Chapter 7 The branding

The pack members were shocked by her outburst. It was followed by a wave of angry murmurs.

“Silence” Jaxon roared. He came between Astraea and Verena, his shadow looming over Astraea like a big mountain.

“You dare to stand there, caught with the history of our ancestors in your pallet, and you dare to point your filthy fingers at the Luna?”

“I'm not lying, Jaxon,” Astraea sobbed, her chest heaving “she's been trying to destroy me. Since the moment we were born, she has always been jealous of me. Ask her where she was after the feast.”

Jaxon's hand reached out and grabbed Astraea by the throat, lifting her up until her toes barely touched the ground. His golden eyes were filled with unadulterated anger.

“You are pathetic,” he said, his voice a vibration against her skin. “Verena has been in my bed, where she belonged she has no need for stealing this because she already has my heart.”

“You, on the other hand, you have nothing. You are so consumed by jealousy, so angry with the news that she carries my heir, while you cannot even carry your own weight, that you try to destroy the whole pack in your anger.”

“Jaxon, please”, she choked out.

He threw her down like a piece of trash. “You are nothing, just a weakling. You are a blight, and blight must be taken out.”

Verena came forward, her voice shaking with fake hurt that made the pack angry on her behalf.

“It's okay, Jaxon. She is just… She is unwell. Perhaps the sickness has taken her mind. To think my own sister will accuse me of such a thing, it breaks my heart.”

“Your heart is too kind, my love,” jaxon said, his voice softening only for her. He turned back to the crowd, his face hard again. “Enforcer stripped her”.

The crowd cheered, hands grabbed her stained tunic, she fought, she screamed, but her strength was no match against the strong Enforcers.

Within seconds, her back was bare, her pale, translucent skin looking bluish and fragile against the dark pillar she was tied to.

“Thirty lashes,” Jaxon commanded, “for the theft of the compass and the slander of our Luna.”

The first strike of the whip did not feel like normal pain, it felt like liquid fire. Astraea's world exploded with a blinding white light.

She did not even know she had shouted until the sound echoed from the mountains.

“One”.

“Where is your God, given luck now, Omega?” Boyce mocked her, as he prepared the whip for the second strike.

“Two, three, four.”

By the tenth whip, Astraea's vision was now blurry grey. She could smell the metallic scent of her own blood. Every strike felt like it was peelling her skin from her body.

She looked at the crowd, searching for a single face of mercy. She found her father, Lord Harlan, standing near the front.

“Father, she” gasped. Her voice a broken whisper. “Father, tell them… tell them that I would not steal it.”

Her father didn't step forward. He bowed his head, looking at his boots, his face filled with a max of bitter shame.

“I have no daughter”, Harlan said, loud enough for those around him to hear. “Only a thief who has brought ruin to my doorstep. Do not look at me, girl. You are a stain on my name.”

The words hurt more than the whip.

“Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.”

Then the whipping stopped, but her nightmare was just beginning. Astraea slumped against the wooden pillar, her breath coming in shallow, painful sobs.

She was too weak to shift, too broken to even move. Jaxon walked towards the coal of the brazier that had been brought onto the stage. He reached in and pulled out a branding iron. The tip glowed with a bright orange, the runes of the exiled mark of the nameless.

“By my authority as Alpha,” Jaxon said, “I strip you of your rank, strip you of your name. You are no longer of the Shadow fang. You are now a wanderer amongst wolves.”

“Jaxon stop please, I will go. I will just leave,” Astraea whispered.

“You will leave with the mark of your sin,”Jaxon said.

He walked towards her, pinning her shoulder down with two enforcers by her side. Astraea turned around for a second and saw Verena looking with wide, excited eyes, her tongue licking her lips in anticipation. Then the iron touched her skin.

The scream that left Astraea’s throat was one that silenced the entire village. It was the sound of absolute pure agony. The smell of burning flesh could be smelled by everyone.

Then, something happened. As the heat of the iron tried to mark her flesh, Astraea felt a sudden cold from deep within her. For a second, the glowing tip of the branding iron turned grey. Jaxon frowned and pushed it hard.

His golden aura overcoming the resistance. The iron finally did it's work, burning the X sign into her shoulder. But he stumbled back, his hands shaking.

*Her blood….” Jaxon whispered. Then he shook his head. “It's just... it's just the winter chill.” He shook the feeling off.

He looked down at the broken, bleeding woman on the stage. “Throw her at the border.” Jaxon commanded Boyce. “No shoes, no food, no water. If she's seen on Shadow fang lands, after the sunset, kill her on sight.”

Verena walked to Jaxon's side, slipping her hands into his. “You did the right thing, Jaxon. The park is finally clean.”

Astraea did not hear them as the Boyce grabbed her by the arm and dragged her towards the pack borders. She looked at the sky. The sun was high, but to her, the world had finally gone dark.