by Laura Taylor
Thando glanced down at the shifter at his feet. He had one job here, one mission, one life to save, and this woman was a complication he could ill afford. Aside from the logistical difficulties of escorting not just one, but two people out of the building, there were a multitude of questions that would have to be answered, about whether she was telling the truth, whether she was trustworthy, whether, by taking her with him, he would just be walking into a trap.
He took a slow breath and let his wolf senses come to the fore. The woman’s body language all checked out; her tone of voice, the tension in her muscles, the expression on her face. By all accounts, she was being truthful in her desire to escape this organisation, and on that basis, killing her seemed like a heartless option. Even if she was asking him to do it.
“I can’t take you with me,” he told her apologetically. He glanced at the shifter waiting patiently on the floor. “My duty is to my kin. But if you wish to avoid any of the fallout from this, I would strongly suggest you remove yourself from this part of the building. The security cameras have been disabled for the moment, so no one should be aware that you were here.”
The woman’s face fell, and she took a shuddering breath. “You’re just going to leave me here? You won’t even kill me and let me out of this nightmare?”
“I am not merely leaving you here,” Thando told her, holstering his gun and hoisting the shifter onto his shoulder. “Your courage is admirable, and there’s a shortage of people like you in the world. I promise you, Dr Evans,” he said, reading the name off the badge on her shirt, “you will not be forgotten. But now, it’s past time for us both to leave this place.”
Gianna fought to walk evenly as she strode away down the hall. She had an appointment in the shooting range, and when the shifter’s disappearance was finally discovered and people started asking questions, she could tell them what was, in fact, the truth – she’d checked on the shifter before she’d gone for her lesson, and he was still in his cage at that point in time. After that, she’d been down in the basement for the rest of the evening, with a firm alibi as to her whereabouts, and so his escape was neither her fault nor her responsibility.
The words of the mysterious shifter echoed in her mind, and she held onto them as she caught the elevator down into the bowels of the building. He hadn’t shot her, so she had to assume that he hadn’t seen her as a threat to his escape. Hopefully, that also meant he had been telling the truth. All that she had left now was the promise that she would not be forgotten, and she resolved to keep her chin up and continue doing her best to obfuscate the Noturatii’s experiments and muddy their results. Wolves, after all, were unreasonably loyal animals, and one day soon, she had the firm hope that she and the mysterious man would meet again.
CHAPTER THIRTY
It was once again mid-afternoon when the shifters gathered on the back lawn. Last night, Sempre’s pack – or Luna’s pack, as it had become – had gathered wood in the forest and lit a funeral pyre to burn Sempre’s body. She’d been farewelled with the full traditional ritual, chanting, prayers to Sirius and a eulogy from Luna. She’d neither dressed up Sempre’s accomplishments to be greater than they were, nor derided her, but had rather stuck to a more factual speech, a history of when Sempre had joined the pack, when she’d become alpha, and had stated with subdued gratitude that Sempre had indeed kept the pack safe from the Noturatii, as was her duty. Several people had objected to the funeral rite, disgusted with Sempre’s actions, but Luna had calmly pointed out that any remaining judgement would be decided by Sirius himself, and it did not make any of them more honourable to disrespect the fallen woman now.
Baron’s pack had held an abbreviated funeral rite for Eleanor on the other side of the manor, at the same time as Luna’s pack had been holding theirs. After everything had been wrapped up here, Eleanor’s body was to be returned to Italy for cremation, and no doubt the Council would hold another service once they were all back home.
This morning the Council and the Panel had once again met to discuss the way forward, and in the midst of the discussion, something of a commotion had broken out. Tank, Andre and Heron had all been called into the meeting, then that former Noturatii man, then another young man called Alistair whom Luna had only met once or twice. It didn’t take long for the rumour mill to start up as to what on earth might be going on for so many lower ranking members of Baron’s pack to be required. Luna felt a little put out that none of her own pack had been called in again, and she’d spent the morning worrying about it, praying to Sirius that the statement she and the rest of the pack had made the day before would be sufficient to save all their lives. Even if the powers that be ended up deciding to disband the rest of the pack, Luna would still consider it a victory if it meant that no one else needed to die.
Finally, in the middle of the afternoon, all the shifters were once again called together. Luna’s pack stood in a nervous huddle; even the four who had opposed her leadership the day before had now pulled in behind her, though Luna suspected that all of them would be facing a sudden drop in their rankings in the near future.
The rest of the shifters stood opposite them, and it couldn’t have been a plainer case of ‘us’ and ‘them’ if someone had lit up a neon sign.
“We’ve had a lengthy discussion this morning,” Linnea announced, once everyone had arrived, “and in light of the deaths of Eleanor and Sempre, we have reconsidered our position on your pack.” Luna held her breath, twisting her hands in front of her as she waited for the verdict.
“Prior to yesterday’s unfortunate events, it seems that no one else in your pack was aware of Sempre’s unusual abilities. The capacity to create powerful magnetic fields does indeed run in the line of Grenable, which would explain how Sempre was able to deflect the bullet intended to kill her, and would also explain why members of your pack have been previously unable to remove her from power. Baron and Caroline have both agreed that Sempre’s death, along with the deaths of Lita and Feriur, are sufficient penalty for the breach of the Treaty.”
