“Yes, I just...sometimes they seem too harsh,” Lisa responded.
“I understand. Remember, I grew up in a human household, but imagine if we let werewolves get away with hunting their own kind? Then humans? These latest killings have brought wolves and all our people under careful scrutiny. What do you think would happen if people realized we are real? Come up and say, ‘Woohoo, I want to be your best friend?’ No, they would start buying out silver bullets, melting down silver jewelry, and killing anyone suspected of it.”
“No, they wouldn’t. I didn’t,” Lisa protested.
“Not everyone would, but the overall population would break out into mass hysteria. Look at the World Trade Center incident. Did all Arabs do it? No, only a faction, but what if it came out werewolves were responsible for killing pregnant women? Would they blame the ones responsible? No, they’d blame us all, as a race. It’s a harsh truth we have all had to learn to live with. As one of my favorite characters in the movies once said, ‘A person is smart. People are dumb’, and it’s so true.”
Lisa had to smile at her Men in Black reference. It also made her point rather well. She grabbed her purse and jacket and followed Elizabeth out to the car. Time to face her past.
Chapter Six
Lance’s run had helped him put things into perspective. The following week he alternated running with rest and food. As a result, he felt the best he had in years. Every day away from Roxy gave him more inner strength. It had burned at his spirit to be locked to her, but he didn’t know how he could have run away since she would have sent Boris after him—again.
A small shudder started through him as the memory of the time he had escaped and been caught arose. He refused to allow it to physically manifest any further, but it stayed there, riding him, just below the surface. As he neared the warehouse, he parked his car a little bit down the block. The new pack had nearly doubled, and it looked like a convention was in town.
He didn’t bother locking his car. The rust bucket had no radio or items of worth; even the tires were bald. Stuffing the keys in his pocket, he whistled as he walked. The soaring stars winked at him. The night sky welcomed him. Soon it would be a full moon again.
His hands started shaking, his breathing hitched, and his senses came to full alert. What’s triggered my wolf? Cautious even though he didn’t sense immediate danger, he began searching his surroundings. As his heart rate increased and a surge of sexual excitement hit him, he panicked. Had his time with Roxy made him so sick he equated danger with sex?
That can’t be right. He always feared sex with her. His body reacted, but his mind never got excited. Wary now, he sniffed the air and all at once, it hit him. She was nearby. His mate. The one who didn’t know him, but he knew her wolf form. The sound of gentle laughter trickled in the wind, engorged with sadness to his ears. Melancholy he recognized, for he’d laughed like that. Laughed and smiled to hide the pain.
Now his heart restricted and plugged his ears as a roaring sound filled them. His wolf snarled within him and wanted to attack whatever caused such sadness in his mate. He walked faster, wanting a glimpse of the woman who was his mate. Still he couldn’t see her. A group of people walked ahead of him nearly to the door. She must be among them. Worried he’d lose her, he started to run, and the fear from the group escalated. They moved inside quickly with only a man turning his face to him.
Lance slowed back to a walk and went in, his shoulders hunched, hands in pockets to appear unthreatening. The warehouse, jammed from one end to the other except around the center raised half-circle, echoed with voices, shouts, anger, jealousy, and fright. He tried to pinpoint the fright as it felt so misplaced. Every wolf in here should smell the fear and react, yet only he seemed concerned.
A loud clanging in his head nearly drove him to his knees. An old-fashioned clock with metal ticking noises had taken up residence in his eardrums and did not look to be leaving any time soon. He fisted his hands in his pockets and looked around. Was he the only one who could hear the minutes counting down?
The crowd around him receded, and the noise in his eardrums became his focus. He followed his instincts and moved slowly as if in a dream. A petite woman in a black overcoat stood in front of him. He reached out to touch her shoulder, but she turned and looked at him.
Her eyes widened in shock as did his. His hand, still suspended where he’d intended to touch her to get her attention, moved up to her bronze cheek, caressing softly. The deep brown eyes gazed at him in wonder before closing up to him. He saw it as clear as day even as he told himself he imagined it. She hadn’t moved, hadn’t flinched, but she had closed down—except for the one brilliant moment when their souls met.
