Janine interject curiously, fascinated with all that she was learning and had no idea was going on in her nation. “Wait, Texas has its own region?”
“Yes,” Kip told her with a chuckle. “It’s a big place.”
He continued, “Then in the middle of the country, there is the Plains region, led by a king, and north of them, there’s the Northern region, which includes some of Canada. Our regions aren’t designed by state or country. They’ve been around a lot longer than that, and they are separated by area. To the east of them is the Southern Sea pack which is around all the south eastern states like Florida, Georgia, all the way to Mississippi. They are led by a king. To the far south, around Louisiana, is the Creole pack, let by a queen, and lastly the Atlantic pack of the far north east, who are led by a queen. Now, the reason that I told you all of that is because out of each of the ten regions, the king or queen of that region also holds a seat with the Stroian, which is kind of like a Supreme Court in a way. They determine together what the rules are among the packs, what will be allowed and what won’t be allowed.”
“Okay… and so this governing body, this… Stroian, is all coming here to Seattle to discuss my pregnancy?” ahe asked incredulously.
Kip nodded. “Yes. They’ll all be at the house.”
She stared at him. “Oh my god.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. They only meet every three months in Denver, as it’s more centrally located, and they handle business and go home. For all of them to make a special trip out here because of a pregnancy is huge. To be honest, I don’t know what they are going to say or do. We have a lot of grey area ahead of us, and I want you to understand what you are walking into.”
Janine watched him quietly for a long moment, and finally he turned to look at her. “What is it?”
“You’re very brave to take all of this on and to keep the baby and me, even though it means that you have to face your family, Petra’s family, and all of the rest of the other leaders. Here you are telling me what I’m walking into so that I can be prepared, but you’re already in it, and you have been this whole time. You’ve been dealing with all of this. It’s crazy.” She shook her head in amazement.
Kip gave her a big smile. “You’re worth it, and I know that this baby of ours is going to be worth it too.”
“If we’re going into this den of wolves, we’re going together,” she told him sweetly.
“This is one of the reasons why I love you so much. You are a brave, strong, courageous woman.” Kip gave her hand a squeeze.
“Kip, you said all of the leaders are in the Stroian,” she began a half thought aloud.
“Yes.” He nodded.
“So, is your grandfather in it? And Petra’s dad?” she asked, piecing the puzzle together.
“Yes,” Kip answered. “And someday, when I am king of this region, I will be on it also.”
“That’s a tremendous responsibility,” she said quietly, looking out of the window and wondering what her future and the future of her baby was going to hold.
Kip was quiet and thoughtful for a long moment, and then he looked over at her and shook his head, marveling. “You know, it’s been crazy today. I am thinking over everything that’s happened, and I have to tell you, I just can’t believe that you survived a lethal attack by a werewolf. There’s almost no way that you should have walked away from that alive, let alone without a scratch. It’s mind boggling. I know full grown powerful wolves who have been killed by other werewolves. You’re a mere human person. It’s almost impossible. I just can’t seem to wrap my mind around it.”
Janine smiled a little. “It was strange for me at the beginning. I felt it coming, and that warning is probably what saved me.”
“What do you mean? Can you explain it to me?” he asked, curious about what it was like from her side of a wolf fight.
“I sensed it. I can sense you, Kip. I know if you’re close. There’s a feel about you that I can sense, and I know that it’s you, even when you’re not near me or in the same room as me, or even when you’re outside, I can sense it and I know it’s you. It’s the strangest thing.” She marveled at it.
“That’s a wolf thing.” He smiled wide. “You’re getting that from the baby.” He loved that she was feeling his presence.
“I felt the other wolf, and I knew by the feel of it that it was a strange wolf and that it was dangerous. I knew by the feel of it that I was in real trouble and that the other wolf intended to wound me mortally. I’ve never had senses like this before.” She shook her head.
“It’s definitely the baby,” Kip told her with relief and joy.
“I love our little baby,” she said happily, placing her hand gently on her belly. “I love how special our baby is.”
Kip grinned and lifted her hand to his mouth, kissing her fingers. “I love both of you.”
Just then, he pulled the car up to the driveway in front of the house, and she looked up out of the window and stared at it. “Oh my god. This isn’t a house, it’s a Manhattan train station! What is this, Grand Central?”
“It feels like it sometimes,” he teased her lightly as they got out of the car.
She looked at him in wonder. “You were serious about being a billionaire, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said with a little smile. “Come with me, and let’s go meet my family.”
He took her hand in his and both of their hearts began to pound as they walked over the threshold of the house and into it. Kip lifted his chin and breathed in the air. With a sigh of relief, he gave her an encouraging smile.
