Stephanie's Trial

Negotiations

The next day, the three packs arrived, and I watched the shiny black, red, and white limos roll into the front yard from my bedroom window, my heart pounding. I'd heard of them, and their reputations were as varied as they were. The Blackwater pack, for example, were the fiercest, most dogged warriors in the UK - coming from Glasgow, they had to be. 

Then there was the Redwood pack, known as the best trackers. If they wanted to find you, they could track you across land and water, and no corner of the earth could hold you when they set out to track you down.

Finally, there was the Rainbow Heart pack. They were the best spellcasters, and they practised more magic than other packs. To be sure, all packs used magic to one degree or another, but the Rainbow Heart pack took it further, dedicating their lives to learning magic. As such, they were, as mentioned, the best spellcasters in the world, and if there was any magic they didn't know, it wasn't worth knowing. 

I turned away from the window with a shudder. If Simon got them on side, Doreah was doomed. The Windsong pack was, as mentioned before, were formidable fighters, but if the Blackwater, Redwood and Rainbow Heart packs united, not a pack in Reading would be able to stand against them, and I shivered as I finished dressing. I knew I had to convince the Lunas of the three packs not to stand with Simon, but how I'd be able to do that was anyone's guess.

And another thorny issue tangled my brain as I hurried downstairs for breakfast. Last night's party had bonded my friends and I with the rest of the pack, and I felt sick to my stomach. Betraying Simon would mean betraying the pack, and after all the fun we'd had last night, I didn't want to stab them in the back. They were, on a whole, quite a decent bunch - barring Simon, James and Samuel - and once the ice had been broken, they'd revealed themselves to be kindhearted, fun-loving, and loyal. 

"Careful, you almost bowled me over there."

I jumped out of my skin, and, heart pounding, looked up to see Shannon grinning down at me, looking none the worse for having only gotten a few hours sleep. We'd spent quite a bit of time together after the party had broken up the night before, and I blushed at how late it had been before we finally found our own beds. "I've got a lot on my mind," I admitted. Looking around the dining hall, I felt that ill feeling again as the visiting packs made the rounds, taking advantage of the enormous buffet set up for the purpose of feeding quite an extra load of guests. 

Shannon took me in his arms, kissing the top of my head. "Me too," he said, his voice sombre, and I pressed my head to his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. While we hadn't officially declared each other to be mates (something that happened rarely, when nine times out of ten destiny chose your mate for you), I could still feel his love for me, and I closed my eyes, savouring our closeness, letting him feel my love in return. "I hate only three people in this pack," he added, his voice grim. "They're the ones I want to take down."

I nodded. "Same," I said. "But that's not the only thing I'm worried about. How the hell am I going to convince the Lunas to not ally their packs with Simon? The moment he gets an answer back, he's going to know I either succeeded or failed. And if he finds out I failed, I'm done for."

"You're going to have to be really good, then," Shannon admitted, holding me closer. "But I wouldn't fret. I'm sure the other Lunas are two minds about joining up with Simon, otherwise they'd be firmly in his camp."

I sighed. "I just wish I knew how to get around this," I said.

Shannon kissed my head again. "You'll figure it out," he assured me. "I have faith in you."

"I'm glad someone does," I said, only half-joking.

After breakfast, the three visiting Alphas - Aiden, Sebastian and Carter - joined Simon for discussion, while their Betas and Gammas went into private talks with James and Samuel. The rest of the packs joined ours for a meet and greet, while I took the three Lunas - Abigail, Avery and Mia - to the rear courtyard. Though the days were finally starting to get a bit cooler, the sun was still warm, and we had a magnificent view over the valley. 

"Alright," Mia said, cutting to the chase once we'd all poured ourselves some iced tea. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. Steph, we're not going to join with Simon."

I raised an eyebrow. "I was not expecting that," I admitted. "Why?"

Abigail rolled her eyes. "You know how much of a jerk he is," she said. "You were there when he almost singlehandedly destroyed your family and took out almost three counties' worth of packs. We don't forget such things. And he's a racist, classist bully who shouldn've been put down a long time ago."

"And he's bad-tempered," Avery added. "Seriously, he's got the world's shortest fuse. I'm amazed he hasn't blown his stack during the time you and your friends have been here."

I looked at my glass, almost expecting to find an answer in the pale yellow depths of my iced tea "He's all that," I agreed. "But I have to cut to the chase too; I don't want the rest of this pack harmed. Only Simon, James and Samuel."

"I can understand that," Abigail said, smiling. "I was talking with some of the females, and they were singing your praises to the high heavens. What's more, they meant it. All of them."

I nodded. All werewolves were exceptional bullshit detectors, but Abigail, being of the Rainbow Heart pack, had turned it into a fine art. "Then we're settled," I said. "But we have to worry about Simon. More to the point, I have to worry about Simon."

"Don't," Mia said bluntly. "He's getting a verbal bollocking from Aiden right now, and he's not liking it in the slightest."

"What?" I said, confused. 

Mia rolled her eyes. "You didn't think you and your friends were alone, did you?" she said. "Good grief, girl. Word spreads fast, and when we got word of what had happened, our Alphas got together and made an alliance. We also sent a couple of, well, infiltrators in to report back to us. And when we started hearing about everything Simon had put you and your friends through, we told our infiltrators to disappear. They were getting close to being discovered, and we needed them out of the way."

I frowned, and then gasped. I'd noticed Natalia and Delilah were missing when I came downstairs for breakfast, but I hadn't even thought to connect their absence with anything significant. "Oh my God," I said faintly. 

Abigail leaned over and took my hand. "Our Alphas are finishing up now," she said. "Once they've done, they're going to take the unprecedented step of challenging Simon for leadership of the pack. Of course, it won't be an entirely fair fight, but Simon hasn't been fair, so we figured we'd pay him in kind. At the very worst, he gets the crap beaten out of him. At best, he loses his life. Either way, he's going to lose all standing in the pack, and when word spreads, he's going to be hunted down like the rabid animal he is."

Mia nodded, eyes glittering fiercely, as befitted a Redwood. "Our trackers will sniff him out wherever he goes," she said. "Believe me, he won't be able to call anyone a friend once we're through with him."

I took a deep breath. "Thank you, all of you," I said. 

But as we got up to return to the main gathering, three howls shivered the air, and my senses blanked for a moment as Simon howled in reply. I shook myself, recovered, and we darted back inside. Everyone had gone stiff with shock, and as we ran towards the front door, the others fell in behind us, all shifting as they joined our mad dash for the front yard. This is it! I thought, as I took the front steps three at a time, my paws hitting the crushed gravel as I landed. It's time to see if he's good enough to survive this fight!