“I’m Lance,” he said gently. “I’m...” he hesitated, What could he tell her? He stroked her skin once more, grateful she didn’t pull away. “We need to talk, but not now. Can we meet after the meeting? I’ll buy you a drink. You can have friends with you if it makes you feel more comfortable.”
She gave a short nod he took to mean yes, so he stepped back. Already, his hand became tingly as if he had dropped something important. Lance told himself to move away, go to another place in the warehouse, but he could not, would not. Facing down Joseph like this had to be hard for her, especially having been raised a human. He wondered if he would have the same courage when the time came for Roxy’s pack trial. Though he hoped he would, he didn’t know if he had the strength this woman presented.
Then he felt like smacking himself. Of course. The whiff of fear. The clock. It all came from her, and that was how his brain interpreted the emotions slamming into him from his mate. He took a deep breath in, savoring her rich smell. So many times, the memory of her smell had taken him away from the place of torture, taken his mind back to the ethereal clearing where he had first seen her in shadow, the moon behind her.
Her smell had saved his sanity.
The warehouse of noise became a funeral parlor of silence in a matter of seconds when Nolan appeared with Joseph. The small woman in front of him stood so rigid, for a moment he thought she might be turning to stone in front of his eyes. While he eased closer to her, he tried to concentrate on the hearing.
“He has been seen and witnessed in the act of betrayal. Acts which lead to the death of our pregnant women and their unborn. He conspired with those who kidnapped my mate from my home and directly helped by leading me away on trumped up pack business where he tried to instigate a challenge without it coming from him. He is also guilty of producing an aswan and leaving her to fend for herself the first moon. These will be shown and proven and pack justice will be done.” Nolan’s body stance, words, and voice were far and away different than Roxy’s would have been under the circumstances.
Lance had half expected to see Joseph beaten to a bloody pulp. However, Joseph only had minor injuries, presumably from the trap Nolan and Sherona had set up to catch him. This Ulfric had great strength of will. If Lance’s mate were kidnapped from his home, he would kill them. Shocked at himself, his mind registered the very real emotion and determination behind it. The trial, the past week had been excruciating, even as he’d been freed from Roxy’s he inched closer to the one he had saved and who had unknowingly saved him.
He would have given in to hopelessness if he hadn’t had her to remember. Knowing he’d saved someone—his mate no less—had gotten him through the torture and abuse so many times, he couldn’t count. The pain, the suffering, he wouldn’t count it; he might go insane.
Sherona, the werejaguar’s shadow leader, stood up and spoke in a harsh voice. “He has damaged all of us in the were community; not just the wolves. The fire he set, which nearly killed a Wahpawhat Elite Guard and did kill some others, is under close investigation. Among those who died later was one of my werejaguars. The autopsy reports have had to be fixed because they showed the anomaly in our blood which identifies us as were. He has hurt many mates, including his own. Not just by death,” Sherona said.
Was it his imaginat
ion, or did she look straight at him and the woman in front of him when she said this? She gave him a little nod as if to say, “I’m talking about people like the two of you,” and continued. He had no idea what the rest of her witnessing would be about and didn’t hear it. Screaming in his ear was the knowledge he’d been right before. All the angst he’d thought he’d run off came back in full force. Joseph was the guilty one.
Joseph had made Lance’s mate into an aswan and left her to die or kill herself. The visceral reaction was worse than when Nolan had mentioned it. Even then it had been anger. But here, now, with the evidence, with his mate’s body language verifying Nolan’s and his suspicions, his body reacted harshly. A blackness started before his eyes while a wave of heartbeats pounded his ears. Revenge and the need to hurt Joseph swamped him. He took his hands out of his pockets. They needed to be freed. The bones under them started to crackle when a hand touched his arm.
“Not yet, Lance,” Sherona said.
