Chapter 4

• Taboo
• "Just go away, Danika," Liam's voice declared coldly, bearing no affection in it.
• I cried harder than I have cried in my life on the floor, knowing this marks the end of the road for me. There was no other way. No hope. I was going to have to kill myself or suffer the wrath of my father's fist for the rest of my life as the failure that I was. This was too much for me.
• "You heard him, bitch. I won, so get the fuck out of this room!" Bianca snarled at me. "I told you one day you will bow before me, look now who won." She chuckled derisively afterward.
• My heart was bleeding. Was this how it felt to be heartbroken?
• I was seeing red and seething in rage at my sister's cruelty for what she had done to me. This was the highest thing she could ever do to me, and since she said it would be over her dead body that she would watch me become Luna, maybe I will have to make her wish come to pass. I had nothing else to look forward to if my mate rejected me, and I will do all I could to keep him. With that thought, I stood and gave her the most hateful glare I have ever given anyone in my life.
• I dashed out of the room and went straight to the kitchen, my hand circling the first thing I laid my hand on which happened to be a kitchen silver knife. I stormed out of the kitchen and back upstairs. The only thing running through my veins was fury and revenge.
• I rushed at her on the bed with the knife once I barged in on them, catching her off guard. She kicked and thrashed her legs at me. I didn't know much of what happened after, as I was flailing through the air on Liam's arm who rushed to rescue her.
• "You will pay dearly for this, wretch!" she screamed as Liam slug me over the shoulder with my hands still scrambling forward to grab at her and my body thrashing about. He dropped me outside and rushed back in, leaving me all by myself bleak and frustrated than I have ever been in my life, rejected and alone.
• The door flew open in my face with both of them rushing out and giving me a scanty glance before hurrying away. The only thing I heard was Binaca saying I will regret ever laying my filthy hands on her and attempting to kill her. I knew then exactly what she was going to do and where she was going. Maybe I might have just gotten one of my long-time wishes on a platter of gold.
• The gallows.
• It all dawned on me at once the intensity of my crime which has been oblivion to me due to my anger-clouded mind. Here in our pack, Diamond Dwellers, it was taboo to attempt killing another wolf with any objects that we were vulnerable to, be it silver, wolfbane, or any other equipment or substance that killed us. Any person that disobeyed would suffer only one fate.
• Death!
• I sagged on the floor in defeat and let all the grief in me out. I cried for the loss of a mother who was not here to protect me from all that was happening to me and also cried for the cruelty of this world. Maybe I truly deserved to die.
• I hate hurting people, It was not in me. If that was the only way I would be seen as a strong person; by killing or hurting others with my powers, then it was better I died.
• Not long, the front door slammed open and I shot up from the ground to look downstairs from the baluster. It was my Dad. His eyes found me instantly "What have you done? You cursed child!" He boomed pointing up at me, his face deformed to an uncomfortable snarl.
• My chest heaved in anger. How dare he call me the bad person when she was the one that caused it. "She, she caused this!" I shouted in rage. "She took my mate from me!" I reeled, numbing every wise tug on my inside to hold my tongue.
• "She took my mate from me." he mimicked Sicily. "Like you deserved him!"
• I paled. My Dad said that to me? He was supposed to be happy that I found my mate on my birthday. Today was my first day of reaching my true self. "Dad, that's not fair. You don't mean that," I said softly as more tears glided down my face.
• He trotted forth to stand directly beneath me. "I mean every word I said, Danika." He quirked his lips to the side, squinting his eyes. "Your sister would make us a better Luna than you could ever be!" He finalized and then pointed to the door. "After all you did to me, to us in this pack by taking away my wife and their warrior, you think they would accept you?"
• "It wasn't my fault!" I clamored, falling on my knees, "Why would you blame me and hate me so much for something I had no control over?" The words that have been stuck in my heart for so long gushed out of their will.
• “Well, I don't care what you say. All I know is that you killed her! And I will never forgive you for that." At that the door flew open and some guys came in. I froze on my spot on the floor knowing those people and where they came from.
• My Dad pointed up, “That's her. Take her! Murderer!"
• My eyes dilated as my head shook, scattering my red curls in different directions. "No, Dad, you can't do this to me," I quipped, standing and taking off from there to my room. I locked the door and started pacing as I heard their feet padding across the floor to my room. "No, no, Atreides you have to help me." I fell on my knees and started praying. It had been a long time since I did this, after giving up on her helping me. But right now I needed her to help more than I had ever. I knew I said I wanted to die, but faced with it now, I couldn't brave it.
