4 Mourning

Chapter Four: Mourning.

Laurel backed away as the elders advanced toward her.

"You cursed Princess!" One of them spat.

Stefan smirked. "It seemed even your people hated you and your father." He walked behind the men. "They knew about your father's evil, Princess. How come you didn't?"

Laurel sighed. Should she begin explaining how her father never spoke to her, unless through curses? Or that he never let her handle anything around the pack and practically made the pack hate her? 

She wouldn't say that; it'd only make her look weak. "I was barely three when the attack happened. How'd I know about it?" she mumbled.

"That's not the only evil your father has done. What about the attack on the Riverlane pack? He made those good people slaves!" an elder shouted at her. 

She narrowed her eyes at the men. She knew of the Riverlane pack but didn't know how they joined her pack.

Her maid and sister, Lena, were from there, and she had been very grateful to have someone to talk to. 

Laurel rolled her eyes. Also, even if she did know the details, what was a girl like her, who hid from her father, supposed to do? 

He'd only beat her to death if she dared rival him. "I was nine then. What should I have done?" 

Stefan shook his head. She didn't have an iota of remorse for the evil her father did. She thought she was free for being young when it happened.

She was still his daughter, and she could have said something. The same evil ran through her veins. Whatever her father had been, so would she be. 

His wolf, Kia, sighed at his thoughts. "You'd be rejecting her then?"

He hesitated but replied. "No, I'd torture her with our mate bond, but I'd never surrender to it."

"You should be angry at this man here for killing your loved ones and not at me for having no power over my father." Laurel hissed at the elders. 

Didn't they know how her life has been? Where'd she get the power to defy her father? Not even they could have, so how would she? 

Stefan growled. "You're an unrepentant bitch, Princess! Elders, beat her as you like. She had a hand in the deaths of your relatives."

"What?" Laurel gasped, right when an elder swiftly sent a kick to her stomach. 

"What are you doing? You're hurting our mate!" Kai screamed in Stefan's head. 

Stefan had looked away before she got kicked. "I can live with hurting my mate, Kai, but I can't live with not avenging my parents and my pack."

Elma couldn't take their kicks anymore. She pushed energy through Laurel and dodged the next blow to her face, making the old man stagger and fall.

She couldn't dodge the other elder's kick and fell to the ground, blood seeping from her nose. "Stefan, you know there's no way I'd defy my father's orders."

Her broken, small voice penetrated his heart. He bit his lips; he wasn't falling for it. He remembered her father ordering her to dance for the guests, but he shut his heart to it too. 

She was still his enemy's daughter. "I don't care about your excuse, Princess."

Laurel sobbed. "You should. I am innocent, just as you were fifteen years ago. I don't deserve this!"

He turned sharply and grabbed her shoulders.

Looking at her bloody face and broken skin, his words hitched on his throat. He dropped her.

"Don't compare me to you. My father was a great man. Yours was a murderer."

He pushed the elders away from her. "Call Cade. Tell him to bring the box." He ordered his warriors, who were returning with the elders. 

Laurel wiped her forehead, regaining her breath. She wanted to meet Stefan's gaze intently at her, but she knew she'd see scorn and hatred in them. 

A well-built man came in with a black box covered with blood. Laurel's breathing became faster again as the man dropped them on her feet. 

He smirked and said, "A gift for you, Princess."

She would have stared at his yellow eyes for longer but was more curious about what was in the box. Curious and sacred. 

She lifted the lid and shut it back as her hands went to her mouth. "You... you beheaded my father!"

Cade smirked. "His death was too easy, right? Noted. Yours would be worse." He walked away. 

Stefan watched as she coiled herself, crying over a ruthless man, muttering indistinct words. "You mourn a man who kills without mercy!"

"I mourn my father, bastard!" She thundered at him, her eyes boring holes into him. 

His lips curled upward. "Alright then. Goodbye and Happy Mourning." He walked away.

Laurel cried to her heart's content. Not because she loved her father. Or maybe she did. But he was her last parent, her last family. 

She sniffed and cleaned off her wet face. She knew Stefan was still in the dungeon, even though he had said goodbye. 

"Stefan, I am really not like my father."

"How'd you know?" he interrupted. "When your father was a boy, he wasn't evil, but it was his fate. It was inborn but showed up over time. So would yours." 

Laurel scoffed. "So you are so bent on me being evil? Well, if you believe in fate so much, why not accept that I was your mate for a reason?! Huh?"

Stefan attempted speaking but couldn't find the words. "All I know is that you're evil, and you'd remain my mate, so I'd torture you."

He mind linked his guards to come in. "Keep an eye on her. Make sure she does nothing stupid."

Laurel eyed her mate as he walked off, leaving her with two blonde men to guard her. 

She sighed and laid on her stomach, groaning from the pain she felt all over. Some of her wounds had reopened from the elders kicking her.

Everywhere on the ground was freaking wet, and her father's head in a box was still beside her. This was torture. She dangled the chains until they began to make a racket. 

"Hey, little lady, stop the racket!" one of the guards advanced to her. She looked him over. She had to do something to prevent silence from killing her. 

"I'm bored and in mourning. Do you want your prisoner to get mad?" she scolded with a distinct tone. 

The other guard smirked, taking a step. "You are bored. We can make you busy." He spaced out, like he was sending a mind-link message. 

Laurel sat up. Were they going to make her busy by raping her? Why can't she shut her mouth up?

The door opened, and three omegas from her pack walked in, holding sticks. 

The guards patted their shoulders and left the door. Laurel glared at the omegas; they always defied her. 

Always said she was as unimportant as they were. She had once annoyed them by defending Lena, whom they bullied. "What are you doing?" she barked. 

"Following orders, Princess!" the female among them sneered, and they moved to her. 

"Who's orders? Stefan's? Wait, please!" but they never stopped hitting her. Her life couldn't be any messier than it was at the moment.