The Trees of Shame – Rain's POV
Jack the Terrible's voice boomed across the courtyard, loud enough to make the birds flee the trees.
"Admit your sins now… or face the Trees of Shame!"
My knees buckled at the threat. Breath coming in harsh bursts as I clutched my arms across my chest, trying to hold myself together—though it felt like I was already falling apart.
"I swear!" I shouted, but the words sounded like they were torn from someone else's throat. "I didn't do it! Both of them—Dan and Victoria—they deceived me! They planned this together! Victoria, why are you doing this to me?!"
I turned toward her. My eyes searched hers—desperate, begging, aching.
"I thought you were my best friend," I whispered. "I thought we were sisters."
Tears rolled freely down my cheeks, soaking the edges of my mouth. Salt stung my lips, but I didn't wipe them away. I wanted her to see. I needed her to see.
But Victoria… she didn't even blink. Her face was cold. Hollow. And when she finally spoke, her words pierced me deeper than any blade ever could.
"We are sisters," she said with a mournful shake of her head, her voice soaked in false sorrow. "But you hated the Alpha for what he did to your mother. I begged you not to hurt him. I told you he was loved by the pack. I told you I loved him! For goodness' sake, I was to become his concubine!"
My throat closed, strangling the scream building inside me.
No. No, don't say that. Don't make them believe I'd ever—
She wiped her nose dramatically, shaking her head as if heartbroken. "But you still went ahead and tried to kill him."
The air left my lungs like a punch to the gut.
My hands trembled at my sides. My legs felt like they were sinking into the earth.
"No, no, no—this isn't real—this can't be happening!"
"You know that's not true!" I screamed, turning to the crowd now, frantic. "I never tried to kill the Alpha!" My voice rose in panic, but it didn't reach them. "The necklace—it was given to me by—"
My eyes locked on Dan.
Please. Say something. Save me. Just… just one word. That's all I need. Just one.
But Dan's silence was louder than any betrayal.
Alpha Batista's voice snapped through the tension like a blade. "Complete what you were about to say. Who gave you the necklace?"
My lips parted, but no sound came out.
I couldn't speak. My voice had vanished somewhere in the storm building in my chest. My tongue was made of sand. My lungs were drowning.
And Dan…
He just stood there.
Still. Silent. Soulless.
Alpha Batista stepped forward. "Why won't you speak?" he barked, eyes narrowing. "That necklace looks expensive. You could never afford it. Who gave it to you, Rain?"
Dan swallowed, but didn't move. His eyes locked on mine—and for one horrifying moment, I thought I saw something there.
Guilt?
Regret?
Or maybe it was just fear.
"Please," his eyes begged, as if I was the one who had to rescue him.
Then Victoria's voice shattered everything. Again.
"I think she mentioned it before," she said casually, like she was talking about the weather. "She told me she was working with the rebels that's how she got the money ."
The crowd roared around me.
"Traitor!"
"Kill her!"
"Behead her!"
"Throw her in the well like her mother!"
My body was trembling so hard I could feel my bones rattling.
Alpha Batista exhaled slowly. ."Rain," he said. "Do you accept your crime? Do you admit to working with the rebels to assassinate me?"
My lips were numb. My tongue was lead. But my soul—what was left of it—forced me to lift my chin.
"No."
I barely recognized my own voice. "I am not guilty."
Alpha Batista's eyes hardened. "Rain, accept your crimes. Beg for mercy. I might spare your life—banish you instead of killing you."
I could've begged.
I could've fallen to my knees.
But I didn't.
I stood tall—even as my world collapsed around me.
"I'm innocent." My voice rang out through the madness. "I never tried to kill you. I am not a traitor."
Then came the final blow.
Dan stepped forward.
"Alpha Batista," he said. "We must follow tradition. She must undergo proper interrogation. She must be tied… to the Trees of Shame."
I stared at him.
Time stopped.
My breath froze in my lungs.
He just handed me over to torture.
My mate.
I shook my head slowly, mouth trembling. "You bastard…"
The crowd erupted once again, drowning out the last of my hope.
"Kill her!"
"Burn her!"
Alpha Batista clenched his jaw. He stood, and with the finality of a death sentence, said,
"Jack the Terrible. Do what you must. Make sure she exposes all her accomplices."
And then…
I saw it.
Dan.
He smirked.
He smirked.
My knees gave out, and I hit the ground with a dull thud.
That's when the horror became real.
My best friend.
My mate.
They were never mine.
"Strip her."
Jack the Terrible's command echoed through the courtyard like a curse.
I didn't fight. Not because I was weak—but because I was numb.
I felt their hands tearing at my clothes, yanking fabric, tugging buttons, ripping at the last shreds of dignity I had. My skin prickled from the cold, but I didn't shiver.
The guards grabbed me again, yanking me off the ground. My knees buckled, but they didn't let me fall. No. That would be too merciful.
They dragged me—through the filth. I caught glimpses of faces, twisted in glee, some in disgust, none in mercy. I saw a woman I used to gossip with. Her lips curled as she spat at me. A boy I once helped feed during winter threw a stone with both hands. It hit my hip, sharp and cruel.
