Chapter 96

**Kataleya’s POV**

I know I should have stayed. I get it. I really should have. When he opened his mouth and spat his bullshit about me and all their other victims ENJOYING it when they assaulted them, I just lost it. I could no longer handle it. I was fine with what he said. In a sense, it was easy for me to ignore everything as it flowed off my back. But for him to imply that I enjoyed being raped, that anyone enjoys being assaulted, that took it too far.

After I gouged out his eyes, I had to leave that room. I felt as if I was suffocating. It was getting harder to breathe. I hated leaving Justin in there alone, but I could feel an anxiety attack coming on and I didn’t want Justin to have to stop anything to help me, which he would have done. I, also, did not want to appear weak. I didn’t want the bastard to hear me breaking down. I did not want him to know that he was getting to me, so like a coward I ran.

The moment I left the dungeon, I knew Justin sent someone after me. Oliver and Michael appeared as I exited the dungeon, both of them racing to catch up to me. Skye had been oddly quiet throughout the whole ordeal, so I truly felt alone. So many emotions were piling up.

Michael walked up to me and wrapped me in his arms.

The moment that his arms were around me, I started to sob. I placed my mental block up, so Justin would not feel the torrent of emotions rushing through me.

When did I become so weak?

I can’t remember the last time that I cried this much or let my emotions overwhelm me. The last time was when I was assaulted, but after a week, I locked my feelings in a box and forgot about them. I tried to forget the whole ordeal. Maybe that was my problem. I never truly dealt with the emotions that I had after that week, not even in therapy. I always tried to avoid the topic.

Five minutes had passed and Michael still had his arms wrapped around me as I sobbed. Eventually, another pair of arms engulfed me and from the scent, I could tell that it was Elijah.

“Shhh…it will be okay,” Elijah whispered.

I wasn’t sure how long we stood there with Michael and Elijah trying their hardest to cheer me up. Eventually, I heard the door to the dungeons open and the scent of sandalwood and orange blossom drifted to me…Justin.

Michael and Elijah both stepped back at the same time. The moment that they let go of me, I was in the arms of my mate.

“Are you okay, my love?”

I nodded my head, nuzzling his neck, trying my hardest to bask into his scent. “Now, I am,” I whispered.

We stood there in silence for what felt like hours, but it was probably only a few hours before he spoke again.

“Baby, he is gone now…” Justin quietly told me.

“The body?” I asked.

“Right where I left it. I knew that you would want to see it. It will bring you closure. I commanded no one to move it until I told them to.”

I turned ready to get this over with.

We walked back through the dungeon to the interrogation rooms quickly. No one spoke the entire way back. As we made it back to the door, I noticed that everyone hadn’t moved yet. I paused at the door and took a deep breath before pushing it open and I gasped at what I saw.

His blood had pretty much painted the entire room. I noticed his heart, crushed, lying on the ground and his head torn from his body.

Justin wrapped his arms around me tenderly. “It is over, baby. You can now sleep peacefully, without ever worrying about them coming back for you.”

I turned to face him, hugging him tightly. “Thank you.”

As we walked out of the room, Justin told them that they could now clean up the room and that we would be waiting in the interrogation rooms that were in the packhouse. We would go ahead and have the traitors brought to us. Justin refused to tell me who the other traitor was. He told me that it was going to be a shock as to who it was that had betrayed us.

**********

Several hours had passed and Justin had Aziel and Garrison collect the traitors and bring them in. He had them place bags over their heads because he did not want me to figure out who the other person was until he told me. The only thing he told me was that the second person was an Elder. The only one that I thought held a vendetta against me was Christopher. His vendetta I thought was fucking stupid. Christopher just hates that my brother wanted the title to go to me, instead of Elijah. He even went as far to argue that it would have even been better off if the title went to my Beta instead because “women are only meant to control and run households. Women could never hold true responsibility within a pack.” Hosh posh. That is all I can say every time that I hear that bullshit explanation. He was so full of shit. Just because I am a woman does not mean that I am weaker or less than when it comes to a man. Clearly, since I could kick three-fourths of the male population in the pack. Fuck, I could probably beat the shit out of all them, but I am not full of myself to the point that I would ever admit that fact, just in case there was one person who would be able to outdo me.

Everyone finally showed up to the conference room. We unanimously decided that we should start with Anna because she was the easiest. We knew the vendetta that she had against me. She was under the misguided assumption that just because she fucked my mate a few times, that meant she held some kind of importance in his life.

Justin was adamant that he be in the room with us. He said that he personally wanted to face the fucker who had tried to endanger my life and get me kicked. He told me that he did not care about what they had done in the past, but the only thing that had phased him was what she tried to do to me now. He assured me there were no feelings present, so I would not have to worry about him trying to interfere with any judgement that my father, the King, or I made.

We walked into the room and I motioned for Aziel to pull her bag off. They had strapped her legs and arms down, so that she couldn’t harm anyone. Her eyes first landed on me before they shot to Justin and her eyes instantly welled with tears.

