The Porch Wolf
Charges

Adrienne McInnis’ POV

“Chairman Wolfe asked me to come to his office.” I had walked into the Pack House, following Lewis’ scent to the offices on the right side, and the guards had stopped me.

“He is not ready for you, and frankly, Luna, you haven’t calmed down enough for us to let you talk to him. Please join us in the dining room. There is time for you to eat, as I understand you’ve been traveling all day.”

“Fine.” We headed towards the dining room. “Where is my luggage?”

“It’s in your van,” he said. “Once you know you’ll be staying, you can have it delivered to the front gate.”

I stopped and stared at him. “I’m a Luna and a Council Mediator, boy. You’re the ones who kicked my people out. Call them and get our luggage here now.”

He wasn’t about to do what I wanted. “Ma’am, everything I’ve done has been on direct orders of the Council Chairman. I don’t work for you, and you can’t intimidate me. I’m Alpha blood, just like you. I don’t have a mantle, but you won’t push me around, either.”

I stared him down. “We all do what we’re told, in the end,” I said. I walked into the room and heard my name shouted from the corner. Anthony and Pamela had a table along the side, and I rushed over to embrace them. When I let go, I glared at my escorts. “He’s my son. Back the hell off; you can keep your eye on me from the door.” The guard nodded and backed off.

“What the fuck, Mom? What’s going on that you need a security escort?”

“That’s what threatening the Council Chairman gets you, I guess.” His eyes got wide. A few of my friends from the Council and other Lunas pulled up chairs to listen in. One of my friends brought me some food and a glass of milk. “So it all went to shit when we arrived. My mate is in the cells, my Pack mates are in ‘protective custody’ somewhere, and my Betas have been kicked offsite. They haven’t even shown me the legal filings, and we had no chance to defend ourselves before the initial ruling.”

“When can you find out,” Anthony said.

“He wants to see me after I calm down, apparently,” I said.

“Great, that won’t take long,” Pamela said, which caused Anthony to bust out laughing.

The laughing spread like wildfire, finally reaching me. “I’m not THAT bad! I have to maintain control of my emotions for my job.”

Anthony wiped his eyes. “When it doesn’t involve family, you have a poker face. When it was me, you were like a momma bear on a rampage.”

My babysitter came over and leaned down next to me. “The Chairman is ready to see you,” he said.

“About time.” I drained the rest of my milk and wiped my hands on the napkin. “If I don’t come back, I’ll be in the cells or the morgue, and I won’t be the only one.”

“Kick his ass, Mom,” Anthony said.

I knew most of the people in the room, and there were three people whose reactions I questioned as I walked by. The first was Luna Brenda of Marengo Lake. She was sitting at a different table than John was; he looked mad, as I’d expect a father to feel after hearing his daughter had been silvered and placed in custody. Brenda looked like that girl that tattled on you, then smirked as you got sent to the Principal’s office.

The second was Alpha Carl Owens. He was watching me like I was his enemy; after his ambush of us at the Mall of America, I wasn’t sure that was wrong. He was sitting with Alphas and Lunas from the Twin Cities metro area.

The third was Alpha Mark Conboy of the Stillwater Pack. I’d used my authority with the Council to force him to kill a sitting Alpha in prison. If he figured out that no one above my level in the Council sanctioned the deal we made, it would go badly for me. He looked confused, wondering how my business might affect his. I hoped he never found out the truth.

The guards led me into the hallway towards the Alpha’s office. For the duration of the Summit, the Augusta Alpha had moved into his Beta’s office, and the Council took his office and conference room. He opened the door to the conference room, stepped aside, then closed it behind me.

“Ah, Luna Adrienne, just in time,” Chairman Sanders said from the head of the table. “Please sit. I believe you know everyone?”

All of the Regional Chairmen were at the table. I looked at them with my face expressionless, and my wolf held back, just like when I worked as a mediator. On his left sat Norman Platt, East Region; Jacob Burns, Eastern Canadian Region; Kurt Markingham, Western Canadian Region, and Lewis Wolfe of the Central Region. To his right sat the Counselor Randall Albertson; Leland Carter, Southern Region, Luke Smith, Mountain Region, and Spencer Timms- Western Region. That left the end seat for me. I sat down and placed my hands on the table. “Have we come to our senses yet,” I asked.

