Chapter Twenty Three - True Colours

The guards looked rather startled when the pair emerged from the hidden passage, but after looking at each other and shrugging they closed the wall back up and lead the girls out to the front doors.

Mark and Jake met them at the doors. Jake growled, but they said nothing to stop Lia from joining Zinnia outside. The scene that met them reminded Lia of an old war video. The Cloud Lake people and wolves on one side of the wide gravel drive, the Blue Moon pack lined up on the other. Two large men were standing in front of the Blue Moon side.

“The one with the red coat is my father.” Zinnia whispered. “I don’t know the other.”

“The other is your Alpha!” Bellowed the large grey-haired man in the black jacket.

Mark placed his hand on Zinnia’s shoulder, obviously telling her not to react.

“As you can no doubt smell for yourselves now, she has pledged to Cloud Lake,” Mark called across the drive.

“After the death of her mother and sister, her father demands her return. She is to take the place of her older sister and wed the Alpha of the Saint-Laurent Pack near Rivière-du-Loup.”

“We are saddened to hear of the death of your daughter and eldest granddaughter Alpha Jacob, but Zinnia’s father knows that her mate is here. Gamma Dylan scented her several years ago in her father’s presents and she has been living here ever since.” Mark responded.

“But we know that under your wussy ass rules she won’t have mated him yet. She is now the eldest unmated granddaughter of the Alpha she was born under, so will be wed under the treaty we have in place. Her father has agreed to this. He can make this decision because unmated girls belong to their father.”

“Actually...I don’t think she does.” Liana said quietly, almost to herself.

“Who is this female and how dare she speak to me!”

“I wasn’t speaking to you, you arrogant prick. I was thinking out loud!”

“Liana,” Mark said grabbing her shoulder, “this is not a joke.”

“I said who is she!”

“She is our future Luna.”

Lia, uncomfortable with even letting someone else lie for her, shrugged out from under Mark’s hand.

“Alpha Jake says I am to be his mate, which would make me Luna, however, I am not yet eighteen. And I wasn’t joking,” she glared at Mark before turning back to Zinnia’s father and the man beside him. “A few weeks ago I was reading ‘Supreme Laws of Mates’ in the library and I’m fairly certain that this would fall under ‘the Law of Fates’ which says that a father’s claim over his daughter is void once a male pledges to protect his fated mate, whether or not they are actually mated. It was created by the Lycan King Agamemnon of Greece in the year 102CE or something like that. His son Achillies was unable to mate with his wife through traditional means, but was devastated when he found out her father was negotiating to have her mate with some Roman werewolf instead so he begged his father to create a law that that if fated pairs can’t mate for any reason, the pledge of care and protection is all that is required to make the legal union under Lycan Law.” Lia looked around and saw a sea full of stunned faces looking up at her. “Honestly, that’s what it said! It has been held up in other Lycan courts hundreds of times over the centuries since, in more countries than I can remember, most recently in the US in 1986. I think it would fit, since under local laws of the Cloud Lake pack, mating can not occur until both members of the pair are eighteen.”

“If he is her pledged protector her, where is this Dylan?” A large grey wolf, even bigger than Jake, jumped down from the balcony and sat beside Zinnia. She smiled down at him, resting her hand on the back of his neck.

“He’s never far from me, Grandfather. For almost three years now he has made sure I am fed and have everything I need, including protection.”

“This is ridiculous!” The grey hair man bellowed. Ocean Moon wolves began pacing nervously back and forth at the tree line. “We will follow our laws alone!” The man bellowed, his face turning beat red, “Zinnia belongs to her father, and thus to me! I refuse to cede my granddaughter to the whim of some ancient Greek king. Release her or we will take her by force!”

“You might want to reconsider that,” Liana said softly, “The last time a family took their daughter back by force was somewhere in Russia during the 1700s. The Lycan King Deimos punished all the warriors involved and every male member of the girl’s birth family, even the babies, by disemboweling them alive.” Every head on the Ocean Moon side of the drive snapped to look at her. “Well he did,” she said with a shrug. “It said he had them strung to poles and that he personally ripped their abdomens open with his claws and ate their guts out while they screamed. Rather gruesome but most of the punishments in there are.”

Jake turned to look back at his mate. She was gorgeous in that soft, flowing dress with her hair flying out around her in the wind. She was so confident too, as though she had no doubt in the law she was discussing even though she couldn’t have done more than reading through it once. He didn’t even doubt her veracity, there was no way the Ocean Moon warriors wouldn’t believe every word she was saying. Disemboweled alive? Jake shook himself and turned back to face their challengers.

