Chapter 3 #2
He helped me climb out of the car, and once more I surveyed the area, committing everything to memory.
“What’s that building?” I nodded at the serious-looking place next to the town hall.
It reminded me of somewhere I’d stayed in as a child.
An orphanage that had once been run by nuns but was now a care home run by upbeat care workers.
Like that old orphanage, this building was a dark, foreboding place made from black stone and wrought iron.
It looked like a place where laughter had never lived and stern conversations were had.
“It’s where the council Elders live. They’re the historians of our kind, as well as lawmakers and advisors when they have to be.” They were the big wigs. Got it. He gave a gentle tug on the chain and I followed him towards the town hall that was apparently to serve as my court house.
The double doors were flung open by two guards and I followed Konnor in a dark but airy vestibule area.
There was some seating but we didn’t sit and I took a moment to admire the carvings on the walls.
Wolves, all of them. So detailed I wondered if they were portraits of real wolves that had passed through these doors.
“Alpha’s,” Konnor said quietly, nodding at the carvings. It took me only a second to find the carving of Kole’s wolf on the wall. A serious, stoic-looking beast that made me shiver.
Konnor cocked his head then as if hearing something I couldn’t. With another gentle tug, he led me to the door.
The courtroom itself was simpler than I’d expected with none of the pomp and ceremony of a human government building.
Benches on either side of me stood empty, just like a real courtroom.
Ahead sat a semi-circle of seven very serious-looking men with Kole at their centre.
The only other person I recognised was Jonah, who sat on Kole’s far left.
I zeroed in on Kole, his broad frame, his masculine scent that seemed to pierce my senses even at this distance.
It was an overwhelming feeling and I steeled myself against it.
“Luna Iona Murphy.” A crooked old man at Kole’s right spoke, but all I could wonder was, what had he just called me? Luna? “This is a bad way to?—”
“Who are you?” I cut the old man off. He stared back at me, wearing a shocked expression that was spreading across the faces of all the men facing me. “Sir, I asked you your name? Are you going to answer me or should I start guessing?”
“My name is Parson Crowley, and I am a council Elder. To my right are Elder Larry Forster and Elder Harold Tesh. We are highly esteemed members of this pack and stand as advisors to Alpha Kole Maclay, your mate.”
I studied them. Each was in their later years, though still fit and healthy.
Their eyes were shrewd, reminiscent of a time gone by.
They wore plain black clothes, reminding me of Catholic priests.
Parson Crowley's white hair was neatly kept, his mouth pinched, making his nose look even bigger than it was.
Larry Forster had rich, dark skin, his white curls were cut close and his brow was so heavy it formed a ledge over his eyes.
Harold Tesh was the smallest of the three, with a bald head and very large ears.
“And you?” I looked at the bear of a man at Kole’s left.
“Beta Marcus Bowen,” he answered, then gestured at the equally large man next to him, “this is Gamma Carrick Harrick. We are the Alpha’s closest friends, advisors, and warriors.”
I eyed the set of men in front of me. The Elders Kole was forced to listen to, and the Beta and Gamma he chose to listen to.
Got it. Where Jonah fitted in I wasn’t sure.
Was his presence here ceremonial as he was the previous Alpha?
Or was he just the only one that stood a chance of taking on Kole’s wolf if it came after me again?
“Your name is Carrick Harrick?” I raised an eyebrow at the man and his lips twitched in a smile.
“As I was saying,” Elder Crowley grumbled, “this is a bad way to start your time as a leader of this pack. You have been brought here under charges of attacking Luna Dinah Maclay and Kara Maclay.”
“It was self defence.” The words tripped off my tongue but even as I said them, I knew they were wasted. Men like this never listened. They didn’t care what was right, only how they could manipulate the truth for their own ends.
“Were they trying to hurt you?”
“They were kidnapping me.”
“Were they trying to hurt you?” He repeated his question, so I repeated my answer. Slowly. Like he was an idiot.
“They. Were. Kidnapping. Me.” The Elders bristled, but I could swear I saw Jonah hide a smile. Kole’s gaze was intent but impassive. “I have every right to defend myself against being taken hostage.”
“In our laws?—”
“I don’t give a damn about your laws. I’m human, I don’t live by your laws.”
