The Dragon Brothers
Chapter 41 - Trial for Sex Trafficking

* The Castle at Drakor; The Capital of the Chromos * Royal Court: Lord Aragon's Trial for Sex Trafficking Quentin POV

I walk into the courtroom and take a seat behind the prosecution's side which is where Elena is sitting along with four other girls. Sitting with the girls is a legal spokesman representing the empire. To Elena's left is Lord Aragon in handcuffs and flanked by guards. This is set up pretty much like Lucian's trial except instead of a deacon sitting at the head of the trial Lucian is the head. Lucian will run the trial like the deacon did and will also decide on sentencing once the elders finish deliberating. If the elders are at a stalemate then Lucian is the deciding vote.

Lucian uses his gavel to call the court to order. "Ladies, do you agree that Lord Forest is representing you today?"

"Yes we do." They all announce simultaneously

"Lord Forest, as their representative, is it true that these girls are accusing Lord Aragon of sex trafficking." Lucian asks.

"Yes it is." Forest replies.

"Can the ladies step forward and offer their testimony?" Lucian asks. Each girl stepped forward and offered her account of what she witnessed living at the brothel and being sold to different men until it was Elena's turn. "My parents sold me to Mr Aragon when I was ten years old and now I am eighteen. I can't count the number of men he sold me to at parties or at the brothel. If I didn't want to have sex Aragon would have me handcuffed to a bed and the men were allowed to rape me. If they beat me during sex Aragon told me to suck it up. Aragon even forced me to have a miscarriage by throwing me down a flight of stairs and then repeatedly kicking me in the stomach. Now I don't know if I can get pregnant or not by my mate. I saw many forced abortions that would often leave the girls dead. I have nightmares every night about the rapes, beatings, verbal abuse, and the horrible punishments. Some days I feel like I'm still locked up there even when I'm awake." Elena recounted the hell that she lived in for eight years. Sometimes during her and the other girls' testimonies I was struggling to not jump across the room and decapitate the son of a bitch right there. "Lord Forest, do you have any other testimonies?" Lucian asks.

"Yes, if Prince Cyprian could step forward and attest to the condition of the inside of the brothel when he went there to close it down." Lord Forest says turning around.

Cyprian stands up and steps forward. "The condition was absolutely deplorable. It was not fitting for a human being. The rooms were so small you could just fit a mattress inside and a small table, some of the mattresses had blood stains, and there were no windows allowing air circulation. They were basically living like a caged animal.

"Lord Aragon, what do you say in response to these testimonies?"

"They are all lies! Yes, it is true that I ran a brothel before that was before the Chromos Empire took the Kingdom of Cait. I had plans to shut the brothel down but didn't know what to do with the girls. I didn't want to just throw them out on the street. Also, Prince Quentin has now been seen quite frequently with one of those girls so it is only natural that his brother Cyprian would expand on the truth and lie for him." Lord Aragon says in his defense. "Elders, you have heard both sides. Please go into your room and deliberate. Upon your return we shall resume court." Lucian says and then the elders stand and file out of the room towards a room behind their chairs.

After what seemed like an agonizingly long time, but was really only two hours the elders return with their decision.

"Elders, have you reached a decision?" Lucian asks.

"Yes we have. Our decision is that Lord Aragon is guilty of sex trafficking."

"NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! I just came under the Chromos' Empire's ruling! This isn't right!"

"Guards put a muzzle on Lord Aragon." Lucian says with little interest in his pleas.

"Lord Aragon, the royal court has found you guilty of sex trafficking. I hereby sentence you to death. Take the prisoner to the dungeon to await his execution." Lucian says as he watches Lord Aragon being dragged from the court kicking and screaming. Now that court has ended I immediately go to Elena and put my arms around her. "You did it Baby. How do you feel?"

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"Better but still sad. I know I still have a long way to go in my healing. Are you sure you want to walk this journey with me?" She gives me a weak smile.

"As long as you want me beside you I'll be right there." I wrap my arms around her tighter..

As Lucian leaves the courtroom he stops by where I'm talking to Elana. "Quentin, I'm going down for execution. Do you want some of this?" "Fuck yeah I do!" I exclaim and Lucian nods his head at head at me.

Wolf POV

Emily and I are packing our things. Thankfully she woke up last night and now I'm not so worried anymore but I still want to get away from the castle and back to more familiar settings. It's not that the Salona Kingdom is better than here but it's smaller so it's more controlled.

