EZRA'S P.O.V
My wolf was raging inside. He knew that Lydia was lying. She knew the girl she attacked was the Queen. She knew her smell, she smelt her on me the night she was in my room. The question is, how do I handle this? Lydia was my first love.
'You didn't love her!' Kingston roared in my head.
Maybe he was right, maybe I wasn't in love with her, but I did care about her.
'Not enough to excuse her behavior, she needs punishment!'
'King, she is our ally, she is here to learn to-'
'To not attack those superior to her!'
He wasn't going to have any excuse, he wanted her punished. He was right, this wasn't something I could let go unpunished. If I did, what example would I be making of my Queen to the others? It would be like saying anyone could attack her and that would not happen under any circumstances.
"Apologize to the queen for your ill behavior."
"But..."
"NO BUT'S, SHE IS YOUR QUEEN AND YOU WILL SHOW HER RESPECT!" I screamed as King pushed forward to take control.
Lydia looked back and forth between me and Tegan, completely taken back at my behavior.
"What's going on?"
I heard from the doorway as Uriah entered.
"Looks like a visiting member likes to dishonor the kingdom and attack the next queen with no remorse." I said bluntly.
Uriah looked from my angry glare at Lydia, then diverted his eyes at the girl who was now standing behind me.
"Give her something to cover up with, then take her to the dungeons. We shall discuss her actions with her Alpha for the disrespect and attack on the Queen before she is punished."
"Yes, Alpha." Uriah said as he grabbed a tablecloth on the table beside him. "Here, cover yourself." He said as he threw the cloth to her, she quickly wrapped her naked body with it. "This way." He then said as he started to pull her arm in the direction that led out.
"Ezra, you can't be serious. Please tell me this is a joke." Lydia pleaded as tears started to come forward.
"It is Alpha to you. I will not remind you again. Follow Uriah out, NOW!" I commanded.
Her body trembled as she obeyed the command. Uriah looked between me and Tegan once more before he turned away, taking Lydia with him. I then turned to see the frightened Tegan looking around at everyone watching.
"You should all be ashamed of yourselves for standing around, allowing this behavior. You all know the rules for attacking another unwarranted within these lands. If I ever see anything like this again, I will make you all wish you could've done something. Do I make myself clear?"
Murmurs erupted as heads bobbed up and down.
"You are all dismissed." I said in a low, deadly tone.
Bodies scattered out as fast as they could, except for Imagen. She never left Tegan's side.
"I am so sorry Queen, I should have stepped in, I should have done more. I should have-"
"You stood up for me, the only person to ever do something like that before the King. You put yourself on the line when you shouldn't have by even speaking out against someone like her. Thank you for honoring me the way you did. You have no reason to be sorry."
"Imagen, please escort Tegan to the infirmary for a look over. Once she is cleared by the pack doctor, take her to her room. I will be up shortly. I have some business to attend to first." I said to Imagen.
Tegan's eyes searched mine, looking for any kind of answers, but I kept a straight face.
"I will stop by your room shortly." I said to her. She bowed then followed Imagen out without another word.
What am I going to do with this? I promised Lydia's father she would be safe here, that she would get the best education at our private college. Yet here I was locking his only daughter in a dungeon. She cannot go without punishment, I know that. But I can’t help but blame myself. If it weren't for me and my actions up until Tegan's arrival, Lydia would not have attacked Tegan with such rage, jealousy, and hatred. But as always, I seem to fuck up the plans. Plans I knew existed yet refused to listen to. Now both Tegan and Lydia are the ones dealing with the consequences of my actions. But Tegan doesn't even know it.
I went straight to my office once they were gone. Uriah was already there when I arrived.
"What happened, Ezra?"
"I am not sure what led up to the attack, but when we pulled in, I sensed something was wrong. When I got inside, I found Lydia on top of her attacking. Before I could make it to them, Lydia had shifted, but Tegan didn't. She was going to attack her in wolf form when Tegan was still in human form, clearly not wanting to advance the fight. But that didn't stop Lydia. She would've killed her if I hadn't stepped in. She was aiming for her throat. That is punishable by death."
"So, we need to get to the bottom of the cause, then we need to call her father."
"I had Imagen take Tegan to the pack doctor. While she is being assessed, we will call upon some witnesses, different social groups so they don't talk amongst each other. After that we will go talk to Lydia."
"And Tegan?"
"When she returns to her room, and we are done with the others, we will speak to both Tegan and Imagen, yes. I'm mind linking to some people that were there that I would like to talk to. Once we get every person's side of the story, we will determine our next actions before calling Lydia’s Father. Alpha Kirk will want to discuss what we found and what should be done about his daughter's defiance against the rules."
'Yeah, death.' Kingston said in my head.
'Although it could be punishable by death, I hardly think he will agree.'
'Who cares, his daughter attacked the queen.'
'She is not the queen yet.'
'Does not matter.'
'We hadn't introduced her to the pack as such, nor has the ceremony taken place. It will have to be handled differently under those circumstances.'
'SHE KNEW WHO SHE WAS. What example does that set!?' Kingston raged.
I rubbed my head in annoyance at my wolf being right but also at having to figure out what to do. Tegan hadn't been introduced formally to the pack, whether Lydia knew who she was or not. Attacking was prohibited within our pack lands for unwarranted reasons, which is another violation Lydia did. She knew the rules, she agreed with them when coming to stay on my land. Her actions cannot go unpunished. I needed answers and from those answers I would figure out my next move.
A few moments later, a soft tap on the door broke me from my thoughts. My first witness has arrived.
"Enter." I said loudly.