Sold to the Alpha With Silver Eyes - Chapter 32: Chapter 32

“No!” Leoni hisses, following me back into the house. I knew she would be upset about me taking her punishment, but it’s not something she can change.
“I am your alpha,” I remind her in a bored sigh, not even bothering to look at her as she stomps behind me. “This isn’t your choice to make.”
“But you didn’t order me to go.” She is near shrill, her voice filled with panic and it makes me pause, turning as we hit the living room doorway.
“Because I didn’t need to order you. You did what you felt you should do to protect me and Eden. I told you I would protect you from this. Let me do that.” Her lips purse together, moving side to side as she thinks, clearly trying to come up with some smartness comment.
“Plus, I heal faster than you and do you really think he will go hard on me?” I ask her.
“Why would he go easier on you?” Eden asks, her voice soft as I look at her and my pulse stops.
Fuck, I forgot she was here. Well, I knew she was here, but I forgot she doesn’t know my status. The likelihood of my uncle actually punishing me harshly is unlikely because of who I am. But to her I’m just a higher ranked warrior.
“Just say thank you, Leoni. And perhaps have Topher here to administer pain strips.” I skate over Eden’s question, but her furrowed brows and disappointed frown prove she won’t let it go that easily.
“I still don’t like it,” Leoni grumbles, crossing her arms over her chest.
“It’s not like I’m all that thrilled to be whipped. But this is how it goes. Now I’m going to rest while I can before reporting in.” I lie, waving them both off as they look forlorn and lost for words.
The second they are gone, I slump onto the couch, my hand covering my eyes as I exhale the first real sigh of relief. Shit, that was too damn close. Should I have told my uncle from the beginning? Perhaps it would have been better if I had. But for some reason, I can’t bring myself to trust his reaction to it.
My uncle and Nate are my only family, and I trust them as such, but lately, my gut instinct is telling me to hold things close to my chest. It is likely my own paranoia over taking over the title of king soon. Or it could be I’m just mentally drained from trying to understand the pull to Eden.
By the time my alarm goes off for me to leave, I am sitting where I slouched before, still staring at the wall. There are still so many loose ends I need to tie up, things that must be done to keep Paxton quiet. Not that it’s a huge deal now that we had a contract as we were able to break it. But if it’s found out I hid it, that is when issues will begin to rise.
The walk isn’t long, the pack house coming into view as I saunter toward it without a care in the world. I have been punished before. Hell, I have been injured far worse than the pain I know is coming. Yet, as I grow closer, my lycan grows wary, as if something is awry and we can’t place what it is.
There is no one here. As I push open the doors, looking around to find anyone who will tell me where to go. Everything is dark inside, not a single light on, only the sun filtering through. My eyes narrow, and fists come in front of me as I scan the hallway before moving to the kitchen and the living room next.
“Uncle Cedric?” I call out with no reply.
There is a scurrying behind his office door as I knock, waiting for permission to enter. When no one says anything, I twist the knob and push my way in cautiously. Wind blows through the room from a broken window, papers askew over his desk and floor.
I move around his desk, looking for glass and finding none before I move to the window and look down at the ground. Glass shards litter the perfectly manicured flower bed, a hint of blood lingering in the air. Clearly, someone broke out of the office, and not in.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Nate asks, rushing in and throwing an accusatory look at me.
“I was reporting for punishment and no one was here.” I try to tell him the story as he moves over to me and shoves me away from the window and toward the door. “Could you stop?”
“You aren’t supposed to be here.” He whispers, peeking out the door before grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the front door.
“Nate, what the heck is going on?” I ask, looking at him as he rolls his eyes.
“I’m not responsible for this shit in here.” He tells me freely, as if I am accusing him.
“Fine, but why are you shoving me out?” I ask, rolling out of his touch.
“You were supposed to have been told to report to the center of the pack.” He whispers, unwilling to look me in the eye. I scoff, shaking my head as I place my hands on my hips.
“Really? He is going to punish me at Traitors point?” I scoff in disbelief.
Nate’s shoulders drop and then he shrugs. His mouth opening to explain before he shuts it and she shrugs.
“I wish I had an answer. I told him it was too much, but he is set.” He whispers.
“Then why the hell wasn’t I informed?” I ask.
“I was told to fetch you and I wrestled with the thought of it for a little too long and now you are here and someone broke into the king’s study…” Nate pinches the bridge of his nose, “Plus a prisoner escaped, it’s just been a busy day and he has me acting as Beta for a while.”
