A Guardians Passion (44 page)

Fenris was trying to convince both her and Rayne to join him back in their bedroom, which wouldn’t have been a bad idea after a hearty lunch of roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, potato fries, and cherries. Before she could give in to the thinly guised excuse, Cole opened the door and stuck his head inside. “The package is here early. It just arrived downstairs. You wanted me to inform you.”

“It’s about damn time.” Freya disentangled herself from Rayne and stood. She stretched as both of her mates came to their feet behind her.

“Una, I’ll be back in a few, okay?”

The asprega prime tore herself away from seals being batted into the air by enthusiastic sharks, but only long enough to nod.

Freya turned to Ezra, but he was already assuring her that all would be okay and that he would remain with them. The girls adored the chocolate wolf, treating him like one of their own. That boon would come in handy for certain if he really did accompany her to Iceland. “I’ve got them,” he said, waving her off.

Freya strode out of the room with Fenris and Rayne following close. She made haste down the hallway to the grandiose central staircase, then to the main floor.

She arrived in Vaegar’s revamped command center. They had moved out of their temporary space and back into the former hall at his insistence. As she stepped inside, she could hardly tell that there had been a small war within the space. The floor had been patched with stone tiles, and the bullet holes in the wall had been plastered over. All of the ruined computers, monitors, and tech had been replaced with new models.

It gave her a whole new aspect to appreciate about the Sohons. They too loved a bit of hard work.

The room was packed with observers. Geraldine and Gaea were standing against the wall, grim-faced and staring. Freya recognized several power players at the table along with Vaegar, namely Brutus Everflow, patriarch of one of the wealthiest werecat clans; Shibu Tan, a wealthy witch and airplane manufacturer from China; Klaus Brecht, a golem half-breed and billionaire shipping magnate; and Terri Somner, a ridiculously wealthy succubus whose illicit clientele had included royalty…over several centuries. Freya noted two men in navy uniforms with a multitude of stars and bars. They were formidable friends to have, and they were just as interested in the four vampires standing guard over a familiar brunette as Freya was.

The room was silent save for the humming of the computers and buzz of air-conditioning, even as packed as it was. Rage, however, had its own sound, and it was all that Freya heard as she walked over to the table.

She came up to the chair they had plunked Emily into, stopping short only by a foot. The pregnant female looked up at with sheer hatred in her eyes, but Freya felt nothing but joy and showed it with the biggest shit-eating grin she could muster.

In Freya’s opinion, hatred wasn’t a bad quality. It could motivate like a motherfucker. She sure as hell had hated Birathan. Yet that emotion had to be something truly earned in Freya’s book, and the Sohons scoffing at Emily’s pack was in no way equitable for the damage Emily had been responsible for. No amount of hatred or revenge could justify involving innocents.

“Hey there,” she said, never more pleased to make a welcome. “How you doing, you disgusting ratchet, traitorous-assed bitch?”

“Go to hell,” Emily spat. “You’re just as bad as they are.”

“Oh, no. I’m much worse. I want nothing more than to rip out your throat, have your head along with the trophy I already have of Birathan’s. But I have to take a backseat this time. You owe the Sohons for Helena’s death in spades.”

“Then what do
you
want?”

Freya was impressed by the mock bravery but not so much that she didn’t think of smacking the shit out of the pregnant female. Instead she looked to Vaegar. “Revenge excites me like fucking fireworks.”

Vaegar leaned back in his chair. His nostrils flaring, teeth gnashing, he looked like Freya felt—pure murder. “Yes, revenge. What should we do with the traitor, I wonder? Have you got anything to say for yourself? Maybe something along the lines of why you felt that having your cub grow up under the boot heel of a vampire was better than making sure he grew up safe, strong, and with the support of his race behind him?”

Emily said nothing, so Vaegar continued. “Maybe you thought that your cub might have been treated as something
other
than an outcast by us after the vampires had crippled us, tried to erase the unity and organization that we have been working so hard for. Was that it?”

“She should die,” Benna snarled from her place at Vaegar’s left. Despite a freshly pressed linen suit, her hair neatly coiffed, Benna’s gaze still bore the disheveled contempt of the victimized. “Since you hate us so much… Really, Uncle. To keep such an enemy alive would be nothing short of foolishness.”

