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“You haven’t relocated the whole community, Avalon. We haven’t heard of any new protection features for that community. What happens when they come looking for some wolf furs, or they think it’s the local wolf population killing their cows, or whatever nonsense they make up? What will you do when they attack a wolf and the wolf attacks back? Are you going to send that wolf family away too?” The man I know to be Harley is intentionally provoking Avalon.
I lean back slightly so I can look around the men and see the faces in the room. There are some who look furious and are directing menacing expressions at Avalon and Sebastian. Some men appear to be contemplating the situation or look lost in thought. Others, and not as many as I would like, seem to find Harley’s words unnecessarily aggressive and move protectively toward Sebastian. This is clearly a divided room and I know Avalon wants this to end on a calm note or at least a controlled one.
“The Black River Territory is one of the safest in the world and you know it, Harley. You have no reason to take up against Avalon where the Wyatts are concerned and you are making problems where there are none.” Sebastian’s voice is low and there is a timbre in it I hadn’t heard before. Some of the men noticeably back down, almost cower, a few of them flinch slightly but stay as they were. Harley looks to actually puff up. To grow bigger somehow.
“You want to pull alpha rank to shut me up, Sebastian? Why are you standing there with Avalon instead of with your own people? He is a full blood born vampire. If the humans come and start shooting at us, we die, he walks away without a scratch. Why would you assume he has our best interest at heart?” Harley takes a step forward and I close my eyes to will myself not to react. Avalon’s hand tightens on mine and I keep my eyes closed, not watching, just listening to what is happening.
“Harley, what is your goal here today? Did you come for answers or are you trying to rile up the entire pack? Avalon is the Prince of Our People. You know it’s his duty to see to all of our safety and protection. The Black River Territory is safe. The Northeast Territory is safe. I ask again, what are you hoping to get out of questioning everything Avalon and I are saying?” Sebastian is very obviously getting angry at the verbal attacks on Avalon.
“Maybe we question whether it should be you and Avalon making the decisions for our lives and that of our families.” Harley says dangerously close to a threat and I open my eyes.
“Who exactly is ‘we’” Avalon practically growls and now his voice has an echo of that timbre to it but it’s deeper and I see even Sebastian shiver slightly.
Most of the men in the room take a step back and Harley seems to deflate just a little. A few of the men actually exit the room but the area around Harley and five other men thin out and leave them standing on their own. I can feel that flame burning inside me again and I press myself to Avalon’s back and turn my head to face only Sebastian. Sebastian looks at me and shakes his head slowly and I have to wonder what it is he sees.
“If you are here to challenge the Prince and your Alpha, stay exactly where you are. If you are here because you thought something different was taking place, please feel free to leave. Now.” Sebastian allows the warning to hang in the air a moment when all but the six men standing firm in front of them exit the room.
“Have you thought this through Harley, or are you currently running on your rage for the actions of the humans? Is this an action you really want to take? Against us?” Raphael speaks for the first time and I roll my head the other way to look at him.
“It is.” Is the only thing I hear before I feel Avalon turn and grab me and push me into a corner.
Six men leap forward toward Avalon and Sebastian but it is six huge wolves of varying colors that land in front of them. Their jaws open and snapping, three of them circle Avalon and Sebastian while the other three move to stand in front of Jasper, Roman and Raphael, snarling with their fur raised up on their backs.
“This is the only chance you are going to have to stop this debacle. It won’t end well.” Avalon says as he squares his shoulders and looks the largest wolf straight in the eye.
The wolf motions his head towards Avalon and the two wolves on either side of him, a red one and a gray one leap at once and try to lock their jaws around Avalon’s arms. In a blink Sebastian is no longer standing there and the giant black wolf taking his place stretches out his neck and drags his teeth across the hind leg of the red one, bringing him to the floor. Avalon grabs the gray one midway through the air and slams him down onto the floor. Raphael turns his body to the side and kicks out sharply and hits another wolf in the jaw.
Harley, the big red wolf with a black mask in the center of the room seems to be gauging the damage being put out and starts to back toward the doors. I am incensed that he would lead these men into a fight with odds that he should have so obviously known were not in their favor. The flames lick up at my insides when I see the red wolf pull himself up off the ground and try to spring forward toward Sebastian’s throat.
I try to swallow back the rage because I have no idea what will happen but I watch as Harley continues to back his way to the door leaving his men to face off against two vampires and an Alpha with his Beta and Enforcer. Avalon notices the same thing and surges forward to stop Harley when the gray wolf digs his teeth into his right side. Avalon bellows out in pain and rage and my vision grows bright and hot.
The next thing I know I am behind the wolf attempting to escape and as though I am in a dream I see myself as I reach out and grab him by the throat. My eyes lock onto his and I can see the man inside the wolf’s eyes. I bring his face directly in front of mine and feel the white heat blazing out of my eyes into his. In the background I can hear Avalon saying my name and I know he is trying to calm me but it’s not about Avalon. This man was willing to sacrifice his own, for WHAT? My eyes blazed hot and I felt the wolf in my arms start to move. I watched as the large wolf shifted back into the bastard Harley.
