The Midwife's Moon (8 page)

He would have given in to hopelessness if he hadn’t had her to remember. Knowing he’d saved someone—his mate no less—had gotten him through the torture and abuse so many times, he couldn’t count. The pain, the suffering, he wouldn’t count it; he might go insane.

Sherona, the werejaguar’s shadow leader, stood up and spoke in a harsh voice. “He has damaged all of us in the were community; not just the wolves. The fire he set, which nearly killed a Wahpawhat Elite Guard and did kill some others, is under close investigation. Among those who died later was one of my werejaguars. The autopsy reports have had to be fixed because they showed the anomaly in our blood which identifies us as were. He has hurt many mates, including his own. Not just by death,” Sherona said.

Was it his imagination, or did she look straight at him and the woman in front of him when she said this? She gave him a little nod as if to say, “I’m talking about people like the two of you,” and continued. He had no idea what the rest of her witnessing would be about and didn’t hear it. Screaming in his ear was the knowledge he’d been right before. All the angst he’d thought he’d run off came back in full force.
Joseph was the guilty one
.

Joseph had made Lance’s mate into an
aswan
and left her to die or kill herself. The visceral reaction was worse than when Nolan had mentioned it. Even then it had been anger. But here, now, with the evidence, with his mate’s body language verifying Nolan’s and his suspicions, his body reacted harshly. A blackness started before his eyes while a wave of heartbeats pounded his ears. Revenge and the need to hurt Joseph swamped him. He took his hands out of his pockets. They needed to be freed. The bones under them started to crackle when a hand touched his arm.

“Not yet, Lance,” Sherona said.

When had she finished her testimony? He hadn’t seen her come around to him after speaking.

He lifted his lip and snarled, and she hissed back.

“Cool it, wolf!” she demanded. “You will only scare and endanger her,” she added in an under breath.

Lance could feel his emotions back down as her hand stayed on his arm. All at once, the woman in front of him turned around and bared her teeth—and not to smile. She snarled at Sherona. His surprise couldn’t have been more complete than if she had turned into a mouse in front of him.

“Lisa,” Sherona said complacently and in the same under-her-breath level. “I am helping him stay calm so he does not endanger himself or you. Do not let anger control you, or he won’t be able to calm down. He’s not used to such strong, alpha feelings. Give him time.”

Lisa.
Her name whispered along his spine the way the breeze did his fur when he ran. Cooling, soothing, and comforting. “Lisa,” he breathed. Her eyes turned to him, and he saw the confusion and momentary awareness before she nodded to Sherona and turned back to face the proceedings. He noticed she backed closer to him though. Conscious thought, or mate’s subconscious reaction? Lance didn’t know, but her closeness helped his anger to calm even as it revved up other areas of his libido. His cock rose up, throbbing. Its girth pulled against his jeans.

“Oh God.” Sherona groaned, rolling her eyes. “Wolves and their mates,” she said and took her arm off him.

Lucky guess, or did she know? He ached to touch himself.

“Pay attention to the proceedings, wolf boy! You will get your chance to prove yourself if you can think with the right head,” Sherona told him pointedly.

Heat crept up his cheekbones, and he had a moment to be grateful for his dark, bronzed skin. He tried to pay more attention to the proceedings. Apparently, Alex’s turn just started.

“I don’t personally know the exact part he had in my kidnapping. I only know he called for an emergency meeting which left me alone at a time they knew Nolan would be occupied. I do know he was involved with the drugging of another werewolf not of our pack.”

Loud murmurs interrupted her along with a few growls. Lance felt the tension rise again. Joseph would be lucky to make it through the trial alive. Any drugs administered on a were had to be strong, and if there was one which could bring them down, they wanted to know about it.

“Roxy, under the guise of wanting something to help her pack heal when injured, asked my mother”—Alex swallowed—”to make a serum to work like a sedative. A long time ago, she had developed something which slowed down our healing by causing us to bleed a little longer. The purpose being to give her time to take care of certain injuries before our bodies could trap them inside us. At first, I was unaware of it.”

Lance looked around at the group of werewolves who looked panicked. He’d known only because he had overheard and had been extra careful not to get injured from that point on. That hadn’t been all he had heard. He worked hard to stay conscious and alert at all times around Boris and Roxy.

