Part Eighty-Seven

We were caught in a catch twenty-two. We had no other choice than to convene, we would be questioned by the council anyway about the war we all knew would break out. We all looked at Malachi for a solution. Instead, he retired to his study with Garrick.

I trusted in Malachi and I knew that he would come back out and give us all hope. A way out of this dilemma.

“We should never have trusted the truce. We should have…” Adara said and stopped herself. She was managing her powers so well; she touched my cheek and the gash that Ramos’s teeth left healed instantly.

Now I have to tell you more about the council. The wolf council is made up primarily of retired Alpha’s voted in by their predecessors. You get nominated and the current sitting council votes on your reputation, how you manage your pack, and almost everything can count against you.

When a sitting member dies, the Alpha with the most votes gets to take the empty seat. The council is where you report absolutely everything. Even if you are holding a tribunal for a minor law offense. They decide on the severity of each case how it is to be handled, either by them or by the reigning pack in the territory it occurred in.

Normally the council will head up tribunals where the penalty might result in death, all other tribunals are held by individual packs. For us that would mean traveling. Our council was located in Montana. It was a beautiful state, mostly farms but also rugged mountains and rivers where wolves could play.

Each country also had their own council, and these different councils would meet once a year in Switzerland, to remain neutral. There they would discuss the tribunals held for the year, pack growths and anything else that might be of interest to them.

Garrick came down the hall with an infuriated look on his face. That did not bode well. Malachi and Garrick never disagreed or fought, but I guessed it had to do with Shoran’s admittance of murder. Malachi would have thought through every loophole and every chance we had as a pack.

In the end though, no matter how much Garrick disagreed, he would obey his Alpha, no matter what. Malachi, it seemed, had remained in his study. Garrick told Stephanie they were leaving and looked at James. James got up and so did Shoran. They were a unit now and Shoran would do what James did. It was just the way it was done.

“This is exactly what he wants!” Adara said and I knew she was right.

“They want animosity and anger between us,” I agreed with her.

“That doesn’t change the fact that Shoran did commit murder and that can get her into real trouble with the council. It will also land Malachi in trouble. He is her Alpha, and he should have reported it to the council,” I told her.

“I know but he raped her!” Adara tried to defend Shoran.

I sat down on the couch and she sat on my lap. I groaned. She had this effect on me every time she did this and she knew it! I felt aroused, and immediately tried to switch my emotions off. She smiled at me and got up again. This was so not the right time for these types of reactions.

“Well, Malachi will sort it out,” Karani said. I looked over my shoulder and Karani was filling the kettle with water. I had almost forgotten that she was in the room with us. I felt a little bit guilty. Some days with Adara were very hard, I just wanted to rip her clothes off every time she looked or smiled at me in a certain way.

“I know, Mom,” I replied and walked over to the window. I told Adara to stay with Karani and went to Malachi’s study.

“We need to go check on the bodies,” I said to Malachi and he nodded. He stood up and looked out of the window. We rarely went into the drawing room anymore. It was filled with too much horror and we could still smell the old, darkened blood that had seeped through to the wood underneath the carpet.

“Can I ask what happened with you and Garrick?” I asked carefully.

“Yes, you may, but I might not want to answer that right now,” Malachi said.

I sighed. I should have known that he would come back with a smart-ass answer. We went outside and into the line of trees to undress and change.

We ran to the clearing and stopped just before we reached it. We were listening and smelling, any foreign or fresh smell, listening for movements. If those two bodies were discovered in the clearing, so close to our house, it would create problems for us. All the marked trees in a semi-circle would draw unwanted attention to us.

We walked into the clearing and Ramos had left the bodies right there. I sighed. We had to clean up after him again.

“We’ll move the two bodies further towards the mountain slopes on the other side of the resort.”

I dreaded having to drag a dead body that far.

“There are more grizzlies there, people will think they were attacked by the bears,” Malachi added and I had to agree. Not everyone knew that the grizzlies in this area lived mostly off berries, nuts and roots. Sometimes they would catch a young moose or some fish.

It took us almost four hours to drag the dead bodies to the slopes of the mountain on the other side where grizzlies had been spotted in the past. Hopefully, our ruse would work, and the deaths would be classified as accidental. The town would be shocked and by the end of the week it would be old news.

It would be a few months before we heard from Ramos again and we started to relax when nothing had happened after five weeks and I concluded that Ramos had run and Garrick had convinced Malachi not to contact the Council.