Chapter 32

Squatch.

I’d known someone was going to try to take advantage of the fact I couldn’t hit them without risking our lives. I was outnumbered nearly thirty strong men to my one, which I might have been able to handle in human form, but we all knew they’d shift to tiger once I made my way through the first half of them, and then they’d kill me.

But I’d walked into the compound and let them lock us in anyway, because Kitty needed the backup.

That didn’t mean I had to be stupid about it, though. Gears and Magnum had hacked into the ambush’s servers and then talked to me about my options. They’d been able to find out which sound system would be used, and they’d given me a gadget that would allow me to broadcast to it — along with a high-dollar microphone. I’d paid for the device out of my own funds, and it’d been worth every damned penny. I hadn’t understood why it had cost more than a thousand dollars, but I hadn’t argued, and now, I was thankful the microphone had picked up the asshole’s voice so well. Crystal clear.

I pulled Kitty back out of the way as her father made his way to us. Julian moved with us, and I aimed us so a large pine was close enough I could shove Kitty behind it if necessary.

Vincenzo attacked without slowing, but Mike had heard him coming and was ready. The two men fought as if it were a fight to the death, and it occurred to me it could easily be just that.

It would break something inside Kitty if her father died in this fight, but there was no way for me to intercede and still protect her.

But then everyone froze except for me and Kitty, and His Majesty walked up and stepped around the two fighters, motionless, fists raised, and Mike’s foot headed towards Vincenzo’s head, both faces already bloody.

“I’ve a good mind to let them fight it out,” he told Kitty, “but I don’t want you to blame Squatch for your father’s death.”

She shook her head. “Mike’s always been the one he sent to scare people. He should’ve known better than to take him on like this.” She rubbed her arms as if she were cold, never mind the heat. “They’ll shift to tiger and finish the fight soon. Daddy will have the advantage then. His tiger’s bigger and stronger.”

His Majesty sighed, looked around, walked to the fighters, and stared at them a few moments. I wondered if he was going into their heads like a vampire, looking through their memories. I didn’t think he could, but no one really knew what he could and couldn’t do with the cats.

Finally, he reached out, grabbed both by the upper arm, moved them apart, and started walking, dragging them. He took seven steps before everything went back into motion around us. The two men who’d been fighting stumbled and went to their knees, but managed to get to their feet so they could walk while being dragged by their King.

And I felt the power of the Amakhosi like never before. It crawled over my skin and made it hard to breathe. Based on the way the cats were acting, they were hit by his energy ten times harder than me. I wrapped my arms around Kitty and offered her my wolf energy. It seemed to help, and she sucked in air.

“Thank you.” It wasn’t even a whisper, just her mouth moving, but I caught it anyway, even from behind her.

I put her to my side with my arm still around her, and offered my hand to Julian. He accepted it, and he, too, breathed easier. He’d been a friend to my kitten, so it was the least I could do. The three of us followed His Majesty, but I kept us on the edge of the field when we approached it. His Highness climbed the steps to the stage and stood with the two men still beside him, his hands squeezing their biceps so hard, their hands were a deep red. Both men appeared to be in pain, and neither moved.

“For the most part,” the Amakhosi said, his voice ringing out without the need for the sound system, “I focus on my lions and allow the other cats to govern themselves. However, when a group proves it can’t do so responsibly, I step in.”

He looked around the field, then towards us. I’m certain he met Kitty’s gaze a second before he focused on the group as a whole again.

“I regret that I allowed Vincenzo to claim responsibility for what happened. If I’d questioned Mike, I’d have seen the truth of him, but I didn’t. If I’d seen the truth, I’d have meted out far different consequences. As it stands now, I no longer believe Vincenzo is the right leader for your ambush. His judgment has been questionable too many times. My first reaction would be to implement a ruling counsel, so no one person is in charge.”

He took a breath, looked around again, and made his pronouncement. “Michael Gowd is hereby sentenced to death by enema. A fitting death for one who raped the bottoms of young teens. Any women or girl he violated will be allowed to pour water into the bucket leading to his tubing, once it’s in place.”

Some in the crowd were pissed, but a whole lot seemed to be happy with this pronouncement. Mike had been Vincenzo’s enforcer as well as his pet rapist, and the man had made plenty of enemies, it seemed.

But His Majesty wasn’t finished.

“Vincenzo Aurelio is hereby stripped of any and all titles given to him by tiger society and the ambush. He is a common citizen with no power or assets, and will be outcast for a minimum of one year, with no guarantee of being welcomed back. A lion of my choosing will arrive within hours to keep the peace in the ambush until you can set up your own ruling body. If at the end of a year, you wish to go back to a dictatorship where a single person decrees everything, you’ll be able to vote that back in if you choose. However, for one year, you’ll exist under a counsel you’ve voted into being.”

