“Is your name Ella?” He asked and I nodded yes.
“You have to use your words, Ella.
You have to talk to the camera,” Mikko said, his tone incredibly patient.
He offered me a reassuring nod, leaning back slightly to give me breathing room.
“Let’s start again.”
The red light on top of the lens blinked steadily.
“What is your name?” Mikko asked softly.
I stared at them for long, not saying anything.
My mind went entirely blank as I looked at the black lens.
The silence in the office stretched out, heavy and suffocating, and the sudden pressure of having to speak into a machine made my chest tighten.
I wanted to tell them, but my tongue felt like a heavy piece of lead behind my teeth.
“Take your time,” the Gamma, Felix, said from his seat next to Mikko.
“There is no rush at all, Ella.
We can sit here all day if we need to.”
I nodded my head, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again.
I forced the panic out of my throat, swallowing the rising lump of anxiety.
“Whenever you are ready, Ella,” Alpha Alexander finally said to me, directing his attention completely to me.
His voice dropped into a much quieter, calmer register as he stepped to the side of the desk, giving me space so I wouldn’t feel cornered by his massive size.
“Tell them everything.
Start from the day all these started.”
I stared back at the black lens of the camera, my fingers wrapping tightly around the fabric of my jeans until my knuckles turned white.
My throat felt incredibly tight, like an iron band was clamping down on my windpipe, but the raw memory of Alpha Richard’s heavy fists from that night burned deeply in my skin.
The phantom ache of his boots striking my ribs ignited a sudden, stubborn spark of raw anger inside my chest.
They had kept me quiet for nine years, but they weren’t going to keep me quiet today.
I opened my mouth, and for the first time in nine long years, I told the full story to the world.
I told them about the clearing nine years ago, about running through the dark woods in my torn yellow dress, and how everyone in the Silver Ridge Pack had blamed an eight-year-old girl for surviving while two adult warriors died.
I told the camera about the nine years of forced starvation, the constant beatings from the pack members for the slightest mistakes, the cruel verbal insults from Alpha Richard and the rest of the pack members, and how they forced me to slave away entirely alone in the kitchens while the rest of the pack lived in absolute luxury.
Tears were rolling down my eyes as I poured all my frustration and anger into my words.
The more I remembered the details the angrier I felt.
They really did break me.
They had systematically stripped away my dignity, my childhood, and my safety, turning me into a ghost in my own home.
The Beta and Gamma didn’t move a single muscle while I spoke, sitting in frozen silence.
But the air inside the office grew incredibly heavy, the force of their quiet, collective anger turning the space hot and suffocating.
Alpha Alexander’s knuckles were stark white as his hands gripped the edge of the mahogany desk, his irises flashing with a volatile, golden tint that showed his wolf was raging right beneath his skin.
He seemed more heartbroken that I was.
By the time I was finally done speaking, I was a crying, shaking mess, my shoulders heaving as the weight of nine years of unvented trauma finally collapsed over me.
Felix, the Gamma, quietly reached into his pocket and handed me his clean handkerchief to clean my face with.
I accepted it with a small, raspy thank you, wiping the hot tears from my cheeks.
“That will be all for now, Ella.
Thank you for this,” Mikko, the Beta, said, standing up to his feet and walking towards the filing cabinet to turn off the camera.
“I know it wasn’t easy to talk about all this, and I am deeply sorry you had to go through all this cruelty.
But not to worry, they will all be getting what is coming to them.
Every single one of them.
The Council does not take these crimes lightly.”
“Don’t worry, Ella, I will personally see to it that Alpha Richard doesn’t mingle his way out of this with political favors,” Felix added, standing up as well.
He gently held my hands, rubbing them smoothly with his thumb to ground me.
“He will face the consequences for everything he ever did to you.
I wouldn’t let him go scot-free, even if it’s the last thing I do.”
I stared up at them through my wet eyelashes, completely confused.
I thought these people were supposed to be tough cookies like the bad guys I’d heard stories about, the ruthless executioners who wiped out entire territories.
Why were they being awfully nice to a wolf-less human like me?
“The statement is secured,” Mikko muttered, clicking the device down.
He carefully packed the digital file into a secure, reinforced case.
“I will upload this directly to the Council’s database through the satellite line now.”
Alpha Alexander nodded once, his face carved of stone, his expression completely unreadable.
“Go.
Secure the perimeter of the pack house.
I don’t want a single member of the Silver Ridge pack leaving their quarters until tomorrow’s formal tribunal begins.”
As the Beta and Gamma exited the office, locking the deadbolt from the outside, Hazel stepped into the room through the side door.
Her big blue eyes were soft but determined as she walked in, carrying a small camera in her right hand.
“Alright, Ella,” Hazel said gently, her catchy smile returning for a brief second to comfort me.
