37. The Punishment

**MAEVE**

Once Xander left, I joined Eirlys and others at the boarding hall. “Hey. Good morning,” I chimed, trotting into the place.
But the way they looked up to me, it was as if they saw a ghost. “Oh, you are here,” Rose stammered and looked around the room.
“Err…is that a problem?” I asked, a little unsure. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
“Not at all, come and join us, Maeve,” Eirlys wiggled, patting the seat beside her in the invitation.“Yesterday was the Crescent Night so we thought that you would want to wake up a little later than usual. You know…long night and all.” She winked, and another bout of laughter floated around the room.
What is with these women…females…today?
“Or maybe too tired to walk?” Rose, the gorgeous curly hair brunette, chuckled. “I mean it’s Alpha Xander after all.”
Nope. This conversation is not for me.
“Okay.” I drawled, masking my embarrassed laugh. “We are not discussing this. And as you all can see, I am here. Awake and on my feet.”
“That’s a shame,” Grecia pouted. She has the most beautiful hazel eyes and light brown hair I have ever seen. And she was the mate of one of the enforcers of the pack. “Crescent Night is a waste if you can walk or move without difficulty.”
Could I be any more mortified having to discuss my ‘night’ with Xander?
“Please, change the topic,” I whined.
The laughs and the chuckles died around as we saw Greta appearing with blood-stained clothes and a tired look on her face. The face was as beautiful as Grecia’s, owing to their twin sisterhood.
“Greta, fates!” Eirlys gasped. “What happened?”
The roll of her eyes manifested both sadness and vexation. “Caleb won’t stop bleeding. And you know how these males are. He won’t let me help either.”
“That’s blood.” I blinked. “What is going on?”
“Caleb got injured during the hunt and like all male wolves, he won’t take help,” Eirlys surmised and turned to Greta. “Did you try the sedatives?”
“He just won’t take them!” She accentuated with a growl of her own.
“I am no expert in wolf biology,” I cut in because it came to me reflexively. “But that kind of a blood loss is generally not a good sign. Trying pressing down the wound and it will hurt less. Once you are done there, you have to clean the wound, as well as the area around it before wrapping it up. And don’t put any kind of ointments, please.” By the time I finished my reflex rant, I had realized all the pairs of eyes in the room were zeroed in on me. Studying. “Sorry, old habits,” I ended sheepishly.
“You are a doctor?” Eirlys asked with a bright sparkle in her eyes.
“Nurse practitioner, actually.”
“Great!” Eirlys clapped her hands in glee. “You can help the Asas to treat the injured.”
“Asas?” I echoed. Even after so many days I have spent here; it was difficult to keep track of their ranks and titles.
“Wolf nurses, sort of.”
Eirlys and Greta accompanied me to the room where Caleb was settled on the chair. Parallel slashes were cut across his upper and lower arms, but thankfully nothing was spurting. It took a while to wash off the wound as I wrapped his arm in gauze with the help of others. Much against his wishes, the Asas administered Caleb a brimming cup of herbal tea, which was supposed to put him to sleep for some time until he recovered.
With her mate treated and resting, Grecia joined us on the ground where Eirlys were giving me and Greta a grand tour of her beautiful wildflower garden that she tended every morning, without fail.
“Did you see Sedona?” Grecia hissed. “That female has the balls to come back after all that she has done.”She shook her in exasperation. “How could Dylan give in so easily?”
“Of course, he would. He is her mate,” her twin sister, Great, shrugged while bending down to touch a crimson flower petal. “As far as mates go, he has always adored her. It is Sedona who is undeserving.”
It was slightly eerie to witness the concealed hostility among them. And who was this woman Sedona?
“This is not our business,” Eirlys clipped. “Let’s not gossip about it; you know how the Elders hate it. Let the Alpha and his men deal with it.”

