26. Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
Day 10 Denali, Alaska
The coffee line had dwindled to one warrior when Benioko turned to Wolf. “Your javaanee must lead this meeting.
“Aiden?” Wolf’s voice rose until the name was more question than identification. Foolishness there. The Old One could be speaking of no other. Wolf had only one brother.
“ Taounaha…” Wolf’s voice trailed off.
Kali tradition called for obedience to the Shadow Warrior’s mouthpiece. One who communed with the elder gods could not be wrong. Yet, tradition also called for tribal choice, and accepting the Kalikoia customs was at the heart of every tribe member’s choice. Such a decision should never be forced. One offered to show the eseneee the ways of the Hee’woo’nee. But one did not force the joining.
Yet, three rotations earlier, in this very room, Benioko had done just that.
Wolf still had trouble believing it.
“Your javaanee was there. He witnessed the wanatesa in its infancy.” Benioko’s cloudy gaze turned inward. “He has seen how it begins. He senses its ending. There is no other more qualified to speak to its danger. He must lead this discussion.”
Wolf relaxed, inclining his head in agreement. Perhaps he had overreacted to the Old One’s insistence on Aiden leading this meeting. The shaman’s explanation made sense.
He still didn’t understand why the Old One had been so demanding earlier. He’d never seen the Taounaha so…unyielding. Although, Benioko insisted often, that Wolf needed an official Caetanee. One eagle chosen.
Perhaps this was behind the Taounaha’s unexpected behavior .
Tradition called for a male chosen by the eagle spirit to lead the warrior clan. As Jude had been, and now Wolf. But the thae-hrata had selected few during Wolf’s lifetime. Indeed, he, Aiden, and Kait were the only eagles chosen within the past forty cycles. Female claimings by the thae-hrata came from the Blue Moon Mother, not the Shadow Warrior. As such, Kait could not assume the weight of Betanee.
Which meant when the elder gods called Wolf to the web of his ancestors, there would be no one to take his place.
His gaze skipped to Aiden, who was speaking with Zane Winters. From Kait’s description of their spirit claiming, they had been chosen by the thae-hrata at the same time. Although neither had realized it. Instead of celebrating their claimings, they’d dismissed the thae-hrata as an abnormality—a sick or injured bird.
The pair had not even known to search for their claiming totem after the thae-hrata took to the air, so the spirit eagle’s gifts had been left behind. The knowledge burned through Wolf’s chest like fire. To abandon the spirit gift was unheard of among the Kalikoia. The most heretical act conceivable. That their anestoo had left his children so unprepared was unforgivable.
Benioko claimed the thae-hrata favored both the maternal and paternal sides of Wolf’s lineage. But it must run deep in the Winchester lineage for all three of his anvaat to be eagle chosen.
Had the elder Winchester been eagle chosen as well? Had he hated his Kalikoia heritage so much he had rejected the claiming? Left the totem behind? Such a thing was inconceivable to Wolf—but his anestoo had rejected everything concerning his tribal heritage in favor of the woohanta’s ways.
Perhaps he’d rejected the thae-hrata as well.
Time to move this meeting along. Wolf rose to his feet.
“Aiden.” His voice brought immediate silence. All his warriors’ eyes turned toward him. “Join me.”
His javaanee had half-risen from his chair when Wolf called to him. Yet he did not join Wolf as requested. Instead, he sank back down with narrowed eyes and suspicion on his face. Wolf could not fault his reaction. Not after what had last happened in this room.
A stir went through the assembled warriors when Aiden didn’t move. Wolf scanned the room and smoothly continued, using the same words Benioko had spoken.
“Aiden was in Karaveht. He saw the results of the weapon Taounaha foresaw. He lost his SEAL team to this weapon. He witnessed the symptoms of the infection.” His gaze returned to Aiden, pleased to see his javaanee had relaxed. “There is no other more qualified to speak to its danger.”
Wolf sensed rather than saw the old one’s satisfaction as Aiden rose and made his way around the table. Benioko still held hope that Aiden would give in and learn the ways of the Kalikoia, thus making him eligible to step in as Wolf’s Caetanee . Wolf had long since lost this expectation.
There would be no eagle chosen to serve as his second.
But then, he didn’t need one. One could not ask for a better Caetanee than the warrior currently filling that position. Samuel may not have been chosen by the thae-hrata, having been chosen by the raven spirit instead, but in every way imaginable, his old friend was doing an admirable job as Wolf’s temporary second in command.