I am still holding him by the neck when Avalon’s voice finally penetrates my rage. I look away from Harley and see all eyes, vampire and wolf, staring at me. I keep my fingers wrapped around Harley’s neck while I turn my attention to Avalon. I see him standing apart from everyone else and he is holding a hand out toward me. Out of a natural instinct I drop Harley on the floor and walk past him to place myself inside Avalon’s arm. Harley is on his knees and rubbing the back of his neck, staring at me with something like horror.
“What the fuck are you lady?”
Chapter 13
Avalon
Not the way I expected my morning to go. Not even a little. I woke up to a playful woman who was ready to get on with things. As soon as the bathroom door had closed, Jasper was at the door saying I was needed downstairs. I hadn't wanted to leave her alone without knowing how long it would take. She didn't even know her way to the kitchen yet. He said it was urgent though so I didn't see where I had a choice.
When I got there, Harley had rounded up what looked like all the males of age of the Black River Pack plus a few from elsewhere. The argument was the same as it had been last time but I felt like his aim in this was more sinister than last time. The amount of men he brought with him told me he was looking to overpower us either by popular opinion or by force. There was no way we were going to be able to let this second rebellion slide by without consequences.
When Prayer had found her way back downstairs I was proud of her for not backing down and walking through what had to be intimidating circumstances for her. Even in the middle of the controversy going on, my heart beat wildly knowing she always comes to my side. She is someone I can always count on. When Harley took things to another level, coming at me and Sebastian in a full blown challenge, I was more concerned that Prayer would react if anything happened to me in a fight.
It wasn’t ego or conceit, just past experience that made me understand I was an emotional trigger for Prayer’s abilities. I felt sure that I had expressed in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t be taken down by these wolves but I don’t know if she felt we might be overwhelmed or taken off guard. There were six of them and five of us but they were far outmatched and Harley knew it. I believe it was him trying to escape and leaving his men behind that triggered Prayer, she seems to have a keen sense of right and wrong and reacts strongly to injustice. I have more questions now that need answers and this seems to be the time.
“Prayer, can you tell us what it is you did to Harley?” I ask her, looking down at her tucked into my side.
“She fucking made me shift is what she did. I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t hold my wolf. What is she, Avalon? What else have you brought down on us? Do you hear me? I couldn’t keep my wolf! She made me shift back!” He fumed.
“You brought this down on you. You know there will be consequences for your actions Harley. You cannot be allowed to continue instigating such upheaval. Sebastian and I will be calling the other Alphas and having a discussion on what to do with you but for now, Jasper will be in charge of finding you appropriate holding. You can damn well think of it as a prison sentence for all the freedoms you will be allowed.” I do not hold back any alpha energy. He will understand what he has done.
If we were in the days of my grandfather’s rule he would have put him down like a rabid dog. Actually there is a really good chance that is what Cato will want to do as well. Probably offer to bite his head clean off. Considering the eternal life of all supernatural beings, barring incident, a lifelong sentence could be considered harsh in comparison to even decapitation. My father prefers leniency where possible and I’m not sure where a failed attempt at insurrection will fall on his scale. Before any long term punishment can be handed out, all the Alphas will have to be informed and unanimously agree on the penalty. That is my father’s only requirement. If we cannot all agree, the decision falls to him alone.
Harley sneers at Prayer and her head comes up in defiance. “I don’t know what you did to me but when my kind, the real shifters, not these vampire whipped puppies, find out what you did they will come for you.” He snarls at her and Jasper rushes at him and puts him to his knees with a sweep to the back of his legs.
I can feel that Prayer is in total control of her emotions. She is breathing normally, her heart is not racing, her body next to mine is not shaking in fear or anger. Yet when she faces him completely I see her eyes blazing white again. I reach for her arm to pull her back to me but she firmly pulls it back and then pats my shoulder.
“Do not worry, My Heart. I will not harm the ‘real shifter’. At least, not again so soon.” she winks at me and turns back to Harley. She drops down to her knees in front of him and speaks in a calm, almost friendly voice. “I should be thanking you right now Harley. Your actions have brought a clarity to my mind that I have sorely needed. Do you know what you did for me?” she grabs his face in her hands and her eyes are blazing directly into his. “You helped me find myself. My true self. Something so insignificant to you, the lives of your friends, the well being of the men you undoubtedly led to this mutiny with lies and manipulation.” she releases his face and walks back to stand next to me and honestly I am spellbound by her disclosure. I am desperate to hear the rest of this rousing in her.
“You are correct Harley, you could not hold your wolf form because of me. I could see the human in your eyes the same way I can see the wolf there now. In that instant, and I do thank you for this sincerely, all that I am capable of opened to me.” In the blink of an eye Prayer is no longer standing beside me but is behind Harley. She grabs him by the back of his neck, again, and hauls him to his feet. Even had we desired to put a stop to this the five of us were all too stunned to do so.