“We have the verbal evidence secured on video, but the Council magistrates require undeniable physical proof to authorize a complete pack dissolution and criminal arrests.
I need to take photos of your injuries.
Is that okay?”
I nodded weakly, my muscles groaning in protest as I slowly sat up straighter in the plush leather chair.
Hazel moved with an incredible, gentle rhythm, stepping closer and helping me loosen the buttons of my oversized shirt just enough to expose my torso without making me feel completely bare.The bright, white flash of the camera illuminated the dark corners of the mahogany office, clicking rapidly against the silence.
Click.
Click.
Click.
With every single flash, the digital lens captured the full horror of what Alpha Richard had done to me.
It recorded the massive, dark purple and yellowish marks bruising my stomach, the jagged, swollen lines where my ribs had been re-broken and shattered, and the unmistakable, deep finger marks printed violently into my shoulder blades where he had pinned me to the concrete floor to punch my face.
Hazel’s blue eyes flashed with a fierce, quiet anger with every picture she took, her breath hitching slightly when she positioned the camera behind my head to record the hot, wet gash splitting the back of my skull.
But despite her anger, her hands remained completely warm and gentle against my skin.
She didn’t press down on the fractures, and she didn’t make me feel exposed.
She treated my wounds with a professional care that felt completely foreign to my soul.
“All done, little one,” Hazel whispered softly, carefully helping me pull the fabric of my shirt back over my shoulders and fastening the buttons.
She tucked the camera securely into her kit, her sad smile returning as she reached out to squeeze my hand.
“You did incredibly well, Ella.
The evidence is flawless.
Those monsters are going to pay for every single mark on your skin.”
She opened the office door and left the room quietly.
It was remaining the Alpha and I alone in the silence.
Alpha Alexander walked over from the desk, his frame casting a warm, shadow over the chair.
He looked down at my pale face, his dark eyes assessing my features with a heavy intensity.
“The tribunal and everything between it will begin at dawn, Ella,” he said, his low baritone voice echoing through the quiet office.
“It is going to be a long, exhausting day for you, and your body is still fragile.
You need actual rest.”
I nodded yes and stood up from the leather seat, bracing my side as I prepared to make my way out of the office and back to my room.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice stopping me dead in my tracks.
I paused, looking back at him.
“I am going to my room to rest,” I said simply.
“No, you are not,” he stated firmly.
Before I could object, he reached down, his large hand gently gripping my elbow through the fabric of my shirt to steady my balance, and guided me out of the office doors toward the upper levels of the pack house.
We walked past the long, carpeted corridors, completely ignoring the pale, terrified faces of the Silver Ridge guards who were standing watch under the watchful, eyes of the Blood Moon warriors.
Alpha Alexander stopped in front of a double door.
It was one of the rooms I had cleaned just days ago for their arrival; I remembered this room very well.
It was the biggest of all the others and the most luxurious in the entire guest wing.
He pushed the doors open, revealing a sprawling room with a massive king-sized bed covered in plush silk sheets, a roaring stone fireplace that made the air feel warm and comfortable, and grand windows overlooking the dark valley.
“You are sleeping in my room tonight,” he said quietly, his voice leaving absolutely no room for argument.
I froze on the thick carpet, my eyes widening in shock as I looked from the massive bed to his towering frame.
“But…
Alpha Alexander, where will you…”
“I will be across the hall in the room with my Beta, securing the perimeter and finalizing everything for the Council,” he interrupted calmly, his pitch-black eyes holding my gaze with a steady, unyielding weight.
“You sleep here.
This is the only room in this entire pack where Alpha Richard’s men cannot touch you.
My guards are stationed outside the door, and my own scent is marked on this threshold.
You are completely safe under my roof, Ella.
Wash up and go to sleep.”
He didn’t wait for me to thank him.
He simply turned on his heel, his boots clicking softly against the carpet as he stepped out into the hallway and pulled the oak doors shut, the deadbolt locking into place with a solid, comforting click.
I stood alone in the center of the warm, luxurious bedroom, the silence of the space washing over me.
For the first time in nine long years, there was no freezing concrete beneath my feet, no sour smell of cheap whiskey in the air, and no fear of a sudden midnight beating.
The entire room reeked heavily of Alpha Alexander’s comforting winter scent, a rich blend of cedar wood, pine, and sharp winter air that seemed to wrap around my shoulders like a thick, protective blanket.
Moving slowly, my aching muscles finally beginning to relax under the safety of his presence, I crawled into the warm bed, pulling the smooth silk sheets up to my chin.
I closed my eyes in the dark, letting the rhythmic crackle of the fireplace soothe the quiet in my deafened ear, finally drifting into a deep, sleep knowing that the coward’s reign was officially over.