina gulped. Of all the betrayals she had faced in her short, painful life, she had least expected this from Hera. The one person she had trusted with every secret, every scar, every night she had cried herself to sleep.
However if she thought that was all Hera had in store for her, she was far from the truth.
Hera threw herself to the floor, her whole body shaking as she clasped her hands together in fake pretense "Alpha, I am so sorry." The sob that followed was high-pitched, her shoulders shaking violently.
Reina stared at this stranger before her, unable to look away from the cold calculation in Hera's eyes.
"Tell us what happened,"Terrivan's voice vibrated across the room.
"I tried to stop her. I swear it on my life," Hera gasped, her voice dripping with practiced fear.
"She said if I didn't help her, she would tell you I had been stealing from the kitchens. I was afraid for my life. She kicked me, slapped me, and then pushed me to the floor before bashing my head. The last thing I remember was begging her to stop."
"Lies! You lie, Hera. How dare—"
A guard from behind drove his boot into Vera's side. The air left her in a grunt as she curled forward, her teeth locked against the scream.
Or had she done it? Was this a dream?
Reina's mind scrambled backward through the hours.
Had she disappeared into someone else's body? Had she lost time somewhere in the dark of the forest and done something she could not remember?
What would she even say? That she had never raised her hand to Hera in fifteen years and would never? That the girl now sobbing on the floor had held her through every nightmare, had pressed cool cloth to her bruises, and had whispered that someday they would be free?
That her maid was lying to them all and they were taking it hook, line and sinker? For how long had Hera been playing two sides while reassuring her that someday they would escape Ironfire?
Or was her memory playing tricks on her? Had she disappeared to someone else's body to beat Hera?
The last thing she remembered clearly was Hera arriving with dinner and telling them that it was time to leave. And when Reina had insisted she would not leave without her, Hera had smiled and said she would meet them at the border.
She only needed to collect the necklace a guard had taken from her which was her mother's last gift and that she would meet them there.
She had not met them there.
She should have known. She should always have known.
She looked around the courtyard. Stinging, hateful glances were fixed on her from every direction. Only Vera, covered in debris and gasping for air beside her, seemed to know the truth.
A deep frown had cut across Vera's face as she watched Hera betray them. Reina could read it from where she knelt. The same question was burning behind her own eyes.
"Answer me!" Terrivan's roar jolted Reina out of her spiral.
Reina lifted her eyes to his.She saw the pure rage in his. If she denied it, they would either hurt her people and make them scapegoats on behalf of their princess or they would break Vera until the truth or a confession came out. One maid had already sold her soul; Lareina would not let the only loyal one die for it.
"Yes. I hit her."
The words were quiet, summoning every scrap of Hunter pride she had left. As soon as they left her lips, a ripple moved through the courtyard, the sound of a hundred breaths being drawn at once.
"My Lady—" Vera's voice was a ragged whisper of disbelief.
"I am sorry, Hera."
I am sorry I did not know how much my father's hatred had infected you. I would have been more careful. I would have protected you.
The courtyard erupted in angry whispers and behind it all, Reina could hear everything.
Some called for her death; others demanded she be broken the Hunter way.
If only they knew she was no stranger to her father's way. She had been his slave too, in many ways than she could tell.
He had only hit her in places no one could see. After all, she was an Alpha's daughter. Only Vera and Hera had known that he hit her on her back every year on her mother's death anniversary, that he always found a creative way to punish her on her birthdays.
In her Winterfell Pack, omegas were better than her, at least they were loved by their parents. She had grown up with no love and no one to love but she nursed the fantasy that one day her Prince Charming would come save her from her evil castle.
Until her father gave an announcement that sent terror flying through her bones and made that fantasy dream collapse with a plop three moons ago.
The one that had broken her was on her sixteenth birthday when Leila, her twin had lied that Lareina had stolen money from their father's quarters the night before her birthday.
Her father had used the heated iron fangs on her laps while she screamed in agony in the dungeon. She had spent her birthday eve and her birthday covered in her own vomit, in pain, in blisters, in darkness.
That was the night her nightmares became worse. All of it because of a mistake she had no control over. She still bore the marks from that night.
Hera was taken aback for just a moment by Reina's admission but as her gaze landed on Lady Oleander, she increased her cries a pitch higher, sobbing pitifully, keeping up with the act she had been paid for.
To Reina's surprise, the guards moved behind her at the snap of their Alpha's fingers, but they reached for Vera instead.
"No. No, no." Reina shook her head, thrashing against the cuffs. "Let her go, please. She is innocent, please." More tears streamed down her face.
"Give the maid twenty strokes of the cane and throw—"
My King, it is the half moon night," Oleander cut in. An irritated, bored look crossed her perfect features.
"And this slave tried escaping. We had rules before her bastardized father captured us. Anyone who tries to escape on this night is to be punished. She needs a lesson, or every slave in Ironfire will think they can just escape." Her lips curled with a depth of hatred only Oleander herself could fathom.
She had waited one month for this. One month of watching Terrivan rebuild what Chase Hunter had broken. One month of patience she had not wanted to give because she had three souls to avenge and she would not waste this moment on impatience.
Reina had no idea what was coming for her. This was only the beginning. She let her gaze drop briefly to Reina's trembling form.
"Increase those strokes to thirty, Landon," Terrivan ordered.
"What?" Reina gasped, scrambling forward on her knees. "I am the one you should flo... flog. Not her. Me. Please, do not do this."
The tears came freely now, her voice dissolving at the edges.
"You will definitely get the punishment you deserve, slave," Terrivan said.
"Why? Why me? He is gone and still his shadow follows me everywhere. Can you not stop? P-please? I will do anything. Anything, please," Reina whimpered, her body folding under the weight of the silver, exhaustion coursing through her tired bones.
As Terrivan looked down at her, he felt no iota of pity.
She was performing, he told himself. Her father had done the same. Chase Hunter had dug the knife that ended his father's life even if he had been one of their guests ten years ago. Then he raped his sister the next day, at dawn at noon and at eve. As if that wasn't enough, Chase had made his guards hold Terrivan down while he watched helplessly as Chase rammed into his only sister in her bed, in their home.
He never forgot his sister's screams.
The apple never fell far. And yet something about the way she shook, the way her voice broke on the word please, snagged on something he did not have a name for but he buried it.
Her father had done worse when one of his people tried to escape after a week of starvation. Chase Hunter had hunted him down, cut off his private part and while the man was wailing in pain and terror, the monster had fed him his private parts as food before littering the man's body with scars from his favorite knife.
That night Terrivan had sworn that he would break his people free from that bondage even if it was the last thing he did. He had not come this far to go soft over a girl who shared that monster's blood.
Not after that particular night Damien Hunter did what he had never expected. What broke him.
Now it was time to break Damien's bride.
"Throw the slave into the—"
"My King," Oleander purred, moving to his side with a look of fake innocence. "You have spent enough energy. Please, leave her punishment to me. I can handle her."
Terrivan didn't look back as he turned toward the Great Hall. "Alright, you can handle her. I will be in my quarters."
The courtyard began to tilt. The torchlight smeared into long, orange streaks. Reina felt the darkness submerging her like a tide. As her forehead hit the cold floor with a dull thud, a final prayer flickered in her mind.
Moon goddess, I know you hate me but I'm so tired. I am so tired of being passed from one monster to the next. If you are listening, if you have ever listened, then let me go. I will be better off dead.
Oleander stood over the unconscious girl, a small, terrifying smile touching her lips. She looked at the guards.
"Give her an hour," she said, a dark smile twinkling on her face. "I want her awake for all of it."