François, standing against the wall, looked around him as if he were surrounded by monsters. “If you kill her, then that would make you no better than—”

“Was anyone fucking talking to you?” Geraldine stared down her pet with her arms held tight beneath her armpits. She waited for a response, but the vampire gave none. As it was, he was a doe in a hunter’s den. “Right. I thought not. So I can already tell you that I am past being the better of the species, so don’t come up in here with that bullshit.”

Vaegar chimed in. “I am in agreement with Benna. Her anger reeks. She has no place among wolves and never will.”

“Oh? Because you and your pack are our rulers, eh? Everyone should bow to you, to the mighty Sohons.” Emily scowled. Her contempt knew no bounds. “You would have us just as underfoot as any vampire, telling us how to raise our cubs, how to smile prettily and decorate our dens. Oh, and if we’re really nice, you could throw in a gift bag or two.”

“You were not forced to join us, Emily. We didn’t demand anything of you and yours,” Benna said. “But instead you decided to pick up a gauntlet that was thrown before you or I were even born.”

“You are no better than us,” Emily screamed. “Your pack destroyed my family, and you sit in judgment?”

“And that’s why you should let the Daniels and Modhirsons handle this,” Freya said coolly to Vaegar. “Nothing beats an old vendetta like a fresh one. Your petty-assed shit endangered all packs, not just the Sohons. You were pissed at them. I get that, but you should have taken your issues to them directly, up front, not plotting with fangs in need of guard dogs.

“You want to talk about how wrong they are, how arrogant and how power hungry, but they try to uplift motherfuckers rather than drag them down. You didn’t come at just them this time. You threatened
every
pack. So fuck them.” She waved a hand at Vaegar and his crew. “You sit in judgment with me and mine and with every pack who had a mother, daughter, sister stolen, and you owe us all for Helena. So, right now is not the time you want to get some sideburns and show fang. Got it?”

Emily shrank back, her mouth gaping wide. Her defiance didn’t decrease, but she did hold her tongue. She looked nervously at Freya while clutching her swollen belly protectively as if she was afraid that Freya would attack.

Freya didn’t give a damn. She had her own stomach to cradle and protect. Emily would find no pity from her.

“I have a proposition.” Kallie leaned forward and spoke up. “Somewhat humane, somewhat not. Our war is with her, not her cub. So I propose the punishment be given to her alone.”

“Do tell.” Vaegar turned to his daughter. “You propose we wait until she has the child and then deliver the punishment.” He lowered his eyes and pondered the situation. “I suppose it could be an option.”

“Her child is innocent and should not suffer.”

As vehement as Freya felt, she couldn’t deny the truth coming from Kallie’s mouth. The cub did not need to suffer the sins of its mother.

Many heads were nodding before Gaea spoke. “Death is too easy of a way out, truthfully. She could be imprisoned until the birth of the cub.”

“I could remove the child from her womb. She is near due.” Dona spoke from the back of the room.

Everyone turned toward Dona. Freya hadn’t seen him when he entered the room, but then why he had felt the need to teleport his ass into werewolf affairs was the bigger question.

The wytchen came forward. “I would have to accelerate the gestation slightly, but it can be done within the next few hours. I could leave the rest to you to deal with.”

Freya looked to Rayne and found him sullen. He was gazing at Emily with something akin to pity, undoubtedly because he knew all the wonders his father could perform and all the horrors.

“Never! You will not take my child. You won’t. You won’t!” Emily’s features were blanched with terror. She looked at her vampire escorts as if they could possibly provide her with help and seemed to despair when they turned their gazes away from her. She attempted to stand but was quickly placed back in it by the vampires. They were wary enough, already on edge in the midst of so many wolves.

Dona stopped just short of the vampire on the left of Emily’s chair. He looked down at the sitting wolf on trial and raised a finger. “You. Silence,” he whispered as sweetly as a viper posed to strike.

Emily pressed her lips tightly together, although her red face and wrinkled brow implied that she had little to do with her state. She raised her hand to her mouth as if she could part her lips with her fingertips, but failed. Her eyes were filled with fear, glaring up at Dona with a pitiful, desperate, but silent plea.

