by Jana Leigh
His wolf stepped forward in his head and also in the ring. His head held proudly up in the air and he let out a howl that would have been a war cry if he would have been human. He knew there would be no more sparring now; his wolf would go for the throat and a quick kill. Michael stepped back and seemed to rethink what he was going to do.
His wolf was having nothing of it. The time for being polite was over; they were going to end this.
Quin nodded and his wolf jumped and attacked. He landed on the other wolf’s front leg and pushed him to the ground. They could smell the herbs that the witch had used in the dust but his wolf ignored it. That would be taken care of when they won. His wolf would fight to the death for his mates.
He pinned Michael on the ground with his paws and growled. The small wolf tried to turn his head and nip at him. If he would have gone slack and not fought back things may have turned out differently, but his wolf was in charge and would not accept the defiance.
He leaned over, gripped his throat, and whipped his head a little. He could feel the tear of flesh in his teeth and held on. The smell of the herbs began to overwhelm his senses.
It was time to end this. Only he couldn’t seem to concentrate, his wolf struggled. Then all of a sudden, he shifted and lost consciousness, falling to the ground.
Jaden had seen what was happening and he’d started to remove his clothing. Ryan stood there, a shocked look on his face as he watched Michael struggle to stand, intending to finish off the defenseless Quin. Cami screamed and had to be held back by Devon and Blaze.
Suddenly Jaden shouted, “I claim tri-mate rights!” The audience froze. Michael had risen to his paws and stood there panting, with blood dripping from the wound on his neck. Jaden dove into the ring, shifting on the fly and landing between where Quin lay unconscious and Michael. Another leap and he was on the smaller wolf, it was over in seconds. Michael was dead.
“Cheat!” Called a voice from Michael’s side of the stadium, “you have broken the challenge rules and traditions. Michael’s brother is now Alpha!”
“Halt!” Said Ryan, who couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed. “Jaden, explain please.”
Jaden stood tall facing the crowd. “We will settle this now. Enforcers, surround Michael’s followers, especially the vocal one in the front row.” He turned to Ryan. “As you know, Jordan is the New Council historian. Her mates also have knowledge in history and are her helpers in her chosen role. It has been a long time since a formal Alpha challenge of this nature, so while Jordan recovered from her injuries, Romy and Larkin performed her duties and found the rules and traditions of challenges, as you know them. Jordan has recovered enough in the last week to look over all that they did and she had noticed a discrepancy. With the help of her mates, she found a reference to tri-mated Alphas. One of the reasons a triad Alpha mating is considered so lucky is because the male Alphas are seen as one. A challenge to one is a challenge to both. That one fact meant that we could have faced Michael together and easily destroyed him.
Quin decided to give him the chance to show his belly and surrender. Instead, Michael chose to cheat!” At this, there was an uproar.
Jaden turned to the trees, “Shane?”
Shane Arno flew down from the tree where he had perched throughout the bout shifting as he landed and stood up. “Shifter judge, with your permission?” at Ryan’s nod he continued. “As an eagle my eyesight is better than any other’s here. I saw the wolf in the front row throw some type of powder over Michael’s coat. Also, we are in a dry, rocky arena and yet even now the challenger’s claws are glistening as though wet.” He didn’t look at Michael or say his name, he didn’t want Michael’s Chindi to come closer and cause evil. “I believe spells, potions, and magicks were used here.” Once again the crowd roared their displeasure.
Ryan then held his hands up for quiet. “These accusations are serious. An Investigation will be made.” He looked over at Larkin who had stepped forward. “Larkin, what do you know of this?”
“I have the documents which explain the rules and traditions not of the Alpha Challenge, but of Triad Mates. Romy and I had overlooked this when we researched challenge laws. Jordan had been researching them for some time, she felt if she understood them better, it would help the council find the rest of the Chosen Ones.
She discovered that both males in a Triad are as one, neither ruling over the other but side by side with their female. A Challenge to one was a challenge to both. She concluded that this is why the New Council was fated to be filled with Triad Matings. So challenges would be unlikely, as any challenger would have to face not one but two opponents. She only brought this to the Alphas attention late last night.” He concluded and the crowd started chanting ‘Triad, Triad’ across the amphitheatre.
Once again, Ryan raised his hands to calm and quiet the crowd. As he looked up, he saw that the crowd had thinned quite a bit. Many of those who had been sitting at the back and the sides had drifted away.
“Due to Triad Mate law, Quin and Jaden are declared the winners of this challenge and will maintain their Alpha status in regards to the New Council Pack and the Denver Pack.” The crowd once again started to shout, “The issue of cheating will also be looked into, not because it will affect the outcome. It will be looked into for accurate accounting of this event and to prevent appeals from any descendants Michael and his family may have in the future.”
At this point, Michael’s parents stood up and his father spoke as his wife silently cried next to him. “Our family would like it on record that while we loved our son and came here for him, we did not support his challenge and will not make attempts in future. I declare now that our bloodline gives up the right to Alpha challenge from this day forward. His mother and I would beg that you investigate this entire situation very carefully and give you permission to go through all of our sons things. His behavior has been strange for some months. He was terrified of going through with this challenge and we both tried to stop it; he said he was compelled to go through with it. If what the eagle says is true, we ask if it’s possible he was bespelled.” A gasp came from the audience at that. “If we can, we’d like to clear his name, for the sake of the family and his memory.”
