“And she was denied the claim.” Orion finished his statement with a growl at the edge of his voice.
“Yes.” Charles smirked at Orion then turned to Vivian. A near-silent conversation passed between them, whispers too low for Giselle to hear from her vantage point, but she understood that they were not happy words. When Charles again met Orion’s gaze, there was nothing but disgust in his voice. “Also, in seeing the fervor with which Mrs. Silverman attempted to smear your poor girl’s name, and taking into account the way her husband met his end, we also voted against her son. The Silverman pack has, of late, lost the confidence of the Council.”
Orion looked again to the crowd. “And all of you feel this way?”
Voices slowly began to argue, some for, some against, but with no one really wanting to be the voice of the people.
“The Council can only deny a claim if the Alpha’s position is under contestation. I have been named. I have been witnessed. I am Orion Silverman. Former Alpha of the Long Teeth, and as I have clearly returned, who dares to oppose me reclaiming my title?” Orion asked.
Giselle hoped that this would be it, seeing how many people were visibly agitated by his presence. Some even displayed fear at the challenge he posed.
Orion’s presence was power, pure and simple. He was a true born Alpha and there could be no doubt of that fact. No hesitation. No quivering in his voice. He gave no indication of worry. Only Giselle knew the truth of how weak he had been. She hadn’t felt a tingle or twitch echoed from his injuries for a while, though. Food had helped him regain his strength, and painkillers had covered the weakness in his limbs. But would that be enough?
Misha snorted. “Your claim to the title ended when you passed it to your brother. Rules are rules.”
Orion nodded as if he’d expected her to say something like that.
Giselle’s heart nearly stopped, knowing what was going to happen next.
“Shall I prove why I am the Alpha here? Do I need to enter this arena?” Orion glanced to the arena they’d erected. Blood clumped patches of the sand below. Two opponents stood, having shifted back to their human forms, panting and covered in a dripping layer of sweat. “I will gladly step inside to show these children what a true Alpha can do. But their blood will be on your hands, not mine.”
Giselle looked to the two men, hardly children, in the arena. Easily both over six feet tall and skilled in the art of combat. She’d piss herself if she had to go in there and fight them. But Orion still looked as calm as ever. If anything, she could see his wolf peeking out from behind his eyes.
She reached out and took hold of Richard’s arm. “You said you would be my champion.”
Richard sighed. “I’m afraid Misha is correct. As the trials have already begun, he cannot just claim the title. He must join the trials. I cannot be his champion, nor can I now be yours. Only one member of the pack may join the fight.”
Giselle choked on her words in panic to get them out fast enough. “I make the challenge. Not my father. Richard, please be my champion. Fight for me. Not Orion.”
Orion turned on his daughter in anger. “You will not!”
“I can and I will. I was in line. It is my challenge to make.” She feared for the life of her father more than his anger.
Richard, caught between the two Silvermans, looked as if he feared the retribution of both, but he chose his master as he took hold of Giselle’s arm and started to drag her away. “Little wolf, you will not defy your father, especially not here in front of the Alphas.”
“You don’t understand,” Giselle wailed as she was pulled against her will. “He can’t...” She nearly let her secret out, but caught herself before it was too late. She could not reveal what had happened to wake her father, nor the fact he was not as strong as he pretended to be. Not even to Richard.
Orion turned away from his daughter and addressed the Alphas. “So be it, then. I do not take pleasure in the slaughter of innocent wolves. No disgrace will come to any who wish to withdraw their challenge.” Orion tore off his shirt and walked to the arena gate, pulling it open before stepping inside.
Giselle buried her head into Richard’s chest. “Why?” she sobbed.
Richard wrapped his arms around her. “It will be all right, little wolf. Have faith.”
Jasmine had warned her the debt had not been paid. She’d warned her that her secret was not one to be shared – not on pain of retribution from the cosmos, but from her own kind. It was clear they would take any advantage they could, and a weak Alpha was more than reason enough to stack the odds against Orion.
The crowd collectively took a breath and Giselle, fearing the worst, pulled her head from Richard’s chest long enough to see why.
Orion stepped up to the two men who’d already had their battle halted. “Which of you two am I to fight?”
Both men looked to each other, then cast glances to the crowd and back before answering.
The taller of the two, blond, held up his hands. “I concede.”
The other, younger, bald-headed and tattooed, cracked his neck and dropped into a fighting stance. “I do not.”
Orion stepped aside to let the blond pass him by, and as soon as the gate closed, he turned on the bald man. “We fight as wolves.”
The bald man nodded and shifted down into a large gray wolf.
Orion followed, shifting down into his own dusty wolf.
Giselle had never felt pain in a shift, but when Orion shifted down into his wolf, a sudden spike, like an icepick through her chest, nearly stole her breath.
Richard was there to catch her as she crumpled to her knees.
“Are you all right?” Richard asked.
Giselle tried to catch her breath, but just as the pain subsided, she could feel teeth in her arm. She looked up to see the fight had begun.
“I’ll be... ouch!... fine.” If she’d had any doubts before about their link, it was plainly obvious now, though she couldn’t let on to anyone else. “Just pulled a muscle.”
