by Leeda Vada
Before she could answer, he continued, “I believe you do. I believe you are his mate.” At her silence, he continued, “Sweetheart, I know this is not how you envisioned your wedding, but we do not have much of a choice here. I cannot let them put you in a cell.”
“Ms. Lakota, do not let my nephew pressure you,” Reverend Chandler gently cautioned her.
Stepping around Saxe, the minister took Calli’s hand. “Do you want to marry Canaan Powhatan?”
Calli looked toward Canaan commanding and then holding his gaze.
Canaan held his breath. He could not read anything in her blank stare.
His conscience pricked him. He knew Calli was in no shape to answer the Reverend’s question. She was in shock. He could not imagine what she must be feeling. Everything was happening so fast.
Canaan was in shock himself, seeing the images of Calli’s attack in an endless loop in his mind. He fought them. This was not the time or place to indulge his feelings. He was afraid that if he did, he would destroy everyone and everything he could reach. His beast was clawing at his insides. He could not burden Calli with anything more. She had been traumatized enough. He would deal with his own turmoil once he had her safe.
“Calli, do you want to marry Canaan?” the Reverend repeated.
Calli looked at Canaan and nodded her consent.
Saxe jumped in, “Okay, Reverend. Let’s get started. Here are the necessary forms. A notary is waiting just outside the door. Time is of the essence.”
Saxe was mindful that the Hounds of God were frantically waging a media campaign to have Calli extradited and imprisoned immediately when they disembarked in London.
#
Calli remembered little of the ceremony. She was vaguely aware of her brother holding her left elbow.
Canaan stood to her right as Reverend Chandler began the ceremony.
She glanced down at her left hand in amazement at the large emerald resting on her ring finger. She had no memory of saying “I do.”
Saxe summoned the Lieutenant into the room as Canaan and Calli signed the marriage registration papers.
#
Back in the hotel suite Sebastian had secured for them, Canaan lay beside his new bride. He didn’t know what to say to her to dispel the black aura of pain surrounding her. She lay stiff, her breathing labored, her lids tightly closed.
He couldn’t stand it any longer. “Talk to me,” he said softly. “You can’t function with all that fury inside you. At the trial tomorrow, the jurors will pick up on it and it will hurt your defense.”
Calli sat up. He was right. She could no longer contain the turmoil raging inside her.
“Your arrogance, intractable conceit, thinking you alone know what is best for me. Again!”
Canaan was stunned by the vehemence in her voice.
“And you come to me now! My body riddled with scars, my innocence gone. All those years waiting for you. Loving you. Needing you. Dreaming of you being the one to breach my maidenhead.”
Canaan reached to touch her. She slapped his hand away and leapt from the bed.
“All those years, Canaan, this enemy was inside me. This fire burning, scalding me. And I could do nothing. I could not get rid of it. I had to run. To fight. Trying repeatedly to make it go away, to get relief somehow. No matter what I tried, it didn’t work.” She stalked the room, slamming her fists into her thighs. “No matter the amount of weights I lifted. No matter how much I sweat during races. How much my muscles burned during skirmishes. How much the blows brutalized my flesh, my need for you held firm.”
She leaped at him, pounding her fists into his chest. “Only you could have helped. But you refused, refused to give relief. And now you want me to forget all that, to open myself to you? To forgive the intentional torture? Because it was intentional, Canaan. You made a conscious choice to reject the mating bond. And I will not, I cannot forgive you that choice. So, take me if you must. Sate yourself. Relieve your burning. But don’t ask for my complicity. Don’t ask me to make it easy for you.”
Canaan lay still, his arms spread to his sides as she pummeled her pain, their tears soaking his shirt.
Chapter Nineteen
Vesta had left as soon as she received a call from Odin that he was on his way.
Laura had only finished half the cup of chamomile tea that Vesta had prepared, trying to help her relax. But there could be no relaxation for her. She felt as if she had lost another child, another child destroyed by the implacable will of the Canid Nation, sacrificed to their fanaticism about continuing their race at any cost.
Laura had played the dutiful, loyal wife and mate when Nathan lost his life on that fatal raid. She knew and supported the dangerous raids to free captured Canid teenage girls.
The Hounds’ founder, Morrison Bland, had changed his strategy three years before from assassinating every Canid his organization could find to one of a more surreptitious nature: the prevention of their conception. But public opinion had turned against the organization with the publication and distribution of pictures and videos of lab experiments, scenes of brutal slayings and vivisections brought to light during the post-World War II Nazi trials.
Now, under the guise of humanitarian research into the DNA of all Were descendants, his hidden agenda was to develop a form of birth control that would prevent any future generations.
His scientists were very close, almost succeeding six months before with the preliminary tests on a young Canid mother and her infant son before their rescue by Canaan, Nathan, and their team. Nate had been one of the three casualties.
At Nate’s funeral, everyone had praised his heroism. But the words, the salutes, the songs, the stoic demeanors gave her no comfort.
All she felt now was bitterness and hatred, hatred directed toward Duncan and his intractable arrogance. Toward Apollo, who allowed no one to question the actions of his intelligence chief. And toward Belen, the individual for whom she reserved a special animosity, for Lupa Belen had waged a relentless, subversive war against Calli.
