My Sister’s Grave, The Alpha’s Crime Novel – Chapter 1 The Trial That Forced the Truth My little sister was raped and murdered. The person who helped her killer stay hidden was me. For fifteen years, my parents cursed my name. My pack threw me away. I clung to life like a starving stray, too broken to die and too hated to live. On the day my body finally began to fail, Sal Blackthorn, the boy I had once raised in my heart like a younger brother, became the new Alpha. He called me the beast who protected Lily’s murderer. For revenge, he pried my mouth open and poured a witch’s truth serum down my throat. “You protected the monster who raped and killed your own sister. We actually thought you were a good sister once. Lily has been dead for fifteen years, and you let that animal live free for every one of them.
Today, I will make the whole pack see who you have been protecting.” Later, when I finally said the real killer’s name, the Alpha who had been standing above me dropped to his knees with a thud. Sal trembled like the world had split open under him. … The day he dragged me to the judgment platform, he released his Alpha pressure on purpose. Every wolf in Silver Moon Pack felt it. Every one of them came. The square beneath the platform filled fast. Record keepers from the old families shoved their way to the front, and the moonstone lights threw my face across the whole werewolf mainland. Wolfsbane had been eating me from the inside for years. My wolf soul was almost gone. I was down to one thin breath. They still threw me onto the platform like garbage. Something cracked in my chest. A rib that had never healed snapped again and stabbed through flesh. My father charged at me with red eyes and locked both hands around my neck. “Why did you shield the b*tch who killed your sister? How did we ever give birth to a beast like you? Die! Just die!” Air vanished. Dark spots burst across my vision.
The crowd exploded. “I know her. Her own sister was raped and murdered, and she covered for the criminal.” “I heard her mother once held a silver dagger to her own heart and begged for the killer’s name, but Harper just told her to get away.” Their hatred hit me from every direction. Sal stood a few steps away. Tall. Broad. Looking down at me like a judge staring at something filthy. Grief and fury twisted his face. His eyes were harder to read. Other than my parents, no one in this world hated me more than Sal. Fifteen years ago, Sal and Lily Snyder were the children I loved most. They followed me everywhere. Then came that night. Lily was found behind my old cabin. She died horribly. Her wolf soul had been crushed apart. Bruises from the assault covered her body. Blood had poured from between her legs and soaked the ground beneath her. Before she died, she wrote in blood: “Sister saw the killer.” I was the only witness. And I never said the killer’s name. From that day on, everyone saw me as an accomplice to rape and murder. The sisterly bond Sal and I shared broke with Lily’s death.
Worst of all, they were not completely wrong. I really had protected the criminal. Sal walked to me. His voice had no warmth left. “Harper Snyder, I am warning you for the last time. Tell us who the real killer is. If you refuse, the witch’s serum will split your skin open like fire. By the end, you will be a mindless body that can only speak the truth, and you will lose even the chance to explain yourself.” Blood drained from my face. My body fought to survive before my mind could stop it. I struggled, desperate to get away. “Sal, no. You cannot do this.” He caught my wrist. My arm was all bone under skin. His jaw clenched. “Now you know fear? Too late. Today I drag that killer into the light. Today Lily gets justice.” Tears covered my face. I looked at him with the last of my strength. “Sal, listen to me. I cannot name that criminal. If you learn the truth, you will regret it.” “Regret?” He laughed once, cold and ugly. Then he bent down, gripped my throat, and stared at me with bloodshot eyes. “The thing I regret most is ever calling you my sister.” He raised his hand.
Two Enforcement Unit members dragged me to the center of the platform and forced me into a chair. Silver shackles soaked in wolfsbane venom snapped around my wrists and ankles. The silver ate into my skin. I cried out before I could stop myself. Sal wanted silver to pin down my wolf soul, to keep my wolf from resisting. He did not know I had no wolf left. Not anymore. I tried to fight. The enforcers kicked me down until pain folded my body. Then they forced my chin up and poured purple liquid into my throat. The moment it slid down, fire tore through me. “Ahhh!” My whole body burned. I thrashed against the restraints, but the shackles held. My eyes rolled back. My throat screamed until it tore raw. My limbs jerked violently. The serum had begun. Cracks opened across my skin. Blood seeped out in thin red lines. The crowd did not pity me. They grew excited. Mud and stones flew from below, striking my head and face until blood ran into my eyes. “Animal! Go to h*ll!” “Die already!” Do not say it. Do not say it.
Never say it. I repeated the words inside my head, clinging to the last scraps of sanity the serum had not burned away. It was no use. My body no longer listened to me. My gaze scattered. My will was being ground down grain by grain. Then the witch activated the memory crystal. It rose into the air, ready to project whatever truth I spoke. I felt consciousness slipping. In desperation, I tried to bite off my own tongue. Sal saw. He lunged forward. With one sharp crack, he dislocated my jaw. My mouth was no longer mine. A dull, numb sound crawled out of my throat. Against my will, I began to speak. The memory crystal brightened. And the past that had been buried for fifteen years opened before everyone.