He turned and looked to us. “Squatch. Have Kitty take you to her father’s house. She’ll know how to get in. Wait for me there, please.”

I was still holding Julian’s hand, and I still felt His Majesty’s power holding the crowd in thrall. However, Julian let go of my hand when I looked at him.

“Thank you for the help,” he told me, “but I should stay here.”

“Thank you for being a friend to my kitten.”

Kitty started walking, and I walked beside her, holding her hand, no idea which direction we were headed, but I knew she’d keep us away from the crowd.

* * * *

Kitty I walked us all the way around the festival grounds, a half-mile through the woods, and then down the wide pathway to my father’s house. When I left, the pass code to get into the front door was my oldest brother’s birthday, but backwards. I tried it and it didn’t work. I tried all of my brother’s birthdays, forwards and backwards, and then tried mine.

And the door opened.

“What was it?” Squatch asked.

“My birthday, backwards.” I said it with zero emotions, because if I let my feelings have even an inch then I’d be curled up in a ball somewhere, crying and sobbing and a complete mess.

“He loves you, Kitten. He’s made some horrible decisions, and he’s clearly a bad judge of character, but he does love you.”

“I always thought he knew what Mike was doing. I mean, clearly, he knew the bare-bones facts, but I assumed he knew all of it, and now I’m not so sure.”

“It’s going to take every bit of willpower I have to keep from killing him when he gets here, Kitten. No father should allow what he did, even if the person doing the training was gentle.”

“It’s done, and I’m good with His Majesty’s sentence for Mike. I don’t know if I’ll want to physically pour more water in myself, or whether I should just stay out of it. I need to consider that, before I decide.”

“Do you understand how death by enema works?”

I nodded. It’d been in a POW book I’d once read. The author had watched one of his fellow soldiers have to go through the aftermath, which was a slow, torturous death. They’d offered his buddy a quick death for information, but he’d never given it. Since that hadn’t worked, the enemy had used non-lethal torture on the man who wrote the book, and it’d gone on for months, but he hadn’t given the information they wanted, either. “So much water goes in, the bowels burst. Infection sets up in the abdominal cavity, and death doesn’t come quickly. It’s a horrible way to die.”

“Shapeshifters don’t die from infections, Kitten. To kill a shapeshifter, once the bowels burst, you put silver in the water and keep forcing it in, until the water breaks through the diaphragm, so the silver makes it to the heart. He’ll have to put a large butt plug in and then secure it, so the force of the water inside builds up enough pressure to burst through into the chest cavity.”

I stared at him, taking a few seconds to fully comprehend what he was saying. I was horrified by the act, but still completely okay with Mike dying this way. He’d violated me — and other young teens — and enjoyed it, and now he’d die a humiliating death where he was horribly violated and couldn’t stop it. It was harsh, but I approved. I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch it, but I wasn’t going to argue for mercy for the bastard, either.

“Okay. Thanks for explaining.”

He leaned his head down and rested his forehead on mine. “I expected you to be horrified, and I find myself a little concerned that you aren’t, but the wolf is dancing and celebrating and high-fiving you inside me.”

I chuckled. “I adore your wolf.”

“The feeling is mutual, Kitten. We adore your tiger.”

As much as I wanted to relax in his arms, there was something I needed to know. I climbed the steps, walked down the hallway, and climbed to the third floor. There were only two rooms up here, the two largest in the house, and they’d belonged to me and my oldest brother. I walked to the doorway to my room and looked inside. It was still my room.

Squatch stood behind me and kissed the top of my head. “He was holding it for you, waiting for you to come home.”

“This isn’t my home anymore. He should let one of my brothers have the room.”

“How long do kids in the ambush live at home?”

“Sometimes forever. If they move out, it’s usually when they have kids they’ll raise. Usually they stay home even when they have kids, though.”

“Is there anything you’d like to get from your room?”

I looked around and considered the question. There were a few things that meant something to me — artwork, awards, a pair of comfy pajamas — but they were all a part of the past I’d left behind, and I wanted it to stay in my rear-view mirror. I couldn’t do that if I brought my past into my present.

“No. We should go back downstairs and wait for His Majesty.”

“Are there pictures of you as a girl?”

I nodded. “Feel free to look through my room. There are albums on the bookshelf. Please leave the albums, but you can take pictures of the pictures, if you like. I have no secrets from you anymore.”

When His Majesty brought my father home, I was frying five pounds of bacon and had three huge pans of meatloaf in the oven. I’d been bored and hungry, so I started cooking.

