Burning Desires Craving For My Fathers Best Friend

Chapter one: Judgement Day, Part One

Liliana

I still couldn't believe he was gone.

The wind whispered through the trees as I stood alone before the cold, grey tombstone that bled his name, Alpha Arthur Humphrey. My father. My anchor. My everything.

I blinked back tears, but they kept falling anyway. It had been three days since the doctors gave up... three days since the burial... three days since my heart shattered into a million irreparable pieces.

He was supposed to get better. He promised. He said we'd go back to how things were. But just like that, he left me. Forever. It made no sense.

After months of being sick from a mysterious ailment, he'd finally been able to move his body just a week before his death.

The doctor had said he was getting better, but then, three days ago, it all went to hell. He'd died in my arms.

"Please," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Come back, Dad... Please..."

But there was only silence.

Not even the wind offered comfort.

How was I supposed to take over the pack without him? I wasn't ready. I want my father back!

Suddenly the sound of heavy boots crunching against gravel snapped me from my sorrow. I turned slowly, heart pounding, to see three of my father's guards – my guards now – approaching. But something in their eyes had changed. Something I didn't like.

"What's the meaning of this?" I asked, trying to hold onto what little calm I had left.

The tallest of them, Captain Vance, stepped forward. His expression was unreadable, but the going was in his eyes. They shine with hostility.

"I'm sorry, Princess Liliana," he said coldly. "But you'll have to come with us."

My brows furrowed. "What? Why? What's going on?" My eyes darted between the two other men behind him.

His jaw clenched, and his eyes bored into mine like he couldn't stand me.

"You are under arrest for the murder of the late Arthur Humphrey, the Alpha."

I froze.

The words didn't make sense. Murder? My father? I shook my head, trying to piece together the sentence that had just shattered my reality for the second time in less than a week.

"Is this some kind of cruel joke? Because it's not funny." I gritted my teeth, my hands clenched into fists. I was trying to mourn my father, for crying out loud.

"No, it is not. You can either come with us willingly, or we will have to use force."

I laughed, but it wasn't out of humour. It was out of disbelief and bitterness. I must be having some kind of bad dream.

"Get out, all of you, and I'll forget this nonsense ever happened."

But my words fell on deaf ears.

Vance stalked towards me and grabbed me roughly.

"What are you doing? Let me go!" I spat, but they didn't. Instead, I felt a cold metal clamp around my wrist.

They didn't answer; they didn't even look at me.

"I command you to let me go!" I snapped my mu words and fell on deaf ears.

They dragged me away from my father's grave, away from my grief and towards the dark silhouette of the pack house in the distance.

****

We were already near the pack house when I realised this wasn't a cruel joke. I was really being accused of a crime I didn't commit.

As soon as we stepped into the pack house, I began to call out to my stepbrother.

"Tony! " I yelled, but there was no answer.

"Tony, please. Save me, I don't know what they're talking about." Silence.

"Let me go, or I swear I will have you all thrown in the dungeon." I growled.

But none of them cared about what I was saying.

Their stony faces didn't change, not for a second.

They dragged me into the throne room where the elders and Pack council were seated.

They all stared at me with a look of disgust on their faces.

"What is going on?* I asked, looking around in confusion as the guards finally let go of me.

"Tony?" I looked over at the tall blonde man.