But Laura saved the deepest of her ire for her husband. She cursed the fate that destined her to be Odin’s mate—the DNA in her blood that forced her body to seek him out—that made her crave his touch, both physical and emotional.
The tears that flooded her cheeks did nothing to ameliorate the lust overwhelming her even now at thoughts of him. Her need for him coursed through her blood, sensitizing all elements of her being until she was wracked with revulsion and passion, disgust and desire, shame and self-loathing.
Though she had no choice but to surrender power over her body and her heart to Canid mating, Laura still fought to command her soul, and she would never relinquish that to the Canid community.
She had tried to protect her children and had failed. When Canaan had come to her with the news of Nathan’s death, a frozen arrow of pain had pierced her heart and lodged there still.
Now, Calli. Maybe it was not in a mother’s power to spare her children pain.
#
Seated around the large conference table were the male members of the Southeastern Canid Alphas, the ruling body of the national amalgamation and their security chiefs. They represented ten regions of the country, including invited delegates from all four coasts. The conference room was located on the third level of the Cumberland pack’s security compound in the Allegheny Mountains, hollowed out interiors within the bowels of the old kyanite mines.
Apollo alerted them that the video they were about to see would affect the lives of present and future Were descendants around the world, especially those within the United States and Great Britain.
Notably absent was Apollo’s heir apparent. Canaan, who was in Switzerland on the frontline of the crisis. Earlier that morning, Apollo had sent Saxe, the Canid’s North American lead council, to try to contain the situation. He had his comm active, so he would be able to receive Saxe’s report instantly.
“Gentlemen, I appreciate your coming on such short notice, but
as I’m sure you will see, the situation demanded your immediate attention.”
Walking over to face the blank wall upon which the video would soon appear, his back to the room, Apollo continued.
“As I’m sure most of you know, Calli Lakota, daughter of Commander Odin, is the designated mate of my son, Canaan. As you may not know, Calli, for various reasons that are not relevant to the present situation, has not accepted Canaan’s claim. Since mating is by consensus in Canid society, she is within her right to deny his claim. Calli has not been in residence at Bakari since she was eighteen. Five years ago, she was accepted into Sheba’s Amazons, a female elite team of highly trained mercenary operatives, home-based in the Altai Mountains of Asia Minor. After only two years with the group, Calli reached Sentinel status and after three years, Ihmissus level. Neither her family nor Canaan has had any contact with her for two years, which, of course, is not unusual. Her Ihmissus status meant that she was a lone wolf operative. Therefore, once she accepted a contract, she performed her missions independent of Sheba’s command.”
A hand went up on the far right of the long table.
“Forgive me for interrupting, Apollo,” said Madu, Alpha of the West Coast-based San Francisco pack. “How did Canaan handle his mate’s independent lifestyle?”
“My son’s interaction with his mate is not a concern of this body. I would never allow the Assembly to violate the mandate against interfering between a Canid and his mate,” Apollo replied, in a tone that suggested the topic was not up for discussion.
“And what we’re doing now is different how?” Madu questioned, concerned.
“My sentiments exactly,” interjected Brong Niger, Alpha of the African Mandingo clan. “Isn’t violating the mate edict exactly what you are about to do?”
Chokwe Ibrahim, Alpha of the American Indian Meherrin clan, spoke up. “Wait, Brong. Let Apollo finish his explanation. Then we can each decide if we want to view the video. We can always leave if we don’t feel our participation is advisable.” He turned to Apollo, “Please, continue.”
Apollo scanned the group. “You, of course, are free to leave. But I caution you that if you value the welfare of those under your care, you will remain.”
“Duncan.”
Seated behind his Alpha, Duncan rose and pointed to the video screen.
“Six hours ago, we received this video from one of our undercover operatives with Morrison Bland’s Hounds organization. It is set to air on the internet and television stations nationwide at 6:00 AM and continue to air hourly for twenty-four hours. Internet and video feeds will be hijacked. So once the broadcasts begins, there will be no disabling them. The virus will be worldwide within seconds. The damage to all Canid will be irreversible.”
“Make your decisions now, gentlemen,” Apollo demanded. “Leave or stay. We are pre-arming you. The video will air, regardless of whether you view it now, or view it for the first time later with your families.”
No one moved.
Duncan began the video.
Five minutes later, the faint hum of the air conditioning was the only sound in the room.
“Fuck.” Brong Niger rose and walked to the back of the room. “We are screwed.”
#
When Duncan received Dakota’s call alerting him to the video and Calli’s arrest, he had immediately notified Apollo. Apollo activated the clan’s crisis line with three directives, one to command all on-site Alpha wives to get to Laura and prevent her from seeing the video. They were to stall until Odin could get to her to break the news.
The second directive was that all clan and pack leaders enact Canid Alert Amber: no acts of violence were to be initiated against any human or other clan or rival pack without a direct order from Apollo. He knew that when the video went viral, all hell would break loose, and it would take enormous restraint for all Canid not to seek vengeance
Bland and his supporters had found the match they needed to ignite a war between humans and Were descendants. It was going to be impossible to remove the image of Calli mowing down the six American youths.