When had she finished her testimony? He hadn’t seen her come around to him after speaking.
He lifted his lip and snarled, and she hissed back.
“Cool it, wolf!” she demanded. “You will only scare and endanger her,” she added in an under breath.
Lance could feel his emotions back down as her hand stayed on his arm. All at once, the woman in front of him turned around and bared her teeth—and not to smile. She snarled at Sherona. His surprise couldn’t have been more complete than if she had turned into a mouse in front of him.
“Lisa,” Sherona said complacently and in the same under-her-breath level. “I am helping him stay calm so he does not endanger himself or you. Do not let anger control you, or he won’t be able to calm down. He’s not used to such strong, alpha feelings. Give him time.”
Lisa. Her name whispered along his spine the way the breeze did his fur when he ran. Cooling, soothing, and comforting. “Lisa,” he breathed. Her eyes turned to him, and he saw the confusion and momentary awareness before she nodded to Sherona and turned back to face the proceedings. He noticed she backed closer to him though. Conscious thought, or mate’s subconscious reaction? Lance didn’t know, but her closeness helped his anger to calm even as it revved up other areas of his libido. His cock rose up, throbbing. Its girth pulled against his jeans.
“Oh God.” Sherona groaned, rolling her eyes. “Wolves and their mates,” she said and took her arm off him.
Lucky guess, or did she know? He ached to touch himself.
“Pay attention to the proceedings, wolf boy! You will get your chance to prove yourself if you can think with the right head,” Sherona told him pointedly.
Heat crept up his cheekbones, and he had a moment to be grateful for his dark, bronzed skin. He tried to pay more attention to the proceedings. Apparently, Alex’s turn just started.
“I don’t personally know the exact part he had in my kidnapping. I only know he called for an emergency meeting which left me alone at a time they knew Nolan would be occupied. I do know he was involved with the drugging of another werewolf not of our pack.”
Loud murmurs interrupted her along with a few growls. Lance felt the tension rise again. Joseph would be lucky to make it through the trial alive. Any drugs administered on a were had to be strong, and if there was one which could bring them down, they wanted to know about it.
“Roxy, under the guise of wanting something to help her pack heal when injured, asked my mother”—Alex swallowed—”to make a serum to work like a sedative. A long time ago, she had developed something which slowed down our healing by causing us to bleed a little longer. The purpose being to give her time to take care of certain injuries before our bodies could trap them inside us. At first, I was unaware of it.”
Lance looked around at the group of werewolves who looked panicked. He’d known only because he had overheard and had been extra careful not to get injured from that point on. That hadn’t been all he had heard. He worked hard to stay conscious and alert at all times around Boris and Roxy.
“I found out when Boris attacked me and scratched me using a form of it. I nearly died. This happened when attempting to escape from Boris after my kidnapping, which Joseph played a large part in setting up,” Alex said.
She went on to say more, but Lance felt the pressure of aggression around him. By the looks on their faces, it came more from his former pack than the original Wahpawhats. Joseph had attacked their healer. They were ready to lynch him right there and then, trial notwithstanding. It was a serious thing to attack a pack’s healer.
Everyone in his old pack knew that if Boris had been involved, Roxy knew about it. Although he personally had had no problem in changing pack allegiance, there were still a few who hadn’t known Roxy’s true nature or had excused things from Boris as the price to pay for a strong pack. By the looks on their faces, many were thinking twice now. It didn’t matter to him what they all wanted to do, however. Joseph had abandoned Lance’s mate and left her to die or kill herself. For that alone, Joseph deserved pack justice, and Lance wanted to be the one to punish him.
Sherona nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow. “Pay attention to the proceedings. Your time will come,” she whispered.
His heart leapt when Lisa gave Sherona a dirty look for whispering in his ear. Lisa might not understand it, but she reacted as a mate. His wolf howled inside him. Its sadness was quickly being replaced with frustration at waiting now that his mate stood before him.
“You have heard the evidence before you. Do any deny his need for pack justice?” Nolan again. Sherona was right. He needed to pay more attention. He hadn’t seen Nolan move or realized Alex had finished.
