“Let’s arrange ourselves the way we want to appear to them. They’re eating, so we’ll show up in a semicircle, with Kirsten and Cora at the center.” He looked to Nathan. “If Kirsten’s yours and you’re making it official, it’s appropriate for you to be there. Cora is Kirsten’s, and Kirsten is yours.”
“Cora and I belong to each other,” I corrected.
“Maybe,” said Mordecai. “But that still means you claim her as one of yours. The fact she claims you as one of hers isn’t important for this particular bit of legal wrangling.”
“I’ll go,” Nathan told us. “And I’ll make it clear I’m choosing sides, should someone ask. No one wants one of the South Carolina people in charge of anything.”
“The bad guys do,” I reminded him.
“They don’t count.” He looked to Mordecai. “You and me on the outer edges, the wolves in a semicircle behind Cora and Kirsten?”
Within a few moments, we were all in place. I realized there seemed to be different rules for this challenge, and I assumed we could get away from following protocol so strictly because of the low-class way the challenge had been given.
We materialized in a field with a bunch of wolves sitting in folding canvas chairs, eating burgers. Humans were manning multiple grills, making the burgers. The humans didn’t look terribly happy about being there.
“You bring slaves onto our personal territory?” Okay, so maybe Cora should’ve been the one to confront them, but it pissed me off. I walked forward and stood in front of the Alpha. No one told me who he was, but I could feel his power. “You’ll release them now. We don’t allow nonconsensual slavery here. Perhaps you’ve heard?”
He laughed. “Nonconsensual slavery? Do you have any idea how ludicrous you sound?”
“We came here for the challenge, but I discover you’ve broken the rules of the land. I can strip you of your title, which means there’s no challenge.”
“I’ll fight him,” said Cora. “We don’t want them thinking I was afraid and backed down.” She met the Alpha’s gaze. “He’ll be fun to watch die.”
There’s a history here, Mordecai’s voice came in my head. Let Cora handle it.
I can dethrone him and take his power now. Once the challenge starts, I can’t do anything.
Do you trust me?
I sighed and took three steps back. “It appears my friend wants first dibs. Since she’s going to kill you, she’ll get all the dibs, but that’s okay.”
Okay, that had sounded better in my head. I took two more steps back, and Cora stood taller.
“We fight now,” she told him. “Before Randall’s funeral. I want everyone focused on his life and the things he brought to the pack. No one needs to worry his legacy is on the line during his funeral.”
The Alpha eyed me a few seconds and then looked back to Cora. “Either I fight you now or you turn your little goddess on me? And what’s with Mordecai and the Amakhosi? You can’t face me on your own?”
“That was her preference,” Nathan told him, “but Kirsten is mine and she doesn’t attend this sort of thing without me, if it can be helped.”
Mordecai smiled. “You’ll get the same from me. Kirsten is mine as well, and since she’s so closely bound to Cora, this means I consider your Alpha to be under my protection.”
They were both careful not to claim Cora as theirs, and yet, they both threw their power behind her. I’d loved them already, but my heart got all warm and tingly.
“I will kill you,” Cora told him. “You have ten seconds to withdraw your challenge or fight. Decide.”
She said the last word with power. It wasn’t the kind of power Abbott wields with his voice, but it was there, and it almost caught me off guard.
I didn’t want to have to watch another fight. I didn’t. Without thinking about it too much, I pushed my own power and energy into the ground. It isn’t exactly love and peace, but more a feeling of how everything works together. The sun, trees, earth, and living creatures — the life cycle.
Every werewolf facing us breathed in at the same time, and it was their wolves reacting as much, possibly more, than the human parts of their psyche. Most of them looked to me, but the leader kept his eyes on Cora. He took ten steps forward, dropped to his knees, and said, “My Alpha. I apologize for my disrespect. I didn’t understand.”
Cora took two steps forward and placed her hand on his head. “What didn’t you understand?”
“She isn’t some haughty leftist queen. She’s...” he looked at me, as if asking for help, but I wasn’t sure what to tell him. Finally, he said, “Mother Nature? I don’t know what to call you, but it feels as if you’d be over all of us even without your connection to our Alpha.”
“I feel it too,” Nathan said. “Not really over us, but certainly capable of reaching us through her connection with Nature. She doesn’t believe she’s Mother Nature, and I tend to agree with her, but it’s also the closest I can come.”
Maybe this was a conversation we needed to have, but none of the other men were kneeling to their Alpha, and I figured someone should point this out.
“What about the rest of you? You came here in support of the one who’d disrupt Randall’s funeral with violence. Do you still want violence? I don’t see anyone else showing loyalty or obeisance to your Alpha.”
All but three men took a few steps forward and went to their knees.
One of them was fighting his wolf to stay on his feet, and I walked to him and offered my hand. “Will you walk with me?”
He looked at my hand a good three seconds before he put his hand in mind and walked away from the group with me.
“Do you even know you’re at odds with your wolf?”
“He doesn’t understand the ways of the world.”
“What is it you’d like him to understand?”
“Politics. Human realities.”
“If I were a man, you’d probably bitch about a woman not being capable of leading men, but you aren’t sure how to explain that to a woman.”
