Chapter 97

**TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND SUICIDE! I WILL DOUBLE ASTERICKS BEFORE AND AFTER, SO YOU HAVE A WARNING!**

I could still hear her screams ringing out as I walked out of the room, demanding that this was not fair and that the “real” Alpha should deal with her. I leaned against the wall, next to the other room that held the other traitor and took a deep breath, trying to control my breathing. I felt out of control. I wanted blood, her blood to be exact, but I stand by what I gave her as punishment.

Justin walked up to me and wrapped me in his arms, his scent calming me. “I am so proud of you, my love. I was expecting you to kill her.”

“I wanted to. I still want to, but would that make me any better than anyone else?” I shook my head sadly. “I try to do what is right for every member of my pack. Sometimes, it is hard though. It is hard to put my biases aside. I want her blood. I wanted her blood for thinking that she could easily take what is mine. I want her to suffer for thinking that what those bastards did to me and to countless numbers of women is right. Then, I think about her parents, her brother and sister, and the fact that I grew up respecting her father. He is one of the best warriors that has ever graced this pack. I don’t want to have to hurt her family, but I know they will hear of my punishment, see my punishment being dealt out, since it will after all be a public punishment and I wouldn’t wish any family to have to see something like that happen to one of their loved ones. At the end of the day, though, I am the Alpha, even if I have yet to hold the title. I just…is it wrong of me to want to kill her? I am hoping this punishment does it because, truthfully, I don’t know if I will let her walk out of this pack alive…”

Justin stared into my eyes, contemplating his response. “You are an Alpha. This. All of this is your job. Your responsibility. You are right, it makes you no different from others if you had just killed her. It is easy for us to be caught up in our emotions. It would be easy for us to rule based on what we are feeling in that moment…what will set you apart is being able to recognize what you are feeling and what is the right thing to do. I am not going to sugar coat it for you. There are several Alpha’s that if they were in your position, they would have killed Anna without thinking twice, without caring for the fact that she has a family out there that is waiting for them. Instead, you take the high road. You consider the fact that while you feel the need to punish her, you know that she has family and maybe you need someone that you can make an example of. As a society, even with the humans and other supernatural races, women are typically not in charge. You are an oddity of your kind. In this generation, we have not seen a female leader. Not for humans. Not for the immortals. Not for the fairies. And not for the wolves. You heard the king. The last female ruler was a Lycan and she had the aura of a true female Alpha. She even faced her own backlash when her father passed down the title. You are a fighter, my love. My fighter. You fight for what’s right. For the underdog. That is what is going to set you apart. Yes, you are struggling with the decision to make this public. Anna’s family will see what happens to her, but love you are not responsible for the actions of others. You did not tell her to go to those bastards and give them information about you or about your pack…” He bent down, placing his forehead against mine and gently kissed my lips. “You always do what is right, even if it is hard. That is one of the things that I love about you.”

Justin took a step back when everyone else entered this part of the corridor.

“Are you ready to face the second traitor?”

I nodded my head.

“Brace yourself. It will come as a shock to you. It was a shock to us as well. I did have a warrior search his room and we found evidence of his communications with the rogues before you were taken and during the time you were taken.” My father stated.

I walked to the door and took a deep breath, ready to get this other with.

I opened the door and I gasped when I saw who was chained to the chair.

Benjamin. Elder Benjamin.

What the fuck did I ever do to him?

I silently walked to the table and perched myself on the ledge. Justin stood behind me, ready to help if I needed it.

I was quiet until the door was shut with the king and my father in the room.

“Why?” I asked quietly.

He smirked at me, “I don’t know what you are saying, my dear Kataleya.”

I sighed. “Cut the shit, Benjamin. They found the evidence. Don’t make me force it out of you.” He just stared at me with a smirk on his face.

I pushed my aura out, letting it wash over the entire room. I watched him try to fight it. Although he was better at fighting it than Anna was, he was not strong enough to fight my aura entirely. “Let us try this again, civilly. So, tell me. Why did you do it? What did I do to you that caused all this hate? I know you were against me being Alpha in the beginning, but I thought you had gotten over it. What happened?”