Perhaps traditions needed to evolve, and Samuel’s temporary status should turn permanent. Samuel, at least, was favored by the Shadow Warrior and gifted a spirit animal clan. Unlike some sitting at this table.
His gaze drifted to O’Neill and hardened. The jie’van was kicked back in his chair, boots on the table, eyes closed. No surprise such an insolent man was shunned by the elder gods.
“How much of a sitrep do you want?” Aiden asked as he stopped next to Wolf. His gaze flickered toward Benioko and hardened before looking away.
“A full account.” Wolf scanned the room and frowned. “My warriors have been briefed, but perhaps something you say will spark a strategy to defeat this new weapon.” He handed Aiden a remote to the overhead monitors and showed him how to work it.
Originally, his Caetanee had intended to do the briefing. As such, Samuel had prepared a full slide complement to accompany his sitrep.
Aiden scrolled back through the PowerPoint presentation. When he reached the slide with a map of Tajikistan, he started talking. “We were sent into Karaveht to recover the schematics and prototype of a revolutionary drone technology.”
Wolf had heard the specifics of what Aiden was outlining many times by now. His attention wandered, returning to O’Neill’s sprawled figure.
The jie’van ’s boots were still on the table, his head back and eyes closed. The longer Wolf stared, the harder it was to rein in his ire. To show such disrespect in the Taounaha’s presence. This should not be tolerated. It would not be accepted from any other warrior.
Why did Benioko allow such disrespect from O’Neill? What did the Taounaha even see in the jie’van ? A man shunned by both the elder gods and the spirit animals.
“Calm yourself, Ho’cee, ” Benioko murmured with amusement in his voice. “He acts as a defiant anvaa. One who lashes out to prove he doesn’t care.”
“He cares for nothing.” Wolf’s voice was low, but seething. O’Neill’s mere presence triggered his irritation.
Benioko shook his head and sighed. “Soon, Shadow Warrior will reveal why we have need of his gifts.” His voice was tired, yet sure.
Gifts? What gifts?
Wolf frowned, his displeasure spiking. “If the Shadow Warrior favors him so, why did he not gift him with a spirit animal? Why does he have no totem?”
With a slow turn of his head, Benioko stared straight at him, then lifted his eyebrows. “The heschrmal claimed him. You doubt this?”
Wolf froze, shock burning through his lungs. “He lied. He showed no proof of the claiming.”
Benioko scoffed. “Did you show proof of your claiming?” He turned his head in O’Neill’s direction and regret settled over his lined face. “Claimings are sacred and private among the Hee’woo’nee. He should not have been questioned or judged.” He turned back to Wolf. “You know this, Ho’cee. ”
Wolf opened his mouth, only to snap it shut. He could not argue with this. No, he had not been asked to show proof. His claiming had been accepted as fact.
The Old One was right. The spirit animal claiming was an intensely private moment within the tribe. It was never shared, other than an announcement of when the event had happened and what animal had appeared. One never shared the totem they’d received.
Yet the only way to prove a claiming, as O’Neill had been asked to prove, would be to share the totem the spirit animal left behind.
His gaze sought O’Neil and lingered.
But this…this jie’van ? The one sprawled so tauntingly across from him? He had been chosen by the lion spirit after hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of cycles of no claimings?
Every part of Wolf—physical, mental, and spiritual—resisted the possibility. Why would the elder gods gift such a man—a complete ass of a man—with such a powerful animal spirit? The last representative of the heschrmal had followed the Shadow Warrior to the web of the ancestors a hundred cycles before the first woohanta had set foot on Kalikoia lands. Nobody even remembered who the last lion chosen had been. And the knowledge of what ability the heschrmal gifted to their chosen had long since disappeared into the currents of time.
Why would the lion spirit appear now? Why would it choose O’Neill?
Perhaps it hadn’t. Perhaps O’Neill had lied about the claiming, as everyone believed.
But…if the Old One spoke the truth, then the Hee’woo’nee’s conduct toward O’Neill would explain the bite to his tongue. He seemed to deliberately antagonize Wolf and the rest of the warriors. Even Mackenzie and his men had had enough of the jie’van .
Except this was O’Neill. His grating attitude had started long before he’d made the heschrmal claim and been shunned. He’d been a thief and a bully through middle, junior, and high school. Stealing lunches. Stealing answers to homework and tests. Starting fight after fight, most of them with Wolf. Then, a couple rotations before graduation, after the supposed claiming, he’d disappeared. Nobody had questioned his absence.