A lot of people murmured amongst themselves, but no one objected. “Then I will fight Joseph and—”
“No!” Lance shouted almost involuntarily. The denial had risen quick from the deepest part of him. “I want to fight Joseph under pack law. His injustice to me and mine are just as great as yours,” he said to Nolan.
The warehouse had silenced, and an itch started between his shoulder blades. All attention had transferred to him in shock and surprise. The moment froze in time in Lance’s memory. However, Nolan remained silent. Lance looked at him more closely and found himself being scrutinized by his new Alpha.
Let him look. I have as much right as anyone. I need to fight for my mate’s honor, for the injustices done her. Nolan nodded at him, and Sherona put a hand on his shoulder as if they had heard his thoughts. He glanced over at Lisa, and she stared at him with a combination of shock, horror, pride, and questions—so many questions in her beautiful brown eyes.
“Lance!” Sherona sounded more than impatient. “Get up there!”
Lance moved to the circle designated and began taking off his clothes. He hadn’t thought to bring a nice change of clothes and only had the sweats he always carried in the back of the car. He wanted to look good when he went out for a drink later.
“No!” A voice shouted from the back. “The weakling will lose, and this dirty roil-pam needs to be taught a lesson!”
“Yeah,” another voice said. Lance recognized him as one of Roxy’s favorite go-to men after Boris. Ryan George. No immediate relations to the healer, but somewhere down the line they shared an ancestor. Ryan liked bullying some of the younger and weaker weres.
There was a general outpouring of noise and confusion as the anger and emotions stirred by the events they had just learned began to come out. He ignored it and headed straight for his position. They had no idea of the true perfidy Joseph was capable of. If they knew, he would likely have died upon arrival. There were no words strong enough for a were who would leave a newly formed aswan to their pain, suffering, and likely death. That Lisa had also been led to a pack territory which would have gotten her killed or worse if she had been found by Boris or one of his ilk, would have added to the distress for many of them.
Lance stopped just outside the circle and watched Nolan for his cues, but Nolan didn’t even glance Lance’s way.
He stared down the two who had spoken out, and the rest of the crowd silenced. Now that was power.
***
“I am Alpha, the Ulfric. Are you questioning my authority?” Nolan spoke quietly, but anger thrummed through his voice. Joseph’s undermining went deep into his pack which was enough trouble without adding Roxy’s backers to the mix. Movement caught his eye, and he looked over. His father’s tall frame stood near the front, the scent of danger oozing out of him like heat from a radiator. His mom, her body as muscular and tough as his father’s, held her aggressive stance, and both of them eyed Ryan. Nolan didn’t know whether to be glad of their back up or not. It frustrated him on too many levels to think about.
The first man shook his head no, never even glancing their way. The second, Ryan, looked from Nolan to his parents and back before responding, his manner subdued. “No, but you don’t know us all well. Lance isn’t alpha enough for this task.”
His dad’s public favor was a good thing despite their private differences, so he said nothing. He stood silently, looking at Ryan for a long moment until Ryan shuffled his feet and looked down. “Is that a challenge?” Nolan asked Ryan. “Are you questioning my ability to judge his fitness to fight?”
Ryan opened his mouth again and shut it. “I withdraw my concern,” he said formally.
He mentally reached for his mate. “That one will be trouble.”
“Trouble you’ll need to deal with later. Lance needs to fight this battle, and you’re prolonging the start.” His Alex.
“You’re right.”
His dad’s on-again off-again support would have to be dealt with later as well. He and Kamiakin were already looking into Joseph’s friends to try and mitigate the insidious poison he’d spread before getting caught. His mate was right. Time to end this.
Nolan turned to Lance and Joseph. “You know the rules,” he said looking pointedly at Joseph. “If one of you attempts to cheat, I will interfere. If Joseph wins, he will live in exile, never to speak to a living soul again. Ready?”
The Midwife's Moon Page 6