The wytchen was unfazed, even as Emily began a muffled sobbing.

“We could annihilate her after the birth of the cub. We can raise the cub as a Sohon. There are many options,” Benna suggested.

“Hell no,” Fenris said from behind Freya. “How many revenge scenarios start with that fuckup?”

Freya had to agree with her alpha on that matter. “Yeah, not a good plan at all. Someone else could raise the cub.”

Vaegar leaned forward, bracing his chin between two fingers. He took his time pondering before he spoke. “It would be okay, if you were to treat the cub as if he or she were a stepchild. Would you or could you love it, Freya?”

“Oh, no. Slow up. I was
not
talking about me.” The idea of having two crying newborns, five asprega, and a needy alpha and beta was far too overwhelming for her to even contemplate.

Rayne agreed sarcastically. “I think that she just might have her hands full.”

“Certainly,” said Fenris. “She does.”

Freya turned around to gaze at her mate and found him looking down warmly. The usual competition that might have stirred within her was just fine with their decision. “My wolves are right. Someone else. ”

Emily’s mumbling grew louder, tears pouring from her reddened eyes. Her vampire guards had to hold her down in her chair, her protests had gotten so strong.

Freya looked around the room herself for viable candidates and saw several warrior females, most of whom were rolling their eyes to the ceiling or checking underneath their nails for phantom dirt. Gaea had a worried look upon her features as if she was afraid somehow that Freya would cave.

“I’m sure that we will be able to find someone later,” Vaegar said. “I don’t want the cub’s identity to have to be cloaked in order for it to find a pack, but the right mother must be found. Someone who will not hold its lineage over it.”

“I have a few I could contact,” Kallie suggested, calling off the names of several notable packs before someone spoke up.

“I’ll take the cub.”

There were plenty of gasps, but Freya was sure that her own was the loudest as she looked over at her mother. “Really?”

“I’m neutral.”

Gaea was grinning beside Geraldine, and for a moment, Freya wondered if she too would join in the rearing of the cub. The two were good for the occasional fling, she thought when the pale were ran a palm down Geraldine’s muscled arm.

“You’re anything but neutral,” Vaegar scoffed.

“Let me put it this way: the cub won’t be sugarcoated from what its mother did, but then it won’t be treated as anything but a wolf on his or her own merit. If he has a grudge by the time I’m done with him, then he can take it up with me.”

Freya had to agree with her mother’s declaration. The cub would learn hard work, obedience, and combat. If by any chance Emily’s cub had an inkling of vengeance on its mind, then Geraldine was exactly the female to deal with it.

She looked to Vaegar to see how he felt about the issue, but he showed no particular objection, his attention having returned to Emily. He smiled with fangs distended at the girl’s suffering.

“Will she live after the deed is done?”

“I assume you wish my answer to be no,” Dona offered to Vaegar.

Vaegar dipped his chin in answer.

“Done.” Dona moved to place his hand upon Emily’s shoulder, sealing her to the chair with a touch of his hand. He waved the vampires off, dismissing them from their delivery detail as his power held her captive enough.

While Dona and Vaegar discussed how he could put the girl in a comalike stasis to ensure the full gestation of the fetus, Freya could feel the tension lifting within the room. Justice for wolves was unlike justice for humans. It needed to be blunt and brilliant, like a neon light crackling, and it needed to be over quickly. Trials were swift, and verdicts were arrived at by scent and senses.

Mercy was seldom an option.

“Up, milady.” Dona waved a hand, and Emily came to a stand like a puppet under his command. He gestured to Geraldine to accompany him as he started through the small crowd. There were tears pouring down Emily’s face, but no one seemed to care.

There had been tears when Helena died too, when pack mothers were lost and cubs stolen, when wolves did not know where their mates were.

Freya couldn’t be bothered to give a damn as she raised her hand and waved good-bye to the traitor. While she watched the troupe leave the room, Freya slid her arm around Fenris, content that justice would be served.

It had been all that she needed to see, and she told Fenris so with a yawn. When he suggested that she rest, Freya had no objection, walking before him out of the room.