𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍: 𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐲

TWENTY-SEVEN: Final Ceremony

The guilt hurt too much. Once again, my core coiled with a pressing heat from Hell itself.

The Oracle arose to her bare feet and a cracking back with clear eyes but said nothing.

"Well?" my father's replacement on the councilmen inquired.

"His memories are to be washed clean before he's banished. Jenna is free to do whatever she bargained for."

Jenna wore a triumphant smile, waved to the Alphas, and winked at me. "You're welcome."

"That's all?" someone from the council asked.

Sadly, I understood the meaning behind his question. In their eyes, it seemed I was getting off scot-free. Danielle had been stripped of her talent to sing, but she was still a part of the pack. Hannez was going to be made a wolfless madman and his bloodline had been eternally forbidden from ever joining any sort of higher ranks or councils. They had voted to have my head earlier, and Jenna had expressed how she wanted to take me into her coven instead.

As announced by the Oracle, her request had been approved and theirs had been declined, with a poor alternative. An alternative that wouldn't hold in the long term because even though my memories were to be erased. There was nothing stopping Jenna and her coven from building me back up with new ones. On another note, not many of them knew this, but Jenna was a witch with Alpha Blue Blood. Therefore, under her coven, there was also nothing stopping our She-Alpha's sister from giving me a wolf spirit of her own from a bite.

My father's replacement bellowed with a precise berserk to his tenor, "Consult them again! That can't be all. We need at least one limb."

"Patience. Maulaveny." The Oracle spoke politely, hands folding behind her back as though in anticipation for more.

Council members shuffled about as though readying to leave, but the Oracle used a hand motion. Urging them to get back into their seats.

"Darling," Jenna extended her arm out for me to take. "Best we be on our way now."

My breath held. I didn't know if I could trust her to not make me into a pet for her cruel son I'd overhead guards whisper about. So I didn't move.

She urged me with reason. "If you want to move about the world on your own, you can."

I began to consider that option with favor.

"But if you come with me, it will be better for you. Maybe even your best option because if you go out there on your own with no lifeline. Who will bury you when your trauma catches you off guard?" Jenna's voice lowered, to be kinder and concerned as she addressed me. "Trust me when I say this. Your body will always remember, your genetics will always be of an unfamiliar pattern. So you can never fit in or depend on humans. I'm your best chance and my Coven will be your family. With me, you'll have a full life, and a wolf in you after I give you the bite of life."

"Why?"

"My family left me stranded when I needed them the most. Every painful minute of those years was spent wishing I'd done something to save myself. Something like what you did. Our situations are different but I see myself in you. That's why."

"If you mean that. Wouldn't you have been nice to me and Dani?"

"Darling, I said I see myself in you. It doesn't mean I'm a nice person or nice to the version of myself I see in you. Now, here here..."

I peered at the hand that she's stretched out again for me to take. Inhaling my future I raked the crowd; Brady was walking away, his Betas in tow.

The pack chattered, waiting for me to make a choice. Most of them yelled that if I went with the witch, then I was truly a snake. Triggered, I neared toward her, toward life, but something in my chest clenched tightly. So painfully hard against my soul and core, it gave me courage. "I'm sorry," I told her, walking backwards but before I turned aiming to climb down the dais to run after him. I confessed, "I don't think your bite will hold. I exercised my bond with Brady."

Aided with speed Jenna followed and grabbed my elbow. She slugged down at me as if she held all the cards that I didn't have. As if that made all the difference, and perhaps it did. "My nephew's raw mark was the first thing I smelled on your wrist. Just because none of us said anything doesn't mean we didn't know. For a bit I even thought you'd done it deliberately to deter the course of today's outcome. What? You did didn't you?"

I ran a hand over my head.

"Well, I'm a Blue Blooded Alpha wolf-witch, which makes it no question that my bite will hold. So embrace your new reality Malik. You're simply human now and he's an Alpha. He no longer has need for you, you're not even welcome here." She dropped my elbow and again gave me her hand. "Come with me. I'm your best shot at survival."

I chanced a look at Brady's retreating form.

"I'm sorry" It was more than a croak.

I wasn't sure what I was doing or what it would mean and what of the people about to watch me make a fool of myself once again. But I had to at least try. I figured I was better off feeling embarrassed than with the imprint of regret tatted on my soul.

[to be continued]