The twins shared a look and then shot an emphatic gaze at me before going back to minding their own business.
But out of natural curiosity, I had to ask Eirlys once they were gone. “Who is Sedona? What are those women talking about?”
Eirlys slowly put down the watering pot and wiped her soiled hands on her rag. “Sedona was one of us, our pack mate before she ran away and cheated on her mate and ran away. She was turned rogue. But last night, she came back and wanted to be taken in once again.”
Is that the reason Blaize came to visit Xander?
“You said that let 'Alpha and his men deal with it’. What is Xander going to do?”
Just like I had feared, Eirlys paused in hesitation. It was clear from her face that she was not willing to share the details with me. “Maeve, it is not my place. The Alpha is your mate, you should probably…”
“I am asking you, Eirlys,” I cut her off. Desperately. “Please.”
She contemplated for a moment and sighed deeply. “Every pack member has a hierarchical placement, and each one of us has earned the place. When, or if at all, an Alpha is challenged, even he has to prove his place in the pack. A rogue wolf is not accepted into the pack without paying the penance.”
My mind was working fast, almost spinning. “What kind of penance?”
Eirlys grimaced and suitably recoiled. “Alpha Xander has expressly informed that no one except the chosen members will be present where Sedona will be punished for her sins. So, we don’t know exactly how.”
“Where? Will you take me there?”
This time her eyes widened as if it would jump out of her sockets. “Have you gone mad? You want me to defy the Alpha?” The notion was unthinkable, I knew. Eirlys touched my hand and squeezed sympathetically. “I am sorry, Maeve. I like you, but I won’t defy Alpha Xander.”