“I found out when Boris attacked me and scratched me using a form of it. I nearly died. This happened when attempting to escape from Boris after my kidnapping, which Joseph played a large part in setting up,” Alex said.

She went on to say more, but Lance felt the pressure of aggression around him. By the looks on their faces, it came more from his former pack than the original Wahpawhats. Joseph had attacked their healer. They were ready to lynch him right there and then, trial notwithstanding. It was a serious thing to attack a pack’s healer.

Everyone in his old pack knew that if Boris had been involved, Roxy knew about it. Although he personally had had no problem in changing pack allegiance, there were still a few who hadn’t known Roxy’s true nature or had excused things from Boris as the price to pay for a strong pack. By the looks on their faces, many were thinking twice now. It didn’t matter to him what they all wanted to do, however. Joseph had abandoned Lance’s mate and left her to die or kill herself. For that alone, Joseph deserved pack justice, and Lance wanted to be the one to punish him.

Sherona nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbow. “Pay attention to the proceedings. Your time will come,” she whispered.

His heart leapt when Lisa gave Sherona a dirty look for whispering in his ear. Lisa might not understand it, but she reacted as a mate. His wolf howled inside him. Its sadness was quickly being replaced with frustration at waiting now that his mate stood before him.

“You have heard the evidence before you. Do any deny his need for pack justice?” Nolan again. Sherona was right. He needed to pay more attention. He hadn’t seen Nolan move or realized Alex had finished.

A lot of people murmured amongst themselves, but no one objected. “Then I will fight Joseph and—”

“No!” Lance shouted almost involuntarily. The denial had risen quick from the deepest part of him. “I want to fight Joseph under pack law. His injustice to me and mine are just as great as yours,” he said to Nolan.

The warehouse had silenced, and an itch started between his shoulder blades. All attention had transferred to him in shock and surprise. The moment froze in time in Lance’s memory. However, Nolan remained silent. Lance looked at him more closely and found himself being scrutinized by his new Alpha.

Let him look. I have as much right as anyone. I need to fight for my mate’s honor, for the injustices done her.
Nolan nodded at him, and Sherona put a hand on his shoulder as if they had heard his thoughts. He glanced over at Lisa, and she stared at him with a combination of shock, horror, pride, and questions—so many questions in her beautiful brown eyes.

“Lance!” Sherona sounded more than impatient. “Get up there!”

Lance moved to the circle designated and began taking off his clothes. He hadn’t thought to bring a nice change of clothes and only had the sweats he always carried in the back of the car. He wanted to look good when he went out for a drink later.

“No!” A voice shouted from the back. “The weakling will lose, and this dirty
roil-pam
needs to be taught a lesson!”

“Yeah,” another voice said. Lance recognized him as one of Roxy’s favorite go-to men after Boris. Ryan George. No immediate relations to the healer, but somewhere down the line they shared an ancestor. Ryan liked bullying some of the younger and weaker weres.

There was a general outpouring of noise and confusion as the anger and emotions stirred by the events they had just learned began to come out. He ignored it and headed straight for his position. They had no idea of the true perfidy Joseph was capable of. If they knew, he would likely have died upon arrival. There were no words strong enough for a were who would leave a newly formed
aswan
to their pain, suffering, and likely death. That Lisa had also been led to a pack territory which would have gotten her killed or worse if she had been found by Boris or one of his ilk, would have added to the distress for many of them.

Lance stopped just outside the circle and watched Nolan for his cues, but Nolan didn’t even glance Lance’s way. He stared down the two who had spoken out, and the rest of the crowd silenced.
Now that was power.

***

“I am Alpha, the Ulfric. Are you questioning my authority?” Nolan spoke quietly, but anger thrummed through his voice. Joseph’s undermining went deep into his pack which was enough trouble without adding Roxy’s backers to the mix. Movement caught his eye, and he looked over. His father’s tall frame stood near the front, the scent of danger oozing out of him like heat from a radiator. His mom, her body as muscular and tough as his father’s, held her aggressive stance, and both of them eyed Ryan. Nolan didn’t know whether to be glad of their back up or not. It frustrated him on too many levels to think about.