“I wasn’t raised this way.”
“Can you entertain the possibility that your father might not have been right about everything? The leader you followed here said he’d been wrong about me being a haughty leftist queen. In truth, I’m probably a centrist. What’s the joke — I just want to carry a gun to my gay friends’ wedding?” I stopped and turned to him. I could pick up on Nathan’s anxiety, and I wasn’t sure he’d let us walk much farther away.
“You aren’t strong enough to challenge Cora and have any chance of winning, so why can’t you kneel to her? Your wolf wants to. He’d rather die than go the path of the lone wolf.”
“Why did you focus on me, and not the other two?”
“I doubt Cora will let them take the lone wolf path. Their hearts are evil, and she’ll likely make them choose to oath to her or die. You aren’t evil, you’re just confused.”
He shook his head. “I’m not confused. I know right from wrong. Her taking over is wrong. She’s only strong because of you. The power went to her because it thinks she’s stronger than she is.”
“Can you not feel her power and see that isn’t true? I’m here, she’s over there. Stand between us and sense what is mine and what is hers.”
He gave me a sideways look, but walked so he was standing between us. He closed his eyes and took way longer than necessary, but I had a feeling he was coming to terms with what he felt.
When he finally opened his eyes, he didn’t come back to me, but he went to Cora and dropped to his knees. I met Nathan’s gaze, and he gave me a tiny nod.
You saved his life, Kitten. Well done.
I looked at Mordecai. He was on the other side of our wolves, and so far away I hadn’t realized he’d been focused on me, too.
I followed his gaze and saw that one of the other wolves was already dead, and Cora had been about to kill the other, who stood frozen in place while Cora accepted obeisance from the wolf I’d talked to.
Killing
the other two was the right choice. Their hearts were full of hatred, and even their wolves felt evil. Still, I was sorry for what their deaths would mean to Cora. I’d never envied Randall’s job of being judge, jury, and executioner to the wolves who didn’t fall into line. Now, it was Cora’s job.
I considered killing the other wolf for her, but I didn’t want to risk undermining her, so I moved back to her side, but a few steps behind her. This was her show. I’d been able to help bring this wolf around, but that was the extent of what I could do.
Thank you. I wasn’t sure what to do with him.
You’re welcome. I’ll kill the other if you need me to.
No. I’ll do it. I need to deal with this wolf first. Can you put more of whatever you did before into the ground?
Of course.
It took some thought to remember what I’d done before. The energy had just kind of shown up, and I’d known what to do with it. I remembered the feeling and managed to do it again, but it wasn’t easy. I’d need to be careful about saying, “Of course,” in the future until I was certain I could do something.
Chapter 12
Mordecai
Humans die. Shapeshifters and vampires die. Even the exceptionally long-lived, like Aaron and Abbott, will eventually die.
We were only supposed to have Randall for around 130 or so years, but he hadn’t even made it to forty yet. We lost him too soon, and if Cora hadn’t recently grown so strong, we’d have been in trouble. The wolves in more than eight states would almost certainly have been taken over by an evil overlord, and maybe that sounds overly dramatic, but it isn’t.
The new Alpha didn’t dare cry in front of people. She’d have a hard enough time ruling as a female, and to be seen crying would just make her job harder.
And so, Kirsten cried for both of them. Just as Kane had told her earlier in the day that she cried for all of them, Cora acknowledged that her best friend was crying for everyone who couldn’t release their tears.
And still, more than seventy percent of the wolves present were openly crying. Kirsten wasn’t alone this time. Even my eyes got a little misty. When you’re immortal, you get used to people dying. That isn’t to say I never cry at funerals, but it’s rare. As funerals go, this one was harder in part because it’s always hard to see twins separated by death.
Tyson and Kane were brothers, and were close. Kane’s grief had been intense, but it was nothing compared to Duke’s heartache.
None of the men of the RTMC cried. They all held strong for their president. Their women, however, cried for them. Not all of the women — I noted Angelica and Harmony held their feelings inside. Gen, however, managed to cry elephant tears while she helped support her husband.
Aaron and Sophia also stood with dry eyes, though Sophia looked as if she was pulling on extra strength from her people to stand strong. I was certain the swans would give her whatever she needed in her time of grief. She likely wasn’t pulling from them, but was instead being gifted their energy and affection. I also noted she transferred a great deal of it to Duke when she hugged him. I’d forgotten how close the two of them were.
The funeral lasted until well into the night. Everyone of power wanted to speak and pay their respects, and many without power.
When it was Kirsten’s turn, she told the group her first meeting with Randall was shortly after she’d accidentally bound Cora to her and then killed Surtr. She didn’t give the details of their first meeting, but told the group it hadn’t gone well. However, once she’d convinced him she wasn’t trying to steal his wolf, he’d understood what had happened, and had offered her Friend of the pack status. “Because that’s the kind of man he was. He wasn’t afraid to admit when he’d been wrong, and he took steps to fix it. And now my best friend is being forced to step into his shoes. I’ll do what I can to support her, but this is her gig, and I’m just the supportive friend. We’re going to miss Randall’s leadership, his humanity as well as the power and earthiness of his wolf, his friendship, and his counsel. Our community suffered a great loss, but this is a personal loss for me.”