The Hounds of God made it a point to garb their recruits in the dress of patriotism, pure defenders of all things American. Their uniforms were so close to those of legitimate military forces that they easily fooled John Q. Public. Their insignia was a symbol with a cross, superimposed over a flag of red, white, and blue swords giving more credence to their anthem, “Death to Satan’s children.”
The orchestrator of the video made sure to focus on the shock and amazement on the young men’s faces as they met their deaths. The seeming innocence and purity in their faces was in stark contrast to the animalistic rage in the she-wolf’s countenance.
Apollo’s third command was for all parents and caretakers of children under seventeen to monitor closely all forms of visual media. He wanted them spared the graphic violence on the video. He knew that it would be impossible to control all the media outlets, but he would do what he could. Once those devastating images were in the minds of the children, nothing, not all the counseling or therapy in the world or the passage of time, would remove them.
#
Closing the communications link, Duncan had to admit to a twinge of guilt at the possibility that he had played a part in the footage being played repeatedly on the monitor in front of him. Had he helped put that look of hopelessness and despair in the depths of Calli’s eyes? Heaven help him if he had, because no one else would, especially his son, Khan.
Chapter Twenty
There was no precedent for the media sensation caused by Calli’s trial. Not since Nuremberg had there been such international interest in a murder trial.
Records of Weres in some form go back to before printed history in countries such as France, Finland, Iceland, India, Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, Scandinavia, and Serbia. They are present in Native American folklore and Greek mythology.
Purist organizations like the Hounds of God believed that infected slaves tainted the human population when they copulated with native Indians and white plantation owners. The white masters saw the Africans as subhuman when they bought and sold them, but had no qualms about bedding them.
These organizations, in their narrow, bigoted consciousness, had no comprehension of the timelessness and universality of lycanthropy. They ignored the evidence presented at the Nuremberg trials that uncovered experiments conducted by the Nazi regime that clearly showed the Were gene in populations across the globe.
The Were community had assured the public that the Were gene was so diluted in descendants that its presence in today’s populace offered no threat to the population. The implication of the video was that the opposite was true. The gargantuan task for Saxe and his defense was to counter that image and offer a credible alternative.
Calli’s situation was fuel to the Purists and therefore a danger to all Were descendants.
Pandering to the mass hysteria fed by extremist claims of subjugation and the eventual annihilation of all beings found to carry the Were gene/DNA, there was constant jockeying by forces for and against Canid to enact laws that would simultaneously contain and protect Were descendants. The Canid fought and barely won a prohibition again the testing of all babies for the Were gene at birth.
The Hounds had been behind the leaking of the video of a Were animal attacking their recruits, a video that had now gone viral. Of course, they neglected to include a disclaimer that the video was only a segment of the entire tape, but then doing that would not have served their purpose.
#
Government and city officials had cordoned off two blocks in each direction, and two miles of air space over the federal building had been designated off limits. They were taking no chances with security. Only credentialed news media were permitted within the two-hundred-foot circumference. Only those who were directly involved in the trial and families of the defendant and victims were allowed in the courtroom. Not even high-ranking Canid Council members or Hounds of God officials
were granted entrance.
The government compromised by allowing an international live camera feed of the trial. Apollo and other Canid officials had protested but to no avail. Bland and his political supporters were not going to relinquish this chance to regain the anti-Canid momentum they had lost years ago with the exposé of the lab atrocities visited on the mothers and infants of the Canid community. The trial would be an opportunity for anti-Were sympathizers to brand Canid and other Were descendants as the abominations the Hound scientists claimed them to be. It would expose the facade of humanity they presented to the public.
#
Gallery members were allowed into the courtroom forty minutes before family members. Two lines of alternating Canid Warriors and Hounds Troopers formed a corridor for the court spectators. The two groups were supervised by Hounds of God Chief of Operations, John Vargr, and Khalid Chokwe, son of Ibrahim, Canid alpha of the predominantly Indian Meherrin clan in Amelia county.
Each leader had pledged that their soldiers were there to protect the people in the courtroom, not to attack each other. Both Vargr and Chokwe had sworn to kill any individual who deviated from that pledge in either word or deed.
Witnesses, escorted by UN security forces, had entered earlier from a back access point and were already seated.
The trial was set for 10:00 AM. All participants were flown in, shielded by the two-mile air space secured for the hours of the trial. The chamber designated for the event had forty seats for spectators. To the right, behind the prosecution table sat the families of the victims. To the left, sat Calli’s supporters. Canaan was seated directly behind the defendant’s chair, next to Calli’s brother, Rand, and his sister, Tamby.
Conspicuously absent were the parents of the defendant and her husband. Calli would only accept Saxe as her attorney if he agreed that neither of her parents would attend the trial.
Powhatan Alpha Apollo and his Lupa, Belen, Canaan’s parents, did not attend because Calli was no longer officially a part of the Cumberland nation since her rejection of Apollo as her Alpha three years earlier.
