Abandoned Treasure

Omega Sally’s POV

Alpha House Study

Wednesday, January 5, 2015

The mind link from the Theta Female told us we had to gather in the Pack Dining Room for the trial. No exceptions.

I’d become so relaxed speaking to Warrior Knightly that I’d forgotten what I was doing. I was betraying the Pack, speaking secrets to outsiders without permission. A cold wave swept through me as I realized the danger I’d put myself in. Even if the Alpha and the senior leadership are convicted and executed, his allies and their mates would still be here. I’d been talking to a Council representative for far longer than it would take to repeat the lies. “Warrior Knightly?”

“You got the summons as well.”

I nodded. “Can you do something for me?” He looked at me quizzically. “You have silver handcuffs, do you not?”

“You’ve done nothing to warrant arrest, Sally.”

“No, but I can’t be seen cooperating with your investigation. Silver will keep anyone from linking me, and the handcuffs make it look like I’m reluctant to talk. No one will know if you keep me at your side and generally look annoyed.”

Vic wasn’t convinced yet. “Why would cooperation with the council be a bad thing?”

“Secrets and lies going back decades, sir. I will tell you everything once the Alpha is gone, as long as the Council protects us from the repercussions.”

“If it will make you more comfortable.” He poked his head out and got the attention of one of the Council Enforcers. A minute later, my wrists bound in silver, he led me from the room. We followed everyone into the Dining Room. The other Omegas had the tables out of the way and were still setting up folding chairs in the back and along the sides. Vic sat us with our backs to the wall near the door.

The doors in the back opened, and Enforcers dragged a shackled Alpha Todd forward. He didn’t even glance my way as he fought the chains. The Chairman charged him with Reckless Exposure to Human Authorities. Was that it? Were they going to slap him on the wrist and leave him in power? “Why that?”

“It’s the only charge involving only Alpha Todd,” I whispered. “It can be punishable by death.”

The Chairman glared at the prisoner. “Alpha Blackstone, how do you plead?”

“Fuck you.” A guard punched him in the back and forced him to his knees. He didn’t look so powerful now.

“Guilty or not guilty,” the Chairman repeated.

“Not Guilty,” he said. The Council prosecutor laid out the case over the next five minutes. It was so overwhelming that the Alpha could do nothing but blame his men.

Deliberations took only a minute. “Alpha Blackstone, you have shifted inside a populated city and engaged in criminal acts against a human, acts which could lead to the exposure of our kind. You have been found guilty. The sentence is forfeiture of your Alpha rank and twenty years confinement.”

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS,” he screamed. “I’M AN ALPHA BY BLOOD AND THIS PACK IS MINE!” Guards pinned his struggling body to the ground.

“We can, and we will, Todd Blackstone. We live by laws that are in place to protect our kind, and we all will suffer if men like you reveal us in your reckless acts.” The Chairman forced the Alpha bond connecting me to him to break. I screamed in pain as it ripped out, joined by hundreds of others. “It is done. Return him to his cell. We will return to him after we have dealt with the others.”

I was still breathing hard as they dragged him past me. I looked at Vic as the doors closed. “It’s over? He’s gone?”

“He is no Alpha now,” Vic said. “We aren’t done yet.”

The next prisoner was before the Council. Beta Miller was as bad as the Alpha. The Chairman’s command forced him to answer honestly, and his answers would condemn them all. The Council Prosecutor went right for the throat. “Beta Miller, on the night of October 9th to 10th of 2000, were you part of an attack on the Arrowhead Pack?”

“Yes.”

“What was the purpose of the attack?”

“Alpha Blackstone was furious that Luna Joanne mated another, and he set his sights on her daughter Charlotte. We were to wipe out the pack and take Charlotte, where she could be raised in our Pack and become his mate.”

I’d always suspected that, but the official story was they were chasing rogues. “I see. The Arrowhead Pack had eighty-seven members. How many did you kill?”

“Five.”

“Women or children?”

“They killed themselves before we reached them.”

The verdict took only a few seconds of discussion. “Guilty of murder, sentenced to death. Return him to the cells and bring the next man.”

The parade of convictions continued for hours until Alpha Todd faced the Council again. All fifty-one remaining participants were found guilty. Those who didn’t kill anyone got thirty lashings followed by lengthy prison sentences, while those who killed Arrowhead Pack members earned death. Alpha Todd protested he hadn’t killed anyone, that a dead warrior named Nathan Storm had killed the Luna, but that gained nothing. All the deaths were on his orders.

And Alpha Todd Blackstone and his followers were guilty of far more. A shiver ran through me as I realized what might be coming. The Pack’s secrets remained hidden in the basement. If I didn’t act quickly, someone might think to kill them all before their part in kidnapping, slavery, and human experimentation came out. “I have to show you something before everyone else leaves,” I said in Vic’s ear. “It’s important. Bring Enforcers with you.”

He got the Chief Enforcer’s attention. He pulled me to my feet as Alpha Todd went past us. We followed him out the door. He spoke to an Enforcer as the doors closed. “The Chairman is going to hold everyone inside for a few minutes more,” the Enforcer said.

