It was around mid-afternoon of the next day when Siroos finally returned, landed just outside near the oasis and shifted.
All those emotions he had worn on his sleeve in the morning had been buried somewhere deep and locked away. His face was as blank as the sky above with no clouds.
Only disgust clung to him in ample amounts. Disgusted by how he had mated with another female.
Disgusted at how he had hurt his mate, in every aspect that existed between them.
Siroos picked up the earthen pot they kept near the oasis to water their plant and filled it up, pouring it over his body to remove the grime and stinking smell of Kela that still clung to him like the stink spray of a skunk.
He mindlinked Ranon.
Getting rid of her scent he turned his attention towards their Sensifa tree. As he had predicted the young sapling had its leaves turned downwards. Sensing the rift between them and his betrayal the plant had absorbed the negative emotions and their cries.
It ripped Siroos’s heart open as he offered the plant some water, deep down, knowing it wouldn’t matter. But he kept his emotions on a leash as he stepped away.
Ranon rushed to his side, carrying a fresh loincloth. Siroos quietly accepted it as Ranon’s concerned eyes scanned his Alpha but he didn’t speak and only covered him so he could change.
This was the calm before the storm, Ranon could feel it in his gut and knew something of intense magnitude was about to occur.
"Gather the pack, every member including Kela and elders. Except my mate, Lana and kids. Lana must remain with Cassandra." Siroos passed on serious instructions while securing the belt above his attire and straightening up, standing to his full height.
"Yes, Alpha!" Ranon said.
"Tell Fownso, I need his non-healing potions." Ranon nodded and retreated, opening the mind link and passing on the message to the whole pack.
Soon the pack began to gather, throwing uneasy glances at each other. Faris and Ranon had informed them earlier that the Alpha was angered because of something that had happened to Cassandra. They didn’t elaborate on it.
Siroos stood with his legs spread and hands clasped behind his back, stoic expression and eyes blazing with gold and crimson mashed up in them. There was madness inside him, a calm madness about to unleash on people who had wronged him and his mate.
Haylia brought out the Elders, and they filed at one side; fear crawled on their faces, seeing Siroos had gathered up everyone. Ames held Kela on one side while Walan stood at a distance from everyone. Faris had his eyes set on him.
Siroos cast a dark hateful gaze at Kela, making her shiver. The woman made his skin crawl and he knew he would never forgive himself for sleeping with her.
He then shifted his eyes towards Walan and Ghala. Both of them stared back in defiance. He knew they were involved in whatever had happened to him.
Siroos then turned his attention towards his people and began to speak in a voice void of any emotions.
"I have gathered everyone here because a heinous crime has been committed. The crime of violation of rights. The rights of your Alpha and Luna."
Voices murmured their concerns, hands flew to mouths, and eyes widened in shock at his words. Siroos continued.
"As all of you know the curse our pack carries and how important it was for me to find my mate. Which I did, throwing aside all my personal desires and wishes. I brought her here against her wishes just so our pack could thrive, irrespective of what a harsh life she would have. Do you people ever stop and wonder how much she is sacrificing for you all?"
He threw them a point-blank question and wavered his eyes at each and every member.
A few spoke out in weak voices that they did when Elder Ghala intervened.
"Every Alpha and Luna make sacrifices for their pack, what are you getting at Alpha Siroos."
Siroos’s eyes bled red at his words.
"I am getting at the fact that even after she had given her blood and sweat to this pack, how she was coerced to let me take a breeder. To go against the mate bond to betray her and mate with another woman."
Hushed murmurs and panic looks passed between the pack members as Siroos continued speaking.
"Both of us had made peace with the decision that we wouldn’t bring forth children or mate in that sense but the pack Elders refused to accept our decision. She was poisoned against me. That’s why Kela was imprisoned, and Walan was removed as an Elder, instead of learning their lesson. They went behind our backs and tore us apart. Elder Ghala, why don’t you step forward and tell the pack how you concocted a plan to make me mate with Kela."
Siroos’s words were not a request but a command that had Ghala’s knees shivering. He stumbled forward.
"SPEAK!" Siroos’s voice had mingled with his dragon and rumbled out, making fear crawl up the spines of those who heard. No one had seen their Alpha this enraged and putting an Elder on an open trial like this.
Using an Alpha Command on one of his pack members. It was considered a violation of rights so Alpha Command was frowned upon and was only used in extreme cases.
"You... claimed her, Alpha. You went and claimed Kela; all of us saw," Ghala spoke half the truth, still trying to find loopholes against his alpha command, and Siroos was sick of their games.
"Wrong answer, he is courting death." Faris shook his head as Ara stepped closer to him and stood by his side with a worried look. He had forgotten to smile, it seemed. She had never seen Faris so serious before.
"Fownso!" Siroos called the wise healer forward. He skulked forward.
"Give Elder Ghala a non-healing potion," Siroos instructed in a voice void of all emotions.
A hush silence followed as Ghala opened his mouth to complain but Siroos’s aura hit him with such force that he choked on his saliva and began to cough.
Fownso took out a vial and poured it down Ghala’s throat as others watched with bated breaths.
Once he had been fed the potion, Siroos ordered.
"Ranon, break all his fingers, make sure to do one at a time until he decides to tell everyone the truth of how he poisoned my drink and all the other details. Then remove his spine because people like him are spineless and they should be without one."
Siroos could Alpha command him but he wanted to make a spectacle of him and humiliate him as he had done to him and his mate.
The colour drained from Ghala’s and Walan’s faces as other members watched on in horror.
"You–you can’t do this to me. I am an Elder. I demand, respect."
"Yes, I can, and no, you don’t," Siroos answered without a shard of pity on his face.
He gestured to Ranon; who stalked closer to Ghala and grabbed his wrist.
The man was a scorpion shifter, and he had done exactly what a Scorpion does: stuck his Alpha in the back.
But it was time to reap his share of what he had sown.