Little Evie had grown into a woman in recent years, and she walked to Kirsten and hugged her when Kirsten put the mic back in the holder. Kirsten had held it together long enough to speak, but she and Evie both let their tears flow while they held each other.
Evie had recently transferred to Patrick’s pack in Ringgold, so she could be close to Briana, and I noted that she went back to Briana’s side when Kirsten returned to Cora, Nathan, and me.
Nathan spoke of how the relationship between the wolves and lions hadn’t always been good, and he even managed a little joke about Garfield and Odie. The crowd seemed to appreciate the brief respite from grief, but Nathan had more to say. He talked about how Randall had healed so many relationships during his time as Alpha. Most of the predatory groups in town now get along, and this was in large part due to both Randall and Abbott. Nathan ended his little speech by saying the wolves and lions would now be closer than ever, and he hoped the other groups would continue their close relationships as well.
Nathan stopped short of saying an attack on the wolves would be the same as an attack on the lions, but I think we all knew it was what he wanted to say. Or, perhaps I was the only one who picked up on it.
Abbott spoke, of course, but it was Kendra’s words that touched people. She’d had respect and friendship for Randall, and it came through in her voice and her energy. She might be third in the hierarchy, but she’d be the one to step into Abbott’s shoes if something happened to him. This was a relief to me, because Gavin with so much power was a scary thought.
And then Cora finally spoke. As the new Alpha, this was as much about politics as it was about saying goodbye to her friend and mentor. She noted that as far as she was concerned, all current treaties were still in effect, and that while legally they had to be reaffirmed, she assured the group this was only a formality.
And then she looked towards the RTMC and gave her next pronouncement.
“All wolves who so valiantly fought with us during the final battle are no longer under the lone wolf constraints about using magic. You were given permission to use it for the battle, and I’m telling you this permission will last through my tenure as Alpha. Those permissions are permanent.”
She addressed the crowd in general again. “It’s only fair, and if any of you take issue with my decision, take it up with me, not them. Assaulting a lone-wolf for using magic will mean a face-to-face discussion with me, and I can promise you, it won’t go well for you.” She took a breath. “If a wolf uses magic and you don’t believe they were at the battle, report the instance to me or someone in the Homewood Pack. I’ll handle it, if indeed it needs to be handled.”
She turned to Kirsten, grasped her hand, and pulled her closer. “And finally — a group of women fought side-by-side across two realms during the final battle. Lone wolves, pack wolves, Strigorii, and Harlequin. It isn’t my intention to set up an all-female council, but it is my intention to bring more women into the supernatural meetings currently being led by Aaron Drake. I asked for and received his approval — everyone in our little group of women will have a seat at the table during future meetings. I’ve asked myself if perhaps I could’ve saved Randall’s life if I’d been fighting by his side. However, he’d sent me away to get a job done, and I’d have disrespected him by refusing to leave his side. Our group killed the main people who’d organized the dark side. One is still alive, but I understand he’s a prisoner in the Hell realm for the foreseeable future. The leaders of the dark side are dead. More will rise to the top to lead — they always do. However, our brave, valiant warriors scratched and scraped and fought for a victory we can all be proud of.”
Cora put her hand to her heart and her eyes were a touch misty. “Randall was my friend, my mentor, and my Alpha. I loved him. I will always love the memory of him. Please join me in a moment of silence to remember him, and then further silence while we put his body to rest.
”
The sight of a sapling’s roots being placed into the abdominal cavity of a dead body seems wrong at first glance, but it was the way of the wolves. Randall was buried with a large oak sapling. The sapling was already over a year old, and around five feet tall. Under normal circumstances, it would take another decade to grow into a full tree, and at least fifty years to begin looking like a mighty oak. However, with the former wolf Alpha at its roots, and the love and attention of the pack, it would grow and mature in less than half that time. Possibly a quarter of the time.
With Kirsten’s blessing, it could grow even faster.
The pack would get love and grounding from the tree, and the tree would return the energy. A symbiotic relationship. It wasn’t Randall, but it would still be looking out for the pack.
Chapter 13
Kirsten
I went to Alfheim by myself. Cora had so much to do, and I felt guilty about abandoning her, but she understood and sent me on my way.
Since I needed to find someone to have sex with, I didn’t think having Nathan and Mordecai at my side was a good idea. Nathan got a little pissed — he didn’t want me to leave his side, but that wasn’t practical. He had pride things to deal with, and I needed to handle my duties and responsibilities in Alfheim. He was going to have to leave my side sooner or later, it might as well be sooner.
First on my agenda was a session with the Crone. Upon Zeta’s advice, I took her gifts of candles, various herbs, and a piece of gold. The Crone had tea and snacks prepared for us, and I wished I’d worn a dress. She was in a deep purple dress with teal along the hemline, and her hair was in a neat bun.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me. I apologize for not dressing up. I’m still figuring out the customs.”
“You’re fine. You are dressed as you, and I wouldn’t want you any other way. Tell me, why aren’t your two men with you?”
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