The first man shook his head no, never even glancing their way. The second, Ryan, looked from Nolan to his parents and back before responding, his manner subdued. “No, but you don’t know us all well. Lance isn’t alpha enough for this task.”

His dad’s public favor was a good thing despite their private differences, so he said nothing. He stood silently, looking at Ryan for a long moment until Ryan shuffled his feet and looked down. “Is that a challenge?” Nolan asked Ryan. “Are you questioning my ability to judge his fitness to fight?”

Ryan opened his mouth again and shut it. “I withdraw my concern,” he said formally.

He mentally reached for his mate.
“That one will be trouble.”

“Trouble you’ll need to deal with later. Lance needs to fight this battle, and you’re prolonging the start.”
His Alex.

“You’re right.”

His dad’s on-again off-again support would have to be dealt with later as well. He and Kamiakin were already looking into Joseph’s friends to try and mitigate the insidious poison he’d spread before getting caught. His mate was right. Time to end this.

Nolan turned to Lance and Joseph. “You know the rules,” he said looking pointedly at Joseph. “If one of you attempts to cheat, I will interfere. If Joseph wins, he will live in exile, never to speak to a living soul again. Ready?”

Chapter Seven

Joseph’s smile of pride and confidence was much different from the panicked look he’d worn through most of the trial. Lance stared Joseph down. He would tear the smile off Joseph’s face as soon as Nolan gave the go ahead. He nodded to show his readiness.

Joseph said, “Oh yeah. I’m ready for this one.”

Joseph would pay for the mistake in judgment. Lance could see Joseph judged him by the way Roxy had treated him in the past and did not know his true worth. Lance would quickly fix that notion.

He finished taking off his clothes and stood there waiting, uncaring of his nakedness. Roxy had shamed and embarrassed him far worse than being nude in front of the pack could do. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nolan’s hand raise, pause. When Nolan’s hand was in the air, the whole warehouse seemed to take a collective breath and hold it.

Then the hand came down.

Lance changed, dodging to the side as he did. Joseph lunged where Lance had been standing and lost his balance as his claws skidded across the cement floor. Lance swiped him hard, drawing blood. Joseph yelped and turned. He growled at Lance while he circled. Lance eyed Joseph, watching how he moved, looking for weakness, and ascertaining the strength of Joseph’s fighting skills. Lance’s muscles tensed up, ready to spring. The thrum of power beat in him, and his wolf howled in challenge.

Joseph’s eyes flickered to the crowd, and he quickly attacked. His strong jaw bit through the tough wolf hide and drew more blood before he let go. Joseph began pulling back, wary now. The crowd screamed at them after the second blood draw. Most were on Lance’s side simply because of what Joseph had done to weres at large, but a few still rooted for Joseph, including Ryan.

When the fight’s over, maybe I should warn the Ulfric that Ryan had wanted the top dog spot at Roxy’s side when she was the Lupa.
His momentary inattentiveness allowed Joseph to scratch him along the foreleg.

He growled and fought back. Biting, nipping, only using his paws to change up his fighting or surprise attacks. Joseph’s movements were desperate and furious as if angry that Lance had the skill and strength to stand up for himself. Barks and yelps rented the air. The warehouse became a cacophony of noise, blood, and heat that swelled until the air was thick with the essence of the fight.

Lance finally found a good opening. Growls emanated from his throat as he locked on to Joseph’s haunch and shook a chunk loose that bled profusely.

The crowd’s roars escalated at this further show of Lance’s prowess. His pack had thought him submissive, and Nolan’s pack had no idea what to expect. Joseph, cautious now, didn’t give up as many chances. They both had stopped, their sides heaving as they stared each other down.

“What did I do to you?” Joseph asked.

“You hurt my mate,” Lance replied.

“You’re nothing but Roxy’s dog,” Joseph taunted. “You have no mate.”

Lance jumped full throttle at him but missed. He skidded across the cement, turned his ankle on his left forepaw, which caused him to roll off the short drop of the dais and into the crowd. They backed up. Some sucked in a breath and others sneered. Joseph landed on him and bit at him. He swiped at Joseph’s neck with his other forepaw, trying to buy some time and keep Joseph off his belly and neck.