I felt the blood drain from my face. I gripped the doorframe, my fingers digging into the wood.
"I..." my father stammered.
"I will give you one more chance," Leonard repeated, pressing the tip of the blade into the skin of my father's neck. "Take this sword and end the life of your family, or else I will end your life and theirs too."
My father dropped to his knees. He looked at the floor, his shoulders shaking. Diego let out a roar of pure, unadulterated rage. He broke free from the guards, snatched my mother's sword from where it had fallen, and charged toward the Alpha."You coward!" Diego screamed.
In one fluid, horrific motion, my father snatched the sword Leonard had offered. He didn't look at his son. He swung the blade in a wide arc. I watched as the steel sliced through Diego's neck. My brother's body hit the floor before his head did.
I wanted to scream, but the sound died in my throat. My mother's expression shifted from horror to a cold, predatory blankness. She began to shift, her bones cracking as she prepared to take her wolf form to avenge her son. But my father didn't hesitate. He lunged forward with his silver sword—the one he had sharpened every morning, the one coated in enough wolfsbane poison to kill an entire pack.
He drove the blade through her chest. Then, he swung again. My mother's head fell from her shoulders, her eyes still fixed on the man she had loved.
I covered my mouth with both hands, hot tears streaming down my face. I stepped back, trying to vanish into the shadows, but then I heard a small, high-pitched voice behind me.
"Aurora? Have you found them?"
It was Lina. I spun around, trying to cover her eyes, trying to muffle her voice, but it was too late. The sound of her voice had already cut through the silence of the hall.
Alpha Leonard turned his head toward us. He looked at my father, who was standing in a pool of his own family's blood.
"Now," Leonard said, wiping a speck of red from his cheek. "It is just the two daughters remaining."
My father looked up, his eyes glassy. "But... they are too young. They yield no threat to your title. They are just children."
Leonard bent down, getting close to my father's face. "You will be promoted to my second-in-command, the Beta. In just two years, you will be the most powerful man in this pack after me. Will you leave them alive to come and destroy you later? No. We cannot leave loose ends. You already killed your wife and your son. Now go kill them. We will keep this within the pack; the Hollow King does not need to hear of this massacre."
My father's eyes filled with tears, but he didn't move to stop Leonard.
"Go fish them out," Leonard commanded his guards.
I grabbed Lina and threw her over my shoulder. I tried to run, but I was only thirteen. I hadn't even had my first shift yet. I didn't have the speed of a matured wolf. We didn't make it to the end of the hallway before the guards caught us. They hauled us up by our arms like we were nothing more than bags of refuse.
"Aurora!" Lina cried out, her voice cracking as they dragged her toward our father.
She saw my mother's body. She saw Diego. She didn't understand the politics or the betrayal; all she knew was the sight of her family slaughtered on the floor. She began to wail, a high, piercing sound that filled the room.
"That noise is starting to annoy me," Leonard muttered. "I will kill this one myself."
"Please!" I screamed, finally finding my voice. I dropped to my knees as the guards held me. "I beg you! She is just a child! Please, Father! Please, Alpha, have mercy on us!"
I looked at my father, pleading with my eyes. I ignored the fact that I had just watched him murder my mother. I ignored the blood on his hands. I would have forgiven him everything if he had just stood up for Lina.
Leonard walked around my father, his eyes roaming over me with a disgusting, calculating look. "Hmm. This one looks like she could be worth something. Like a bag of coins waiting to be spent."
He looked at my father. "What if I take this one? In return, I will let everything else you did slide. I won't tell the Hollow King about the massacre. I will even promote you tonight. But..." Leonard stepped closer to me, his voice dropping to a hiss. "She will become a tool of entertainment. She will be a slave for the rest of her life."
My father looked at the ground. He wouldn't meet my eyes. "I... please..."
"If you disagree," Leonard said, "I will kill the little one right now and feed her to the pack dogs."
"Please!" I cried, looking at Leonard. "I will go with you. I will do anything. Just do not harm my sister. Please let her go!"
"Fine," Leonard said, waving a hand. "I will listen to you. Guards!"
"Yes, Alpha?"
"Chain the older one. And get ready to burn this place to the ground."
The guard grabbed my hair and dragged me away. I kept my head turned, watching Lina. She was standing there, shivering, staring at me from the center of the hall. I was forced into a carriage, my hands bound in heavy iron chains. As the carriage began to pull away, I looked out the small window.
I saw Alpha Leonard walk up to Lina. I saw the flash of silver as he sliced through her throat. I saw her fall, lifeless, onto the stones next to my mother. My father stood there and watched it happen. He didn't move a muscle.
That was the day I died. For eleven years, I have been their slave. I have been their source of entertainment, forced to dance for them while they laughed. I washed their dishes, cleaned their chambers, and bore their insults. They called me a mute because I refused to speak to them. They called me a misfortune and a curse because they knew I was a Lieu, and they feared the blood that ran through my veins. And my father? He sat at the Alpha's right hand every night, laughing at their jokes, eating their food, living as if he hadn't slaughtered his own blood for a title.
"Eyes down, slave," a guard barked, snapping me back to the present.
He grabbed the heavy chains attached to my collar and yanked me forward. Even though they knew I was trapped, they loved the sight of the iron around my neck. They had restricted my wolf through drugs and silver, though I had never shifted anyway.
I was dragged toward the Great Hall, my bare feet cold against the stone. The guard threw me forward onto the wooden stage that had been built for the night's festivities. I looked up and saw Alpha Leonard sitting in his high chair.
"Bring her forward," Leonard commanded. "We have an important guest tonight, and I want her to be ready to entertain. But before the Hollow King arrives, I want her to perform for my Luna's father."
I looked toward the guest seating. There sat Alpha Riya's father, a man known for his cruelty and his love for seeing others humbled. Beside him sat my father, the Beta. He was nursing a glass of wine, his face twisted into a smirk as he watched the guards tighten the chains around my wrists.
"Well?" Leonard said, leaning forward. "Don't just stand there. Show our guest why the Lieu family was so famous for their 'grace'."
I stood on the stage, the chains rattling with every breath I took.