Cami, not waiting to listen to any more legal bullshit, sprang into the ring and ran over to Quin and Jaden, tears streaming down her face as well. Jaden had gone over to him during Larkin’s explanation, sat on the ground, and pulled his head and shoulders into his arms. It was only his obvious relief that had kept Cami out of the ring this long.
Ryan waved his arms and Enforcers closed in and arrested the wolves that supported Michael, that were strangers to his family. Most of the New Council pack members were now gone and those remaining were mostly representatives of the Old Council, visiting shifters and a few of the New Council members. Suddenly Lagon looked up, sprang up from his seat, and with a snap of his fingers removed his clothes. He ran into a cleared area, leapt, and just disappeared into thin air, causing many to gasp. The Council appeared to be watching something flying in the sky. Cloe, who’d just entered the ring to see to Quin, looked over when Jo shouted, “The children! The compound is under attack.”
Chapter 11
The Council had left the compound and a lot of the commotion of the last few days seemed to melt away. There was quiet and silence. Jordan and Lacy played with the children as they lay on the floor with their baby toys.
Both of the women were happy to play and talk to them. It was peaceful, and both of them longed to have a child of their own. Lacy and her mates had been actively trying but for some reason she hadn’t become pregnant. She had an appointment with Cloe to talk to her about it in the next week. Her mother thought it was the stress.
Jordan laughed when one of Jo’s twins rolled to where she sat. Romy had helped her get on a floor bed they had built for her. It was comfortable, but the casts were becoming a burden. She still had them on her arms and her legs, just to her hips. The worst was having to spend a
portion of every day in traction with her legs suspended.
“Hey look,” Lacy said. “He’s crawling up to you.”
Jordan nodded, waited, and watched. Christian was Jo’s son, she did not want to move suddenly and hurt the baby. Jo and she had just gotten back onto a good footing; she would hate to explain how she squished her kid with the heavy casts.
The child turned to his twin, Cassandra, and made some sounds. It was as if they were talking about something, Lacy thought and watched and the other twin made her way over to Jordan. Lacy sat with Cami’s children who had gone silent; and Casey’s babies who had been asleep but were now awake staring over at Lacy.
Romy and Shawn walked in the room laughing. While she waited to see what Christian and Cassandra were up to, she asked the guys why they were laughing.
Shawn explained, “It’s those two human girls from the city. I guess they’ve been giving Jean Paul and Charlie fits for most of the night. They were coming in with shotguns in their hands. They want to sit in Surya’s room and make sure she’s well guarded. Then I heard Judy say to Charlie that he shouldn’t worry because her father had taught them both to skeet shoot.” And then Romy added, “Yeah but the funny part is when Sarah told Jean Paul that she wasn’t sure about becoming a wolf because she didn’t think taking down a deer in the woods was kosher.” They all laughed at that.
Romy and Sevi had been out checking the perimeter. The cats were surrounding the compound and doing shifts of checking in with them inside the B&B. The men had just gotten back from the last check, the cats said they could feel something in the air, but so far, nothing was visual. They figured Braden had gotten the witches help again. The good part was that Lacy and her mother had both used protection spells all over the compound. But nothing was infallible.
“What are you doing?” Romy said curiously.
Lacy looked up and whispered, “Not sure yet.”
They remained silent and watched as both of the children stopped chattering to each other and crawled over to Jordan. Jordan awkwardly leaned over, smiled at the infants, and whispered to them, “Hey little one’s, what are you doing?” Christian smiled and placed a chubby little hand on her face. She gasped when she felt a calmness flow into her. The child was giving her a feeling of peace and well being. Lacy made a noise when the babies started doing their glowing thing again.
“Shit, they look like glow worms,” Shawn said and laughed.
“Ha, just think, yours will do this too. And you shouldn’t swear in front of them, do you want their first words to be something crude?” Romy laughed but stared intently as the children began to touch his mate more. Cassandra was smoothing her hands over her leg casts and Jordan felt her eyes grow wide.
“Oh my,” she whispered.
“What?” Romy demanded and then took a step forward. A bubble appeared around him to stop him from moving any closer. “Hope, now honey, let your uncle Romy go.” Lacy whispered but the girl frowned and glared at Romy.
Shawn opened the side of his mouth and said, “Pissed off the one who can put you in a bubble, dude, really? Quin and Jaden are the only ones who can get her to let you go now. I guess she wants Cassandra and Christian to finish whatever it is their doing.” Jordan felt the tingle run through her. It didn’t hurt at all. She could feel calm and love being sent to her through Christian. He smiled and petted her cheek and then rubbed her arm. Cassandra continued to crawl over her slowly and rub up and down her limbs.
She had never felt this way before. It was like her bones were repairing themselves. She could feel the strength coming back to them. Cloe had been worried earlier today about her being in the cast for this long. He muscles would be atrophied because of inactivity; it was going to take months of therapy to build back her strength.