Richard helped her to a seat near the arena, and to her dismay, he plopped her down right next to Vivian.
Panting through the pain as she felt teeth biting and claws raking her skin, she tried to focus on the fight, hoping that the wounds being inflicted on Orion were less than those to his opponent.
“You don’t look too good.” Vivian spoke cautiously.
“Just concerned for that poor wolf,” Giselle said, summoning up all the strength she could to hold back the pain. She would not let Vivian get the upper hand with her again.
“You shouldn’t be here.” Vivian’s tone was hard to decipher. With her arrogance gone, it almost sounded as if she cared, but that didn’t seem right either. Self-serving as she’d been the entire time Giselle had known her, she doubted Vivian cared for anything aside from her children.
“Well, I am. And so is my father,” Giselle replied, pain making her words harsher than she’d intended. Her eyes were locked on the battle in front of her. So much dust flying up in the air made it hard to see clearly, but the smell of blood caught in her nose.
The two wolves were a blur of motion, but the pain she felt needling every inch of her body said there was nothing poetic or beautiful about their dance.
“What did you do to wake him?” Vivian asked.
“Who said I did anything?” Giselle refused to allow her any more ammunition. She’d already run a perfectly good smear campaign with the information she’d had, and that had earned both Giselle and Ace a black mark on the Council.
Meanwhile, in the arena, a final yelp of pain signaled the end of the fight. When the dust settled, both wolves were lying on their sides. Giselle felt the wound – a nasty tearing sensation in her ribs that nearly took her breath away – but knowing they were linked, feeling the pain gave her hope that it was her father who was victorious.
“It’s obvious, dear. You have a terrible poker face,” Vivian laughed.
Giselle tried to ignore her, but she seemed to en
joy seeing any reaction, even if it was just faux disinterest.
The crowd waited for one of the two fallen wolves to move.
Giselle too. Her eyes locked on the dusty brown wolf that was her father.
His tail shifted. Just a fraction of an inch, it seemed, but it was enough to prove he was alive, and the winner.
Giselle breathed through the pain of what had to be broken ribs and looked up with a smile to Vivian.
If looks could kill! But thankfully, they couldn’t; and though Vivian looked murderous, she would not dare touch her. Not with all these witnesses.
Orion slowly shifted and reached for his fallen clothes. He dressed and stood, lifting a victorious hand in the air. “Who denies me now?”
Chapter 39
The crowd had hushed, no one daring to utter a peep after Orion had set the challenge.
In that moment, Giselle felt as if she were able to breathe. Orion’s wounds were bad, though he didn’t show it. Giselle felt their sting and did her best to hide the pain.
Those who weren’t paying true attention to her might not have seen how she’d doubled over in pain during Orion’s battle, but Vivian had been right next to her. No way had she missed it. A cursory glance sideways revealed the horrorstruck face of her devious aunt, though thankfully she hadn’t opened her mouth yet to start another fight.
Lesson one: Never let them see your weakness. The words echoed in her mind, and Giselle gritted her teeth and forced herself to sit upright, despite the angry protest of her muscles.
“You need your mother.” Richard bent over, and whispered in Giselle’s ear, “I’m going to get Martina.”
His words nearly sent her into a full-on panic attack. As much as she feared her father’s fate, she knew she was as good as a dead girl when Martina was done with her. The list of things she’d done recently to break rules was a mile long. Had she not been a child, there was no doubt in her mind she’d have been exiled from her pack. But scared as she was of her adoptive mother’s retribution, she had more worry being seated next to the woman who’d been key in the masterminding of this whole spectacle.
Her voice would betray the pain she felt, and that would reveal her weakness. Rather than allow Vivian the pleasure of confirming how bad she was, Giselle only nodded in response to Richard’s question.
He backed away into the crowd and Giselle hugged her chest, pressing against her sore ribs as if needing to hold them in place. If she was this bad, how was her father?
In the arena, Orion stood as if waiting for the next challenger, while two of Nathaniel Thrace’s sons dragged out the fallen wolf and wrapped his body.
“I’m waiting,” Orion said boastfully. Small wounds on his body oozed blood, but no other indications of his injuries were apparent, not even in the way he carried himself: walking around the arena, tall and proud, meeting the eyes of the spectators as he passed them. He looked youthful, virile, and confident in his own power.
As an Alpha should. In his day, he had to have been one of the best. Pride flooded though Giselle, watching how comfortable her father was in that role. He had been meant for it. She had barely felt comfortable in her own skin, even after learning that it was okay to be a wolf. But Orion was wolf through and through.
Fallon and her mate Aiden stood, and from her vantage point, it looked to Giselle as if they were saluting him as he walked up to the seats where the Council of Alphas had been assigned.
“Well fought,” Aiden said. “The Olde Town stands behind you, Orion Silverman.” He took Fallon’s hand in his own and she bowed her head respectfully, confirming her mate’s words of praise and support.
Seeing the Boston wolves throwing their support behind Orion had many in the crowd rising to their feet and cheering.
