The Ring Bearer (7 page)

He noticed throughout the trial that one woman in particular was watching Nevia. He didn’t like it, but he wasn’t sure what to do about it. Nevia either didn’t sense it, or didn’t care, but he kept a watchful eye on the woman anyway.

From what he gathered from the proceedings, the prisoner named Callin, who was currently in human form, in his human confinement, was pleading for joint custody of his child. The mother was easy to pinpoint by the screaming infant draped over her shoulder and the fussy baby she kept trying to shush by rocking a car seat with her foot. She might have normally been a stylish French woman, but by the looks of the recent additions to her life, self-dedication had gone out the window for her…
and how
.

Callin finished his plea to the council to let him participate in his son Lynnius’s rearing and development. The man was young, not much older than Ethan he thought, but he was mature and well spoken. His supplication proved his knowledge of his son and genuinely implied his love and devotion to not only him, but to the child’s mother.

Daniel nudged Nevia with his foot and she looked back at him. He motioned for her to come up so he could talk to her. She seemed annoyed by the request, but she pushed herself back onto the bench between him and Heaton. Both Daniel and Heaton leaned forward so the three-way conversation could be done in a whisper.

“So what’s the deal?” Daniel asked. “Is this guy on the level?”

“He has affection for her and the child if that’s what you mean?” She answered still watching the room even though they were only discussing who would like to question Callin. “He’s truthful in his plea.”

“They should be able to sense that too,” Daniel offered. He wasn’t sure why, but he was kind of rooting for the guy. He wasn’t a father himself, at least so far as he knew, but he did like children, and being denied the rights to something you helped create just seemed wrong on so many levels.

“It doesn’t matter,” Heaton said bursting his still forming bubble of hope, “the council will never allow a male to raise a child.”

“Why exactly is that?” Daniel knew there were probably a few books in Danato’s library that would have been a beneficial read for him, but he rarely had to deal with werewolves, so he didn’t really care to bore himself with them.

“Antiquated traditions,” Nevia offered rather acridly.

“It’s based on some incidents,” Heaton corrected her diplomatically before explaining to him. “They are concerned the fathers will hurt or even eat their children.”

“Ridiculous,” Nevia added with even more venom.

Heaton and Daniel glanced at her before Heaton continued. “Werewolves don’t recognize humans as anything but food when they change. A werewolf baby in human form could be a temptation to them.” Nevia opened her mouth to object with another point, but she huffed and shut up. “I agree that with the convenience of part-time caging, there really is no reason for Callin not to have rights to his child, but this is about more than a baby.”

Nevia tapped her finger impatiently on her knee before putting her hands down to slip herself back down to the lower seat. Daniel touched her hand, a silent request for her to stay near him. She looked back. “I can’t smell them as well between you two,”

He gave her a nod of understanding and moved his hand. He turned to Heaton to ask him another question, but his grinning face was already looking at him. He furrowed his brow at his jovial look. “What’s that about?” He asked. Heaton shook his head and pressed his fingers to his lips. He settled back against the railing with him and watched, though a remainder of the grin was still on his face.

The woman who had been glaring at Nevia stepped forward to speak. She introduced herself to Callin as Frederique Van Dorn. The name probably would have meant something to Daniel if he even remotely followed werewolf culture, but given the fact that there wasn’t a Werewolf Weekly, and he really didn’t care, he was left with only the assumption that she was somebody of importance. If he hadn’t come to that conclusion by her introduction, he would have by Callin’s modest head bow to her.     

Frederique was attractive in that,
every blonde you ever met
, sort of way. Her only distinction was her height. He didn’t prefer tall women, though he never made an exception to them either. For one night he could handle just about any abnormal physique. Even a little extra tummy never bothered him as long as it came with an equally ample bosom.

She reminded him of Sophie, the way she stood strictly erect to show no shame for her height. Her chest was puffed up like a man’s but without much to show for it. Her excess in height had thinned out her legs and her chest.

“Callin we can all see that you care for you son greatly.” Frederique began pacing before his cell. The thick heels she wore clomped on the polished white floor like horse hooves. “You are a rarity among our men.”

“Only because you have conditioned us not to desire a bond with our offspring,” Callin countered with discreet cynicism.

“Conditioned?” She gave herself a proper pause to show that she was actually thinking about it. “I think not. I think the male is far more intelligent than that, or don’t you think so.” Callin didn’t respond. There was no response to offer that wouldn’t persist to insult his sex. “I think if the male of the species really cared about their offspring, there might be more incidents such as this.”

“And how would I know if there were?” Callin didn’t slam on the bars or snarl like Daniel might have expected from a male werewolf. He didn’t even move from his civil stance. It was the same control that he saw in Ethan when he was in his guard uniform. This man was definitely an aberration from the usual image of male werewolves.

“Are you suggesting that the council would conceal information?”

“I’m not suggesting it, I’m outright accusing it.”

Frederique smiled and turned to her council for advisement. “Council is there any truth to this statement. Do any of you remember previous trials in regards to custody of children?” They all gave short pauses as if trying to recollect the past, and shook their heads. “There you see. You are the first Callin.”

“Your evidence is astounding.” Frederique lost her smile, but the sneer that replaced it didn’t seem to concern Callin. “I don’t have any quarrel with the council on the past. I only wish to proceed with the future. I want my son.”

“You are gone nearly a week out of every month for your containment, and as you can see you are currently incarcerated. How shall we begin to assess your reliability as a parent?”

“I’m not asking for sole custody. I only wish to be a part of my son’s life.”

“That’s not what you were offering before though. You kidnapped this child and wouldn’t release him.”

“I offered his mother the privilege of living with us.”

“Offered? Privilege? I’m not sure where to start with that statement. Why would she wish to be ruled by a pseudo pack?”