Suddenly, there's a loud knocking at the door. I open to replace one of my army's messengers with a letter in his hand from one of my lieutenants. The letter states that a nearby village has come under attack by trolls, the buildings vandalized, several homes damaged or burned, and many people killed. The lieutenant and a platoon were sent to the village and were able to kill the trolls before creating further damage. But I should hurry home to view the damage myself. I replace this all to be very odd because Cyprian just had a village attacked by trolls as well. While trolls are known to be quite vicious they rarely leave their dwelling place in search of a new refuge; however, they can be hired to kill which they often are. I reluctantly tell Emily I have to leave using my dragon form and she should travel with the armed guards that we brought with us back home.

Once I fly home my Lieutenant Mannering takes me to the Village Alryne but I notice on our way there we don't take the usual route which I replace odd. Suddenly, from the bushes jump out twenty trolls. Even for two men that is a lot to take on but then I notice that Mannering guides his horse backwards and doesn't engage in the fight nor do the trolls attack him. So, it's me against twenty trolls. I fight like my life depends on it because it does. Finally, with enough of the trolls down I can take a breath and I change into my dragon form and I rip the last of the trolls to shreds. I look over to see where Lieutenant Mannering is and all I see is the dust his horse has left behind in the air but my dragon can fly quicker than that. As soon as I see him I drop down and capture him with my claws and then throw him into a meadow. I shift back to human form, in all of my naked glory, mid air and then land on the ground as I pick up a sword that Mannering dropped when I threw him into the meadow. I see him running away from me so I throw the sword like it's a dagger and it stabs him in the back. I walk slowly to where he lies.

"Who are you working for? I know you didn't put all of this together on your own?" I ask as I take the sword out of his back and he screams.

"I'm going to die anyway so why should I tell you anything at all?"I kick him over onto his back so he's belly is facing up.

"The question is do you want to die slowly and in pain or do you want to die fast without pain?" I take the sword and I stab it into his stomach and then I take it out. He sits up coughing blood and then falls back down.

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"The real question is if you're here then who is protecting your sweet Emily?" He smiles at me with blood in between his teeth. I cutoff his head.

Molle POV

So, I must replace Cyprian. He was supposed to be in King Lucian's study but I don't know where that is. I start wandering around and I start to get lost until I replace a maid dusting some furniture and I ask her where the king's study is and she gives me directions but forewarns me that I shouldn't go there without an appointment. I replace the study and I'm standing outside debating on whether or not I should go in. I need to talk to Cyprian and tell him what I did but if I go inside the king's study without an appointment will that be disrespectful? Will I embarrasse him yet again? I'm pacing up and down the hallway when the door suddenly opens and I'm caught standing there with my mouth open. I look like a big fish as all I can do is open and close my mouth.

"Kitten, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Who made you cry?"Cyprian says as he wipes away tears with his thumbs that I didn't know were falling. "And why in the FUCK is there a red handprint on your face?" Cyprian cuts me off before I can answer his first sets of questions.

"Well, I was folding our clothes and packing our bags when I decided to stop for a break. So, I sat on the bed and was eating what was left on the breakfast platter when the waiter, from last night with the wine, came to pick up the platter and severely admonished me for sitting on the bed eating the food off of the platter. He said he was going to report me so I wanted to tell you first so you could go ahead and punish me for embarrassing you." At the last sentence I broke down again and started crying thinking of Cyprian punishing me because he has failed to do so regardless of the scrapes I've been in.

But instead of hitting me Cyprian brings me into his arms. "My sweet little kitten why would you think I would punish you over something so small and trivial. You had every right to be sitting on that bed and eating off that platter. The one that needs to be punished is that fucking waiter. I can't believe he slapped you. How fucking dare he touch what's mine! LUCIAN, you need to fix this shit right now!" Cyprian turns to look at his brother with a scowl on his face.

"He had no right to slap you. He thought you were a servant from his interaction with you from the night before but even then Cyprian told him that any corrections for you would come from him and him alone. No, this needs to be corrected immediately. Can you identify him for us?" King Lucian asks.

"Yes I can do that." I can't believe this. For once someone is believing, protecting, and offering me justice.

We all three walk to the kitchen and King Lucian asks if I can point him out and I do. He's standing off to the side polishing silver wine goblets. Then, the king turns to two guards that were following him and he gives them instructions to arrest the waiter, give him twenty lashes, and then he is to spend three days in the dungeon

Cyprian turns to me. "Now we can get home and see about the alliance with the werewolves." I smile as we go back to finish packing our bags.

When we get back to our room our peace is disturbed by rapid knocking on the door. It's a messenger from Cyprian's army carrying a letter for him. The letter says his Lieutenant Harms has been murdered.

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