Chapter 6


    Gregory took her to the front row and for the third time in less than an hour, she was shocked. On


    the stage sat King Aiden, and even more members of his n guarded the doors. She was put in a


    seat and Gregory growled at the teacher in the chair next to her. She paled and got up to move. Jo,


    Ana, Ethan, and the sisters went up onto the stage. Everyone, but Jo, sat and Aiden put his arm


    over Sasha’s shoulder. She smiled at him as she leaned into him. The principal tried to hand Jo a


    microphone and she rolled her eyes, ignoring it. She moved to the edge of the stage, her eyes


    moving around the auditorium. She smiled at everyone present and a shiver went down Lily’s back.


    The Jo standing up on the stage was every ounce the Beta of Betas. She had shed her easygoing


    jokester personality and had donned the no nonsense, business is everything, attitude that Lily was


    used to Betas having.


    “I would like Joshua Taylor, Kacey Taylor, and Immi Ruiz, toe up here. Also, Andrea Jones.”


    She waited for them to do as she asked, before she grinned at them and gestured for them to sit.


    “Aaron King and Katerenia Lima. I couldn’t forget you two. Join us immediately.”


    As soon as they sat, they were surrounded by warriors from Aiden’s n. Jo cleared her throat.


    “As most of you know, my name is JoAnn and I am the Beta to the dragon’s king of kings, Lukas


    Lincoln.” Ethan walked onto the stage pulling a gurney behind him. “This is the gamma of the


    Drag?o n. I know I am supposed to offer my condolences for the loss of your teacher this


    morning, but frankly I do not give a damn that you all saw him die. You are shifters and death is


    nothing new to you. I refuse to coddle you like toddlers when you all seem to believe that


    compassion is not to extend to everybody.” She paused to let her words sink in. “With that being


    said, I wish to show you the consequences of harming someone under the protection of any


    member of the royal family, as you all seem to have forgotten.”


    She nodded her head to Ethan, who ripped the sheet off of the body on the gurney. There were


    gasps and a few screams from the audience, before the smell of vomit seeped into Lily’s nose.


    Gregory rubbed some mint under her nose when she gagged. He winked at her and nodded back


    towards the stage. Her eyes moved over the charred body of who had been her teacher just a few


    short hours ago. Ethan lifted the body up and shook it. Gregory’s wing came out and shielded her


    from the juices, and blood, that were flung from the corpse. Itnded all over the people in the front


    few rows, making them reek of death. Jo chuckled.


    “Oh, so that is what upsets you? Stay tuned it gets worse,” she promised.


    She snapped her fingers and the four students were forcibly brought to the front of the stage. They


    were forced to kneel and their shirts were raised. Immi started sobbing and pleading with them. Jo


    stepped up behind them and her hand shifted. She lifted her talons for everyone to see.


    “Let me make myself even clearer, just because you are children, does not mean that you will not


    be punished for mistreating Lilianna Washington. These are the four that I know for a fact have


    been bullying her.”


    She wed down each of their backs so deep that in some spots their bones showed and their


    muscles were torn open. They all copsed on the floor and she tossed each of them off the stage


    into a heap in front of Lilianna, who stared at the injured students. Jo cleaned her hand off with the


    towel that Ana handed to her as she walked back to the edge.


    “This morning, when I dropped Lilianna off here, I expected to see her happy to be back. I expected


    for her to run into the building and be surrounded by her friends, but instead she was shunned,


    talked about and bullied.” The teacher she had passed on her way in was shoved towards Jo,


    whose hand shot out to grab the woman’s throat. “Katerenia, here, decided that she had the right to


    say untruths about Lilianna. Let me make this crystal clear to you and to everyone else that can


    hear my voice, right now. Lilianna never offered herself to the king. The king has not touched her.


    She is not a whore. The king wants your punishment to be less than the others due to the fact that I


    did not see you touch her, but he also gave me free reign to punish you as I saw fit.” She turned to


    look at Lilianna. “For each and every tear I saw her shed, you will take ash. Ethan?”


    She let the woman go and two men dragged her to a pole on a rolling stand that had been ced


    on the stage. They shackled her to it and stepped back. Ethan stepped up behind her, tossing an


    angry looking metal barbed whip between his hands, enthusiastically. Sasha stood and walked over


    to Ethan. She ced her hands on the whip and a silvery white liquid with flecks of red coated it.


    “Arsenic and dragons bane to slow healing and inflict maximum pain,” Sasha said and just like Jo,


    she didn’t even bother to raise her voice.


    Ethan raised the whip over his head, waiting for Jo to start.


    “1!” The whip came down, slicing through the shirt and embedding deep into her skin. Her body


    sagged against the pole. Ethan raised it back up, pulling flesh off of her back. “2!”


    The whip came flying back down towards the teacher and she screamed when it hit her skin. Lily


    whimpered and Gregory turned her into his side, holding her face against his chest as the whipping


    continued. Lily covered her ears in an attempt to drown out the counting. After a few minutes,


    Gregory turned her face back towards the stage. The two men who had attached the teacher to the


    pole dragged her over to the edge of the stage. They threw her over into the waiting hands of more


    Drag?o n members. They attached her to the stage, right next to the four students that had been


    restrained, still bleeding, there. The pole was removed and Jo moved to stand behind Mrs. Jones,


    whose fear was evident. Jo put her hands on the woman’s shoulder.


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    “Now, our friend, Andrea, here, is guilty of many offenses. Putting Lilianna’s face into a toilet and


    trying to drown her, leaving her hanging from a rope struggling toplete a task that she very well


    knew was insurmountable for Lilianna, just to name a few. But the one that bothers me the most,


    are the pictures of Lilianna that I personally found in the locked desk drawer in her office.” She


    squeezed the teacher’s shoulders. “So, I have decided that her punishment will be done in three


    parts, too.”


    A baby pool was brought onto the stage with half a dozen shifted wolves following behind it. A sharp


    whistle drew everyone’s attention to the back of the stage where a rope now hung. Jo smiled.


    “Stand up!”


    The trembling teacher did as she was told and was instantly surrounded by two men with baseball


    bats. Jo gripped her chin as she pulled out a sandwich bag out of her pocket. She forced her mouth


    open and shook several pills into her mouth. She blew into her mouth and Mrs. Jones was forced to


    swallow. As soon as Jo backed away, the men began to beat the teacher in her leg until her bones


    cracked and she fell to the ground. Jo grabbed her hair and pulled her across the stage to the rope.


    She forced her to stand up as tears poured down the teacher’s face.


    “Climb it.”


    “I-I can’t.”


    “CLIMB THE ROPE! NOW!”