STEPUNCLES ALPHA'S PUNISHES ME EVERYNIGHT

AUTUMN POV

The grand hall of the Logan estate was suffocating, the thick air pressing against my skin like an unbearable weight. Every eye in the room was on me-some filled with judgment, others with curiosity. But the worst of them? The three pairs of silver-blue eyes that had once looked at me with love, now burning with cold fury.

Adonis sat in the center, his presence an unmovable force. Knox stood beside him, unreadable, calculating. And Dante... Dante leaned against the table, his fingers drumming lightly, his expression unreadable, but his eyes? They were darker than I'd ever seen them.

Knox unfurled the scroll in his hand, the parchment crinkling as he spoke. "The evidence speaks for itself." His voice was calm, but his tone carried weight. "And we have testimony."

My breath hitched as the side doors creaked open. Two figures stepped inside. I felt the color drain from my face.

Ivy and Rowan. My supposed best friends. My confidants. The ones I trusted most.

"No." The word escaped my lips before I could stop it. "No, no, no..."

Ivy wouldn't meet my gaze, her head bowed as she stepped forward. But Rowan? His eyes were steady, cold.

"Speak," Adonis commanded.

Ivy swallowed hard. "I saw Autumn arguing with Thorne three nights ago. She threatened him."

The weight of the accusation crashed into me. My throat clenched. "He was blocking my return to the pack!" My voice wavered, but I forced myself to look them in the eyes. "We argued, yes, but I never threatened his life!"

Rowan stepped forward. "I saw her retrieving herbs from the eastern forest-wolfsbane and nightshade. She said it was for protection, but..."

"But what?" I snapped, my voice sharp, desperate. "You know exactly why I was gathering those herbs! I was helping Healer Willow prepare a salve for the warriors-nothing more!"

His expression didn't waver. "You told me yourself that wolfsbane in high doses is lethal."

I gritted my teeth. "Because it is. That doesn't mean I used it!"

Dante pushed off the table, walking toward me, his pine scent wrapping around me like a cruel reminder of what I had lost. He stopped just inches away, his voice dropping to a soft tone. "I want to believe you, Little Moon. More than anything."

Little Moon. The nickname he had given me when we were younger. My heart cracked. I searched his gaze for the warmth that used to be there. For the protector I had known since childhood.

"Then believe me." My voice wobbled. "Someone is setting me up."

For a moment-just a moment-doubt flickered in his eyes.

Then Adonis slammed his hand on the table. "Enough!" The sound echoed through the hall, and my body flinched involuntarily. "The council will deliberate on your punishment."

My lips parted, disbelief washing over me. "What about a fair trial?" My voice rose. "What about justice? Since when do the Logans condemn without a proper investigation?"

Knox stepped closer, tilting his head slightly as he studied me. "You speak of justice while Beta Thorne lies dead? Your dagger in his heart?"

A sharp laugh bubbled out of me-hollow, broken. "A dagger anyone could have taken from my quarters! I was helping Healer Willow all that night-ask her!"

Adonis's voice was cold. "Healer Willow confirms you left her side for over an hour."

An hour? My stomach dropped. That wasn't possible. I hadn't left except to... Oh gods. Except to retrieve more supplies from the storage room.

An hour. That was enough time. But I hadn't. I forced myself to breathe. "There must be someone who saw me in the storage room," I pleaded, desperation clawing at my throat.

Knox arched a brow. "Convenient that the storage room has no windows and only one entrance, which no one passed through during that time."

I shook my head, my pulse roaring in my ears. "Someone is framing me. You know it. You have to know it!"

Dante's jaw tightened. "Who? Who would go to these lengths?"

I met his gaze. "Agatha." The silence that followed was deafening.

Adonis scoffed, shaking his head. "Again with your jealousy, Autumn?"

I felt sick. Jealousy. That's what they thought this was? That was the lie Agatha had spun around me for years. Since she came into their lives five years ago, she had played the perfect little sister, the fragile victim. She ran to them every time, crying, pointing fingers, weaving her web of deceit so tightly around me that I could no longer breathe. Every punishment, every cruel word, every time their gazes turned colder-it was all her. And now, it had gone so far that she had orchestrated a crime and placed the blame on me.

The doors slammed shut with a resounding thud, the echo reverberating through the empty hall. Everyone was gone. Everyone except them.

Adonis stood in the center, his broad frame stiff with barely restrained fury. Knox leaned against the long wooden table, arms crossed, silver-blue eyes unreadable. And Dante-Dante stood perfectly still, his wolf tattoo prominent as he clenched his fist.

My breath came shallow. I was alone with my mates. Alone with my accusers.

Adonis's voice sliced through the silence. "Take her."

Knox stepped forward first. Before I could react, his hands-so familiar, so warm once-grabbed my wrists. "Don't fight, Autumn," he said, voice deceptively calm. "You'll only make it harder."

He guided me roughly toward a heavy wooden chair. In seconds, thick ropes coiled around my wrists, securing them to the arms of the chair.

"No. No," I pleaded, twisting against the bindings. "Knox, please-"

His grip tightened. "It's Alpha Knox to you now."

"You used to call me Barbie." My voice cracked.

His silver-blue eyes met mine, something unreadable flickering in their depths. Then, just as quickly, it was gone. "Barbie was innocent," he said simply. "Barbie wasn't a liar."

I wanted to scream. Wanted to force them to see me.

But then Adonis stepped forward, a stern, unyielding look on his face. The phoenix tattoo on his neck flexed. "Your sweet words and that innocent face once had me fooled." He leaned down, his golden-brown eyes locking onto mine. "But I was the one who was deceived, wasn't I? You hid your true nature well."

"I didn't do it!" I choked out, fighting the burning in my eyes. "Agatha-she's the one who-"

Adonis let out a cold chuckle. "Blaming your stepsister again, Autumn?" He shook his head. "It's a pathetic refrain."

Knox stepped in, his presence quieter, more intense. He crouched beside the chair, checking the ropes. "I kept giving you chances," he murmured, voice low. "Thinking you'd change. That you'd understand. I thought you were fragile-something to be protected."

The rope pressed into my skin. My fingers tingled. I gasped. "Knox, please-"

His lips thinned. "But you?" He gave the rope a final, firm tug. "You betrayed that trust. You hid a darkness we never saw."

I begged. "Please, just listen to me!"

But then Dante moved. Dante. The one I was closest to. The one who valued truth above all else. I turned to him, desperate. "You know me, Dante. You know I wouldn't do this."

His jaw was set. "Yeah?" His lips quirked in a humorless line. "And yet, the evidence is here."

He stepped closer, his gaze sweeping over my face. "You know what I used to love most about you, Little Moon?" His voice was a low murmur, filled with a bitter nostalgia. He reached out, his fingers barely grazing my cheek in a ghost of a touch. "I thought you were the one pure thing in this world. Someone whose heart matched her face."

Then the fleeting softness vanished, replaced by a chilling resolve. His hand fell away. "But that was just another illusion you crafted, wasn't it?"

His words were the final blow, colder and crueler than any physical strike. The last vestige of hope within me shattered into silence.