“You want to know how it works, Harley? This is how it works.” If I stood there for a million years I would never have expected what I see happen. Prayer’s eyes blaze brighter still into Harley’s and he begins to twitch uncontrollably until he suddenly screams and shifts right there in her hand into his wolf. She continues to hold him by the back of his neck and he cowers and whimpers, turning his head and baring his neck to her like a wolf cub does to an alpha.
“Do you feel like a real shifter now, Harley? Do you still feel superior to the ‘vampire whipped puppies’? I realize now that I could end you very quickly if I chose to do so.” As an example she pulls back the head of the wolf which is at least twice her size and puts her other hand at his throat. “All I would need here is a simple blade, I could probably make a spoon work as bad as you piss me off.”
Instead she blazes those eyes into his once more and within a short moment the man Harley is there and still she has a hold on him. She drops him to the floor and in a blink she is standing back beside me and I almost feel my head spin off my shoulders. I knew, I always knew there had to be something. There just had to be something that those women could do to control an entire population and bring order to both sides. I never in my wildest imagination would have imagined that any of them would have the ability to force a shifter in and out of forms at will.
“It’s not my place to pass judgment on you, but if I were you, I would submit to your Alphas and your Prince and accept whatever is coming at you. I have no qualms about forcing you to submit to their will myself.” She turns her face up to me and kisses my mouth firmly. “Excuse me, Prince of My Heart. I need to leave here.” and she is literally gone the second she says it.
Harley is on the floor and is still shaking from, well from a lot of things. Fear, anger, exhaustion from shifting so frequently, humiliation because, yeah, she didn’t spare him any of that. I look around the room and all the men are standing, barely, and their mouths are hanging open. Sebastian is the first to recover and he raises a hand to Jasper and waves at Harley.
“Get him out of here. Find someplace he can’t make any more trouble. Until we can reach a ruling on this he has no contact with anyone else in this house. He’s not to be mistreated, make sure it’s a decent room. The rest of these men also need to be separated but they need medical attention first. Get some men and lock them up. If they have families inform them of the situation but be sure they know not to try and get involved until this is settled.”
Jasper moves into action at his words and grabs Harley up by the elbow hauling him out of the room. Sebastian turns to me and his mouth twitches until he can’t hold back anymore and he breaks into a wide grin. “You better go find your woman, if you can. I’d say she won’t be needing any of that training you had planned for her.”
I shake my head and hope that in her new found control of her abilities, Prayer didn’t just port herself to some unreachable or unknown place and stride out the door to find my unpredictable and impulsive woman.
Prayer
It might be dramatic or even selfish but I had to get out of there and I was very grateful that my ability was teleportation. I know Avalon has questions, he deserves answers and he will get them. Just as soon as I do. I wasn't lying when I told Harley that I have become aware of what I am capable of. I can feel it inside of me now, sizzling just under the surface of my skin. I just don't know what it is. I don't know what I am. I know that I could choose at this moment to be on top of the Eiffel Tower and I'd be there before I could say the name. I don't know how, I just know I can.
I know that Avalon is more than a man or vampire to me. That whatever I am recognizes him as the other part of me. My other half, my mate, the one I am meant to be with. I am fairly certain I've known this since I laid eyes on him. No one had ever affected the way he had. In my life I had never been interested in anyone to give them a second look let alone attach myself to them the way I had locked body and soul onto Avalon. He is mine and I am his, my mind needs no more clarification on that.
What I also know now is that it is not Avalon that triggers my abilities. It is me and how I feel about the situation. Obviously in the beginning, you know four days ago, I was in total denial and I know now that the part of me that I didn't know was there was reaching out to Avalon. The very deepest part of me recognized him as mine and was unwilling to give my conscious, controlled self any distance until I was able to claim him. As I think back to Avalon telling me how I showed up at his feet while I was sleeping, it finally catches up to me that my mind had been trying to tell me for a long time. I thought I was sleepwalking. I groan inwardly and put my head in my hands. It seems obvious now but even I have to admit that sleepwalking sounds far more plausible than what really happens.
My mind skips tracks on me again and I see myself holding Harley up by the nape of his neck. Harley as a wolf. A wolf much larger than any ever in the wild and much larger than me. The reaction to stop him hadn't been because of Avalon. I couldn't believe he was going to abandon the men he had led into that obvious challenge of dominance. I want to laugh at that. What kind of dominant being runs leaving the weaker behind. That is not dominance that is cowardice and it enraged me. Still, preventing him from leaving had been a knee-jerk reaction to that rage. When I looked in his eyes and saw the man inside the wolf the dominoes in my brain started falling.
It was when he furiously told Avalon what it was that I had done that what I could do clicked into place. I felt it there right under the surface even though I was no longer angry. I was calm because honestly Avalon and Sebastian had everything under control. It was never actually out of their control. I had to prove to myself and everyone else that I was in fact in control. I had to be sure the thoughts I was having, the control I was feeling were real and true because it was wild even to imagine. I had grabbed him back up to look at him and I could see the wolf in his soul. I could force him out.