Luna let out a gasp of relief, but Linnea wasn’t finished yet. “The remainder of your pack is to be allowed to live,” she said, “but the rest of the Grey Watch are eager to see that these recent mistakes are not repeated. So in the short term, both Kajus and Galina will be remaining with you, to help you transition into your new pack structure and to provide training for you, Luna, as the pack’s new alpha. We have detailed a number of milestones that we expect you to achieve,” – she held up a parchment document – “and guidelines for you to follow with regard to the role of males in your pack, the acceptable uses of magic and training protocols for new recruits.”
Luna nodded, not wanting to interrupt Linnea. All of that sounded reasonable, and despite her best intentions, she supposed it was too much to ask for the Panel to simply let her go off and take over the pack without supervision.
“Furthermore,” Linnea went on, setting aside the parchment and holding up another, weightier document, “we have made a number of amendments to the Treaty of Erim Kai Bahn. As the new alpha of the British pack, Luna, we would ask you to sign the amendments on behalf of your pack.”
That was a surprise. The original Treaty had been carefully and thoroughly designed, to such a point that no one had seen the need to add or remove anything from it for nearly six hundred years. “I’ll need to read the amendments in full before I’ll commit to anything,” Luna said, and Linnea agreed without argument. Luna went forward and bent over the folding table that had been set up in the middle of the lawn, reading through the document carefully. By the time she lifted her head again some ten minutes later, she was thoroughly impressed.
In the original Treaty, there had been no guidelines for what should be done if the Treaty was ever breached. In this new section, there were several provisions, the most noticeable being that if either faction was attacked by the Noturatii, then any pack of the other faction residing in the same country was required to lend immediate assistan
ce in whatever form was possible, to repel the Noturatii’s attack and to save the lives of as many shifters as possible. Aside from a safeguard to protect each shifter pack, it was also a clear deterrent against any further betrayal; if one pack betrayed another to the Noturatii, they would only end up spending extensive time and effort rescuing the very people they had just betrayed.
There was also a page detailing the current situation and a firm statement to the effect that the breach of the Treaty committed by Sempre and her pack had been resolved, and that no further retaliatory action was to be taken by any part of Il Trosa in relation to the current incident.
“Copies of this document will be circulated to every shifter pack across Europe,” Feng informed her, once she’d finished reading. “And although we believe we’ve achieved a fair and considerate outcome, there will be a review of these amendments in six months’ time, during which any feedback from the rest of the Grey Watch will be considered. Even though we’ve gone to great efforts to be as inclusive as possible, the people here still represent a small percentage of the total number of the Watch. All that is left is for us all to sign the agreement. Unless, of course, you think anything needs to be changed?”
Luna looked over the document again, not willing to be rushed into anything. History had proven the longevity of the Treaty, and it was very likely that these changes would continue to take effect for centuries to come. But in the end, she had to admit that the additions were sound. “Let’s do it,” she said, taking the pen Feng offered. She signed the end of the document, followed by Caroline, Baron, Feng, on behalf of the Council, and then each and every one of the Grey Watch Panel. When it was finally done, Galina let out a sigh, the last one to sign the document, and Luna felt a sense of relief so profound it made her lightheaded. She had done it. She’d saved her pack, albeit with a number of conditions imposed along the way, and together, the whole lot of them had averted war between the shifters.
But there were apparently more surprises in store. “The amendments to the Treaty are not the only decision that was made today,” Linnea went on, once the formalities were over. “I believe Baron and Caroline have something more to say.”
That was a surprise. After all the chaos and inconvenience that had already been caused for them, Luna had rather assumed they would be glad to be done with the whole mess.
“This is to do with the long term success and survivability of your pack,” Caroline began, glancing sideways at Baron. “One of the problems Sempre faced, going back a good many years now, was keeping your pack hidden from the public, at the same time as securing suitable camping and hunting grounds. You wish to eschew human society, and yet in modern day England, it’s scarcely possible to go three miles without running into a road, or a farm, or a village of some sort. Which means you’ll have to give some serious thought to your plans for the location of your pack. There’s less and less forest in Britain, smaller hunting grounds and an ever-increasing risk of being caught.”
Luna nodded. It was indeed a grave issue and one that she had no easy answers to. “It’s a fair point,” she said in reply, “but the-”
“So we have a suggestion,” Baron interrupted her. “One I think you would do well to consider.”
“What did you have in mind?” Luna asked cautiously. Though she hoped to rebuild relations with Il Trosa, she was well aware of the depth of distrust between them and wondered what the leaders of the Lakes District Den expected of her.
“We would like to loan this estate to you,” Caroline said, tenderness and pride in her voice. “It’s not exactly wilderness, as some of the Grey Watch enjoy in other countries, but it’s large enough to accommodate your numbers, it has a good population of deer for hunting, and with some effort, it could be used to grow fruits and vegetables to solve your ongoing food shortages. It does require your pack to step back into human civilisation to a certain extent – perhaps further than you would be comfortable with – but I think it’s time we all realised that Britain is no place for wild wolves.”