The timing of his alleged claiming had added to the suspicion O’Neill had faced. He’d been seventeen. All other spirit animal claimings happened during puberty. O’Neill had long left puberty behind when he announced his induction into the lion clan.
And then he was gone.
Wolf had forgotten the jie’van existed until Benioko had returned to base a cycle ago with O’Neill in tow.
Wolf was still watching, perhaps even glaring at O’Neill, when the jie’van’s eyes suddenly opened. O’Neill straightened, his boots hitting the floor. His off-putting green gaze latched onto Aiden. Something must have caught his attention.
“You believe these continuous feed cameras are linked to the test of this weapon?” O’Neill’s voice was thoughtful rather than arrogant, snide, or smug, his three most common tones. “Who did WARCOM contract with for the cameras?”
Aiden’s gaze narrowed. Surprise flickered across his face. He studied O’Neill closely. “Nantz Technology. Same contractor who developed the drone prototype we were sent into Karaveht to recover.”
O’Neill settled back in his chair. This time, his boots remained flat on the floor. His gaze went distant, his face thoughtful. “Nantz Technology is a peripheral weapons supplier. They’ve never developed core weapons.” He sounded reflective though, rather than dismissive, like he was connecting dots in his head. “Nor do they have a medical or nanobot focus,” O’Neill added absently. “The timing between the cameras and test could be a coincidence.”
“It’s possible.” There was surprise on Aiden’s face. But then there was surprise on all the warriors’ faces.
A whispered conversation broke out between Zane and Rawls. Both men’s gazes, along with the warriors surrounding them, were locked on O’Neill. So many questions in dozens of eyes. How did O’Neill know this information?
Wolf wondered as well. He turned to Benioko, who stared back with a bland expression. The Old One knew. He was not surprised by O’Neill’s knowledge.
Where had O’Neill gone after he’d left the Brenahiilo? Neither the shaman nor O’Neill had explained where he’d gained his impressive warrior skills. Wolf had hoped the jie’van’ s induction into the warrior clan, which came through the Neealaho binding ceremony, would take care of his O’Neill problem. To join Shadow Mountain, a Kalikoia warrior had to merge with the Neealaho, the neural net that connected all as one. But the blending ceremony required great strength—both tribal and personal. Many could not receive the merging of so many minds and spirits. O’Neill had little tribal blood, less than a third. Nor had he been blessed with an animal clan. His tribal strength was so weak, merging with the Neealaho should have been impossible for him .
Yet merge he had. Which left Wolf no choice but to accept him into the warrior clan. One could not reject one of the Shadow Warrior’s chosen fighters.
O’Neill suddenly frowned and glanced around the table. His face went blank, his eyes flat. He sprawled back out in his chair, his boots thudding as they hit the surface of the table.
But he’d already revealed more than he’d intended. Shadow Mountain warriors were too perceptive to miss what had just happened—how the one they least respected had proved he was more than he pretended. More than they’d assumed.
“As of now, our best bet of finding this bot weapon is through Grigory Kuznetsov, the Russian arms dealer we were deployed to find,” Aiden continued; his gaze still locked on O’Neill’s face.
“You’re certain this man is involved,” Samuel asked, his question quiet.
Aiden shrugged. “According to my contact at HQ1, Navy intelligence is certain Kuznetsov was the point man behind what happened in Karaveht. Am I certain the bastard was behind the slaughter of my team? No. But the spook assigned to the op is certain Kuznetsov was in Karaveht prior to the weapon’s deployment. And his name is the only one I have. We should start with him.”
“So, your current intel on Kuznetsov is based on squid intelligence? The same squid intelligence that sent you into a hot spot after an arms dealer and drone prototype that wasn’t on site?” O’Neill’s voice, sharp with mockery, filled the room. “Sounds like you’re headed for a repeat of your earlier clusterfuck.”
Aiden cocked his head, his face assessing rather than angry. He saw O’Neill’s mockery for what it was. An attempt, a weak one at that, to shore up his asshole reputation.
“Squid?” Aiden repeated quietly, his gaze searching as it scanned O’Neill’s face. “Where did you come up with that? It’s a MARSOC diss.”
O’Neill’s mouth snapped shut. After a moment, he shrugged and resumed his indolent posture—kicked back in his chair, eyes closed, boots on the table. But the exchange gave Wolf his first insight into his childhood bully, and where’d he’d disappeared after high school.
O’Neill, the scourge of Shadow Mountain, was a former Marine Raider.