by Aileen Erin
That got me thinking. If I’d met the coven first, would I have wanted to be part of it? Would I have drunk their Kool-Aid?
I hoped I would’ve been able to see through it, but it was possible that I could’ve been blinded by their powers.
It was dumb to sit around thinking about what-ifs. That hadn’t happened. I was here with the pack, and I liked my life. I doubted the coven could’ve helped me gain control of my powers so fast. I would’ve been stuck on their land, living in their middle-of-nowhere compound—that sounded terrible.
I liked running with the pack. I liked being with Dastien.
No. I loved being with him.
I sighed and tried to focus on the words as I read the first chapter.
I was fully sucked into the story when Meredith popped back into my room. “Ready?”
“Yes. I’m starving, Miss I-said-I’d-be-a-sec-and-meant-half-an-hour.”
“Shut it. Not everyone can be as naturally gorgeous as you.” She laughed at her own joke.
Werewolves were all kinds of hot. Probably because they all were ripped and had naturally healthy skin and hair. They looked like the best versions of themselves at all times. When I first showed up, I’d thought I’d walked onto Mount Olympus. Each Were was a testament to perfection. It was sick. And I was from LA. I was used to people working hard at looking good. But the Weres made it effortless. Tall. Fit. Graceful. My five feet and change couldn’t ever really compete with that, but I didn’t care. I didn’t mind being different. I was used to that.
We chatted about the ins and outs for the watching order of Firefly as we walked to the cafeteria, agreeing that the chronological order, not airing order, was best. The cafeteria was next door to the dorms. I smelled the food before I saw it. Cooks worked at different stations while workers on the line kept heaping more into the trays of prepared food. It was enough to drive my senses crazy. I ignored whoever was in the room and went straight for the buffet. Turned out, I was hungrier than I’d thought.
We made our way around the stations, loading up our trays until they were piled high. When I turned, I found a mostly full cafeteria.
That was weird. Sundays were usually the most laissez-faire time on campus. People slept in and came and went throughout the day. They were my favorite days for that reason. No packed cafeteria.
This Sunday wasn’t my favorite. Not only were there a bunch of new people, but someone in particular caught my eye as I made my way between the large round tables.
Imogene Hoel.
She’d helped her father nearly tear the pack apart a month and a half ago, and she was the whole reason we were having the Tribunal. Sure, I’d attacked her, but she’d gotten in my face. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to kill me in return. If Claudia and Raphael hadn’t stepped in, she might’ve succeeded.
Her father, Rupert Hoel, was still on the run. No one had heard from him since his failed attempt to take over, but that didn’t mean he was gone for good. His wife butted into the whole Luciana thing last night—sponsoring the coven for the Tribunal and at the ceremony—and now his daughter was back from her mandatory leave of absence. That whole family was trouble, and I had a feeling I’d be hearing from Rupert before long.
It was stupid to be blindsided by the sight of Imogene, but I’d totally forgotten that she would be here for the Tribunal. Or maybe I’d been hoping I wouldn’t see her. We’d kind of made peace with each other before she left, but I still didn’t trust her. It was one thing to forgive, but another to forget.
And now she was sitting with Dastien. My Dastien. Her hand was on his arm.
“Calm down,” Meredith said. “No need to rip her throat out again. We all know Dastien’s yours.”
I took a breath. “Yeah, but does she know that?”
“She’d be dumb to not know that now.”
Meredith was right. I’d forgiven her, so I needed to stick by that. The only reason she was bugging me was because I hadn’t seen her since she left, and her parents were trying to make my life miserable. This was not the time to act like a jealous girlfriend. Even if I kind of was one.
Dastien looked up, and his glowing eyes met mine. He scooted away from Imogene. I don’t like what you’re feeling right now.
“Me neither,” I muttered to myself. Jealousy sucked. It made me feel petty and weak and insecure. I didn’t like it one bit.
There’s nothing to be jealous of. You’re my mate. It’s not a secret.