About half of the Chairmen couldn’t hold back their snorts at my response. Chairman Sanders leaned forward. “The charges laid against Leo Volkov are serious, Luna Adrienne.”

“What charges? My MATE was pulled out of the car, cuffed, and silvered without a single warrant. My Pack members, one FIVE YEARS OLD, were hauled away by strangers, silvered and confined. What could justify tasering a mother in front of her child?”

Counselor Albertson responded. “The Council received a formal complaint from Alpha Carl Owens, stating that Leo Volkov illegally claimed Alpha status. I reviewed his complaint and found it to have merit. Leo Volkov lost a challenge; the Council recognized Todd Miller as the new Welch Alpha. Leo’s banishment was in place of death. As you know, Pack law prevents any Pack from taking in a wolf that has been exiled by another Pack.”

“True. No Pack has accepted Leo; he formed a new Pack. He remains a mantled Alpha blood wolf.”

“Leo might form a Pack, but he is permanently outside the Council and civilized werewolf society. Any group he assembles is considered rogue and poses a threat to surrounding Packs. The Chairman agreed, thus the arrest order. Leo Volkov is a rogue wolf on Pack lands, and will be executed tonight for that offense.”

It took every bit of self-control I’d developed to keep from leaping across the room and ripping his smarmy face from his body. I took deep breaths. “Just like that? No public hearing, no chance to respond? You’re going to execute MY mate based on a technicality?”

“It’s the law, Luna,” he said.

“I demand a hearing on the charges,” I said. “And a jury.”

“A rogue isn’t entitled to a jury trial,” the Counselor responded.

“A Council Staff Member is, and I remain one. The charge against my mate is running a rogue Pack. I am Luna of that Pack. If my mate is guilty, so am I. I demand the trial.”

Chairman Sanders leaned forward. “I’ll grant it. Trial to commence at seven PM tonight. The Unmated Leadership Reception will wait until the hearing concludes.”

“Acceptable. What were the other two petitions?”

“Both are contingent on Leo Volkov’s execution, so they don’t matter,” the Counselor said.

“Yet you have our designated mantled heir, Vicki Lawrence, in protective custody while her protectors have been ordered offsite,” I replied. “Why do I suspect both petitions regard her?”

Chairman Sanders shook his head. “They are. One is by Luna Brenda Peterson. Her petition states that Vicki’s mantle is from her via her former mate, John. She seeks custody over Vicki to keep her mantle in her Pack.”

Figures. “And the other?”

“Alpha Carl states he discovered Vicki this week. If Leo’s Pack is illegal, he is claiming her under the Abandoned Mantled statutes. He and his mate have children; he would take her into his Pack and make her his heir.”

That figured. “I need a lawyer and access to Alpha Leo to prepare for the hearing,” I said.

My two guards came in. “Place Luna Adrienne under arrest and put her in the cell with her mate,” Chairman Sanders said. My eyes got wide, and before I could react, the guards had my arms behind my back and were slapping silver handcuffs on my wrists. “Don’t look so surprised, Luna. You insist on sharing Leo’s fate? Well, that starts now. Get her out of here.”

The two almost dragged me out of there. Any restraint I might have had was lost as I yelled my outrage at the Chairman. Guests stared as I was pulled past them and out the doors. As I went down the stairs, Anthony caught up to me. “At least my prediction was right,” he said.

“Not quite, they grabbed me before I could rip anyone’s balls off,” I said. “Find us a lawyer, and fast. Get him or her to the cells; the trial starts at seven.”

“Give ’em hell, Mom,” he said as we reached the jail facility.

I was taken into the processing room, given a silver collar, and chained up. There was a delay as they got enough female officers there to strip and search me. It was just after three in the afternoon when they shoved me into Leo’s cell. “Leo,” I said as I ran into his arms.

“Adrienne, what the hell is going on,” he said. I gave him the Reader’s Digest version before our lawyer arrived.

By moonrise tonight, we’d be free or dead.

Olivia’s POV

The yelling in the hallway was my first indication that something was changing. I muted the television so I could hear it.

“Step aside, Larson, I’m going in there,” a woman’s voice said.

“Luna Wolfe, I’m under orders directly from Chairman Sanders. No one goes in there without his express permission, except to deliver meals.”