“Justin!” she wailed, “I did not do whatever she has accused me of! I swear!”

Her shrieking was already annoying me and we hadn’t done anything yet. I silently motioned for Aziel to smack her in the head. He looks at me and nods with the biggest grin on his face.

‘I have been waiting forever for this opportunity!’ he linked to me gleefully.

He smacks her in the head hard. Her head flew to the side. “Shut the fuck up. You only speak when you are spoken too.”

I walked over to the table before taking a seat and we just stared at each other. Justin finally took a seat next to me. My father and the King remain standing.

“So this is how it is going to work. We are going to ask you a few questions and you will respond truthfully. Got it?”

She stares blankly ahead and doesn’t answer. Apparently, we were going to start this out by doing it the hard way. Fine by me.

I pushed my aura and allowed it to engulf the entire room.

“I said, do you understand?” I watched as she tried to unsuccessfully fight my aura before she nodded her head, glaring at me.

“Much better. First things first, did you betray your pack and future Alpha?”

She glared at me, fighting the question, before giving in and answering. “You are not my fucking Alpha, whore.”

Justin was in front of her in an instant. He wrapped his hands around her throat as a warning. “Watch how you fucking talk to my mate!”

Normally, I don’t like it when men place their hands on women, unprovoked, but if I am being honest, I find it hot that he is sticking up for me. Granted, I could handle her. She just really was not worth my time, though. She was not worth the unprovoked anger. I could feel Justin’s anger, it was piping hot. It was ready to be released and Anna had just become his perfect target. I mean she was warned to stay away…but I know the right and appropriate thing to do is to reign my mate in before he killed her.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and squeezed him. I felt the tension leave his body. He dropped his hand from her and came to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and laying his head on top of mine.

“You see, Anna, I was not looking for you to tell me whether you believed that I was your Alpha…no, I need to know if you betrayed your pack by conversing with the enemy…telling secrets…wishing harm on ANY pack member, whether it is a ranked member or an Omega. You know that bullshit is not tolerated in this pack. So, I will ask again. Did you betray your pack?” I finished by pushing the full weight of my aura on her. I watched as she cringed in her seat before tilting her head towards me in submission.

“Yes,” she whimpered.

“What exactly did you divulge to the enemy?”

I watched as she struggled to disobey the direct command, continuing to push my full aura on her, forcing her to answer. “…your habits. Who you talk to, what you do, your routine, when you leave the pack…your weaknesses…”

I could feel my anger rising the more she talked. “How long have you been working with them?”

“Since right before the rogue attack…I was contacted by someone that told me that they could take you down, but I needed to help them. So, I told them what I knew…”

I roared in anger, slamming my fist down on the table. “How fucking dare you share pack secrets with the ENEMY? Do you have no fucking shame? I know your fucking parents would be fucking ashamed of you doing this shit! Your father is a warrior and you thought it would be okay to risk the lives of pack members, just so the little fucking princess could get what she fucking wanted?!”

I could feel my self-control slowly snapping with the more questions that I asked her. Before I could ask her another question, she started screaming back at me, her face turning red from her anger. “How dare you call me names and insinuate that I have brought shame to my pack and family?! I was doing them a favor by getting rid of you! You think that you are tough shit just because your brother was too much of a pussy to keep his title? Bitch, news flash! You are going to fail as the next Alpha of this pact! You are right, I wanted those rogues to take you! I wanted them to HURT you. I wanted them to break you, break your fucking will to live, so that you would do us all a fucking favor--fuck off and die!”

My eyes flashed and I could tell they were glowing purple. I slowly walked towards her before I gripped her chin and pulled her face up to mine. “You think it is okay for anyone to be assaulted, to have nightmares about what has been done to them? How would you like it if you were held down, against your will, and had three boys hold you down while they took what they wanted from you? How would you feel if they laughed in your fucking face when you were begging them to stop touching you? It would hurt, wouldn’t it? You would fucking feel powerless…you know, I had considered going easy on you. I knew that you had a misguided infatuation with MY mate. I was ready to forgive what you had done and give you a small punishment. Now, though? I can tell there is no remorse. You don’t care about who you hurt to get what you want. You think Justin would have gone to you if I killed myself? If he never saw me again because those bastards had me? No, ma’am. He would not have. You are nothing to him. You were nothing to him. You had this idea of promises that he never gave you. For that, I truly feel sorry for you. I wish that you were shown some type of compassion…maybe if you were shown compassion and what true love really was, we would not be in this situation…you will be sentenced to 100 lashes. The whip will be dunked every ten lashes in monkshood and silver and it will be ignited by Hell fire. If you manage to survive that, you will be banished from the pack if I don’t decide to kill you first.”

I watched as she looked at Justin pleadingly, but he didn’t spare her a second glance.

With my final words, I left the room.

“Justin!” she screamed, “I did this for us!”

He stopped for a moment and turned to face her, “I was never yours to begin with.” And then continued to follow me out of the room.