“He does?” I ask shocked, Brian has been the beta for years, long before my uncle even took over the title. “Why?”
“We can talk about that later, but for now, you need to get your ass down there.” Nate says, giving me another shove.
“You don’t think the escaped prisoner and someone breaking out of the king’s office isn’t a little suspicious?” I ask him.
“Of course it is,” He rolls his eyes. “But right now, you need to get your ass over there.”
“Fine.” I grumble, unsettled about a prisoner escaping, especially considering that the only one I know about is Paxton. But that will have to wait. I rush out the door, breaking into a sprint as I make my way to traitor’s point, the old whipping post at the very heart of the pack.
It has been years since someone was punished there. And by years, I mean at least seventy-five. It’s not hard to find, not with the growing masses around it and my uncle pacing back and forth on the raised platform, searching the crowd for me. There is a glimmer of something in his eyes when he sees me, motioning for me to come up.
The second I step foot on the platform, I am gripped by both arms, my shirt ripped from me as I am forced to my knees. I look up at my uncle watching his reaction the whole time as he watches through a disdain filled gaze. It would appear I made him angrier than he let on earlier.
“No one is safe from punishment when they go against the word of the king.” He proclaims, strolling now around the edges as I am strung up, both wrists placed in silver cuffs and chains before the yank on either side, exposing my chest to everyone who stands in front.
“Not even those who think they are untouchable based on their blood.” He sneers the words, his eyes filled with a malice I have never seen before as he reaches a hand out and waits for a whip to be given to him.
I can smell it before he even lifts it. The distorted ends of the whips tied with glass and scrap metal, dripping in wolfsbane. He wants to teach me a lesson. Clearly, he feels I overstepped. Otherwise, why the hell would he feel the need to do it in such a public setting?
“I charge you, Devereaux, with treasonous thoughts and conspiring against the king. It is only out of your past dedication and your current relationship with me you are not sentenced with death, or worse. Once this beating is done, it will be past us. Is that understood?” He asks, his anger spewing into my face in the form as spit as I glare at him and nod in agreement.
He steps back, moving in front of me as he tosses the whip to someone else and without a count down or even a grunt to start, the pain rips through me as my skin breaks open with the first hit.
I inhale sharply, refusing to scream out in agony as he strikes again in the same spot. My eyes are forced closed, and my lycan rushes forward to help control the pain. It forces my shoulders back and I relax, refusing to let it show that it hurts as much as it does.
The crowd is silent, grunting with each strike as if it were hitting them. Not a single cheer or whisper to be heard. That is until I hear a strangled cry and I glance up, my eyes meeting hers and her body jolts with every strike I take.
Leoni and Topher stand on either side of her, both unable to wince when another strike falls. Warriors I have led in the past stand idly by, shock on their faces before one of them steps forward.
“King Cedric, how many lashes?” He asks, his voice loud so that everyone may hear.
“Fifty.” My uncle says, coming around to look at me. The look in his eyes is wild, one I have never witnessed before, almost as if the sight of my blood brings him a joy nothing else in this world ever could. “And for questioning me, you will receive fifteen.”
The warrior’s face grows pale, and a murmur works its way through the growing crowd. He is seized and placed beside me, but he shows no fear, and I wonder how he was ever overlooked before.
“Anyone else hoping to join these two?” My uncle asks, his voice boastful as he lifts his arms, making it seem like he is challenging them all. “Leoni…?”
He questions and I flicker my eyes to her, watching as her nostrils flare and her lips twitch. Eden clings to her arms, hopelessly holding her in place. I beg Leoni with my stare, hoping she sees the plea in me to stay with Eden. Topher steps up instead, blocking Leoni and Eden without saying a word or looking at my uncle.
“My king, Prince Nate, has asked me to inform you, we have an envoy arriving at any moment, in order to prepare for the meeting of alphas next week.” Topher says in a monotone voice, his eyes blinking slowly as my uncle seems to shake out of the blood lust.
“Ah, yes.” He mutters, looking down at me. “I forgot your little friend was coming to visit you.”
“Finish with the lashes and drag them away. No food or drink for two days for either,” he growls, leaning down as he lifts my chin. “If you think you can defy me because you want to replace me, you are sorely mistaken, nephew.”
His words are a whisper, quiet only for me to hear as I wince and shake my face free.