A/N: Warning - violence presented in this chapter.

Sixteen hours into our trip east, our car came to a stop within the Central Territory. Looking out the windows, a caravan of familiar, black SUVs with tinted windows. Parked on the road next to an endless, open grassy field, guards positioned around it, dressed in black Kevlar.

My stomach dropped at the sight.

They're waiting for us.

We stopped about forty-five minutes from the Eastern border.

Lumi's eyes probably could see it if I shift

A cool breeze brushed over my cheeks as I stepped out of the car, my heart pounding in my ears and fingers trembling. The wide, open grassy areas, combined by the sight of my father, Beta Baron, and Gamma Erik flanked by a line of security, tempted my sense of flight.

Instead, Elena, Cole, Raina, Idris, the rogue prisoner, and about forty warriors in my father's security team witnessed my humiliation. Each step closer, my head ducked further down until my chin grounded in my chest.

The weight of my father's disappointment hung so thick in the air that I almost tasted it on my dry tongue.

"You insolent child!" He screamed, rearing his hand up over his head. My heart froze at the sight and my stomach dropped.

Pain struck into my cheek and my neck snapped sideways, my other cheek hitting my shoulder. Heated throbs followed in my cheek upon his palm's contact.

"How dare you reject Lucus Shaw." He struck me again, closer to my eye socket, releasing a whimper from my trembling lips. Heated tears rose in my eyes, blurring the grass beneath my feet.

"Hh-he had a mate already," I choked out as he struck my mouth. After the burst of pain, warmth coated my lips. "He asked me -"

"Do you think he would refuse the power of a white Luna? The opportunity and power to control all the territories?" His frame loomed over me, fists and mouth clenched tight.

Wrenched up with wrinkles, his gray skin flushed red and veins raised on the corded sides of his neck. From his shoulders to hands, he shook. Sharp, short breaths pitched his chest and flared his nostrils. My back rounded and I curled inward, trembles shaking my spine.

"No." My shoulders slumped and I cowered. "But our alliance would never have been strong as his natural mate."

"Idiotic bitch!" I bit the inside of my cheek at my father's choice of words then doubled over as he struck me again. The slammed impact filled my mouth with a metallic taste, coating my tongue, and my thighs quivered.

"It. Was. Not. Your. Choice!" With each staccato word, my father struck me, saving the hardest blow for the word 'choice.'

Faltering, my legs gave out and knees hit the soft grass with a thud. My cheeks throbbed and my eyelids swelled, blurring my vision of his tight fists.

"Over time your bond would have weakened theirs."

"Buh-but," I whispered, spitting the liquid pooling in my mouth to the ground. "He would be fighting his wolf, making him weak."

"By rejecting him, Zara, you risk initiating war by making an enemy stronger." Every strike he continued increased in intensity and level of inflicted pain.

Worse than any sparring with Cole or Raina, his knuckles smashed into my face, rattling my teeth and cheekbones. Tears rolled down my cheeks and congestion flowed down into my mouth but I made no attempts to remove them.

Blackness dotted my vision as my entire face throbbed. "He mm-made a p-p-promise," I rasped through gritted teeth. "He won't attack you."

My father's fists stilled, dotted with red spots and clenched at his sides. "Perhaps you did learn something, that your lack of judgment is useless in political interactions. He won't attack you or your pack."

His thin lips peeled back, his canines glistening in the late morning sun. "But you are not in my pack."

Through my swollen eyelids, I stared at him with unblinking eyes as the impact of my mistake sunk in. Deep down, a small part of me knew that I wasn't wrong though and I sank down from my knees onto my bottom.

His large frame shadowed over me as his venomous voice filled my ears, "And he is not alpha yet. Your arrangement means nothing except angering and insulting the true alpha, Faelen. You have turned a delicate situation into a tactical disaster embarrassing yourself, embarrassing me."

He cursed, shaking his head. "Foolish, insolent child. You're entirely ignorant of your actions' ramifications."

"Who's fault is that?" My eyes glared up at him from under my damp lashes. "If you would've had the pack ceremony, taught me about making political influences, then I could better protect your pack."

