Virgin Sacrifice to the Last Lycan - Chapter 32: Chapter 32

Helen POV
Justin had knelt down beside me in our holding cell, hearing the jeers of the court from the slits in the vent overhead. They hated us, wanted to make us suffer, all while Alpha King Juden hardly could be bothered by the fact that his son was being persecuted as a monster.
“How are you so calm?”
Justin stared up at the vent, his hearing good enough without the advantage, though it certainly helped me tune into the riot upstairs. “I have little belief that there will be a bad outcome, my mate.”
“They hated me before I exposed myself as having a pure coat.” I looked at the grimy floor speckled with my blood, my arm still wounded and healing slow; too slow for my comfort. “Now they’re speculating over what it means.”
“Well, let them do our work for us,” Justin muttered. “Maybe they are all just as smart as they pretend to be.”
“This is not the time for bantering with the court, they think I’ve killed someone.”
“They think a lot of things, Helen. It doesn’t mean my father won’t wipe this away as usual.”
I was in shock to his claim. He spoke of his father as a savior, the same father who had beaten him and marked his beast in hopes that the pain would satisfy his needs.
If anything, Alpha King Juden was a shriveling jackass, no better than my first mate, parading around intelligence like it were a costume.
An ill-fitting costume, at that.
“He wouldn’t bring us both to court if not with the presumption of applying punishment and charging us as guilty,” I said, knowing it could be nothing more than the Alpha King throwing his weight around like some false sense of power. “He is burying our names in the mud up there.”
“Performance, my mate. Just a performance for narcissism and erroneous applause.”
I shook my head. “And what if we are found guilty?”
“There’s not a chance they wouldn’t find us guilty,” Justin replied, looking down at me with a pitiful look of sympathy. I fell into his side, fighting back hopeless sobs.
“Relax, Helen. I know my father. He has to throw us into court, place some false speculation, elect minor punishment that never follows through, and his constituents leave the court pleased.”
“I don’t want to be declared guilty when I never did anything wrong,” I fought. “It’s not fair, Justin.”
His lips sprouted upward into a taut, strained smile. “Nothing is fair, my mate. Not in our lifetime.”
“Stand up, face the back wall,” the guard hollered, throwing a set of keys against the bars to chime out in a high-pitched echo.
Justin showed his teeth but fought the urge to fight, helping me stand as we both did as instructed. When they stormed into our cell, I was handcuffed first, the silver, metal bracelets multiplied, as if I were capable of ripping through them as my mate probably could.
“My arm,” I panted, the guard grabbing for the puncture wounds marked on my wrist. “Please.”
“Murderers don’t get special treatment,” the guard growled, squeezing the spot tighter as he spun me around to leave the cell.
Justin took a lengthy stride over to my side, his focus aimed at the guard, silver bullets in his irises. “When this is over, I’ll have your head for upsetting my mate.”
“We will see, Devil.”
I gave Justin a pleading look of caution. The last thing we needed as we were being thrown into the center of the courtroom, surrounded by judgmental glares of hatred, was for Justin to threaten death on anyone. His appetite for it should have been sated with Scott’s surrender in their fight earlier.
The Alpha King stood above the rest, his seat not a bench that everyone else climbed onto, circling the pit below where we were made to kneel. Juden had a thrown, a seat of gold ore with ruby accents. He was proud of the sight from above us, watching his son like he was nothing more than a criminal.
Justin pressed against me fully, his side consuming me as I tucked my head into the juncture of his chin and throat. From their vantage point, it was a submissive move for me to take with my mate. I was letting Justin lead, as he would through our matehood.
Truthfully, I kept this position because I wanted to protect him. Justin could fight the world, fight his father, and feel nothing over it. But I didn’t want that. I wanted to protect him, shield him from battle, so I leaned my shoulder into his chest and took a deep inhale.
“We have discussed the proof set against Helen, mate of the Last Lycan. The blood at the scene, along with testimony from a previous victim, proves that this act was made out of malice and pure vengeance,” Alpha King Juden growled.
I perked up but remained pinned to Justin’s chest. “Testimony?”
“It’s true,” that slithering voice called from the stands nearby. I managed a glace in her direction, Diana sat near the railing, covered in bandages and bruises. She fluttered her eyelashes like a pup looking for pity. “She has always been jealous of me; the attack in the games was unfair.”
“Unfair?” Justin barked, his temper rocking like a needlepoint would on a metronome. “The game was to fight. Helen had to do what she needed to win, but to also protect herself.”
“Then what was her reasoning for murdering Donna?” Juden scolded.
“There was no reasoning, that is because she hadn’t killed anyone!”
“Justin,” I panted his name, a reminder for us both to stay calm.
“She has always been violent and unruly, Alpha King,” Diana falsely wept. “She tried to kill me in the games and when it didn’t work, she went after Donna in spite.”
“I should have killed her mate,” Justin snarled for only me to hear. “She deserves more than enough punishment for her lies today.”
“It is clear the two of you are both growing more and more violent,” Alpha King Juden snarled. “It’s based on this evidence alone that your matehood is a direct threat to public safety in my city.”
I pressed harder into Justin’s chest and at last I felt his hands flinch behind his back. He brought his arms to the front while whatever remained of his cuffs had fallen to the floor. He held me in his embrace, for everyone to see, and a worried grumble ebbed through the crowd.
“The Last Lycan will slaughter everyone.”
“Once he penetrated his mate, his evil seed was planted within her soul.”
“You saw her white fur. She was a Tiger Lily before. His malevolent power has given her strength.”
“They’re a danger, Alpha King! A risk to our lives!”
Justin cooed gently, running a hand down my cheek before I felt his lips dig a kiss into my scalp. I was shaking vigorously with their words. I couldn’t differentiate what was worst. They took my shift into a Snow White as a negative change, something that Justin planted into my soul.
“Tell me, mate,” I breathed into his chest, “what will happen if the citizens of his pack aren’t satisfied until we are both killed?”
Justin paused, glancing thoughtfully around the court. “Then I will have a lot of work on my hands getting us out of here.”
“My people have voiced their concerns!” Alpha King Juden shouted. “It’s obvious that the Last Lycan’s beast has influenced even the most disparaged of wolves, a Tiger Lily whose coat has changed into an honorable shade, but even then—it’s done through the ill means of The Devil.”
“Goddess,” I pleaded, weeping in his arms. “Justin, it’s not fair.”
“Relax, Helen. Let this play out,” Justin affirmed. “Everything will work out.”
“I sentence the Last Lycan into quarantine inside of the estate walls. As for his mate, found guilty of murder and transitioning coats through the desires of The Devil, she will be sequestered within the walls as well. My guards will see to it that The Last Lycan and his Snow White mate are banished from societal privileges.”