Luna found herself speechless, completely baffled by the totally unexpected offer. “But this was supposed to be your place,” she said doltishly. “Where you’d be safe from the Noturatii.”
“And where will you go?” Baron asked pointedly. Wasn’t that the sixty-four million dollar question? Back to the Kielder Forest? Which was now less a forest and more a patchwork of small woodlands dotted throughout sprawling farms. Or further north into Scotland? Though there were less people there, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of uninhabited forest. Or they could face up to the only other real choice: to admit defeat and leave Britain.
“This offer doesn’t come without conditions,” Baron went on, when Luna had no answer for him. “Our estate at Misty Hills is not without its defences; in the short term, at least, we can take precautionary measures to minimise the risk that the Noturatii will find us, and in the longer term…” He shrugged. “We’ll work something out. But if we are ever attacked, we would expect you to take us in without question. Once every three years, we would also need to make use of the estate for the Densmeet. You would be welcome to stay for that, if you wish, or you could temporarily move to Misty Hills, if you prefer. Aside from that, you would be expected to keep the place in reasonable repair. Even if you’re not living in the manor or the cottages, we’d like you to check them on a regular basis to make sure there are no repairs that need doing.”
“And what would you get out of all this?” Luna asked bluntly. “So far it sounds like a very one-sided arrangement. Our pack exposed you to the Noturatii, so you respond by not only allowing us all to keep our lives, but by giving us a place to live where we’ll be safer and more prosperous than we were out in the forest? And arguably a much better place than the one you currently live in! It’s not that I’m not grateful – I am, deeply so – but you make no sense!”
A dark look settled over Baron’s face. He stepped up close to Luna, while Caroline folded her arms with an expression of longsuffering. “This is what you lot never understood,” Baron growled at her, and Luna fought not to back away. He was a big man, and it seemed she was well and truly testing his patience. “The ties that bind us together go far deeper than whether we belong to Il Trosa or the Grey Watch. We are shape shifters. For thousands of years, we have bridged the gap between human and animal, between wilderness and civilisation. Be you my friend or my enemy, Luna-Ul, siigus vaas, miecha ansa. Siigus lim, mie skylar un. Yunda leichas in sutcha van sundei la veen. Lun visha lim, miela hesta dun casta don Sirius.”
Luna recognised the words easily, though she hadn’t heard them spoken in years. The Chant of Forests. Once upon a time, Sempre’s pack had recited the words at a new shifter’s conversion, as Il Trosa still did to this day. If you call me, Baron had said, I will come. If you fall, I will carry you. I will measure your steps each day that you run. And when the sun sets, I will wait for you in the Hall of Sirius. A sacred pledge of loyalty from one wolf to another. By Sirius, how far had they fallen if they had forgotten even this?
“I do not deserve the honour that you offer me,” Luna said, her throat tight, her eyes on the ground. “But I cannot make such a decision on my own. Allow me to speak to my pack?”
Baron shrugged, so Luna retreated, holding a hasty conference with four or five others, high ranking wolves who were likely to become the cornerstones of the pack. Scant minutes later, she was back facing Baron, feeling lightheaded once more. “We would humbly like to accept your offer of this estate,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady. “And we agree to each of your conditions. It would be an honour to maintain and defend this place on your behalf.”
To her surprise, Baron broke out in a wide smile. “Glad to hear it,” he said simply, and that seemed to be the end of the matter.
But there were still a number of other issues that needed to be resolved. “What about the three males who were a part of our pack?” Luna asked next, turning to Kajus. He seemed to have taken a rathe
r protective stance towards the men, so she assumed that if anyone knew what the plan for them was, it would be him.
His expression turned dark. “What sort of answer are you expecting from me?”
So the question was not a welcome one. “An honest one,” Luna replied. “I’m not trying to interfere in any way. They’re free to make their own decisions, and I have every confidence that you and the rest of the Panel will make every effort to care for them. But for my own peace of mind, I’d like to know what you have planned.”
“Peace of mind, is it?” Kajus said softly. “Truth and peace of mind are rarely close companions.”
It was a valid point, and Luna carefully considered her next words. “I would not be much of an alpha if I simply buried my head in the sand,” she said finally. “Painful or not, I would like to know the truth.”
Was that a hint of admiration in Kajus’s eyes? No, she must be imagining it. “Robert and Alex are going to Italy with Feng and Paula, when they leave,” Kajus told her. “The Council has trained therapists who can help them recover from their trauma and build new lives for themselves.”
That was a relief. But… “What about Sven?”
A weighty silence followed. “He has requested that Dee remove his human half. Il Trosa’s Romanian pack has set up a wolf sanctuary, both for wild wolves who are injured or orphaned, and for shifters who have to be separated because they’ve turned rogue. Sven wants to live out his days as a wolf, unencumbered by the complications of being human.”
Tears filled Luna’s eyes, and she did nothing to try and disguise the fact. Perhaps she hadn’t succeeded quite as much as she thought she had, then. “I see,” she said, unable to come up with anything else to say.