Chapter 26: 26: Every Woman Loves Her Diamonds
[TW: Sexual Assault]
"Missing?" Cassian echoed in surprise. He tried to keep his voice as hushed as possible, but his voice was still raised with the tiniest bit of annoyance. "How can it be missing?"
"Didn’t you bring it with you in your suit pocket this whole time?" Soren asked, frowning.
"I did," Rowan said. His eyebrows had knitted tightly together, and he continued to dig through his pockets, but to no avail. "I was sure I still had it with me when I left the room."
Soren and Cassian exchanged glances, their lips pressed into a thin line.
"Could you have dropped it?" Soren suggested.
"Maybe you lost it just now outside the chapel," Violet suggested.
She cast a quick glance in my direction, and instantly, I felt my heart drop into the pits of my stomach. I knew without a doubt that I wasn’t going to like whatever she had to say next.
"Briar did knock into you quite forcefully," she continued. "Maybe it slipped out of your pocket then?"
"Or maybe," Cassian said, his eyes instantly darkening with ferocity, "she took the chance to steal it."
"Steal it?" Soren echoed, his eyes widening.
Rowan said nothing, but he glared at me harshly, his jaw clenching together hard. One look and I knew that Cassian and Rowan had already branded me the thief in their minds. Soren probably didn’t need much convincing either.
"It would be awfully convenient," Cassian said, his eyes narrowing as he strode forward to close the distance between us. "One slight bump, an innocent touch, and while everyone is distracted with her dress, she reaches into Rowan’s pocket and pulls out the ring."
"That is not true!" I immediately denied. A burst of energy crept through my chest, and my body went into fight or flight with the sudden rush of adrenaline. "I didn’t steal anything. Not the dress, and most definitely not the ring!"
"Oh, and we’re to trust your words now?" Cassian snarled.
"Come on, guys," Soren said with an awkward chuckle. "Why would Briar steal the ring? She has no need for it."
"She is just a girl too," Cassian said, perfectly recalling Violet’s previous words, smiling mockingly. "And don’t every girl love their jewels?"
"Maybe Briar has got a good reason for taking the ring," Violet said, coming forward. "I am sure she didn’t mean to take it. Isn’t that right, Briar?"
Her eyes all but twinkled as she spoke. Her words instantly slammed the guilty verdict on my head before I could even be proven so. Violet also knew that her words carried weight. Rowan and Cassian already thought I had stolen it, and with her statement, their anger and sureness only grew. At the same time, murmurs rippled through the crowd, further cementing my supposed crime.
"I don’t have it!" I tried to say, but was ruthlessly ignored by everyone.
Cedar nodded at two warriors positioned at the back of the stage, and they came forward immediately. They began to pat me down, searching every possible hiding spot. Their hands roamed across my body, and I wiggled and squirmed whenever they tried to touch somewhere inappropriate. This action, however, only made it all the more seem like I had something to hide.
When the two warriors found nothing to report, they looked unsurely at the Alphas. Cassian merely gritted his teeth, wrinkles forming across the bridge of his nose.
"Strip her," he commanded.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
However, I had no chance at resisting the command.
The two warriors held me down easily, their strength largely overpowering mine. Without hesitation, they reached for the zipper that I had futilely pulled above my hips, yanking it all the way down to expose my behind.
"Get off!" I yelled, trying to push them off. However, as a female human against two male werewolves, holding me down was as easy as pinning an ant down on a board. They barely even broke a sweat.
"Cassian, is this really necessary?" I heard Soren ask.
"If she’s unwilling to admit her crime, then we will just have to find our evidence," Cassian calmly replied. When he noticed how I was trying to maneuver my body so that they couldn’t safely remove the dress, Cassian scowled. "Tear the dress."
My eyes widened with horror.
"I thought you said that this was Willow’s dress," I cried out, heaving heavily.
They just gave me hell for apparently stealing Willow’s design, but they surely didn’t seem to have a problem now with ripping it to shreds. It only contained sentimental value when it matched their narrative.
Cassian’s gaze held no warmth. Rowan matched that iciness.
"It’s just a design," Rowan coolly said. "Another can always be made."
With their Alphas’ confirmation, the two warriors waited no longer. With one sharp tug, the sound of ripping fabric echoed through the chapel. I screamed, kicked, cussed, and swore, but it was to no avail. The fabric was utterly decimated, leaving me in nothing but my birthday suit in front of the entire pack.
The murmurs grew louder, and unlike just now, where it was just a small show of my bare back, this time, my entire body was out for the pack to view. I desperately clutched my chest, trying to preserve the last shreds of my dignity as the two warriors pulled off the remaining fabric to examine.
"I heard from Beta Cedar that she is planning on becoming the pack’s whore."
"Maybe that’s why the Alphas are keeping her around."
"Do you think maybe she will be rotated to the barracks anytime soon? Training has been a little hard, if you know what I mean."
"Look at that figure! Can you imagine how tight she would be? And those breasts, damn."
Laughter rang through the crowd as more and more men began to feed into the chatter. Women, on the other hand, held various levels of disdain in their expressions. The rare few looked sympathetic, but they disappeared as quickly as they noticed my gaze sweeping past them.
Whether they pitied me as a woman or not didn’t matter. What mattered to them was that they believed I had killed the most-beloved Luna candidate, and that was a crime worse than anything else imaginable.
Tears blurred my vision, and I glared up at the Alphas when the two warriors approached them to hand them whatever was left of my clothing.
"There’s nothing found, Sir," one of the warriors said.
"The dress doesn’t seem to have pockets either," the other said.
"There’s one last place I can think of," someone hollered from the crowd, and a bunch of them began to hoot and cheer.
The tips of Cassian’s ears turned red, but his expression did not budge. Nevertheless, it was clear he got their message loud and clear.
I paled with horror when I realized what they meant.
"Hold her down," he said, "and pry her legs open."