A dozen uniformed Enforcers, including three women, came out to join us. I led them down the stairway to the basement. “Remove these, please,” I asked. Vic took off the handcuffs and handed them off. "These women are terrified of strange males, so women only inside. Seal off the basement so no one else comes down.” I stood before the hidden door to the slave quarters. Pressing the secret buttons, I heard the latches click open.

“No more secrets,” I whispered as I pulled the door open on well-oiled hinges. “Let me go first.” Vic nodded, so I went in. I could smell the fear building as the prisoners caught the scent of the strange men. “These men are Council Enforcers,” I said as we walked in. “The Alpha and his men are sentenced to death. It’s over.”

I picked up a competing scent. Rage at the sight was building among the Enforcers. “Calm yourselves and do your jobs,” Vic told them. “What is this place?”

“It’s the slave quarters,” I replied. I grabbed the ring of keys and went to the first cell.

“How could he hide this from us? Why didn’t we scent them?”

“If they have enough warning time, they are taken deep into Pack territory and hidden. Since you arrived unannounced, they locked the door and turned on the recirculation fans and filters. A few of us got sent down to clean the basement, and by the time you arrived? Nothing’s left to scent, and the cell doors are soundproof.”

I had to coax the first woman out of her cell. She sobbed on the female Enforcer’s shoulder as they entered the basement. She froze as the men moved towards her. “Stay back,” I warned. “This room has no good memories for them where men are concerned.” They left an area by the television open. One by one, we brought the frightened women out.

The last one I had to carry out in my arms. “This is Mykayla,” I told Vic as I walked past. “She’s spent her whole life in there.”

His jaw dropped as he looked at the frightened girl. “How old is she?”

“Six.”

I heard wood splintering as Mark Trestman put his fist through a wall. “Stop that,” Vic growled. “They are frightened enough as it is.” He smiled and stepped closer. “No one will hurt you. I promise.” She’d buried her head into my shoulder so she didn’t see his reaction when he got a good whiff.

His face twisted in rage, and he let out a furious growl. “I’ll fucking kill them!”

Mykayla started crying. I hurried over and placed her in the arms of her guardians. When I got back to Vic, he’d regained control. “That girl is…”

“Not here,” I interrupted. “Have the female enforcers get their statements. The rest of you? Try not to scare them more than they already are. Vic, Chief Enforcer, with me.” I pulled them to one of the ‘party’ rooms and closed the door. The room was small, just a brass bedframe with no mattress, sink, and a shower in the corner.

“What the hell was Alpha Todd doing?”

I sat on the bed, my wolf reacting to the dominance of the two males. “For more than fifty years, Alpha Todd and his father have captured female rogues and taken women from other Packs to use as sex slaves and breeding stock. He uses them to reward his men and entertain his allies. Once a decade or so, a child is born. Those children get adopted by a couple in the Pack.”

Vic was shaking his head. “Carol Sampson?”

I nodded. “Officially, Carol was a prisoner. She endured more than any of them. When Nathan claimed her as his mate? The Alpha prevented the mating. He took perverse pleasure in fucking her, knowing her mate couldn’t stop it. In his mind, she killed a Warrior and deserved everything they did to her.”

Vic was squeezing the brass hard enough to dent it. “Mykayla is Carol’s daughter. I recognized her scent.” I nodded. “Todd lied about her death.” I nodded again. “Why is she in the cells?”

“No one in the Pack was willing to adopt the daughter of a rogue and a traitor,” I replied. “Two of the slaves have cared for her since that day.”

“How did he hide this from the Council,” Trestman asked.

“He waited a few months and reported her as a rogue baby left at the border. This basement is all she knows.”

“They didn’t…”

“Not yet,” I told them. The two relaxed a little. “The Alpha was going to wait until she got her wolf, then see if her mate was in the Pack. If not, she’d take her mother’s place.”

Vic screamed in rage and ripped the door open, leaving like his hair was on fire. Enforcer Trestman took a few deep breaths and closed the door. “You know these women,” he said. “What can we do to help them?”

I thought for a moment. “The girls will need support and counseling. Many have been here for decades.”

“We’ll get them that. What do they need right now?”

“They won’t believe it is over until their tormentors are dead.”

That brought a smile to his lips. “It won’t be for what these crimes, but they will see their punishments.” When the call came, the Enforcers ended the interviews and brought them to watch in a group.

I was still shaking as the proceedings ended. I had no Alpha bond, but the condemned men had mates and friends. As we watched the brutal punishments, I studied the faces of the remaining Pack members. Many were like me, shocked these men were finally receiving their due. Others were angry at the Council stepping in and destroying the Pack like this.

All of us were wondering what would come next.

When the Council placed thirty-four men in a cage for a battle royale? I couldn’t watch people I knew tearing each other apart. I watched their mates and family instead, as bond after bond broke. How many of these women would kill themselves in their grief?

The women did not witness the senior leadership’s punishment that night, as the Adirondack Pack had claimed the right to vengeance.

The trials of those involved in their kidnapping and rapes would come tomorrow.