Chapter 14 #3
“I mean…” She leaned closer and winked at him. “We’re all allowed to smile. What would it take to coax one out of you?”
“Thank God Tristan is not a possessive man,” Aljoe whispered.
“He is,” Sue said, “but only when she feels threatened. Neither of them care when the other flirts. Different culture.”
“Clearly,” Nina murmured.
The man stared at her, obviously at a loss for words. He was probably deciding if he should answer her honestly—which she likely wouldn’t understand, because she wasn’t a shifter—or say something suggestive.
Before he could figure it out, she beamed at him. “Food for thought.”
She slipped away, walking toward Aljoe. She held out a drink and lifted her eyebrows.
“What’s the play here, cowboy?” she asked.
“You’re in a great mood.” Aljoe took the drink but didn’t immediately put it to his lips. People could wonder.
A dark cloud passed over her eyes. It was gone in a flash. “Am I a go for launch?”
Aljoe studied her. “I was just telling Sue and Nina that Armendale won’t challenge Austin because he knows he’ll lose. Instead, he’ll cheat. The problem is no one has ever been able to prove his shady behavior. We don’t know how he operates.”
Nessa chuckled softly, turning to Nina. “You probably don’t get the joke.”
She tilted her head. “No, what’s the joke?”
“Him being able to cheat us.” Nessa laughed this time. “That’s the joke. He doesn’t know what snake pit he’s stepped into. We’ll force a challenge, or we’ll embarrass him for refusing. But first…” Her gaze hit Aljoe’s. “First we’re going to water down his support.”
He lowered his voice so no one could overhear. “You’re confident you can manipulate with your energy without anyone picking up on it?”
“I’m roaming around in here, aren’t I? A smile and a wink and a little nudge with my energy and everyone is happy. I’m going very light. I still have to practice the heavier nudges.”
Aljoe flicked his gaze at the younger shifter, talking to someone else now. “Huh.”
She shrugged and moved away, slipping back into the crowd.
“That’s not…great, though,” Nina said, uncomfortable.
“She’s only messing with Armendale,” Aljoe responded, “and only in ways concerning politics. We’re fighting the way he fights, and we’re going to prove we’re much better at it.
When it comes to the convocation, everyone has to come to it on their own.
They have to choose to be with us. That’s important. ”
She let out a breath. “Gotcha. Well, I guess—”
The door to the hall banged open. A visibly distraught shifter walked in, his hair mussed and an arm of his suit jacket torn. He threaded through the quickly silenced crowd, everyone looking his way.
Dave appeared in the doorway. He leaned against the frame.
“This is an outrage,” an alpha cried out a moment later—Samuel, a generational alpha who was losing his inheritance instead of improving upon it.
The crowd parted so Samuel had a clear line of sight to Austin and Jessie. They stopped what they were doing and turned his way.
“What is the meaning of this?” Samuel growled. “One of your basajauns kicked my guy!”
Austin looked at Jessie, very clearly giving her control of the situation.
“Dave?” she said calmly.
“His guy made an unprovoked sexist slur to a female in another pack. The Elder decided he crossed the line, and she drop-kicked him. She was going to just kick him, but you’d mentioned drop-kicking at one point, and she wondered if that would improve her range. It did.”
“That’s all she did for a sexist slur?” Jessie asked, her brows pinching together.
“Off the ledge!” Samuel shouted, starting to lose his cool.
“Ah.” Jessie nodded. To Samuel she said, “You were warned. He’s been punished. A tree likely broke his fall. Shifters heal fast. He probably lived. Hopefully he’ll know better for next time.”
“What if he didn’t live?” Samuel demanded.
She shrugged, completely blasé. A shiver trickled down Aljoe’s back at the offhand violence of it all. Her gargoyle was in firm control.
“Then he won’t get a chance at a next time. Killed before the lesson was learned. I can’t say it would be a pity.”
A few gargoyles chuckled. The shifters were dead silent, not even their clothes rustling.
“Wha— This is ridiculous! How was he supposed to know bad language was against the rules?”
Her bearing turned hostile. “If I were in your position, I would be embarrassed and apologetic. I certainly wouldn’t feign ignorance at the real crime.
Regardless of what you think of women and how it is appropriate to address them, flinging a slur at anyone is inciting violence.
That is common knowledge. As I said, you were warned.
Punishment has been carried out. If he can walk away, he can challenge her, or she can challenge him. ”
“Is this how you plan to run your pack?” another alpha asked. Aljoe couldn’t see who it was.
“This is how we plan to run the conclave, yes. Which is why you were warned. Did you think we were joking?”
“I think he means—”
Jessie held up her hand to stop Armendale. “He can tell me what he means.”
“You just let your people carry out punishments without your say-so?” the other guy said.
“As Austin said, we are a collective. The Elder is the basajaunak alpha. Yes, I trust her judgment, and yes, I expect her to handle it. You’ve just learned what handling it means. If you do not like that, you are free to leave.”
“What about you, Austin?” Samuel demanded, and he was using the way-wrong tone. He was about to make a very bad mistake. “You’re just going to step aside and let this bitch Jane and her hairy bigfoots take over?”
It was unclear who moved first, but neither Dave nor Austin reached the alpha.
The air froze, and they bounced off. Neither of them tried harder to get through, giving the punishment to Jessie.
She shoved her hands forward as the alpha morphed into a wolf. Gashes and slashes and red holes covered the wolf in a blink. The shifter howled and thrashed, but he could go nowhere. Nor did his blood hit the ground, caught in a magical layer.
She set fire to his fur and raked across his neck with more magic. Then again, bombarding him.
The wolf howled again, and she lifted him into the air. He was lying down now, unable to fight back.
“That is what it is to fight a mage,” she told the crowd in an icy tone.
“And this is what happens when you disrespect me in my territory. I was a past Jane, that is true. But now I am a female gargoyle, and we give no quarter. As I said, if any of this is unsettling for you, you are free to leave. Otherwise, you will respect this territory, and you will follow the rules. It really is that simple.”
She stepped closer, and the shifter moved through the air.
“I’ll just put this outside. He won’t die. When he heals enough to limp out of here, he will be asked to leave the territory. If anyone even flinches at me while I am handling this, I will kill you spectacularly. I think we can all agree that my warnings are not for show.”
“What about that other one?” Dave motioned at the shifter who’d run in to tell his alpha about the drop-kicking incident.
“He hasn’t broken any rules. Escort him out peacefully. If he resists, drop-kick him.”
Even the gargoyles were still now, some of them with gaping mouths.
“And that is why I chose to come dressed as I am,” Nina said with a smile in her voice. “I figured there’d be a big brawl tonight. Now? I think likely not. I doubt anyone else will chance getting drop-kicked off the ledge or turned into a pincushion and hovered out of here.”
“Likely not,” Sue said, his posture swelled with pride. “I also think anyone who planned to challenge Jessie just changed their tune.”
Jessie returned as though nothing had happened. “Let’s eat, shall we? I’m starving.”