“You do now,” Marcus cut in. “However, some lenience could be given due to extenuating circumstances. You weren’t aware of our laws at the time of the assault and, up until some moments previously, had no knowledge of our existence at all.
We aren’t without mercy, and we understand you must have been frightened. ”
“I wasn’t scared. Pissed off, definitely, but I wasn’t scared.” I sneered the word at him and heard Konnor chuckle behind me.
“Do you see?” Elder Forster hissed at Kole, pointing a finger at me as if I were a witch on trial in Salem.
“This is the kind of behaviour we are to expect? She is a recalcitrant female and so must be corrected. Unless she wishes to beg for forgiveness now. Tell me, are you remorseful?” His cold eyes fixed on me.
“My only regret is that I didn’t manage to get away from you people.”
“Luna, be smart.” It was Carrick who spoke this time, and to his credit, he seemed to be trying to help me.
“My name is Iona, not Luna, and I am being smart.” I wasn’t.
I was being the opposite of smart. “Whether you put me in a dungeon or a castle, I’ll still be a prisoner.
The only thing I care about is getting out of here and begging forgiveness isn’t going to get me that so I might as well be honest.” Even as I spoke I willed myself to shut up.
I was talking myself into a corner, the exact opposite of what I was supposed to do, but I’d be damned if I’d beg for mercy from these people.
“Do you see?” Elder Forster repeated himself. “Alpha, if you wish your mate to submit you must deal with her harshly. For the good of herself, your wolf, and the pack. How long do you think you can control your wolf with a mate who behaves like this?”
“Or he could treat her as his equal and earn her respect and affection? Or is that too foreign a concept for you?” Carrick cut in, looking thoroughly bored with the whole thing.
“Other Alphas with human Lunas have tried that route and we all know how that turned out. At least, those of us old enough to remember, ” Elder Tesh said. I wondered what he meant but was in no position to ask.
“Alpha Jonah? Your opinion?” Marcus asked, turning to Jonah. Kole was still yet to speak.
“My mate and I have no wish to see her punished. She was panicked and backed into a corner. I don’t blame her for reacting the way she did. All I ask is that she gives us a chance now.”
I’d rather rot. That's what I wanted to say but I kept my mouth shut this time. Getting away would be a lot harder if I was locked up.
“Alpha Kole, what is your wish?” There was a pause as everyone waited for his verdict. He looked like a man split down the middle. Which way he decided to go would determine the course of my future.
“My wish is that my Luna learns humility.”
Oh crap.
“You will spend today, and every day going forward, in a jail cell until you learn to display better behaviour. How quickly you get out of there is up to you.”
“Alpha…” his Beta started to speak but a low rumble from Kole’s chest shut him up.
“Elder Crowley, make arrangements for our mating ceremony to take place two weeks from today.”
Our what? My heart beat like an anvil in my chest. I felt like I was going to throw up.
“Of course, Alpha. You’re making the right decision for the good of this pack. We are all grateful to you.”
I studied the seven men, searching for a way out of this. I landed on his father who looked furious, but not with me. With Kole.
“Son—”
“I will not tolerate disobedience, especially from my own Luna. If she were anyone else she would be whipped without question. The Elders are right. If she behaves like this my wolf will retaliate sooner or later. Better she’s taught by me than by him, unless you want her to repeat the fate of our last human Luna?
” Jonah didn’t answer him. Kole fixed those greens back on me.
“Mark me, Iona, this is the only time I will be lenient with you. You can spend the weeks leading up to the ceremony in our bed and getting to know your new pack. Or you can spend it rotting in a jail cell. The end result will be the same. In two weeks, I will claim you for the pack to see so there can be no disputing it has been done. Word will be sent to the Gulfs to remove any doubt.”
The Gulfs? The family that owned the land the bears lived on? What did they have to do with anything?
A deathly silence fell over the room. I asked a question I was certain I didn’t want the answer to.
“What’s a mating ceremony?”
“It will be explained to you,” he said, his tone dismissive.
“I don’t understand,” I whispered. Feeling weakened for the first time.
“You could have understood. You chose the hard path. That’s fine, I know the hard path well.” He nodded to Konnor. “Take her. No food. Only water.”