I flinched, but I didn't scream.
Another hit my thigh. Someone yanked my hair. I stumbled. A boot slammed into my ribs, and I crumpled, choking on air. Before I could catch my breath, a hand shoved my face into the dirt, grinding it down.
I couldn't breathe.
The dirt filled my nose, my mouth, my eyes. The taste of rot. The stench of cruelty.
Then came the whip.
I didn't see it, but I felt it. Felt it bite into my back, deep and unforgiving. The scream that escaped me wasn't even human. It was animal. Raw. I bit it back, tasting blood from my lip, from my tongue—didn't matter.
The second lash came. Then the third. Fourth.
I lost count after that.
The soldiers didn't just drag me—they ripped me away from myself.
Their claws dug into my arms, bruising already bruised skin, as my bare feet stumbled over roots and stones I couldn't see anymore.
The tree loomed ahead, dead and gnarled, a silent witness to too many endings.
It was cursed—they said. But I didn't need legends to tell me that.
I could feel it.
The moment my knees hit the cold dirt, the air thickened. Heavy. Like grief.
And then I saw them.
The silver chains.
They hung like snakes from twisted branches, hissing with quiet promise. Waiting.
My wrists were yanked upward, and I didn't fight. There was no point. My fight was no longer in my limbs.
It was in my silence.
When the chains touched my skin, it was like being kissed by fire.
The silver seared straight through me. No delay. No mercy.
I bit my tongue hard enough to taste blood. My body convulsed as the burn reached bone, nerves screaming. Smoke curled around my wrists.
Still, I didn't scream.
Not yet.
Jack's boots crunched over gravel. Slow. Eager.
The whip uncoiled in his hands like it had been waiting just for me.
"All this could end," he purred, voice thick with theatrical pity. "Just confess. The Alpha is merciful."
I met his eyes.
"You want me to confess?" I rasped, my throat raw, "just like my mother did? To a crime I didn't commit?"
I was shaking. Every breath was agony. But rage steadied me.
"I don't need your Alpha's mercy."
For a moment, I saw it. That flicker in his expression. That slip.
But then his grin returned, wider, darker. "Oh, he's not your Alpha anymore. I think the truth is already coming out."
He didn't wait.
The whip struck.
White-hot pain exploded through my spine. My mouth opened, but no sound came. Just a raw gasp that died before it escaped.
The second lash made my knees buckle.
The third broke something.
Not a bone—something deeper.
The crowd cheered.
They cheered.
Their voices rose like a tide, not for justice. Not for truth. But for blood.
My blood.
I couldn't see clearly. Faces blurred. My vision swam.
I felt my skin part again and again, each stroke carving deeper, as if he were trying to erase me completely.
But I still didn't beg.
I still didn't scream.
"Look at you," Jack sneered. "Still trying to act brave. You're nothing, Rain."
He pressed the whip's handle against my face, smearing blood and dirt across my cheek.
"You think you're proving something?"
He leaned in, breath hot, rancid.
"Then let me show you why they call me Jack the Terrible."
And the lash that followed—it wasn't punishment.
It was vengeance.
It tore across the open wounds on my back, raw nerves flayed wide. My scream cracked the air.
Not because I gave up.
Because I needed the pain.
I needed it to keep me here. To stop myself from slipping into the cold, empty place waiting just beyond this moment.
He didn't stop.
The whip danced over my skin like a devil with no conscience. Again. Again.
Blood poured down my legs, sticky and hot. My feet were slick in it.
I howled.
But I never once said the words he wanted.
I never begged.
They wanted to see a girl break.
But I wasn't a girl anymore.
I was a ghost refusing to die.
They had laughed when I didn't shift.
They called me wolfless. Broken.
But tonight, they saw what I really was.
I was steel.
And I would never give them the satisfaction.
"That's enough, Jack."
The voice cut through the madness like ice water down my spine.
I knew that voice.
Alpha Batista.
Even through the blur of agony, I recognized it.
My head lolled forward. I could barely lift it. But something inside me stirred.
Maybe… maybe there was still someone in this hell who remembered mercy.
Jack froze.
"She hasn't confessed," he protested, his voice wild with hunger, like he'd just been robbed of his prize.
"I said enough."
Batista didn't raise his voice.
He didn't have to.
Jack's grip on the whip trembled, but he stepped back. Reluctantly.
The crowd hushed. Murmurs. Disappointment.
They came for blood, and they got it.
They came for a confession, and they left with silence.
One by one, they turned away. Their backs to me.
Like I was already gone.
The silence felt colder than the chains.
Then—spit.
Warm and wet, sliding down my cheek.
Jack stood above me, dark eyes gleaming with hatred. "The Alpha just saved you," he said, voice laced with venom. "If it were up to me… you'd be begging me to end your life."
I wanted to tell him he'd never see that day.
But my mouth wouldn't move anymore.
My body swayed in the chains, broken and beaten.
And then—he walked away.
Leaving me behind.
Alone.
Bleeding.
Crucified beneath a cursed tree.
But not defeated.
No.
Not yet.