“Did you lose someone on your way?” His Majesty asked.

I shook my head. “He’s looking at old photo albums in my old bedroom. I told him to spend as much time looking through my room as he wanted. I have no more secrets from him.” I looked to my father. “You should let one of my brothers have the room. They probably resent that it’s being used for storage.”

“It’s your bedroom, Val. You’ll be spending the night when you come for multiple days.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to stay in my old room.”

“Then I will box everything up and put it away, and purchase a king-sized bed, so you and your wolf will have space when he comes with you. When you have a child or children of your own, we’ll arrange for sleeping space for them as well.”

“You’ll have to take those bars off the windows if you want her to spend time in that room. Never again will anyone put my kitten in a cage.” Squatch’s body language was as non-threatening as it gets, leaned against the doorsill, and his voice was soft. If you didn’t know him as well as I did, you might not understand how close to homicidal his anger had pushed him. He’d clearly seen something in my room that set him off. Or perhaps he was still angry at hearing Mike discuss how much he’d enjoyed raping me.

Daddy nodded to him. “I can do that as well, but I won’t apologize for protecting my child and making certain she didn’t get herself into trouble by sneaking out in the middle of the night.”

“Never speak to me about protecting her again. You sent her into the arms of a sexual sadist and gave him permission to teach her how to take a cock down her throat and up her ass. If it wouldn’t tear the love of my life to pieces to see you die, I’d kill you now, politics be damned.”

“You might try.” Daddy didn’t look scared. He looked like he’d enjoy a good fight to the death.

“No more fights tonight,” His Majesty said. “Squatch, you’re fully justified in your feelings, but you’re also right that Val can’t handle losing her father right now. The food smells good, let’s sit and eat. I can’t leave until my backup gets here — the lion I’m bringing in to act as my proxy, in charge until the ambush can install another system of government and elect their people.”

Squatch didn’t move. “I can’t sit at a table and eat a meal with him right now. I’ll wait outside.”

“No,” His Majesty said, and turned to Daddy. “This is no longer your house. I’ll talk to your sons and daughter about whether to sell it and split the proceeds between them, or whether to put it in a trust and allow your sons to continue living here. All your assets will go to your children. Mike Gowd’s assets will be divided and given to the girls he violated. I’m allowing you to live, but not in the ambush, and I’m stripping you of all assets. Go to your room and pack your clothes. I’ll permit you to remove two suitcases of items from your bedroom, but not from other areas of the house. Clothes and personal effects, but nothing of value. I’ll escort you from the grounds once you’ve packed.”

Daddy wanted to argue with him, but seemed to realize it would be a horrible idea, and he walked to his bedroom without a word.

I scooped the bacon onto a platter designed to funnel the oil away as it dripped off, settled it on the table, and pulled the pans of meatloaf from the oven.

“Squatch,” said His Majesty, “please have a seat and eat with us.”

“I don’t know you that well, Your Highness, but I have a feeling you don’t allow yourself to get this angry often.”

“An astute observation.” His Majesty looked from Squatch to me. “If you didn’t already have a life built elsewhere, I’d want to make you the head of the new ruling counsel. I don’t think you’ll accept it, so I haven’t offered it, but should you want to, you only need to tell me.”

I shook my head. “No. My home is in Birmingham now, and Squatch is my family.” I took a breath and added, “Rolling Thunder is my family now.”

He nodded. “I’m friends with many in the Chattanooga chapter, so I understand how deep the connection runs. It was founded by wolves, and that loyalty is still the lifeblood, no matter they’ve allowed other species to join in recent years.”

I met his gaze, which I couldn’t remember doing before. I probably had, but I hadn’t done it with purpose, and this was too important not to look him in the eye. “I think I want to take you up on the offer of helping add water to Mike’s enema. Part of me says he’ll die whether I help or not, but I think that if I don’t, I’ll always wish I had. It feels important that he knows I helped violate him, and that I approve of the method of his death. It’s cold and heartless and brutal, and it fits. Thank you for coming up with it.”

I gave Squatch a pointed look when I set his plate and silverware out, and he finally sat at the table. I turned and His Majesty was closer than I expected, and I gasped when he took my hand in both of his. “I honor the warrior within you, Valentina Olivia Aurelio.”

I had no idea what to say. It felt like there was a response, something everyone should know, but my father hadn’t raised me to be a warrior.

Squatch answered for me, from his seat at the table. “My kitten honors the warrior within you as well, Your Majesty, and she appreciates being seen.”

“Yes,” I told the Lion King with a smile. “What he said. I honor the warrior inside you, but also the leader who seems to understand what his people need. Please, have a seat and eat with us. You don’t need an invitation, but I feel the need to make sure you know you’re welcome, so I’m giving it.”

