1 [Vol. 1: Prologue] Go, Alanor, Go!

[ALANOR]

"Alanor, run, my child, run! Get out of here, don't watch this, my love. Go on now!"

That was the voice of a helpless Lycan woman hooked up to the wooden X-bars, her arms and legs spread on either side of the bars, the blood having clotted and the nails covered in red. She looked tired, and the sweat running down her face, didn't make it any easier on her.

Her clothes were torn from the possible fight she had put up when they were trying to force her on the crossed woods. However, they hadn't left her unclothed, as that would be a sin in her community and the perpetrators would be fed to the dogs.

Her hair had been cut indecently because she had been giving her unruly captors a hard time. It was their way of teaching the rebellious woman a lesson, in the hope that they would silence her. But how would anyone silence a tiger that already knew what was coming next?

She looked like she had unfortunately lost her fight, and judging by the ugly mark on the left side of her face, she had been knocked unconscious more than once. However, the woman didn't look horrified by her new reality. If anything, she didn't care one bit.

Instead, she was worried for her son, her young Alanor, the kid who didn't deserve to witness whatever this was.

"Go, son! Run from here," the woman shouted again in the mind link she shared with her child. That was her only way of communicating with him without putting her son in any more danger than he already was in.

She knew Alanor had questions, but right now, all she wanted was to see her son safe and far away from this place of torture. She would hold on for him, and as long as he was there in the crowd, watching as they did the unthinkable to her, the woman still hoped that he would leave.

He was just a child and didn't deserve to live with any of these.

The woman was breaking apart and yet trying so hard to keep it together. She needed to and was desperate for a way to make her son see that it was okay. She wanted to cry out and plead with the king who had gotten her here.

She wanted to remind them that she was not guilty, but she knew they wouldn't listen to her. She wanted to tell them to spare her son the pain, but that was a long shot; way too long. However, even with all the pain she had endured and was still enduring, she hadn't shed a tear. But seeing her young son here, that broke her heart.

She wished there was something she could do to make him go away. Something that could convince the child that this wasn't the right place for him to be. She wished she could give him a place to hide, but she knew she couldn't.

They were all watching her.

They were studying her carefully, analyzing every movement she made as if she was going to magically unbind herself from the nails, and the cruelty she was experiencing. They were right to be skeptical of her, because if she got out of this hold they had on her, she would rain hell on them.

The many eyes on her were also part of the reasons she was communicating with her son, using their mind link. She knew she couldn't say a word, thanks to them ripping off her tongue and her mouth getting filled with grey powder.

This woman was angry, and her eyes tore through the souls of the soldiers that were watching her. She looked like she was daring them to free her, just so they would know what it mean to mess with a woman like her.

If they wanted a fight, then she would give it to them, easy.

"Oh, Alanor. Don't watch us, son," The man on the woman's side said to Alanor. He was also using the mind link to talk to them.

It wasn't hard to know that they were a family, one that was about to be ripped apart. A family that didn't have a future and also one that the society was already fighting against. Looking at them, it seemed as if the two people up there had committed crimes against humanity but had they?

Just like his wife, Gideon Wynter was bound in the same manner, only that his wounds were a tad bit severe. He had several broken bones, but even then, he was still high up, bound for sins the royals suspected them of.

The two parents weren't sure their son could hear them, especially with how frozen he was. He was blankly staring at them, watching as if this was something he could have controlled. The crowd he was caught up in was cruel, everyone was voting for their ending, for a child to be orphaned. It was sick.

The young boy wanted to ask so many things, but he knew that this was one of the worst days for him to even have any questions.

He wished they could talk out loud, maybe his parents would help him understand why all of this was happening and to their family. However, he didn't want to spend the last few minutes with his parents, talking about things that couldn't help him.

Their captors had already made their decision, and one thing was certain.

This would be the last time Alanor saw his parents.

He knew it, and they knew it too. After all, today wasn't just any day. Today was one of the worst days of the week. The day when Justice would be sought, and when everyone who was put up the stupid X-bars, never made it back home.

Today, was Saturday.

And Saturdays in Udrad were the worst days anyone would ever be looking forward to.

Nobody in Udrad loved Saturdays, but no one had the guts to say it out loud. After all, they didn't want to risk their lives.

Saturdays in Udrad were the days that the lycans took the law into their own hands and no one would ever be able to bring them to justice. They were the days when the people convicted of crimes would be brought before the whole kingdom to be stoned.

They were the cursed days in the kingdom of Udrad.

Everyone was scared of Saturdays.

But everyone had to show up on Saturdays.

"Yessss!!!" the crowd cheered on, almost as if they liked what was happening to the couple of today's convictions.

Most of them were conflicted, especially since they had been friends with this particular couple. No one who knew Kacy and Gideon Wynter had ever thought that they would be here.