• "Open this door, now! Danika," My father roared from the outside.
• I ignored him hoping they would go away when they saw I was not relenting.
• "Danika, I swear to the goddess if you make me break this door, it's going to be hell for you before they take you away."
• I rushed to the door and stood with quivering legs and hands staring at it but couldn't open it. I didn't want to die. I knew one thing for sure… if they took me away I was done. "Please, Dad, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it." I Implored, falling on my knees once more as if he could see me.
• The door started shaking as they hit it. "Wait I think I know where I kept the ke__"
• "No! wait...I will open it." I blurted, and hastened up from the floor, my shivering fingers rushing to the bolt to unlock it.
• The door was not fully opened before the first punch landed on my face, followed by a kick to my gut, sending me to the cold ground balling together and screaming as intense pain ricocheted through my body from the assault.
• "How dare you lock the door on me? Are you insane?" My father's vicious voice buzzed in my ears as I struggled to find my balance between here and the other realm. Searing pain was the only thing evident to my senses as he gave me another kick followed by another until I was coughing blood and shouting I was going to die.
• The men soon held him away from me and bent to pick my scrawny body up from the ground.
• "Take her away! I never want to see her again!" My father bellowed at them.
• Everything was blurry to me as they dragged me out of the only place I had known all my life. Even though it was my place of torture and disdain, it was my place of comfort. My little room, the little meaningless things I used to know, every inch of the house that I used to clean since I turned five, everything. I was going to miss them.
• I hardly knew what happened or how fast the car drove, I didn't even notice them throwing me into the car or it leaving my compound. My head was swimming with discomfort and my mind reeling in fear of what was to come next.
• The gate of the Alpha's house swung open, and the car drove in. Then the door of the car flew open, followed by a hand shooting in and dragging me out.
• Once we got inside, the Alpha was seated on his throne staring menacingly down at me as they threw me not so gently to the floor in front of him.
• “There she is, the murderer!" slammed my sister who I didn't notice was in the room.
• I turned to the side and saw her standing with Liam, his sunset golden hair slicked back from his face and his dull grey orbs staring disgustingly at me. The despair of seeing both of them still standing together after what they did to me made more tears pour down my eyes. I knew my fate was already decided and there was nothing I was going to do to change that. However, it still hurts.
• The Alpha cleared his throat loudly causing me to startle a bit I almost fell. I righted myself and tried to concentrate on what he wanted to say rather than the ache of my body and mind.
• "You tried to kill your sister, Danika, do you know what you have done?!" he clamored. My eyes went to the ground refusing to feel any guilt for my action.
• "Take her to the Gunta and give her twenty strokes of cane, after which you throw her in the dungeon where she would stay till next week when she would be executed." I scurried closer to him but was yanked back by one of the guards.
• I struggled in their hands as I peered at the Alpha through tear-clouded eyes. "Please, you can not do that to me. I can explain please, give me a chance to explain."
• "You have nothing to explain, Danika, you committed a very grave misdeed." He spurned, raising his hand to stop me when I opened my mouth to say something. "The penalty of your offense is death and nothing else." He faltered with his eyes intent on me as if to add something else. "I will write to the Alpha king to come for the execution as custom demands." My eyes widened as he said that.
• The Alpha king? That was impossible! How could he invite the Alpha king to witness me get killed? Maybe he was merely saying that to scare me. Yes, because I knew the Alpha king I'd heard about, would never be summoned for something as trivial as watching a weak clueless girl like me get executed.
• I have heard a lot about the most feared Alpha in the history of our territory; the Western Pacific region. He was hardly seen, only heard. I also heard he was the kind of Alpha that we only read in horror books and tell to pups, to scare them to bed in the night. He was very ruthless and cold. Nobody had ever seen him apart from those that worked directly with him, whose duty was to disperse information or new policies guiding the territories below him. Apart from that, Alonso Lochart was never seen by anyone, not when you are ordinary, and had nothing to offer him.
• Once I heard he tore off the head of a hunter in battle and feasted in his intestines to prove to the humans the fate that awaited them if they crossed any of his territories ever again. Our pack and the other smaller packs revered him due to his enormous power and the strength his name held in the Wolf world, and if I might say, even the human world. So there was no way I would believe he would agree to come and witness something as insignificant as my execution.
• "Take her away and do as I said!" The voice of my Alpha pulled me back from my wandering as they lifted me effortlessly from the ground out of the door amid my cries and struggles.
• So this was how I was going to die?