He pulled my chair out, I sat, and then he finally sat as well. “Thank you for realizing we’d need food. How are you holding up?”

“It isn’t the way I expected the solstice celebration to go,” I told him, “but I can’t say I’m disappointed. I wanted to kill Mike with my bare hands, but I couldn’t. Even if I’d had the physical strength and fighting ability to pull it off, we were trapped under the stupid safe passage rules.”

“Those rules aren’t stupid; they’re some of our most important. A mark of honor and civilized behavior.” He gave me a warm smile. “But I understand your meaning. Mike took advantage of the rules. Something he apparently excels at, but he won’t have an opportunity to do so again.”

I told him what I’d learned about the tracking chips put into the women and girls. His Majesty looked pissed, but he merely nodded and told me it would be handled.

We were silent while we all ate. We were all halfway through our plates when His Majesty broke the silence to say, “Mike Gowd’s execution will begin an hour after sunset tomorrow evening. The timing is a courtesy to any vampires who wish to witness, though it shouldn’t have mattered, since I’m not announcing it nor will I be inviting anyone outside the Ambush.” He looked to Squatch, and then to me. “Despite this, I have a voicemail from Brooke, letting me know she’ll attend.”

I hadn’t realized how stressed I was until I heard Brooke was coming, and then something in my gut relaxed. Everyone else was probably creeped out and unhappy about her promised arrival, but I was glad she’d be there.

The King of the Lions raised an eyebrow. “Not the reaction I was expecting.” He looked at Squatch. “She’s relieved and you’re pleased.”

“Kitty trusts her, and I guess I do, too. Also, I believe Brooke had planned to find a way to get to Mike. She’s been in Kitty’s head, which means she knows exactly what he did to Kitty, and I’m honestly surprised the asshole is still alive. It’s possible she just couldn’t work the logistics out to fly here and get into the ambush without raising suspicions and setting off more of a war than she was prepared to deal with. She doesn’t manage her anger well around those who abuse children, especially the sexual predators. It will do her good to see him die in the manner you’ve pronounced.”

“I see your point. The question becomes, what do the two of you want to do in the next twenty hours? I can fly you home in a few hours, and I’m certain Brooke will give you a ride back, but I can also have someone take you to a hotel in Myrtle Beach.”

I was about to ask him to take us home when Squatch said, “You should be here to help with the members of the ambush who need to see you instead of your proxy. If you could give us a ride to a nearby town, someone from the Wilmington RTMC chapter can pick us up and take us to their clubhouse. I’d already made a phone call to set things up, in the event we needed help. Plus, it gets us out of South Carolina for the day.”

I looked at him in surprise. I’d had no idea there was even a chapter so close, much less the fact Squatch had talked to them. I was immediately worried about the safety of the ambush, and he must’ve seen it in my eyes. “They don’t know where we are. Only that I’m near Myrtle Beach with my girlfriend, visiting her estranged family.”

In reality, we were over an hour away by car, not that close to Myrtle Beach, but near enough he hadn’t lied. “I’m sorry I doubted you. Thanks for thinking ahead to keep us safe.”

“I’d feel better if you have your own transportation, but flying you to the Wilmington MC compound will bring up questions you won’t want to answer. Plus, I’m not certain Kitty will willingly get back into the ’copter.”

“I will if I have to, but I admit I’ll be happier if it isn’t necessary.”

Nathan put his fork down and ate a piece of bacon, clearly considering the best option. “I’ll fly you to the airport and arrange for a rental car, so you can drive to the compound from there. You’ll be at risk on the drive from the airport to the compound, but no one will know where you are, so the risk should be minimal.”

“We can turn the rental car in at whichever airport Brooke will be landing tomorrow, and we can ride to the execution with her. Since she’s coming, I assume you won’t do it in the ambush.”

“Correct. The women who’ll be attending will be told to dye their hair today. The leader of the pride in Wilmington is arranging space for us on a farm about twenty miles inland from the ambush compound. Gowd will be fed to the pigs once he’s dead.” His gaze met mine and I saw the man more than the king. I can’t explain the difference, but it was clearly there. “I’m opposed to torture for torture’s sake, but I’ve never been slow to kill when a situation warranted it. I’m making a clear example of Mike Gowd because of his particular crimes. Some of the girls and women I’ve met this evening are his victims, but I’d never call you that. You survived him. Kirsten wanted me to let you know she’s available to talk to you anytime.”

He took another breath and he was the Amakhosi, King of the Lions, once more. “I want to let you know that I need to remain your king in order to get through this, but that once we’re beyond the execution, I hope we can be friends as well.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”