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Eirlys had already made it clear that, in no certain terms, she would help me in finding out about Sedona. But there was one woman who was willing to help discreetly, and that was Grecia. Her past with Sedona was not a very affable one, owing to the fact Sedona was an outsider who, apparently, never treated the Night Pride as her home.
Grecia took me to the old building, a few paces away from the packhouse, where we hid behind a damaged wall.
“Take this and keep it inside your mouth,” Grecia whispered as she handed me a lump of dried herbs. “Don’t chew or swallow.”
“What?”
“Do you want anyone to find out that you are hiding in here?” She gave an expectant stare. “The herbs will make it harder to detect us. Remember, the wolves have heightened senses?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the chunk off her hands, placing inside my mouth. A few minutes later, the murmur around the room settled down as Xander entered. His face was hard, that of a leader burdened with the weight of his responsibilities, yet the aura around him was that of invincible and venerable.
“It is time.” He nodded at one of his men. “Bring her.”
Two guards accompanied a woman as she caught the attention of everyone present in the room. Sedona. She was, perhaps, the most ethereal beauty I have ever seen. She looked like some earthy angel with long and shiny red hair that has been braided behind her back and naturally freckled skin with almond eyes.
She stopped in front of Xander and fell on her knees; her head bowed. I could not tell if it was out of respect or shame or both.
“Sedona, you have been charged for abandoning your mate and deserting your pack,” Xander grated voice cut sliced through the silence of the room that has befallen. “You have shamed your tribe and ran with the rogues. Do you submit to the penance pronounced by your Alpha and your mate?”
Sedona looked at her right before nodding demurely. “Yes, I submit and I accept, Alpha.”
“Assume the position over the bench,” he instructed, lifting his chin to another direction.
A bench? Cluelessly, I strained my neck from the concealed position to peek at the wooden structure in the form of a sawhorse with a titled flat top.
Before I could decipher, Xander’s voice resonated once again. “Dylan, what is your choice of correction - the strap or the cane?”
A man came forward stiffly and straightened his back. “The strap, Alpha.”
“Alright then,” Xander said. “Fifteen lashes on the bare. I will allow one pause if she wants to.”
“Thank you.”
I could not believe my eyes or ears as I stared numbly at Xander. He seemed like a completely different person, someone I could not recognize by behavior. I would never deny the air of authority and power he carried around himself, like his second skin, but he was never cruel.
He would not just condemn a woman to be whipped in public.
He would not resort to such brutality even though the heart beating within the confines of his chest was that of an animal.
*Xander would not…*
My throat stopped working no matter how hard I tried to swallow the lump.
Gracefully, Sedona rose on her feet and moved over to the bench, where she quietly folded herself over the top. Her trembling finger grasped the wooden legs for dear life as her supposed mate, Dylan, stood directly behind her.
And it was just not the end of her humiliation.
With an appalling gasp, I watched as he lifted the hem of her dress and bared her back to the roomful of men. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. My brain stuttered for a moment, and my eyes were witnessing more than I could ever imagine.
It was *simply barbaric*.
The sound of the belt cut through the air and swung hard. But the screech of the woman was higher when it connected with her skin.
“Ahhh.” She shrieked, clenching my bottom before the second blow fell. And then three more in rapid succession.
The room's deathly silence was haunting, while hungry eyes took note of every movement of the scene. Several licks were laid on her ass cheeks, on the underside of her sit spot until she cremated her apology again and again.
“Stick out your bottom, Sedona,” Dylan chided when she sagged against the wood and repeatedly tried to escape the landing blows. But it was of no use. Her mate was precise enough to exact her position every time she faltered.
“That’s it.”
It was *finally* *done*.
By now, Sedona was a puddled mess with her flushed face and glowing red backside that evidently matched her hair. To my utter dismay, Sedona rose slowly on her wobbling legs and wiped the tear-streaked face.
Has it not for the man grasping her by the elbow, I was more than sure that she would have stumbled over. Dylan led her to a wooden stool placed in the center of the room and guided her on top of it.
The tell-tale wince and loud hiss she emitted made it evident that sitting on a wooden surface was the last thing she wanted. But she had a minimal choice in that matter.
The whispers and murmurs rose as the man walked over, grabbed something. It was hard to figure out, given he kept it slightly discreet.
“She will face her pack mates,” Xander decreed. “That is the custom.”
Mutely, the sniffing woman on the stool, turned around and sat with her back towards me. Since her face was obscured, it wasn't easy to read her expression, but the body language gave it all away. Sedona sat with a stiff back as if she was anticipating another physical blow.
And to a certain point, I was damn right.
The man walked behind her once again, grabbed the long braid with one hand, and yanked. It was only then I recognized the tool on his other hand.
*Scissors*!
He was holding a pair of gleaming scissors that mercilessly hacked into her braid.
“What is…what are they doing?” I stuttered as Grecia quickly stamped a hand over my mouth in silence.
“She has brought shame to the pack by cheating on her mate, which is why she has to sacrifice something,” she whispered.
“But…this is wrong!” I hissed, pulling down her palm. “They have already beaten and humiliated her.”
Grecia snorted. “Please, she is a she-wolf. Fifteen lashes are nothing. In all probability, the marks will faint by tomorrow morning. And Alpha Xander has been kind. Generally, it is done in front of the entire pack, and a minimum of fifty lashes are given to her offender. So, she should consider herself lucky.
My skin paled as my eyes glued to the savage shearing of her braid. It was so thick, so luscious, that his entire strength was invested into the shearing. In a couple of minutes, the deed was done. Her beautiful red hair was chopped abruptly near the ear lobes, and when she moved her head, the tresses swung forward to her cheeks.
Even though I could not see her face, it was evident her sobs were dedicated to her loss of beautiful hair in the hands of a bunch of animals.
*Animals* in every sense of the word.
“Sedona, you have hurt your mate and your pack,” Xander announced. “But so far, you have taken your punishments with grace. For the last penance, you will not turn for the next three full moons. If you do, the penalties will be repeated all over again. If the urge gets impossible, your mate will have to chain you in the dungeon. Only after the completion of the three full moons, will you be given back your place in the pack.”
The sobbing woman dared to raise her head and whispered, “Until then?
“Until then, you are to remain secluded from the pack. You will not take part in the celebrations or associate yourself with the other females. But you can stay with your mate. I can only allow that much.”
The relief in her voice was devastating. “Thank you, Alpha. You have been kind.”
“Let’s get this over with. You will deliver your apology on your knees.”
My ears were ringing so badly that I could not register her apology, nor did I wish to. Beads of sweat coated every inch of my skin in utter hatred and abhorrence. On what earth did I ever think that I could fit myself into the world of Xander?
I have to leave.
I have to *escape* before he traps me in his world forever.

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***Thank you for reading the chapter. Please leave me a comment about your thought so far***.