“The only wolves here are Ardelean. Petra’s pack, the Dalca, aren’t here. So, this will be just family for your first meeting.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “That’s a good thing.”
He walked with her into the living room and there, sitting on the sofas, were four men. Two younger looking men, around the same age as Kip, and two older men, though one of them was quite a bit older than the other. As she entered the room, they all stood up.
“Hello.” Kip looked at them all with no small amount of anxiety in him. “This is Janine. Janine, this is Andrei and Luca, my uncle Dimitri, and my grandfather, Nicholai.”
Nicholai came forward and shook her hand first. “Welcome, young lady. You are welcome here.”
“Thank you.” She smiled shyly at them, hoping to make a good impression.
Andrei and Luca each shook her hand, giving her a big smile as they too welcomed her. Dimitri gave her a nod and a smile.
Janine looked at them curiously and then tilted her head a little as she asked the first question on her mind. “Is this the whole pack?” She was sure that there would be more of them.
Andrei grinned and shook his head. “Oh no. The pack is all over the Olympic region. There are over one hundred of us. We five are the closest natural family, so we all live together in this house.”
She nodded her head. “Ah. I understand.”
Luca looked at her worriedly. “We’re so sorry that you were attacked. It is a strict law amongst the wolves that no children and no pregnant females are ever attacked.”
“We will protect you while you are with us!” Andrei chimed back in. “You are safe here!”
Nicholai looked at them both seriously. “I understand that you are in love and that you two wish to be together. I know that you, Janine, are carrying my grandson’s baby and my great grandchild, but you must understand that pack life is different than human culture, and we will need to see what the Stroian say about all of this. We’re going to have to wait for them before we can know what will happen.”
She sighed and nodded in acquiescence. Nicholai reached for her hand and patted it warmly. “Luckily we aren’t going to have to wait for long.”
They didn’t have to wait for long at all. She had barely gotten settled into a guest room, a suggestion of Nicholai’s, since Kip was still technically engaged to Petra, and they didn’t know what the outcome of it all was going to be, wh
en the Stroian arrived.
Along with the council of the Stroian, who all stayed in the main house with the Ardelean pack, came several members of both the Ardelean and Dalca region packs. Word of what was happening had spread far and wide, and it seemed as if everyone wanted to know what was going to happen. It was the biggest event in the wolf community in more than three centuries.
While the Stroian stayed with the Ardelean’s, the Dalca remained at the south house, though they refused to come to the main house since learning of the news. Petra hadn’t been seen, and neither had her father, until the Stroian called the first council meeting the morning after their arrival. The Dalca came for that, and there was no question in anyone’s mind that they were proud and angry.
The council was held in the kennel house, and it was packed full of wolves, more than it had ever been. There were so many wolves that had come for the meeting that the stragglers had to sit outside and listen closely to hear what was being said inside.
Janine, as a human, was not allowed into the council meeting, so instead she went to Kip’s room and sat on his balcony, looking down over the kennel house just below. She hated waiting in the wings, but there was nothing for it, and after the recent attack on her at her home, she wasn’t too keen to be in a room filled with massive werewolves, most of whom probably did not agree with her affair with Kip or her condition, or the fact that her affair with Kip had risked the impending unification of the Dalca pack and the Ardelean’s.
King Grigor approached the council, his fur bristled, his eyes dark red with anger and bitterness. “We Dalca came a great distance to be here with the Ardeleans! We came in good faith that the pact that was made seventy-three years ago would be honored and upheld! When we arrived, we were treated well, and we were given a home to stay in and told that the three-month period of courtship between my daughter and Prince Kipling would commence! We believed that the Ardelean’s were in earnest! We were wrong! They paraded their prince around as if he was intending to marry Princess Petra for the last two and a half months! All the while, their precious prince was sneaking off behind everyone’s backs, having an affair and with a human woman no less! It’s an outrage! It’s a scandal! Not only did we find out about this illicit affair just days ago, we have also discovered that the human woman is pregnant with the werewolf prince’s child! That is nothing short of an abomination! How dare they act this way! How dare they try to toy with us and fool us! We are a pack of honorable wolves and we demand justice for this!”
The Creole queen eyed King Grigor interestedly. “And what would the justice that you seek be?” she asked, and everyone in the room looked at him.
“I want him thrown out of his pack! I want that lying, cheating Prince Kipling to be punished for his crimes by being expelled from the Ardelean pack! He is in line for the throne of leadership, and a wolf nor a man like that has no business leading a pack! He is a disgrace to all wolves everywhere and to the ideals and morals for which we stand!” King Grigor turned then and narrowed his eyes hatefully at Kip. Kip kept his head up and only gazed back at the king, looking right through him. He would not be shamed by anyone when he didn’t believe that he had done anything wrong.
