*Maddox*
It’s drizzling as Isla and I step outside to begin our walk to the stage that is set up behind the gallows. My father used to give his declarations from inside of the castle. He’d simply step outside onto a balcony and address everyone before he ordered the execution. Sometimes, he’d do that right before going back to bed. Other times, he’d sit in a chair near the balcony and sip a whiskey while he contemplated the world.
I never knew what to think of him in those moments. Did he feel at all guilty for what he’d just done or did he feel like the most powerful man in the world? I have a feeling, now that I am in that position myself, he might have had a bit of each of those sensations.
Isla looks beautiful in a purple gown and cloak that remind me slightly of the one she’d been wearing when she first arrived at the castle. Not that I’d seen much of her in it that day, but I’d seen it hanging in her closet later. This one is the same style, but it is made of much nicer material and is a bit longer. She glances over at me, and I consider taking her hand, but most of the people in attendance aren’t sure who she is, and I don’t want the announcement of our expected child to come on the same day that we are putting to death four criminals.
They can make assumptions if they like, but plenty of other people are walking along with us, including Seth, Beta Ian and his wife Alaina from Duster pack, Gail and Cody who were there when we discovered the bodies of Alpha Hayes and his wife, and a representative from Hill Country pack who had her child taken from her in the night.
All of us walk solemnly across the courtyard, me in the lead, except for the guards that flank us on all sides, toward the stairs that lead to the stage.
The crowd of thousands of onlookers is silent as we go. Not a single word can be heard from any of them. Not even a cough or sneeze.
They lined the area in front of the dais where the guards had set up a perimeter, and they stretched all the way back to the castle wall, a good fifty yards away. But they didn’t stop there. Lots of people are sitting atop the ten-foot stone structure, and as we ascend to the stage, I can see the crowd stretching beyond that as well, off to the tree line where people are seated on the branches of the first several trees as far across the expanse as I can see from left to right.
If I had to guess, I would say there were over two hundred thousand people here….
I don’t have enough guards to stop them if they riot. Thankfully, only about five thousand of them are actually inside the castle walls at the moment, but even then, I probably have a hundred palace guards as well as two thousand soldiers from the army standing by in rank and file over on the far north of the courtyard. If the people try to organize and make their will known, we will be screwed.
I have to hope that this will go peacefully, but I have no idea what will happen. Zabrina had made her threats, telling me that she had allies who will not sit idly by and watch her be put to death.
We are about to find out if that is true.
At the top of the steps, I moved into position in front of the railing that came just above my waist. The wood is slightly wet from the drizzle, but it’s not soaked through yet. Only small puddles are beginning to form on some of the lower surfaces nearby.
I look down at the ground in front of me and note that it is at least a fifteen-foot leap to the cobblestone below. My wolf has handled harder jumps, but it will be painful when I land. Again, all of this is hypothetical. I don’t want to have to leap.
A small crowd of dignitaries from the castle are positioned in front of the stage. They won’t have a view of the front of the execution, but it doesn’t really matter since the condemned will have bags over their faces anyway.
I scan this crowd to see if I can read the expressions of the people standing there. Most of them look satisfied with my decision. I see very few shaking heads of disapproval.
I also see Isla’s brother, Ben, waving up at her, as well as Poppy and a few of the other important servants. Mystica is stationed over by the gallows in case something goes wrong.
I hope that our hangmen are good at their jobs this time because I really have no desire to see any accidental beheadings.
Isla doesn’t wave back at Ben, but she acknowledges him with a head nod, which I think is more suitable. She does the same to Poppy, and I remember that I owe everyone a better apology for my behavior earlier that day.
Perhaps when all of this is over, I will be able to relax a bit more and stop acting so ridiculous.
But I doubt it. Ridiculousness seemed to be my new normal.
Once I am in place, I look around me to make sure everyone else is settled, and then I shout the words I have been dreading saying for most of my life. “Guards, bring out the condemned!”