She felt a little panic at the thought of what they were doing. The children had the ability to heal. Why had they not healed Quin or the rest of them? Why her? She sighed as Christian petted her face again. He was trying to communicate something but she had no clue what it was.
It was several minutes before both of the children crawled off of her and lay back on the floor, they seemed tired and they closed their eyes. Romy tapped his foot on the floor and said, “Please, Hope, I just want to get to my mate.” The bubble popped and Romy was able to move. He rushed to his mate’s side and said,
“Baby, how are you?”
Jordan laughed and she felt the tears gather in her eyes. “They healed me.” Lacy stood up and picked up the children and put them all back in their cribs. They were all sound asleep. Whatever had just happened had made them all tired. Once the children were settled, they went to Jordan’s side also. Romy was firing off a lot of questions at her.
“Healed, how do you know? What are you feeling? Are you in pain?” Jordan shook her head and said, “I swear, they just healed me. If I didn’t have these things on my legs, I would hop up and walk. I can feel it. Please, Romy, believe me.” Romy looked at Shawn who shrugged and said, “Toss up.” Lacy finally said, “Take off one of the casts, Romy use your claw, just be careful, Cloe is gonna kick all our asses for this, but we need to know.” Romy looked at his mate who nodded and then said, “You sure?”
“Yep,” Jordan said and held her breath as she saw her mates hand change into a paw.
The claws were long, she knew, she loved to play with them and had on many occasions when he shifted to guard her at night.
He started at the top of the leg by her right hip, hooked his claw and pulled gently. She winced a little at the pressure but refused to let him stop. It took a few minutes to get to the point where Shawn could fit his fingers in either side and pull it apart. The cast cracked and Jordan looked at her leg. It was kinda wrinkly and white, gosh. It smelled too. Oh, how she wanted a shower about right now.
“Well?” Romy said and was ready to get a brace if it was still broken.
Jordan moved it slowly and smiled. “Nothing, no pain. It feels amazing. Get these off of me.”
The men worked silently together while Lacy went and got a clean wash cloth. She began wiping off her skin for her. It was wonderful feeling the fresh water against her skin. She almost moaned but thought it might be inappropriate to tell Lacy she loved her at that moment.
***
Bama thanked Mildred for all her help. Her wrists and ankles felt much better. Her ankles were wrapped and she wore leather cuffs around her ankles. Mildred said they were fairy blessed and would shift with her giving her the extra support she needed.
She couldn’t wear them on her wrists but they had been given a stronger healing and she didn’t use them as much.
She quickly gathered her supplies in a duffle bag, carefully balancing the weight and then removed her tear away clothes and ballet flats. Covert missions were the only time she didn’t wear heels. Stowed them in the bag and then carried it out and propped it up on a table. She then used her sharp vision, quartering the area to make sure she wasn’t observed, quickly crouched, and shifted. Leaping into the air, she flew off, circled the building, and on the pass over her garden, snatched up the bag in her talons.
It was much easier to pick up a load than take off with one. She approached a building with a line of sight to the warehouse and with a higher elevation. She first dropped her bag onto the roof, then once again scanning the area first, she swooped down, and shifted as she landed. She quickly dressed and then approached the roofline in a crouched position. She stayed below the roofline for some time and sent out a call.
Several pigeons came flying by over the next hour to tell her what they’d seen. There seemed to be some type of preparations going on. Three wolves had left and hadn’t returned. The rest seemed to be psyching themselves up for a battle, fighting, shifting and a few were taking drugs.
At ten o’clock the activity increased, large roll-up doors opened and vehicles came pouring out filled with wolves. Three hummers and ten vans, the first hummer held two, Braden and Roarke, the second held six and the vans h
eld between ten and twelve each.
She waited for ten minutes then checked. It was reported that after looking in all available windows that there were only two women and four men remaining in the building. Her opportunity had come; she quickly shifted and moved herself and her equipment to the warehouse roof. She stealthily entered the building and worked her way through. She put at least one camera in each room as well as a listening device. She ambushed and killed the four guards and stashed them in closets or bathroom stalls, one guard downstairs she put into the trunk of a car left in the warehouse. Her Capoeira skills enabled her to fight a larger and technologically stronger opponent. These cretins were no match for her. She had been over the entire building except the one the two women were in. She had been in the building for some time and had taken the time to download the contents of every computer she found while also screening for viruses, worms and other security blocks.
***
They had just finished with the last cast when they heard the call from the cats below.
Something was happening. Romy and Shawn stood up and ran to the window.
“Fuck, they’re coming.” Romy said and went to his mate who may have been healed but had not tried to stand. He lifted her in his arms sat her in the chair in the corner, between two of the cribs. “Stay here.”
Jordan nodded. She knew she was still human, and refused to be put back into a cast again, especially so soon. But she was not helpless. She reached into the pocket of the robe she was wearing and pulled out a gun. Cloe had given it to her before she left.
They could hear the cats outside fighting, they were being overwhelmed. Shawn shifted into his bear and stood by the door. Lacy pulled out the potions she and her mother made just in case, and stood next to her mate. And Romy shifted into his jaguar and stood in front of the cribs.