The challenge, even in the weak voice I released it with, earned me his hand clasped around my throat. Tipping my chin up, he forced his eyes into his, swirling black and blue as his wolf surfaced.

"Stupid daughter," he spewed through clenched teeth.

His fingers pinching into my throat column, he gripped my throat like a vice. Gargled sounds erupted out my mouth as he compressed the cords. The air left my lungs when his nails scraped into the flesh.

"I should kill you myself," he muttered.

"Lucus was wuh-weak," I sputtered as my fingers raked over his grasp. "He made muh-me d-d-do..."

Throbs of restrained blood pulsed below his fingers, inflicting as much pain as his gouging fingers. The blackness dotting my vision increased as a dizzying sensation filled my skull. My scraping fingers stilled, dropped, and hung limp at my sides. My lips moved, gaping and twitching. He squeezed tighter, releasing me with a grunt and shove.

My palms hitting the ground, I gasped for breath. Tears dripped out the corners of my eyes and saliva pooled under my tongue as I coughed and sputtered for air. Rounding my back, I sucked in a deep breath.

"You disobeyed my orders to not make a decision after visiting the last territory. Zara, you must be punished."

My dry, cracked lips parted in a silent gasp.

"Ten lashes." He shifted his eyes coldly and nodded at Baron, who clutched a silver whip in his hands.

"No," I whispered as my eyes pulled wide.

The silver glinted in the sunlight, almost as much as the gleam in Baron's eyes.

My swollen cheeks chilled, like the blood drained out. Goosebumps raised on my forearms and lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. I recoiled under the weight of the eyes on us, drawing my knees up to my chest.

"That's right, no." My father's eyes glared at me. "No more rejections, no acceptances until you're done with each territory. Carry this reminder of your insolence."

He nodded at Gamma Erik, who stepped forward with another security team member. With rough hands coiled around my wrists, they yanked me up to standing.

"No!!" I screeched until my throat burned. "Don't do this!"

My father's spine straightened and arms crossed over his chest.

"Please." Tears flooded hot trails down my cheeks as I was dragged, one stumbling step at a time, down the line of my father's security detail.

Like a black, impassive wall, their eyes never met mine.

My screams of protest rang through the open meadow. A sting cut into my wrists as Erik bound them with a chain, then secured the other end around a nearby tree. When finished, I faced the tree with my back now to my father, Baron, and the crowd of silent witnesses.

My view was the mangled, dead bark that covered the tree. The texture reminded me of scarred and leathered skin.

"No..." I whimpered with a hiccup, tugging on the chains until the silver hissed and bit into my skin.

Baron then stepped ten feet away from me. With a hiss through the air, he released the coiled up whip. It landed on the ground with a thud.

"I'm going to enjoy this," were the last words he said, drawing the whip out of my peripheral vision.

Silence fell over the entire field. The breeze stilled and far off birds cawed. A slight hissing sound cut through the silence, followed by a low grunt from Baron and a crack.

My eyes squeezed shut.

Not one breath later, a splitting heat tore diagonally into my back and right shoulder. The lash arched my back, jolting my chest up to my chin and tearing a low cry between my lips.

My hands clenched into fists, as if that absorbed the stinging pain that now radiated from my raw, exposed skin.

"That's one."

Baron didn't hide the enjoyment in his voice as he drew his arm and the whip back to him. It slithered back like a silver snake. I gritted my teeth and turned my gaze back to the tree, pressing my cheek into the rough bark.

"Two."

The whip cut into the soft tissue on my lower back. With a rip, my shirt tore and skin seared near my left side. I squeezed my eyes and lips shut, trying not to scream so early through the punishment. Heat throbbed from the two wounds, pulsing like heartbeat breaking through the exposed skin.

"Three."

My mouth released a gasp as the whip chewed across my entire upper back. The air licked at the exposed skin, prickling it with sensitivity. Trickles of liquid ran down the crease of my spine.

"Four."

A feral cry rose up to the back of my throat and threatened to escape from my lips as the cuts overlapped. The twice raw exposure doubled the pain, which brought me to the threshold of losing control. My knees buckled.

