Full Circle (Book 8 in Arrow/Spn Crossover)

Where Loyalties Lie

On the up side, the council members weren't looking at me like I was food, which was usually how large numbers of things who have issues with me do. On the down side, this wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

Hunting Bat's eyes were on me as she spoke, "You stated you were seeking my advice, Coyote. It sounds like you've made up your mind so I'm unclear as to what you need my advice for."

Coyote's back was still towards me so I couldn't get any clue as to what I should be doing.

"I wish to know that when I return if Dean and I will be seen as some sort of pariah and have to start all over again getting this tribe's approval or if we will finally be seen as the assets that we are and be welcomed back."

All those eyes snapped back to her, which I was kind of grateful for. "I cannot speak for the entire tribe on a matter like this," Hunting Bat stated. "Everyone will have their own opinions."

"I see."

I may not be able to see her face but I didn't need to. One of the main reasons she hated the council as a whole was their lack of willingness to take any sort of stand on anything. She knew that the council couldn't force anyone to think a certain way but she'd obviously been hoping that at least some of them would be willing to stand up for her on this. She'd told me plenty of times over the last year that the difference between how hunters looked at things and how her tribe did was that for the most part, when it came down to it a hunter would back another hunter to the hilt against any sort of threat. The council, much less the tribe could barely figure that out. She'd had that realization after the whole Leaping Deer thing.

"Then I will leave the council to their business. I have to prepare to leave." She gave them a curt nod and started to walk out. She made it three steps.

"Of all the arrogant, self centered, selfish things I have ever seen you do," Gray Wolf stated, "This tops them all. You bully your way onto this council, have fun with it for a few years, then when something more attractive comes along, you leave. Your father would weep at this and if Rising Dove were still here he'd be cursing your name!"

She froze, for half a second I thought she was just going to keep walking. Then Black Hawk, who was Dancing Badger's older sister and had always been jealous of Coyote for more reasons that I could count took her shot. "This has nothing to do with those people, it has to do with with Dean. I assume that since those people are his friends that he is leaving and therefore you're following along. You act as if you are being noble and thinking about the tribe yet, as always, you are thinking about nothing more than how to please yourself. It's not enough that you have one of them sleeping with you, but two? You seriously expect us to believe that his brother spends so much time at your house just to visit."

That was my cue, "Honey, how far we pushing this?" I asked. I loved the house, sure, but I'd have no problem leaving these people. The ones that I liked would probably still talk to me, not that it mattered. We could move to the Bunker, I'd find a larger room to move into that would work for us, but she'd built that house from scratch and I knew she loved it here.

Before she could answer Cougar, Hunting Bat, Fox Who Sings and Red Cloud all stood up, turned their back on the remaining three and walked away. Once they reached the third row back of chairs they stopped and took up positions along the walls.

"We can't speak for the tribe," Hunting Bat stated, "But we can speak for ourselves. They go too far, neither you Dean, or Coyote have done anything to deserve that much disrespect."

While I appreciated the words I was more concerned with Coyote. The way she looked right then it was probably a good thing she hadn't brought any weapons. If she had, there would have been blood already. "Coyote? We making a stand here or movin' on?"

"This ends now." She growled. That told me all I needed to know.

"Fine, just to clarify here. You're not in charge anymore?"

"No." She started to turn back towards the table.

I moved, and moved fast. I caught her shoulder just before she got within punching distance. "Uh-uh, my turn."

Coyote's eyes connected with mine, her anger slammed into me which set off a few things in my head. I pushed it down as she nodded and slid to the side, giving me free rein.

"You have no grounds to speak," Gray Wolf blustered.

I lifted my hand off her shoulder and threw all that anger at Gray Wolf, "Shut the hell up." He winced and Black Hawk slid back an inch or two from the table. Black Hawk is short, usually cranky and one of those people who spent their lives saying shit about others because they'd never succeeded at anything. I had no idea how the hell she'd ended up on the council. Shining Doe was the other one still left at the table. She was in her sixties and never seemed to do much one way or the other about anything. The rumor I had heard was there'd once been a thing between her and Rising Dove that crashed and burned and she'd always held that against anyone he liked. He screwed her over in her opinion so anything or anyone he cared about automatically had to be destroyed.

I took the two more steps to the table and slammed my fists into the top of it, all three of them jumped. I saw Dancing Badger shoot up out of his seat out of the corner of my eye. I didn't even turn my head as I pointed at him, "Wait your turn asshole. I'll deal with you in a minute." He hadn't been expecting that and he hesitated. "Good idea. Now for the rest of you. This is how I see things. I've been here a year. A year in which I have done everything I could to help out, I've given people money and used my people to help your people out. You think I, or my friends, give a shit if there's a truck stop here? No, we don't. It's actually out of our way, we just really love Ralph and Stella and want them to have more tables, be able to make more cash and it worked out that it could help you guys too. The real reason they've been helping out though is because I asked them, that's it. I've also worked on just about every car here, usually for free or fucking cheap so take your goddamn attitudes and shove them up your ass. I've gotten more flack from people here than I ever have in my entire life and I've ignored it for two reasons. First, I don't give a shit about what you think about me and second, I love Coyote and I knew me being here was going to cause issues so I didn't want to stir things up even more. Now though, you've seriously crossed some lines."

I stuck my finger, which had some blood running down it since I'd punched the table, right into Black Hawk's cowering face, "You and your brother are useless cowards. In the time I've been here I haven't seen either of you, do anything, to help anyone out, so you two have no right to say anything about Coyote and I. Coyote's given up some seriously high paying gigs to stay here and work on those projects you keep trying to derail." Then I shifted my attention to Gray Wolf, "And you? Have you even been out to the construction site? Just about everyone else, including kids have. You accuse her of being self centered when she just invested about $10k of her own cash into that school you fought tooth and nail. You fucking bastard, you're the one with no right to speak." He'd started to find some courage in there somewhere and was about to respond when I leaned forward and got right in Black Hawk's face. "So here's how this is going down. Until about three or four years ago I never had a home, I'd spent my whole life on the road till then. My brother and I found a place a few years back and moved in. Then shit in my life hit the fan and I needed to re-evaluate a lot of crap. Coyote and I hooked back up. She took a chance on me and we've built a life here. There's very few people in the world I care deeply about, actually there's only two. Coyote and Sam. You've managed to insult both and threaten my home. Either you back the hell down right now and apologize or take me on. Since you aren't a fighter, I'll take on your weak ass brother over there and two of his friends. That should be fair odds."

Badger let out what was probably the closest thing to an actual Native American war cry I'd ever hear. It probably would have phased most people, but then, I'm not most people. I finally turned to look at him, "Save your breath dickhead, you'll need it." For some reason that shut him right up. "You guys figure it out, I'll be outside." I leaned back, "Oh and when I finish kicking their asses you keep all future insults about my family to yourselves and not one single thing happens to our house or whatever car is left there while we're gone. If we get back and shit's been trashed, I'll take it out of the hides of whoever did it. I'm done playing nice."