Chapter Thirteen: Ember’s Punishment.

Everything was happening in very rapid motions. Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest. The tears which were now streaming down her face flowed quickly and freely. Even the hot rage which burned in Ember's chest was breathing fast like a living thing.

"This will be your punishment, Ember Doyle". A young Lycan boy around her age was saying. He was reading out of an ancient looking scroll. The boy's voice was drowned out by the buzzing noise inside her head. The thoughts hummed around in her head like the sound of a thousand honeybees.

She was going to be banished to live the rest of her life with the humans. Ember could picture herself as a stray werewolf girl wandering around in the human world without the protection of her pack. She was going to be the target of the entire supernatural world. Other werewolves who held a grudge against her pack were going to come for her head. 

Vampires would pick up her scent and prey on her. They would make her a scapegoat, those creatures hated werewolves with a burning passion and she would be the one to pay for that disdain.

She could go back to John and Rosa. She could pretend to be human and avoid trouble. That was not such a bad idea, after all. She had read one too many human books which told her all about how humans went about their lives. She knew she would blend in perfectly.

In that instant, the boy's booming voice cut through all the woe-is-me thoughts running around in Ember's head.

"According to the legend of Lycan mating laws, a werewolf who flees from their mating ground on the premise of memory loss or someone tampering with their memory…", his voice resonated sweetly through the air. If the situation was not so serious, Ember thought that the boy had a voice which could put someone to sleep.

He continued reading from the scroll, his voice wafting through the room like a current. "…the punishment for such a Lycan is three weeks in the dungeon and after they serve their time, such a Lycan will be demoted from whatever rank they previously held back to an Omega which is the lowest Lycan rank"

A collective gasp spread through the otherwise silent courtroom. Ember's eyes locked with Juno's and there was a wicked glint in Juno's eyes. The malicious bitch was enjoying this. Ember wondered what she had ever done to Juno, but then evil people really didn't need any reason to be evil. They just were.

Her eyes cut to her mother whose head was hanging low. Ember's heart bled for her poor mom. Even if she deserved this public show of disgrace, her mom didn't. She was the coolest mom in the world and cool people didn't deserve bad things.

Her eyes darted to her father. He still stood in his position by the corner where the tribunal sat. There was a quiet sadness in his eyes, the kind that said he was ashamed of his daughter. Somehow, Ember couldn't bring herself to feel pity for Mr Doyle.

"After serving her punishment, she will be allowed to continue her life as normal. She will be welcome back to the Lycan Academy and given a chance to choose a mate", the boy said in conclusion. He bowed curtly and then plopped into his seat.

They agreed that Ember would be sent to the dungeon the next day to start the duration for her punishment. For the meantime, she would be in the holding cell and visitors would be allowed to pay her visits.

The whole thing felt like a poorly executed bad dream. Ember found that she was constantly pinching herself, perhaps if she did that hard enough, she would wake up from the nightmare.

She was led away from the courtroom by the two warriors who had previously brought her in. They pushed her into the cell and shut the door with a loud bang. Ember flinched from the sound, was this what it felt like to be a prisoner? Everyone suddenly became more coarse towards her.

The frustration she felt coursed through her veins like her blood had been poisoned by it. A loud, piercing scream broke out from within her as she charged for the chair in the middle of the cell room. She picked it up and threw it against the wall with such ferocity that the chair broke into different pieces.

She found herself on the ground, helpless and alone. A devastating sob broke out from her chest, her shoulders shaking violently as she cried.

Where were her memories? How foolish could she have been to run in the first place? There must have been a reason she ran and if she had her memories of that night, she would know why. The thoughts of 'what could have happened instead of this' were endless. When one scenario ended, she just spun out another.

Over an hour passed, Ember was exhausted from crying. Her throat was parched and it suddenly hit her that she had not eaten anything since the day before. She could not even find the energy to call in the warriors, ask for water and maybe some food.

She lay on the hard concrete floor, tired from all the crying. Suddenly, her eye caught something on the table and she sprung up to her feet. Rushing to her feet, a wide smile splayed on her lips as she recognized what it was.

The chocolate bar and bottle of water that Mrs Doyle had given her the day before suddenly seemed like a gift from heaven. She smiled widely as she read the paper next to the food.

'Eat. I told you you would need your strength for this' , the paper read. It was in her mother's writing. 

Ember felt her heart flutter with warmth as she popped open the chocolate bar and bit into it. It felt like a thousand years since she'd had any real food. Just then, a knock sounded on the door and it swung open.

The smile faded from Ember's lips and the chocolate bar lost its sweet taste as the visitor came into view. "What are you doing here?", she asked.

"Ember…", Mr Doyle's voice was barely a whisper.

"Are you happy, yeah, dad?" Ember asked. There was a tinge of bitterness in her voice. The man standing before her wasn't the man she had idolized as a child. All she wanted to be as a child was her father; brave and strong and loving. She had been mistaken. Those characteristics were her mother's and definitely not his.

"I'm not your enemy, Em", he said, closing the gap between them.

Ember took several steps back and scoffed. "Sure? Because it didn't look like that back in the courtroom. You couldn't even look at me!", she bellowed.

Mr Doyle kept his eyes trained on his boots. "I was ashamed, Ember", he confessed.

Ember could not bring herself to believe she had heard him right. "Of me?", she asked, her voice clouded with tears.

Mr Doyle shook his head fiercely. "No… Of me!", he whimpered. "I could never be ashamed of you, Ember Doyle. You are my daughter"

Ember rolled her eyes, keeping her arms akimbo. "I'm a criminal, not your daughter", she clarified. "If I were your daughter—", she said and looked around the cell room. "— I wouldn't be here"

Mr Doyle kept his eyes on his feet, unable to look his daughter in the eye. "I was just doing my job", it sounded more like a plea than a statement.

"Your job is to protect your daughter!" Ember hollered. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

"I have a job to protect my pack too!" Mr Doyle said, matching her tone. Her father was just unbelievable, Ember thought as she wiped the tears off her eyes. She wouldn't waste her precious tears on him.

"Get out, please dad", she said in a low tone. Her father looked at her shocked by her request.

"What did you just say to me?" , he asked. Ember collapsed to the ground. All she wanted was to be alone. Her father was the last person she'd wanted to see.

"Get out!", she repeated herself. Her voice was steady and cold.