It appeared he was right. More than half of the warriors who had been in wolf form were slipping quietly into the bushes. His lookouts were sending images back to him of their retreat. They were definitely heading back the way they had come, not fanning out to attack. Suddenly there was a shifting in the ranks alongside the house and Jake turned his head to see ten of the visiting Highland warriors stepping out of the group to make their presence known. The red-haired one stood in front of them and proclaimed loudly, “I am Beta Patrick of the Highland Pack. On the authority of our Alpha we support Cloud Lack Pack’s claim that, in accordance with the Supreme Laws, the female pup named Zinnia belongs with her fated mate.” The ocean Moon warriors began to flee more quickly and their Alpha took note of it.

“We will be back!” He bellowed, the threat nearly making the Cloud Lake werewolves laugh as the entire band of Ocean Moon warriors were literally tucking tail and running.

The Cloud Lake warriors began to head back to their homes or back into the pack house. The watch would be doubled for a while, but the other pack members would be going at least somewhat back to their plans.

Jake turned around to see Zinnia wrapped around Liana’s waist. “You did it! You saved me!”

“Well,” she answered, “I at least got them to go home and think about it for a bit. They might not be convinced though. You need to be extra cautious okay? Don’t go anywhere alone. Promise me?” Dylan growled and nipped gently at Zinnia’s fingers making her giggle.

“It looks like Dylan agrees with you. I think he’s planning to spend the night where he can keep an eye on me.” Zinnia held Lia’s hand as the group walked back into the pack house.

“You were very well spoken and informed,” Mark said to Liana, which Jake knew was high praise given his Beta’s opinion of the girl. “You protected a pup even though you have not pledged to our pack. You will make a good Luna.” He looked down at Jake after he finished talking, then nodded to the group and left to organize the extra watch.

“I can’t believe you knew all that stuff! “Zinnia chirped excitedly, “You sure are smart! How did you remember all that, with dates and names even?”

“I don’t have any little tricks to pass along or anything like that, I just study a lot so my brain is in the habit of remembering.”

“I would have thought all those laws and stuff would be super boring to read. I’ve never even taken those books off their shelves!”

“Well, I believe the laws of a people are a great way to learn about them. There are other books are that are definitely more fun, but the laws of a people give a more accurate picture than either the storybooks or the history texts.”

“Why? How?”

“Well, they just… they are just laws. They aren’t told from a particular point of view. They can be just or unjust in the reader’s opinion, but they aren’t subjective in themselves. They tell you the things that really are or are not permitted in a specific society at a specific time.”

Jake plunked down on his hindquarters and watched the girls disappear with Dylan at their heels. She would make a good Luna if she would accept being a werewolf and agree to be his mate. He couldn’t imagine himself choosing to belong to a group of people who listed live disembowelment as a punishment though. It seemed unlikely that Liana would either. Gruesome was how she felt about their laws. He had been right there through all of that, and she hadn’t even looked at him once. Hadn’t even glanced in his direction. He turned to the stairs and padded up to the Alpha’s quarters. His wolf was demanding a nap, but before he could do that he needed to get dressed and thank the Highlanders for voicing their support in the protection of the Cloud Moon pup. It had certainly sped along the peaceful end to today’s hostilities. He’d also need to talk to his mother and his warriors about letting Lia outside unchaperoned. She never should have been allowed out of the safe room. On the other hand, if she had stayed below the morning may have ended in bloodshed. The death of even one werewolf was one death too many. If she were going to have that sort of information at her fingertips it would be very useful to have her closer to him.

Was she planning to study law? Maybe she wanted to be a lawyer. A werewolf versed in both human and werewolf laws could be very useful indeed. He shook his head sadly and transformed back into human form, and walked over to the closet for some clothes. Liana wasn’t going to become a wolf. She wasn’t going to be his Luna. The goddess had chosen well, Liana would be perfect for him, and for this pack. Unfortunately, the goddess hadn’t planned it in time. Liana’s mind was too firmly set, her beliefs and feelings about werewolves too deeply entrenched for her to accept that part of herself and join with him. Fatigue and depression washed over Jake and waves and he gave up trying to get dressed. He collapsed naked onto his bed and fell asleep with his face in his pillow.