Pacing, Lumi could feel the pain inside of me. Her whine echoed through my mind, numbing under the pain sensations overtaking my torso. The warm, tickling sensation increased down my back and my pulse roared in my ears.

As my shoulders slumped and my head hung low, I saw crimson splatters on the grass behind my heels. More tickling sensations dripped with soft splats of contact.

"Five."

The whip's hiss through the air released a scream that vibrated my sore throat, "Ahhh!"

Under the hot, searing pressure from the pain, my knees trembled, calves burned, and legs gave out. My pained cheek scratched into the bark as I slid down. Softness hit my knees as I collapsed down into them, sagging forward until my shoulder braced me on the tree. Tears dripped over my chin as I gasped and hiccuped for air, dripping to the ground like the blood splats below me.

A sobering reminder of Alpha Faelen's compassion closed my eyes. As I knelt, my back felt tossed into a fire instead of exposed to the open air. As the initial stings subsided, they were replaced by throbbing, aching pain licked my skin, radiating from my shoulders to my sacrum.

"Six."

A silent choke squeezed my throat in on itself. My lacerated cuts bled like open wounds and tributaries of hot, ticklish blood streamed out what remained of the back of my shirt, my pants, and the grass between my knees.

Fluttering in and out of blackness, the ground blurred beneath me. My mind numbed until all I felt was raw, exposed, vulnerable... broken.

Shame lodged itself in the center of my chest, slumping me down in defeat. I had nothing left, except the tree's support of my sagging weight. Saliva dripped out the corners of my parted lips, wheezing breaths passing between them.

"Seven."

Baron drew back again but paused. I didn't move and inch because no struggle or resistance remained in me. Shame lodged itself in the center of my chest, slumping me down in defeat. I had nothing left, except the tree's support of my sagging weight. Saliva dripped out the corners of my parted lips, wheezing breaths passing between them.

"Enough." My father's emotionless voice spoke up. "She's learned her lesson. Release her."

With a yank that snapped my wrists up overhead, Baron yanked the chain. With a low grunt, he freed my hands. Trembling, I collapsed into a shaking heap on the grass, clutching my wrists. Curling onto my side, my knees drew up into my chest. The action rounded my back, throbbing knife-like pains on the open wounds and drawing ragged sobs up the back of my throat.

I'm done.

Exposed to the air, my skin cried with sensitivity. Numbness chased behind the pain and my mind stretched to it. All I wanted was for my father, Baron, and everyone who stood as silent witnesses to leave.

They've taken everything out of me.

The progress I built up over the past month - the hope, the strength, the courage in myself - my father had stripped all away.

My dignity, my lifeline, my willpower to move forward had been whipped out of me. I was left with nothing but an empty shell of raw, exposed pain.

Closing my eyes, the faraway sound of a growl sounded out. Rolling over the ground like thunder, it vibrated my ears. Numb from pain, my brain barely registered the breaking out sounds of additional growls.

"The... rogues." My dry throat burned as I wheezed out between coughs, "What did you do?"

In shuffled steps, my father flew next to me in one breath. Both his hands reached down, grabbed me at the throat again, and lifted me to a standing position. His fingers pressed into my vocal chords with a level of tension that threatened to shred them through the skin.

"Zara," he gritted through his teeth, his eyes dark with a determined sense of hate. "You think of nothing but mates for the next three months or next time I will kill you myself."

My limp body hung in suspension, lifeless and devoid of worth. He lifted me off the ground by the throat and yanked me up. Pure hatred burned in his eyes, sending chills down my spine.

With a flick of his wrist, he grunted. Tossing me away like a limp, empty vessel, I landed with a groan, rolling over to face the caravan vehicles and our audience. A sharp pain struck the side of my temple, blurring my vision and sagging my head back until I looked up.

Garbled words passed through my ears, drowned out by a ringing sound that cut through my thoughts.

A rough hand shackled around my wrist and tugged me. The green grass and blue sky over the open field blurred in front of me as he dragged me, staggered for a few paces, then released me to the ground as if moving me further wasn't worth the effort.

Blurry shapes moved around me before my eyes fluttered and I truly gave up.