Chapter 4 Four
Nymera Lancaster
“Your court? Objection is never Overruled! I'm the Lawyer of the deceased and you will allow me!”
He turned fully toward me, descending from the place he sat on, each of his footsteps echoing against the stone floor. When he stopped before me, he was close enough that I could see a faint of stumble in his jaw.
“Brave,” he murmured, his tone laced with something dangerous. “ Or foolish. I'm still deciding. For someone like you.”
My pulse thundered. “Someone had to say it. To stop the corrupt, Alpha Lawyer.”
His brows lifted slightly, amusement in those cold eyes of his. “And you believe that someone is ‘you’? You think you're fit to try to talk back in my court?”
I swallowed, hard. My eyes were all over him with disgust. “We both know what happened here isn't justice. And this isn't just your court. This is everybody's right! That man deserves a real defense…”
“He had one,” he cut in smooth, “Me.”
His arrogance made my blood boil and all I could do was bite on my lips angrily. “You're defending him by twisting the truth into submission. Into something you want for yourself! You call that justice?”
Gasps spread through the room and I could hear the voice of my friend, slowly falling into my name but I stood firm, staring at the Alpha Lawyer as his smirk widened.
“Tell me,” he said softly, circling me now, his voice dropping to a whisper only I could hear. “What does a little lamb like you know about justice in my court?”
My fists clenched. The way he kept calling the court his! It wasn't okay! I didn't like that. “Enough to recognize corruption when I see it.”
That stopped him and his steps faltered for the first time, the temperature in the room dropping.
He turned slowly, studying me like I was a puzzle he found impossible to solve. “Your name,” he said at least. “State it.”
State it? For a split second, my real name balanced on my mind_Nymera but was it even going to be right?
“I…” my gaze darted briefly to my trembling reflection on the floor. “Athlea.”
“Athlea,” he repeated, rolling it over his tongue, savouring it. “Didn't you just get done with law school? I expected more fear from you.”
“I'm just trying to do what's right,” I shot back, the words spilling faster now, before reason could stop them. I didn't even know who Athlea was.
And yet, I was carrying the name just so perfectly because I was sure this was all a dream and I can't wait to tell flair the scumbag I saw in my dreams and the weird name he had. “Alpha Lawyer.”
“The evidence, if you even call it that — proves he's guilty. There are witnesses, blood traces, motive ....”
He chuckled darkly. “Ah, you speak of evidence as though facts outweigh strength.” He stepped closer, so close I could feel the heat radiating from his body. “Here, we do not serve logic. We serve power. The pack survives on it. The weak perish because they must!”
“That's barbaric.”
“And yet,” he murmured, “It works. So perhaps, you stand back and watch me do my judgement. This is my court and I get to decide what happens and what won't!”
Something inside of me snapped again angrily. “You don't get to redefine right and wrong just because everyone's afraid of you. The reason why there is a court — is for the people who truly deserve justice and for the ones who deserve pain and the consequences of their actions!”
Gasps erupted again, the entire hall buzzing with disbelief and I could almost hear the whispers.
“She's arguing with him. No one dares argue with him.”
His smirk sharpened. “Perhaps I should educate you on what happens to those who do. You don't just get to interrupt my judgement and call that bravery! You're not even half of it, woman.”
“No,” I shook my head in disagreement. “I will educate you on what happens in the court with their sections.”
He scoffed, “Sections? Courts have sections of their own? That's bullshit. I make mine with no sections or whatever!”
Before I could respond, a guard dragged the chained man to his feet. The accused murderer's eyes met mine for a heartbeat, I could see him, pleading desperately, before a shove forced him down into a dark corridor.
“Trail Adjourned,” The Alpha Lawyer said coolly without even glancing at him and just like that, the matter was over.
But even as he turned away, I could feel his gaze lingering on me. “You've just made yourself my enemy!” He said softly, his voice carrying across the hall like a sentence and I scoffed, snickering at his words.
“What does that mean? Made myself your enemy? If that's what you call someone fighting for a right that doesn't even need to be so long like this — then I am glad to be with you.”
His smile faded into thin air at my words and I swear that I saw a flicker of shock in his expression before he shoved it off with coldness.
“Athlea, stop talking,” she hissed. “Please. You don't understand what he can be.” I heard my friend behind me.
“I have never seen someone like her!” Another said.
“Trail Adjourned till when, Mr. Alpha Lawyer?” I asked, and watched as his face
“What did you say?!”
The doors slammed open.
The noise cracked through and even the Alpha Lawyer stopped mid -step to look at the noise.
A woman stepped into the hall, causing nothing but confusion as loud yells erupt in the hall.
“They look the same!”
The woman was me.
Same face. Same eyes. Same lips. Like I was staring into a reflection of myself that had stepped out of the mirror.
I stumbled back a step, my mouth opened widely in shock. “What the hell…”
Her gaze found mine across the distance and shock flashed in her expression and for a moment, both of us stopped there frozen.
“Impossible!”