Hope blossomed within Giselle. Maybe this would end quickly. She doubted her father could handle another brawl. He might look okay, but she still felt as if she’d been hit by a truck.
Misha too stood in her place, hushing the crowd with a wave of her hand. “We need to clarify, Silverman – are you fighting for your claim, or your daughter’s?”
“Does it matter? We are family,” Orion stated.
His words must have struck a chord with Misha. By all appearances she looked pleased by what Orion had said, but like a predator who’d watched its prey come into view, the smile parting her lips had a hungry edge. Still, though, when she spoke, her voice was laced with saccharine and betrayed nothing obviously devious. “It does. The Silverman reign ended when we voted out both your daughter and Aeson Silverman in Council.”
“I am Alpha by birth and lineage,” Orion retorted.
“You were Alpha,” Misha said pointedly. “Why was that again?”
Silence fell upon the crowd again. Her question, though leading, was valid, and even Giselle knew it had to be answered.
“Are you calling my leadership into question, or my personal life?” Orion asked.
“Are they not tied together?” Misha responded.
“I would ask the same of you – an Alpha with no rightful heir. Some might question your personal choices, though I do not. We do not control whom we love. What we do control is how we govern our people. And my record stands clean on that respect.” Orion stared down at Misha, daring her with his eyes to continue her line of questioning.
“My ability to produce an heir is not on trial here.” Misha’s eyes quickly darted to her mate, Brianna, and back to Orion. “However, your leadership is. Abandoning your position does mar that perfect record of your Alphaship.”
“Do you think the wise Alphas of the Council here have not seen through your weak attempts to discredit me and my family?” Orion’s eyes narrowed as his lip curled into a sneer, revealing teeth still stained with blood of his fallen enemy. “What does that say of you as a leader that you resort to such childish tactics when something so important is at stake? You’d risk the lives of many a good wolf in trial by combat rather than allow a valid claim to be upheld?”
Charles rose to his feet, standing next to Misha. “There appears to be a grievance between the two of you, so let me be clear when I say that we take this matter quite seriously. We would never risk the lives our own on something frivolous.”
“And yet, here you are,” Orion shot back at him.
“Orion, you did abandon your post. There is no denying that. And because of this we cannot, in good conscious, uphold your claim. What if you chose to do it again?”
Charles’ words struck a chord with the crowd, and murmurs of agreement rose up to meet their ears.
Anger bubbled within Giselle, seeing firsthand the deviousness this Council was capable of. And worse, the Council had revealed who the leaders opposing them were and how flimsy their reasons had been, but no one in the crowd appeared to grasp the concept. Orion had been forced to step down because he loved a witch. An Alpha is required to produce an heir – that much she remembered from the hundreds of little talks Richard had given her about wolf politics – and yet Misha had no heir and was allowed to keep her post. Fallon had said as much when she’d told her about why she had to choose to go wolf to be with Aiden. And with the facts staring them in the face, both Misha and Charles were working as hard as possible to discredit her father for stepping aside to follow the letter of the law and allow his brother, who had already had two male heirs, to take the lead.
Names like deserter and renegade were being flung from the crowd at Orion like rotten tomatoes.
“Can’t they see that Misha and Charles are twisting things to make him look bad?” Giselle mumbled to herself.
Vivian, of all people, answered back: “The mob has no reason,”
“Since it’s clear you mean to discredit me, I fight for Giselle Silverman, my daughter and rightful heir.” Orion glanced over to Giselle. “Her claim is still valid by your rules, so I will be her champion.”
She held her chest tightly as if it would spill open from the wounds, but as his gaze hit her, she sucked in a breath and
rose to her full height to acknowledge him.
“So be it,” Misha said. “You are named her champion.” Sweet as ever, her tone had the bitter aftertaste of deceit. For someone who had not wanted Giselle to be part of this, hearing that Orion would be her champion lit Misha’s eyes with something akin to pleasure.
The crowd was divided again among those who seemed to support Orion and others calling for his death in the arena.
Giselle watched Misha for a moment. She whispered something to her mate, Brianna. On the surface it looked as if they were excited to resume the fight, but once Misha’s eyes returned to the arena and Orion, her smile turned dark.
Charles retook his seat on the opposite side of Misha. Her ally, Giselle made the mental note. The two of them had been against her, but she did not sense the same deviousness in his reasons. Charles struck her as being by the book.
Behind Misha, Fallon and Aiden were still standing, looking even more pleased to see Orion taking the role as champion for Giselle, but unlike Misha, their pleasure was genuine.
She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt they were firmly on her side. So who else in the Alpha Council had chosen sides?
Giselle studied the others. Tito looked bored where he sat in the stands. His wife too. Yanira held on to their youngest pup, her attention on the child rather than Orion or Giselle. When she’d spoken to the Lobos in Washington, they’d been keen to create an alliance by marriage. She doubted they had sided with Misha either.
That left the Canadian packs, their neighbors to the north, as the other voters: Leif and his mate, Nikita. In Washington, Leif and Nikita had been neutral and had not voiced an active opinion. Watching them sit idly in their seats gave Giselle no indication of where their minds were.
Fearless Little Werewolf Page 24