by Laura Taylor
“Sempre was terrified of Fenrae. All of us were, actually. That was the whole point about the meeting. I was to give information to the Noturatii about the location of Dee’s pack, in the hope that if they found her, they would kill her, and she wouldn’t be a threat to our species any more.”
“So not just treason, but attempted murder,” someone muttered bitterly, but surprisingly, Eleanor was the one to reply.
“There are no laws directly forbidding the murder of a member of an opposing faction,” she pointed out. “Nor, in fact, forbidding the killing of a member of one of our own packs, assuming there is just cause. Any wolf who is a threat to our security and secrecy is swiftly put down. I’ve seen enough of history to know that this is as true among the Grey Watch as it is in Il Trosa.” She looked several members of the Panel in the eye as she said it, driving her point home. “I’m certainly not saying I approve of Sempre’s actions,” she went on, her tone sharp. “But as far as the Treaty goes, attempting to kill Dee on the basis of her being a threat to our species does not violate any laws; only the method by which she went about it.”
What the hell? Genna couldn’t make any sense of that. Eleanor was saying that if Sempre had simply shown up on Il Trosa’s door and shot Dee, then no laws would have been broken? It seemed utterly ridiculous, until Genna remembered that Andre had killed a member of the Grey Watch when he and Baron had come for Dee. He’d shot her at point blank range, and yet no retaliation or punishment had been sought at all. It seemed there was a lot more about the shifters’ history and laws that she had yet to understand.
“Back to the point at hand,” Linnea said, “if Sempre believes in the prophecy, then that could certainly explain her taking such drastic action.” The entire conversation, Genna noticed, had gradually swung around to quietly assume that Sempre was responsible for the whole thing. Eleanor had spoken of ‘Sempre’s actions’. ‘If Sempre believes in the prophecy’ were the words Linnea had used. Was it accidental happenstance, or a sly tactic on the part of those who somehow wanted it to be true? How very interesting.
A moment of awkward silence followed, and everyone looked around, as if expecting something else to happen.
“Does anyone have any further questions for Genna?” Kajus asked, and everyone shook their heads. “We haven’t examined the death of Feriur yet. Do you wish to do that now, or stay focused on the Treaty?”
“The murder charge is a secondary issue,” Galina said dismissively. “And I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the details about that will come to light as we go on anyway. We should stay with the Treaty for now.”
No one disagreed with her, and Kajus seemed to take that as a decisive answer. “Then I propose we interview Jack Miller next,” he suggested. “He attended the meeting with Genna. I would be interested to hear his version of the story.”
“No!” a woman shouted loudly, though Genna couldn’t quite remember her name. “I will not accept the testimony of one of the Noturatii. He is our enemy and he should be put down.”
A chorus of voices agreed with her, until Eleanor stood up, her face a mask of fury. “You will NOT continue to disrespect the Council and one of our packs in this disgraceful manner!” she shouted. The Panel fell silent, apparently stunned that the usually genteel woman would lose her temper quite so thoroughly. “Jack Miller has been accepted into Il Trosa as a registered member of the British pack. He has renounced his past, regardless of the insults a number of you have repeatedly hurled at him, and any attempts to do him harm will be met with an unrestrained display of force.” A faint trace of movement in a tree just over the wall caught Genna’s eye as Eleanor spoke, but when she turned to look, there was nothing there.
No one spoke for a moment, Eleanor’s announcement apparently taken as a serious and genuine threat, and then some nervous throat clearing was heard.
“Very well,” said the woman who had made such a fuss in the first place. “Speak to this Noturatii if you must,” she told Kajus, “but I will not hear what he has to say.”
“You can stick your fingers in your ears, if you like,” Kajus said, not sounding the least bit concerned. “You’re entitled to your opinion. As are we all.”
Oana, the representative from Romania stood up, and her translator hastily rose to her feet beside her. She spat a volley of angry words, which were duly repeated by the translator. “Oana says she refuses to listen to the lies of a criminal. She says we should listen to our own members instead.”
“Just because someone is a shifter,” Linnea responded swiftly, “does not mean they are telling us the truth.”
A short but loud argument followed, no one able to hear what anyone else was saying, until Kajus spoke up. “Let’s make this simple,” he said carelessly, not even bothering to stand up. “If anyone objects to listening to Jack Miller, they’re free to leave the hearing until we’ve finished interviewing him.”
A confused silence followed. “Isn’t that against the rules?” Rita, the Greek translator asked, then hastily repeated herself so that her own representative could understand her. Interesting that she should speak of breaking the rules when she seemed to be trying her hardest to hijack the part that Luke was supposed to be performing for herself.
“Why?” Kajus asked. “As far as I’m aware, there are no provisions in the Treaty for any kind of trial of this nature. In fact, there are no provisions at all for what we’re supposed to do if the Treaty is broken. We’re not obliged to follow the rules of human courts, either. I would expect that we all understand the need to behave reasonably and honourably, but beyond that, there are no ‘rules’. Some of us wish to interview Miller. Some do not. I fail to see anything that obliges either side to give way.”