King Nicholai stepped forward then. “I oppose!” he bellowed out, and everyone turned then to listen to him. King Grigor, having said his piece, relinquished the floor to his host.
“Yes, King Nicholai?” the Creole queen asked, giving him permission to address them all.
“In your eyes, my grandson, Prince Kipling, has made a mistake, and to that end, I would point out that he has not run from it. In fact, he sits here in front of all of you, facing up to the crime that he is accused of committing!” King Nicholai spoke with power and strength, and everyone listened to him.
“I request that the prince be allowed to stay within our pack if he agrees to marry the princess to whom he is betrothed!” King Nicholai looked at each member of the council, including King Grigor who was shocked. “If he completes the agreement then there is no law broken!”
There were murmurings in the crowd and within the council. Kip felt as if his stomach was going to drop right through the floor. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was marry Petra, but he also knew that he would never be able to stand being separated from his family. It would be the cruelest punishment.
“What say you?” King Nicholai asked them loudly. Every one of the wolves on the council agreed, except King Grigor.
The Creole queen raised her chin and spoke loudly. “Then this matter is settled. All but one are in agreement.”
“I will not do it!” Kip stood up and walked to the side of his grandfather who had defended him so well.
There were gasps and growls all throughout the kennel as everyone stared at him.
The Creole queen eyed him in surprise. “You will not marry Princess Petra?”
“I will not marry her. I believe that it would be a lifetime of disservice to her and to both of our families and our packs. I do not love her, and I do not believe that she loves me. Would you condemn us to be together forever as mates with no affection for each other at all because of a pact that was made by others seventy-three years ago? It was approved by the Stroian so long ago that half of the members of the current Stroian weren’t even there to make the decision, yet you would hold fast to the decision of those long gone about the futures of those who are up and coming? Would you condemn a young man and a young woman to a lifetime imprisonment with a mate they do not and will not ever care for, especially when one of them, myself, is in love with someone else and is expecting a child with that lover? There is no good that can come of this union, and any wise person could see that. It is a power play by an older generation to secure the base of a super pack, which no other region in the United States has. I do not wish to be given that kind of power. I do not wish to rule over the biggest region in the country. I believe that there should be balance of power between all the packs, so that it is not ever abused in the wrong hands. So, to those ends, I say that I will not marry Princess Petra. Do with me as you see fit, but that is where it stands.” Kip turned then and walked back to the place where he had been sitting.
There was a single moment of silence during which one could have heard a hair drop, but in the moment immediately after it, chaos ensued throughout the entire hall as wolves debated, argued, and howled their opinions of approval and disapproval.
It was a long while before things quieted enough that the Creole queen could speak. “Silence! Fellow packs! There is much here to consider! The council will break and convene in private to discuss these matters! We will meet back here again when we have come to a conclusion!
The wolves filed out of the hall in a stream of fur and fangs, barking and arguing with one another about what was right and what should be done. King Grigor gave Prince Kipling and King Nicholai a severe look as he strode from the meeting with Princess Petra at his side. She had refused to look at any of the Ardelean’s in the room, and Kip understood how badly she must feel, being so taken down as she had been.
They hadn’t been back at the house for fifteen minutes when a message arrived under the front door. Andrei heard it being slipped in through the crack beneath, and he retrieved it and took it to Nicholai.
Nicholai opened it and read it with a heavy heart. His family was waiting beside him to hear what it said, but he only closed it and looked up at them with a sorrowful face. “It is a death threat to myself and to Kip, from the Dalca pack. They say if he does not marry the princess, then both he and I will be killed for the dishonor.”
Anger rose up in Kip, and he jumped to his feet. “They are starting a battle with us, and if they choose to do that, they will not win!” He began to pace back and forth, and then he turned to face his family. “I want to know who attacked Janine! I’m going to do some investigating. I want answers to this tangled web, and I want them now!”
Without another word, he left and got into his car, and headed into Seattle. He
arrived at her house and took a moment outside of it to calm down as much as he could and center his mind, focusing all of his senses so that he could pick up any hint of a clue as to who it might have been that attacked her.
He looked as carefully as he could, sniffing and listening at his keenest, his sharp eyes roving over every inch of the house, until at last he saw something laying in amongst the broken glass.
Kneeling there at it, he reached down and picked it up. It was a metal coin about the size of a quarter, and there was a hole carved into it which held a leather strap. It was a bracelet. He turned the coin over in his hand and stared hard at the stamp on it. It was the Dalca crest.
CHAPTER NINE
P.S I'm a WOLF! (Paranormal Shifter Romance Book 1) Page 12