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Chapter 2

Banished Beta

Clarissa

“What is the meaning of this, Alpha?” Noelle asked in my defense but the gruff guards pushed her aside to get to me. I fought back, taking down at least two of them before I was outnumbered. My arms were twisted behind my back roughly and I was pushed out the door. My plaits were beginning to loose but they were the least of my problems. What was going on?

Just yesterday, I had snuck out of Clyde’s bed despite his seductive appeals for me to stay till the morning.

“We will be mated tomorrow anyways so it won’t matter. Stay, ‘Rissa,” he whispered in my ear, pulling me back in the safety of his powerful arms.

“What would people think of us? We should have waited till our mating ceremony before having sex. The maids have been talking about our escapades and everyone would know what we have done,” I tried to convince him, unearnest in fighting him off.

“I am the Alpha, baby and no one will dare say anything against the woman the Goddess have chosen to be my Luna.” I found his arrogant confidence so sexy that my head swam from his mere words. By the time he had his hands underneath my clothes, I gave in to his will and went on my back for him. It was expected of a female to be submissive to her mate and I wanted to give him everything.

It secretly hurt me that he had not called me the woman he loved. He had never said the words I was yearning to hear even in the throes of pleasure. It could be that he saw me as a means to an end, a warm body deemed his right by the Goddess and he did not feel the need to make any grand declaration of love. Still, it wouldn't have killed him to say it if he wanted to.

What had happened between the hours of leaving his bed when he had fallen asleep and now?

“Clyde, what have I done?” I implored his mercy, as I was dragged along like a common thief. The guards had no respect for their Beta and future Luna, it seemed.

“You will refer to me by my title!” he bellowed from somewhere behind me. “I am the Alpha, not your childhood friend anymore.”

I held my tongue to keep from crying out at how low he had described our relationship. We were first friends, then colleagues and finally lovers. The first time Clyde had made love to me was on his twenty-first birthday. I had been seventeen and had been overexcited when he kissed me savagely, pressed against the olive tree in the backyard. When his roaming hands suggested what he wanted, I forgot reason and obliged the object of my desires.

My eyes began to mist from barely held back tears and my lower lip wobbled from the strength it took. He had called me a traitor back in my room and I was yet to know why. Since Alpha Terry had made me Clyde’s Delta, I had lived for him by making his path smoother. I tackled difficult assignments on his behalf and learnt to fight so I could fight side by side with him if the need ever arose.

Once we arrived at the public courtyard, I saw that a large crowd of pack members had gathered and my shame was completed. If things were going as planned, those people were supposed to be witnesses when my mate and I would say our vows of faithfulness under the moon. Instead, Clyde took his seat on his throne and I was forced on my knees.

It was clever foresight on Noelle’s part for insisting that I wear my bridal dress after getting my hair done. It would have been my mother’s immaculate dress cleaning the dusty floor indiscriminatively. Hands grabbed my shoulders to keep me on my knees though I was too shocked to fight back anymore.

“What have I done, my Lord?” I muttered amidst the gasps of surprise from the crowd. Everybody knew me because I belonged to the pack. When Alpha Terry had adopted me, he had made it clear that I owed the pack my service. I had never defaulted since then, cautious of my every decision. What wrong could I have done?

“Silence!” he shunned, hearing me. Extraordinary sense of hearing had it perks. “Calm down the crowd, guards!”

If there was anything Clyde was good at, it was delegating duties. He preferred to avoid interacting with his people and used my position as Beta to make me a middleman between him and the people he was supposed to lead. The guards shoved the crowd backwards and created a chain formation to keep them at bay.

“In a few hours,” Clyde began when silence reigned. “I know you all are expecting me to recite vows to Clarissa Emberdale before you and the Goddess. It was all I could think about since waking up this morning but unfortunately, the mating ceremony has been canceled.”

Gasps and murmuring broke out from every corner and I raised my head, mentally begging Clyde to look my way. I wanted to see his eyes and know that it was he who was doing this to me.

“My bride has been keeping a big secret from me all this while and it took my best friend, Grey to open my eyes to the truth.”

Grey came out from wherever he had been hiding, smirking and looking pleased with himself. How could Clyde be so blind that he could not see the conspiracy against me?

Grey had been disappointed when Clyde’s father presented me as his son’s Delta instead of him. He was closer to Clyde in age and was a good fighter but he and I had never gotten along. He hated my guts and further despised me when Clyde named me his Beta. The role of a Beta was traditionally meant for the closest person to the new Alpha and conventionally, it was reserved for his male best friend.

“The woman I had elevated to the position of my Beta is conspiring with an enemy pack! Here is the proof!”

He gestured towards a guard who came forward with a tray loaded with various items. On the tray were maps of different types, some knives and something wrapped in a cloth.

“On these maps are strategy points where our pack territory is weak and the carving marks on the knives belong to Fawnhide Pack, our rivals. The worse of all, she was planning on taking our pack treasure, the Luna rock to them!”

The surprised gasps turned to shouts of anger. The crowd pushed against the barriers, anxious to get through.

“Traitor! Traitor!! Kill the traitor!!!” they cried angrily.

I begged for Clyde to listen to me, screaming but their voices overpowered mine. I was being framed, possibly by Greg and Clyde knew me better than that. I had other opportunities to betray my pack but I hadn’t. Why would I do it now that I was about to become Luna?

“I am as hurt as you all are,” he resumed, a pained frown marring his handsome face. “But as much as I want to, I cannot kill a child adopted by the pack. She has immunity granted to her by my father and I cannot harm her. However, I reject you, Clarissa Emberdale. You are hereby banished and you are to leave my pack at once. The day you return is the day you die!”

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