“But that defies the whole purpose of this trial,” Linnea argued. “How are we supposed to get to the truth of the matter if some people deliberately chose to ignore certain evidence?”
“Perhaps we should put it to a vote,” Galina said, a wry tone in her voice. “Those who wish to interview Miller, raise your hands.” Looking slightly baffled, just over half the group did so. “And those who believe all members of both the Council and the Panel should be present for all parts of the hearing?” Again, more than half the group raised their hands. “So be it,” Galina concluded cheerfully. “Let’s bring Miller in,” she said to Feng. “We’ll see what he has to say for himself, and then we can move on.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Padding across the driveway in wolf form, Kajus huffed out a sigh as he approached the courtyard where the talks were to continue this morning. It was the third day of the hearing now, the first day thankfully behind them as it had been a tumultuous mess of arguments and accusations. After interviewing Miller, they’d heard from Baron and Caroline regarding the struggles their Den had been facing since they’d first discovered that the Noturatii had somehow linked their pack with the Lakes District. The Noturatii’s latest efforts apparently included sending a handful of operatives to roam the local towns with photographs of one of their members, as reported by the human caretaker they’d left at their estate in their absence, and Baron had been understandably irate about the news.
Yesterday had been no less intense. They had started filling in the details of daily life in the British Grey Watch pack with a number of the women being interviewed, of both high and low rank, and it had quickly become apparent that the current situation was far from ideal. The women had confirmed that their conversion ritual included a ‘mandatory mating’. They had willingly admitted that Lita, their former mage, had carried out blood rituals involving the sacrifice of wild animals. And then, when Kajus had thought things couldn’t get any worse, an idle comment on the part of one of their interviewees, to the effect that she didn’t blame Genna for killing Feriur and only wished someone had done it sooner, had led to the Panel bringing that part of the hearing forward. They’d called Genna back to question her on how and why she’d ended up killing the pack’s second-in-command, finding o
ut about how Sempre had been trying to force her to perform the blood rituals in Lita’s place and had locked her in the cage as punishment for her disobedience. By the end of it, Oana, of all people, had declared that Feriur’s death could not realistically be considered anything other than self-defence and had challenged anyone to offer her a good reason why she could possibly be wrong.
No one had said a word, and so that aspect of Genna’s crimes, at least, had drawn to a close.
By mid-afternoon, everyone had been exhausted, so the Council and the Panel had called a temporary halt to the interviews to discuss how much progress they’d made so far and to make plans for the following day.
And that had led to this morning’s line-up, a series of interviews which were promising to make Kajus regret getting out of bed this morning.
Inside the courtyard, he waited until the last moment to shift, agitated by the need to spend long hours in human form when he’d normally be spending a great deal of the day hunting or patrolling his pack’s territory as a wolf. The local wolf packs knew they were there and tended to leave them alone, but human hunters were still a hazard now and then, and vigilance was always their first line of defence.
The Council arrived and took their seats as the last of the Panel straggled in, and shortly afterwards, Baron’s 2IC was showing in the first shifter to be questioned. It was Sven, one of the males in Sempre’s pack, and Kajus fought to hold back a groan. By now they all had a fair impression of how Sempre’s pack was run, and he’d argued against this particular interview, hoping at the same time to dismiss the other two males as well, seeing questioning men as weak and beaten down as these to be a complete waste of time.
Tank led Sven to sit at the table at the head of the courtyard, then made himself scarce. Over the past few days, Kajus hadn’t quite managed to get the full measure of Tank, but nonetheless, he’d developed a begrudging respect for him. He seemed confident and capable, obeying orders from his superiors without question, and yet, when official proceedings were finished with, he seemed equally willing to speak his mind, and Kajus had even caught him having a heated argument with Baron one evening. A good 2IC, as he himself well knew, needed to have an independent mind and pay close attention to what was going on around him, and yet still be willing and able to back up his alpha when it came to the crunch.
Sven, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. He wore a collar about his neck, his gaze remained steadfastly on the ground, and his bearing spoke of a man who expected to be beaten at any moment. He was more pet than wolf, and Kajus failed to understand why any of the Panel would bother interviewing him. The Council had argued for his presence, of course, but he rather considered the three of them to be bleeding hearts who would listen to the opinion of even a domestic dog, if one ever learned to speak.
“Your name is Sven, correct?” Eleanor asked, opening the discussion.
“Yes, ma’am,” Sven replied, without looking up.
“And you are a member of Sempre’s pack?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How long have you been a shifter?”
“Eight years, ma’am. I was converted when I was sixteen years old.”
That got Kajus’s attention. Sixteen? That was rather young for a man to be stepping into a role like the one Sven occupied. If what he said was true, that meant he was now twenty-four. He looked older.
“What is your role in your pack?”
“I am to provide sexual services for the females,” Sven told them flatly. All of them already knew that, and yet it was still something of a shock to hear it said quite so bluntly.
“And in general,” Eleanor went on, not missing a beat, “would you say you were happy with your life in Sempre’s pack?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sven replied in a monotone, still looking at the ground. “My life is excellent.”