“Not ruled, ruler. I offered her leadership. I asked her to be our matriarch queen.” There was a slight change of demeanor in the stands as the council took this in. Frederique glanced at the mother in question as if this particular detail was not mentioned to her prior to the proceedings. The mother had taken no interest in the trial until then. The baby on her shoulder was still wailing, but she locked eyes with Callin. She apparently didn’t expect that to come up.

“I offered her the rightful place in our
pseudo
pack. As queen with dominion over my men, she would have had all of her children next to her, and all of her men to
help
care for those children.” The word help seemed to stab the mother. She must have regretted not taking up his offer for that reason alone. The first child must have been a burden by itself, but the second was likely too much for her to handle with any measure of grace. 

“The law strictly forbids packs, Callin. Offering a female leadership of one is beyond even the scope of civil disobedience. If Leona would have taken the title, then she would be in prison herself.” Frederique made certain to glare at the woman before turning back to Callin. “I imagine that’s why she didn’t take up your offer.”

“She didn’t take up my offer, because she was afraid of how much it appealed to her. All of you here today,” Callin spoke up a little to indicate the remainder of the Council of the Moon. “You are here because you believe that you are the ruling body of the werewolf society, but the truth is, you are all being ruled, just as much as I and my fellow males are.”

“Silence you mutt,” Frederique scolded.

“There is no ruling body, there is only the leader, and right now, she is the leader.” Callin moved to point to Frederique. At the same moment, Daniel felt a tap on his leg. He looked down and saw Nevia point in either direction for them to start mobilizing. He glanced at Heaton, who had gotten the same tap, and parted ways. “We are all being fooled into this regime,” Callin continued to rant like a well-spoken presidential candidate.

Daniel slipped around the back of the bleachers as casually as he could. Heaton did the same on the opposite side and came to a stop nearly right at the cell. If Frederique noticed his presence she didn’t react to it. As he came around the opposite side he noticed that her upper lip was twitching in a canine snarl. All her rage was directed at Callin and about to blow.

“Once we were free. Once we considered any werewolf to be our kin. We didn’t pit ourselves against each other: female against male, father against mother, clan against clan. The reigning Van Dorn family has been our dictatorship for nearly a century. She is the enemy to our children’s future, not me.” Callin jutted his finger at her again, and Frederique’s already frayed temper, broke. She grabbed his hand and clamped her teeth down on the accusing finger. When it gave way she spit it to the floor. Daniel cursed and rushed in without thinking. Heaton barked at him to stop but he was already grabbing the fem-wolf from behind.

Of the many stupid things he had done in life, attacking an angry fem-wolf was probably the top of a lengthy list. She flipped him over her back, the way he might have flipped a back pack off his back, a very light back pack at that.

He landed solidly against the floor without breaking any bones, but he did have a little trouble getting his air. Lucky for him, she was more interested in removing more of Callin’s digits. The man smartly backed deeper into his cell.

Heaton moved in front of Daniel to block her. A stupid choice on his part, but one that Daniel appreciated. Heaton had a tendency to make just as many stupid choices as Daniel, but they tended to work out to his benefit most of the time, so they usually got categorized as brave instead of stupid. This time however he got to add a notch to his stupid list.

When the fem-wolf had no target to nibble on she turned back to Daniel and saw Heaton in her way. Her human hand whipped across his face. The backhanded slap sent him into the bleachers not far from the mother Leona, who was gathering her oldest child closer to her for protection.

When Frederique stepped toward Daniel’s supine body he started to slide away with scrambling feet, but the cocking of Nevia’s pistol stopped everything. Frederique broke her predatory gaze, and Daniel stopped floundering on the floor.

Nevia stood behind him with her gun positioned between both hands. Daniel glanced between the two women, trying to figure out if there was something he missed. Frederique seemed leery of the weapon, though she shouldn’t have been. Bullets were hardly a deterrent to werewolves.

He could see the council bristling at the sight of their leader being threatened, but they were keeping their distance, either out of respect for the fight itself, or because Frederique hadn’t asked them to join.

“I don’t want to shoot you, Frederique. I’m only here to make sure this trial goes civilly.”

“Careful, you might miss, and you don’t want to know what I’ll do to you for your impudence,” Frederique snarled right back.

“Just settle down, and we can get back to the trial.”

“I’m not going to let this usurper undermine me. This trial is over. His rhetoric will not go beyond the confines of his cell. He has no right to his child, or his pack. Our laws are bound by strict edicts. We have no intention of bending them just because on man wants to be a daddy.”

“He has that right!” Nevia yelled with just a hint of a childish tantrum behind it.

“Then he can have a half-breed with a human, just like your mother,” Frederique seethed.

Daniel looked back at Nevia for confirmation of this, but she didn’t meet his eyes. She looked hurt by the comment more than angry. Daniel heard a low growl from Frederique, and he knew she was about to pounce on Nevia.

There was probably a point in time when he wouldn’t have cared. There was probably a time when he would have considered Nevia responsible for her own actions, but that was not where he was now. Now he wanted to protect her, like all male minions to lust.

He assumed from the conversation that Nevia might know enough about the werewolf anatomy to wound her or kill her, but that would leave them with a long explanation for Danato and he really didn’t want that. Not to mention shooting the highest ranking member of the Council of the Moon was bound to incite the other fem-wolves, and then they would all be dead or severely dismembered.

There was a small chance that he could stop this all without creating the type of damage he usually did. If he could do what Nevia had thought he might be able to do, then perhaps he could use both spectrums of his powers simultaneously. The result would hopefully be painful enough to Frederique to stop her, but not damaging enough to warrant an attack by the others, or reprimands for the use of his powers by Danato.