“I’M THE MATE OF A CHAIRMAN AND I’M ORDERING YOU TO STEP ASIDE,” she yelled.

“Please, Luna, take it up with your mate. I cannot allow any of you to go in there without his direction.”

Another voice started. “Well, I am the mate of Chairman Sanders, and I’m ordering you to move aside before I get the keys I need and pull them out of your pocket through your scrotum.”

I laughed; he was stuck. I heard a key in the door; I woke up Vicki before it opened. Three older ladies rushed into the room, their faces showing their anger as they saw my daughter’s state. “Oh, HELL no,” the one in the lead said. She turned back to the flustered guard. “You get that collar off her NOW.”

“I’ll have to get my supervisor. I don’t have the equipment to remove it,” he said.

“Then get his furry little butt up here and bring the key,” she said. “Go. We’ll be fine here.” The guard looked relieved as he was practically running back out the door. As soon as it shut, the ladies turned to me as Vicki crawled in my lap. She let out a breath, blowing a strand of graying curly brown hair that had escaped the hairpin that held the rest back. “I’m sorry about all this. I’m Luna Gina Sanders, mate to that idiot who did this to you.” I giggled at her exasperation.

“The Chairman is in your doghouse?”

She nodded, making us all laugh. “Big time. I can’t believe this,” she said as she reached for my collar. “This is Luna Carolyn Wolfe and Luna Bonnie Carter.”

“Olivia Lawrence. This little one is Vicki. Today is her fifth birthday, and it’s been a lousy one so far.”

“Sharkbait,” she said as she snuggled back into my chest, still sluggish from her nap.

Carolyn knelt to look in her eyes. “My mate told me he met you in Miesville, and you were a cutie. He was right.”

Bonnie was shaking her head. “What a crappy way to treat someone on their birthday! We were in the dining area when we found out about your treatment, and now we’re here. I don’t know what those men were thinking. You don’t treat people in protective custody like criminals! Who thought it was a good idea to do this to a child?”

“I did,” the Captain of the Guard said as he entered the room with two other guards. “My apologies, Luna. My direction was to confine them to the room, and our normal confinement practice is to use the collars.”

“We will be redefining your NORMAL, Captain,” Luna Gina said. “Remove the collars.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” One of his men, wearing latex gloves, placed an electronic device over the box. A few seconds later, he had deactivated the electronics and released the silver band. The collars went in ziplock bags, the contaminated gloves in the trash. As soon as the collar was off, I checked the Pack links. I couldn’t reach Leo or Adrienne, but I did get Mike and Anita. “We’re getting the hell away from this place. Bring the car to the entrance and wait for us,” I told them.

The Captain’s men finished and left. “We will watch them from a distance from now on.”

“You are dismissed, Captain,” Luna Gina said. We were alone again. “So, what would you like to do now?”

“Leave,” I said. “I’m new to this whole werewolf thing, Luna. I’ve had my wolf for about six weeks, and Vicki here had her first shift shortly before that. We don’t care about the council, the mantle, or any of the politics that go on here. The ONLY reason we came was for Alpha Leo was going to introduce Vicki as his heir.”

“I doubt that is going to happen,” Gina said. I could tell by her face and the way she looked at Vicki with pity, that there was something she was not saying.

Carolyn looked worried. “I think it would be best if they weren’t around tonight, to be honest,” she said. “It’s going to be a little rough.”

“I agree,” Bonnie said. “And it’s her birthday. There has to be something more fun than this. What do you want to do, Vicki?”

“Aquarium,” she said.

Gina nodded. “You know… I have to stay here, but you two don’t.”

“I’m in,” Bonnie said. “I’d rather see the whale sharks than oversee a scratch ’n sniff.”

“Me too,” Carolyn said. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We should ask if it’s all right with you to go there, Olivia.”

“You’d come along?” I would prefer to be leaving on my own.

“We would be with you, and some guards would remain in the area. There are still dangers, Olivia. You need protection for good reasons; too many power-hungry Alphas are around.”

“Fine. You two can ride with us; I don’t want any of those guards in our car. I need to let Adrienne know we’re leaving, so she doesn’t worry. I can’t reach her on the link, though.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Gina said. “I’ll clear it with my mate while you guys head to the car.”

It was too easy. At the aquarium, when I could talk to one of the Lunas without Vicki listening, I’d find out the truth about what happened today.

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