No surprises there, Kajus thought darkly. They weren’t going to get anything useful out of this man.
“How do you feel about Sempre? Do you believe she’s a fair and just leader?”
That made Sven pause, and Kajus waited for his reply, feeling a faint thread of curiosity about how he would answer the question. “Sempre is an excellent alpha,” Sven said finally, sounding like he was announcing his own funeral, and Kajus sat back in his chair, losing the small amount of interest he’d had in the interview.
“I’m sorry, may I interrupt for a moment?” It was Linnea who spoke, and Eleanor graciously waved for her to continue. “Sven, are you aware that none of what is said here will be relayed back to Sempre? And that nothing you say will be used against you? You’re not in any trouble here. We’re merely trying to understand how your pack runs on a day to day basis.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Sven replied woodenly. “I understand.”
Kajus watched with amusement as the others glanced at each other, baffled and frustrated. Had they actually expected Sven to tell them the truth? If he even knew what the truth was, of course. After being under Sempre’s control for so many years, it was perfectly possible that she’d brainwashed him to the point that he actually believed the drivel he was telling them.
Sempre was smart, Kajus admitted to himself, even as his stomach rolled at the dark intentions behind her cleverness. Sven had been converted when he was only sixteen, and Kajus had to wonder how old he’d been when he was recruited. It would have been an easy task: find a handsome teenager roaring with hormones, offer him not only mystical powers, but endless sex with a bevy of beautiful women, and he’d have strung himself up like a prized hog and delivered himself straight into her hands.
Only to discover how deep the lie ran after the fact. The Grey Watch was a firmly matriarchal society, after all. Even Kajus’s own pack didn’t have a male alpha, just the female and himself as her 2IC. But if anything happened to her, or she retired, then Kajus wouldn’t step into her place. She would be replaced with a new female, and the firm matriarchal leadership of the pack would continue. While not many packs took it to the extremes that Sempre had, there was a definite leaning towards female control within the Watch, as there had been as far back as the group’s inception in the 1400s. And if Sven knew that, then no amount of coaxing in the world would get him to speak against the woman who, as far as he was concerned, governed his entire world.
But maybe there was a way around that, Kajus thought, uncomfortable with his own lack of satisfaction over the way his sex were treated and equally uncomfortable with leaving Sven to hang without even trying to help him.
“Sven,” he said, as the others muttered in quiet conversations around him. “See if you can answer this: has Sempre threatened you in any way, before you came to speak to us?”
Sven didn’t answer right away, but Kajus wasn’t interested in his words. He was paying far more attention to the man’s body language. And the moment he heard the question, Sven’s whole body changed. His shoulders tensed, his breathing quickened, beads of sweat broke out over his face… and his hands clenched into fists. Interesting. Very, very interesting.
“Have you been threatened?” Eleanor asked softly.
Sven said nothing, and Kajus wasn’t surprised. Though she didn’t realise it, Eleanor had just made it far more difficult for Sven to answer with her innocent question. He might, just might speak frankly to another male, but never to a female. Kajus waited, praying that no one else said anything, as Sven clearly fought some unseen battle within his own mind to find a solution to the question.
Finally, he lifted his eyes, staring straight into Kajus’s. “They say that Fenrae-Ul has risen,” he said, softly but clearly, his gaze not wavering in the slightest. “I would like to ask her to kill me.”
“Has there been any more news?”
Leon looked up from his computer, schooling his face into an expression of frustrated disappointment. “Unfortunately, no,” he told Melissa, knowing exactly what she was referring to. “Just the one report from Chu, about the captive being spotted in Lancaster. None of the other a
gents have found anything yet.”
Melissa flopped down into her chair, huffing out a breath in frustration. A handful of reports sat on her desk, and she flipped through them idly. Then she sat up straighter and counted the reports, not looking pleased with the result. “Have we got the rest of the agents out in the field yet? I told you right up front I wanted a dozen of them.”
“And I told you,” Leon said, firmly, but not angrily, “that making sure the men were trained properly and that the weapons facility wasn’t left defenceless was not going to happen overnight. We have seven agents in the field. The rest will be joining them in a week or so.”
“But it was four days ago that Chu got that intel,” she complained. Leon reminded himself of the six figure salary he was earning doing this job and counselled himself to ignore the way her voice was rising to a near-whine. “What have they been doing since then?”
“It’s a tough call, during the week,” Leon pointed out. “Harried mothers, pensioners and the unemployed. That’s all you’re going to get Monday to Friday. And people these days are a difficult lot. They either don’t notice any strange goings on, or more likely, they simply don’t care.”
“But on weekends, it’s even worse,” Melissa argued. “All the tourists come out, people from London, people who know nothing about the area or any of the locals, and the haystack gets even bigger.” She sighed. “Okay, so how about we stop targeting the general public and go after more specific people? Mechanics, for example. The shifters seem to have a barn full of those damned white vans. Someone must be maintaining and repairing them. Or shopkeepers. They still have to buy food and clothes, just like everyone else.”