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He stared at me in silence, before the command forced him to answer. “How do you not know what you did? Are you too fucking stupid to realize why I hate you? Let me refresh your memory…ten years ago, my daughter was attacked. She was brutalized…and nothing was done. She was never the same. Then, 8 years ago, two years after her attack, she killed herself. Her mother was the one that found her…she had taken monkshood to prevent herself from healing, then she slit her wrists, deep, and let herself bleed out in the tub. My mate had come home from her job at the hospital and found her body. It was too late to save her. Several times, we went to the Alpha and the Luna and pleaded for help for her, but nothing was ever done. We pleaded for extra assistance in finding the bastard, but nothing. Then, Kataleya is raped several years after my daughter killed herself, and suddenly everyone is on their feet trying to find out who did it to her. She receives the best medical attention, receives the best therapists, and everyone dotes on her. All because she is the Alpha’s daughter. Where was the concern when it was my daughter, Alpha? SHE COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED! I hated myself for several years after my daughter died. I kept telling myself that it was my fault, but then I realized, it was never my fault. I didn’t ask for her to be raped. I didn’t ask for her to be attacked. I didn’t ask the Alpha not to care about her wellbeing. So, I decided the real people that needed to pay were those that had ultimately caused her death by not offering her the same assistance that their daughter was offered. I wanted revenge for what happened to her. I want Kataleya to be broke. I was hoping they would rape her again, so that she could break just like my daughter did. I wanted her family to experience what it would have been like to have your daughter so broken that she killed herself.”

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I stared at Benjamin, shocked by the revelation. I vaguely remembered his daughter. Lisa. Her name was Lisa. She was a sweet girl. While she was several years older than I, I knew who she was because she was in my brother’s class. At one point in time, her and Michael were the best of friends, until something had snapped inside of her and she changed. No one would tell me what happened to her. I remembered her funeral and how upset Michael had been that day.

That entire month, dad was withdrawn and barely left his office. He refused to talk to anyone, even my mom could barely get two words out of him, but I never knew why.

Could I really be responsible for punishing this man? He is hurting…

“Benjamin, we did everything we could for your daughter. I had pulled her aside, my Luna pulled her aside, but she refused to talk about it. Telling us that it was not necessary. We could not make her attend anything. We tried looking for her rapist, but it was like the trail went dark. We could not find him. You cannot pin this completely on us. If you want someone to blame, blame me. Don’t blame my daughter. I feel the same way about what happened to Lisa as I did about what happened to Kataleya. You could have come to us about the anger you were feeling… but you betrayed this pack. You abused your powers as an Elder. Mostly, you disappointed this pack…” I could tell my father was struggling with his emotions. I looked to the door and then at him, nodding my head. I was trying to tell him with my eyes that it was okay to leave the room.

My father left the room, I could tell he was struggling being in here after Benjamin’s revelation. He struggled with what had happened to Lisa. Benjamin was wrong. My father did try to find out what happened to her. He tried to find the guy responsible. It seemed he was at a dead-end everyway when he turned.

I took a deep breath and turned to face him.

“So, you decided that because of what happened to your daughter, it needed to happen to me too? Would you curse that on someone else? You would curse my mate and my family for having to go through the pain of losing me, just so you could feel satisfied about something that was not necessarily my father’s fault.”

I looked towards King Lucas and he nodded his head at me as if understanding what I was asking him. I wasn’t sure that I was capable of picking an appropriate punishment. There was a part of me, while it was still small, that wanted him to pay with his life. The other half of me is able to understand his reasoning, but this small part knew that an example needed to be made out of him. He placed blame on my family for something that was not even our fault. As my father said, Lisa had turned down the therapy and the help. He could not force her to attend therapy or even talk to anyone.

I pushed my aura forward again. “What information did you deliver to them?”

Benjamin silently laughed before he responded. “I told them your strengths and weaknesses. The strengths of the pack, your ranked members. I even spied on you. I was the one that told them about Ashton and his ability. I told them about you being mated already, but at the time you hadn’t completed the bond. They were not happy when they learned that you had been fully mated before they took you. I was hoping that they would assault you and then hopefully kill you.”

Lucas nodded his head at me and walked closer. He pushed his aura forward and Benjamin submitted immediately.

“You put this family in an awful spot, Benjamin. You will be stripped of your rank, stripped all the way to that of an Omega. You will then receive 100 lashes, with the whip being dipped in silver, for your crimes. The next fuck up you have, you will be banished from this pack, if not killed. They have my full permission to kill you, if they deem fit.”

I let out a sigh. I was relieved that I did not have to come up with his punishment. I knew that I should have, but I was not sure I would be able to give him a just punishment. The anger I was feeling was raw. He wanted me to be punished for the actions of others, which I was not okay with.

As Lucas was finishing talking to him, I left the room. I needed to breathe and needed fresh air. I left the room and made my way outside. Once outside, I took a huge breath of the fresh air as I leaned against the wall. Will this ever get easier? Did I do the right thing by letting Lucas handle his punishment? While I would never have considered him as a father to me…I was close to him, or at least I thought I was. Was that all an act? I remember playing with his daughter….it wasn’t enough for her to save yourself though. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and reminded myself that his actions do not reflect upon me. I cannot control what other people do.