Free Web NovelChapter 223: Judgement (4)
"Graham should also be on this stage right now but he is far away, receiving punishment for his actions. For years there has been animosity between me and my uncle. We have never gotten along well and once I became alpha it sealed off our relationship from getting better."
The look in Graham’s eyes the day Vincent turned into a beast was enough to warn Vincent the man was coming for him next but little did Graham know that Vincent had always been prepared and waiting.
"I have long had the suspicion that Graham was the one to abandon my parents and have them killed. Please settle down," Vincent said when the crowd started to get rowdy after his revelation. "Graham lied about not being around my parents the day they died. I overheard their plans and knew they were going to ambush the vampires together."
"The one thing I believed from my uncle’s death was that vampires killed my family, however, I found it suspicious that he remained alive when he was with them. My father was always the better fighter so how did Graham make it out without any bruises? Simple. He made a deal with vampires to save himself."
"That would make Graham a traitor."
"How could a Lawerence do such a thing?"
The whispers started to increase.
"It didn’t take long for him to make it obvious he was working with those creatures. After I became the leader there was suddenly an increase in vampire attacks targeting the people close to me. It wasn’t so long ago vampires attacked our home on the day of Victor’s birthday and coincidentally, Aurora and Cherry were kidnapped."
"Release her tongue," Vincent ordered the guards holding onto Cecilia. "Tell them what you know or after your tongue, it will be your heart. Do not play with me as I am not in the mood to entertain you beating around the bush. Tell them." frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
"What Graham did has nothing to do-"
"Obviously my parents’ death had nothing to do with you. You weren’t married to him back then," Vincent rolled his eyes. At what point was she going to realize it was time to stop pleading her case?
Cecilia getting punished would be inevitable but her confession could make her punishment lighter. How many times did Vincent need to hint at this?
"Tell them what you know. You’ve been married to him long enough that you should be aware of certain things he did. You knew he was working with vampires. What else did you know about his deals with them? Time is ticking Cecilia."
"Graham turned his back on his brother and has been working with vampires. I found out about it after overhearing him speak to another man about it. He told me all the things he had done but to make sure I would never tell anyone, he offered me up as collateral to those creatures. I have nothing else to say," Cecilia sobbed.
She was mentally and physically tired of being judged in front of everyone. It might’ve been better if Vincent had given her a quick painful death instead. Then she would have never seen all the stares and nasty looks people were giving her.
Cecilia only wanted to be known as the rich woman she had become thanks to marrying Graham. Now, she would be known as a traitor and the reputation he took years to perfect had crumbled. The very friends she was in control of thanks to her status would talk about her for days.
"Just kill me now," she requested from Vincent. He already got what he wanted in ruining Graham’s name and the type of person he was. There was no reason for Vincent to keep her up here any longer. "Kill me."
"Thanks to your confessions your punishment won’t be death. Your punishment will be imprisonment until I deem you worthy enough to walk amongst the people in this community. Everything you own will be taken away from you and should you ever be set free they will not be handed back to you. You are starting over Cecilia," Vincent gave her the judgment.
As there were no elders to go against his words, the judgment was final.
To some, Cecilia’s punishment seemed like it was too little. They didn’t realize that to someone like Cecilia who loved material things, Vincent’s punishment was worse than death. She was now left with nothing and had no one to turn to. All the things she bought would now belong to someone else.
"Just kill me! I would rather die. Kill me!" Cecilia tried standing to go closer to Vincent to have him kill her. "You have never liked me so just kill me. Kill me like the others!"
"Why on earth would I give you what you desire?" Vincent glared down at her. He rather her suffer first and then release her. It was no fun when they begged for death. It made killing them less satisfying. "Take her away. Remove all the jewelry she is wearing since she won’t be needing it."
"I told you to kill me!" Cecilia yelled as she was dragged away.
"Now that is over, I will now move on to the next judgment. All of you here today are standing trial," Vincent announced to the confused crowd.
"What is he doing?" Derek looked to Jane for answers since she was the one to talk to Vincent before coming here.
"I have no idea," Jane was just as confused as everyone else. Vincent never mentioned anything to her about putting the entire community on trial.
"What on earth is this about?" Victor muttered. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
"Do not panic as it is not a trial where any of you will be killed. However, it is about the state of our community. Day by day, I think many of you have forgotten we are werewolves. This place has become more like a human town than a place where wolves reside. We are losing our touch with nature," Vincent announced.
He noticed here and there recently how people here had changed too much. They no longer shifted into a wolf and ran around as they did in the old days. They rarely paid attention to the moon and were losing touch with their skills such as strength, hearing, and endurance.
"This is not a place where humans reside. When the community was getting built over the decision to make it more like the human towns was to be more civilized and less like wild animals but many of you have forgotten what you are. That will change from today. From now on, the right of passage will happen again where each child will go on a hunt for animals to prove themselves."
Vincent continued to say, "We will meet more often on the sacred grounds and send prayers to the moon Goddess who looks after us. Training will be done with everyone so that you may protect yourself should we ever find enemies at our doors. I will allow everyone to continue with their daily schedules but I will not allow you to forget what it is to be a werewolf."
"Hmm, I’m not mad at it," Victor agreed with what his brother was doing. He heard of how werewolves in the past lived under the stars running around free in the day and then shifting into wolves at night. That kind of life did not seem so bad to him.
As a werewolf, there were many times he just wanted to run free feeling the wind in his hair but if he did that now others would think something was wrong with him. Victor wanted to sit by a fire and look up at the night sky while listening to nature all around him.
There were a handful of packs that still lived like this but their community had strayed far from it.
"Good job brother," Victor complimented Vincent. Many of the people here wouldn’t accept this change but he knew Vincent would be the one perfect to make them like it. That’s why he was chosen as the alpha.
"Look at you cheering for your big brother. You better give him a pat on the back for this. Look at how many people are shaking their heads about this." Derek predicted that by the end of the day Vincent would receive a pile of complaints.
As if reading Derek’s mind, Vincent stated, "If any of you have any complaints about this please send them to me. I will invite each one of you here to watch me burn these complaints. I will fix this community before I allow any of you to make me change my mind. That is all for today."
Vincent turned to walk away from the crowd now that he said everything he needed to. Originally he was going to answer questions but he changed his mind at the last second.
Most of their questions would now be about his changes in the community rather than about Graham and Vincent’s fake this. He laid it out plain and simple where he was heading with the community to where questions didn’t need to be answered.
The trial is now over.