The crowd breaks into a murmur at that point as the guards stationed near the castle door closest to our location turn and pull open the doors so that their fellow prison guards can bring out the four wolves who are about to meet their maker.
The three men are brought out first. All of them have their hands tied, two guards on each side of them, but the hoods are not yet on their heads. They are dressed in standard-issue prison uniforms that are clean and neat. I don’t want anyone accusing me of mistreating the prisoners.
One of them is crying, another is looking around frantically, and the third walks with his chin up, looking straight ahead. The one who is crying wants his mother. I wonder if the one searching the crowd is also looking for his mother or perhaps for his wife.
Zabrina is at the end. She isn’t wearing a prison uniform. She is wearing a black gown. I don’t know who made that decision, but it seems fitting. She is the mistress of death as far as I am concerned, so she may as well look the part.
Alpha Jordan’s daughter isn’t actually walking under her own power either. I’d hoped that the drugs she’d been given to sedate her would have worn off by now enough for her to be able to walk by herself, but she is either still in a drugged-up state or she is refusing to walk by herself. I’m guessing it’s not the latter since she isn’t screaming or carrying on.
Part of me is disappointed to know that she’s likely going to miss out on her own execution.
Once the prisoners are all positioned behind their nooses, it is my turn to speak again. The crowd falls silent so that they can hear me as I lift a hand for them to listen. I have rehearsed this speech a thousand times in my head since I set the date for the execution, but I am still nervous. I have to sound authoritative, strong, and convincing.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, today is a solemn day for all of us as we gather together today to see a fitting punishment meted out for crimes committed against our pack, our people, and our crown. As you may know, three of these citizens have been accused of willfully committing murder when they stormed the home of Alpha Hayes of Duster pack and his family, slaughtering nine people and leaving two children orphans.”
Behind me I hear weeping as Alaina, Beta Ian’s wife, thinks of her poor sister and the others who were murdered in her pack just days ago.
I do not let it distract me as I continue. “Through investigation, it was determined that these men followed the unjust orders of their acting Alpha, Vinny, who is now deceased, and attacked men and women as they slept in their beds as well as other servants who were going about their assigned tasks for the day. Because of their willful disregard for the laws of our land, they are condemned to death!”
I recite the names of the three men, and hear a woman begin to sob loudly from the crowd. She falls to the ground, and the guards quickly step in to remove her. From the looks of her, I’d say she’s one of the mothers.
I get the answer to that question when the man who had been yelling for his mom when he was walking in shouts, “Mama! Mama! Please, help me!” One of the guards moves in to silence him with a gag.
It’s unfortunate, but if that is the only hiccup we encounter, I will count this as a success.
But then I have to move on to the other prisoner….
“Zabrina, Alpha Jordan’s daughter, has been found guilty of two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act on our people. For these crimes against our pack, she has been sentenced to death.”
I pause for only a moment to see if there is a reaction, but I don’t hear one.
“By my authority as the Alpha King, I order the four of these citizens to be hung by the neck until dead!”
With that the guards move forward to place the prisoners in the proper position, put the bags over their heads, and slip the nooses onto their necks.
In a few moments, this will all be over. The four of them will be dead, and the world will be a safer place for my baby, and everyone else, to live in.
As Zabrina is moved forward and the bag is about to go down over her head, she shouts, “I curse you, Alpha Maddox! I curse you and your breeder, Isla Moon! I curse your children and your families for all of the generations to come!”
One of the guards hits her hard enough to shut her up, but then, an eruption in the crowd draws my attention to the right side of the gallows where another woman is screaming, “No! Not my daughter!” and a man starts shouting, “That’s my mate! No!”
My guards are slightly thin on that side because of the collapsing mother, and it takes them a moment to get there.
A ripple races through the crowd as people begin to question whether or not a woman should be hanged for these crimes, and I know that we have to act fast if we are to keep them subdued.
As the nooses are placed in position, I give the signal, and then… someone in the back of the crowd shouts, “Now!”