Sorry. I started toward him. I’m feeling a little unsettled after last night, and she’s not bringing out the best in me.
Dastien pushed out the chair next to him. As soon as I sat, he brushed his lips against mine. “I was going to come get you in a few if you didn’t show up.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He held up his phone. “You barely made it.” The countdown had less than a minute on it.
“Why the time limit?”
He sat back in his chair. “You wouldn’t eat on our run again. You’re still going too long between meals.”
Ripping into a live, fur-covered Bambi wasn’t something I wanted to do, no matter how natural everyone else thought it was.
I kissed his cheek. “Thanks.”
Meredith plopped down next to me. “Hey, Imogene.”
“Hey.” She drew out the word a little too long for it to be mistaken as anything nice. “Well, I’m going to get going. Good to see you Dastien.” She put her hand on his arm again and squeezed. I wanted to rip her hand off her body.
I shoved a giant bite of omelet in my mouth to keep from talking to her.
“See you, Tessa.”
“Mmm-hmm,” I said around my bite.
Dastien leaned back in his chair. “You’re kind of adorable when you’re jealous.”
My cheeks heated. Shut up, I said through the bond. I glanced over to Meredith, who was nodding and staring off into space. “How’s Donovan?” I said when I was done chewing.
She jumped a little in her seat. “Oh. He’s fine. He’s on his way. Sorry, was I doing it again?”
“Yeah, but I’m just as bad.”
“He wants to talk to you two.”
I dropped my fork. I didn’t like the sound of that. “Anything bad?”
“He didn’t say.”
Perfect. The way the last twenty-four hours had been going, chances were on a scale from one to ten the news ranked somewhere around fifteen, a.k.a. mega-terrible. I just knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he had to say.
Before I could worry too much, Donovan appeared at the table and settled into the chair next to Meredith. He didn’t say hello. Instead, he put his arm around her, drawing her close. “How’re you two doin’ today? Feeling okay?”
Dastien stiffened beside me, and I put a hand on his leg. “We’re going to be okay, provided that we don’t have the same problem next month.”
Donovan sighed. “I can’t promise anything. What I can say is that Luciana’s up to something.”
I clasped a hand against my chest. “No! You don’t say?”
The side of his mouth tilted up. “All right. I get it. But I want you to be prepared for what may come. Don’t be afraid of fighting for what you want.”
I met his gaze and couldn’t look away. “Even if it puts other people in danger?”
“Yes.”
I shook my head. No way. “That’s too selfish. I don’t know that I could do that.”
The only sign that Donovan was pissed was the sudden glow in his blue eyes. “Fine. Don’t completely ignore the good of others, but don’t be a martyr either. I’ve seen that look in Luciana’s eyes before. Seen it in others, too. I know this is going to come down to a fight. It’s just a matter of how big.”
I broke his gaze. Not because it was too intense, but because I was confused. How was I supposed to know what move to make when he was contradicting himself? What was right? “You really think it’s going to be a fight no matter what?”
He settled back in
his chair. “There’s a delicate balance between us supernaturals. Any one gets too big for their britches and it’s bad for the lot of us. Last time it was us who were in the wrong. We wanted too much control. Too much power. An evil wolf came to rule all the packs, and it went downhill from there.”
“What about the Seven? Didn’t they do anything about it?”
“That’s exactly why the Seven were formed. One person can’t know everything. One person shouldn’t be able to make a choice for a whole. It’s the individual that can be corrupted, but by conducting open discussions between equals, we can decide what’s best for all packs.” He blew out a breath. “It works better this way. Trust me.”
That sparked something. “Mr. Hoel wanted to do away with the Seven.”
“That’s right. And I’ll not be surprised if he’s working with this local coven.”
More fantastic news. “So worst case, we fight with my coven and whoever is still backing the Ass-Hoel. Some stand against us. Some don’t. That’s that.”
“Not quite. You see, we did some bad things to the witches before. We attack one group, they’ll all come calling. And they won’t be thinking rationally. We’re sending messages. Some will believe us. Some won’t.” He paused. “One fight, one little misstep, and the balance will be thrown off.”
This sounded way more tenuous than I’d thought. “You say not to give up and be selfish, but how am I supposed to do that and keep it from being a fight?”
“I’m not sure there’s a way.”
Great. Let me work up a miracle. “I thought you were supposed to be in the all great and powerful Seven. Don’t you have a plan? Shouldn’t you…I don’t know…figure something out?”
“Ehm. Well. We’re trying, but a lot now rides on the results of the Tribunal. We’re talking to our contacts and gathering some witches to our side to counter whatever Luciana has planned, so don’t worry too much. More importantly, have you written your speech for the Tribunal? Thought about what you want to say?”
I wish I had it done, but that just wasn’t the case. “I’ve got a few points, but I’m having writer’s block.” Dastien squeezed my hand, and I appreciated the support, but I needed to stop procrastinating. Not doing it wasn’t going to make the Tribunal go away. It was only going to make me unprepared. “You know, you supernaturals are really making it hard for a girl to enjoy her life. All these fights and battles and coups.”
“It usually isn’t like this,” Meredith said.
“Yeah. That’s why you have the Cazadores. Because everything is usually sunshine and rainbows.” The ‘hunters’ took out all the bad supes that preyed on humans—they wouldn’t exist if they weren’t needed.
“Eat,” Dastien said. “I can help you prep. We’ll come up with something to make sure we’re together.”
I hoped so. Going back to the coven’s compound was not something I ever wanted to do, but Donovan didn’t have a clue how I was going to avoid that without a fight. And fighting wasn’t an option. At least not yet, it wasn’t.
I dug into my omelet, wishing that Meredith had it right and food could fix things.
If only it were that easy.
Chapter Six
The day of the Tribunal started like any other day. I went through the motions, but I felt like a zombie. Like it wasn’t really happening to me. I wasn’t sure how I expected to feel, but being resigned and numb wasn’t exactly helping. I needed to be ready with my arguments. So, I did what any other nerd might do. I studied.
Research was going to help me figure out what I needed to say. I read that whole damned Werewolf Bible front to back. And then I read a couple other reference books that Mr. Dawson had given me. I took notes, and at the end of it, I wasn’t numb anymore, but I was a little pissed.
I stomped my way from my room to the cabin. Dastien had said he’d be there prepping for the questions with Mr. Dawson. They believed that I wouldn’t be held accountable for anything, but Dastien had known better than to bite me. And after I attacked Imogene, that was on his head, too. The whole thing was bullshit; Imogene’s father had only registered his complaint to take the focus off his attempted coup. Which had failed.
As long as Dastien could be held accountable, so could I. Dastien couldn’t take the blame for me and my actions, like almost ripping out Imogene’s throat, but I knew he’d try.
The truth was we were both in serious shit, and he’d known all along. Everyone had been patting me on the head saying it’d all be fine and not to worry.
Fur rippled and disappeared along my arms with every step I took. When I got to Dastien’s cabin, I didn’t knock. He sat at the table with Donovan, Sebastian, Mr. Dawson and an old man I didn’t know. But I didn’t care.
I threw the book at Dastien, but he caught it before it hit him in the face. “We’re so fucking screwed. According to Chapter Seven, paragraph fourteen, what you did is inexcusable. IN. EXCUSE. ABLE. Not even a little bit okay. As in of course they have a case. I read about four other cases similar to ours—minus the whole True Mate thing—and they were killed. As in no longer breathing! And you’ve been telling me not to worry? Just write the speech, you said. They’ll let us be together, you said.” I paused to catch my breath. “Are you insane? High? What? Please tell me. Because from what I’ve been reading all morning, we’re in a whole heap of shit.”
“Cherie—”
“Don’t you cherie me! I know what I read. How could you lie?” I spun to Mr. Dawson, pointing a finger at him. “And you. You said everything would be fine.” I turned to Sebastian and Donovan. “And you two didn’t say a damned thing either. I talked to you yesterday, Donovan. Told you I was worried. And you said to write from the heart and it’d all be grand. Grand,” I said the last in my best Irish accent. I was coming off as a little crazed, so I took a moment to catch my breath. “Don’t think I’m scared of you and won’t say anything. Everyone treats me like a child. It’ll be fine, they say. Don’t worry, they say. Well fuck that.”
My blood was on fire. Fear and anger and frustration had all melded together to form one giant ball of bad emotion. I was out of breath again, panting hard.
“You done?” Mr. Dawson said.
“I don’t know.” I couldn’t think behind the mad.
Donovan started to laugh, and I shot him a look. “Stop laughing! It’s not funny.” I backed power with the command before I could stop myself.
Donovan’s laugh instantly died. “Well, that’s the first time someone’s put me in my place in quite a while.”
“Did the command get you, Dono?” the stranger asked.
“I’ll be damned, but it did. Shite. It definitely did.”
Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to do, but I couldn’t help myself. Now everyone was watching me like I was some fascinating creature. I didn’t like it one bit. “What?”
“What, indeed.”
“This is what I mean,” Sebastian said. His thick German accent turned the ‘w’ to a ‘v’ sound.
The staring made me calm down a little. “Sorry.” I paused. That was a lie. “I’m not really all that sorry.” I crossed my arms, waiting for someone to address the real issue at hand.
“What he did was bad. Yes, inexcusable. But there are exceptions to every rule, and we agreed that you were the exception,” Sebastian said. “That’s why Donovan and I came to see you. If there had been a need for all of this, we would’ve said so then. We would’ve called the Tribunal and made an example of the two of you, but instead we found you. Your bond with him was weaker then, but even so, we suspected what would happen if it were to strengthen.”
I swallowed. Sebastian’s calm words got rid of most of my anger, but all I was left with was fear. “Do I need to be worried about this? Beyond whatever Luciana is going to say? Be honest.”
“Maybe,” Sebastian said. “If you’d gone through with the ceremony yesterday, then no. But now…”
It felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. The panic made it ha
rd to breathe. My chest was so tight that it felt like an elephant was sitting on it. At least he was finally being upfront with me. “So, what’s next?”
“We’re all behind you, but I’ve a feelin’ that the Hoels will be a problem. That the coven will be a bigger problem. But we’re all behind you,” Donovan said. “Except Ferdinand. He’s been causing problems.”
“Ferdinand?”
“One of the Seven.”
I looked around the room. I’d made a really great first impression on the old man. His skin was so wrinkled that he looked a little like a Shar Pei. His eyes were bloodshot, giving him a sickened look. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t doing well. Something was wrong with him.
“This is Muraco, another member of the council of Seven,” Mr. Dawson said with a small smile.
Oh, that was just fantastic. I’d flipped out in front of one of the guys who would be deciding my fate. I stared at him for a moment before looking back at Mr. Dawson. “What can I do?”
“What do you want?”
“To stay here. To be with Dastien. For everyone to leave me alone.”
I suddenly realized why Muraco being so visibly old was so shocking. I’d never seen an old-looking Were. They always seemed young despite whatever their ages were. But Muraco looked ancient, and his skin reeked of leather and tobacco.
He leaned forward over the table and it was like everyone paused as we waited to hear what he would say.
“No one with any amount of power will ever be left alone. You might’ve seen it before you moved this way. Humans were drawn to you. Maybe not in the way you would’ve hoped, but they didn’t leave you alone, did they? And the second Dastien saw you, he couldn’t leave you alone. You can’t walk into a room without everyone looking at you. It will always be that way. More so now that you’re both alpha and witch. You will be a magnet for all things. The sooner you accept that, the happier you’ll be.” Muraco coughed, hacking loudly. I found myself holding my breath, waiting for the noise to stop.
Sebastian handed him a glass of water. “Here you go, old friend.”
Muraco downed the water, and then cleared his throat. “But keeping you with your mate, that is something that we should be able to achieve.”