Leader of the Pack (53 page)

Aislinn got out of the elevator on the 13
^th
floor. Some lycans lounged about, settled in for a quiet evening, but there were still quite a few people around, so she guessed it couldn’t be too late. Much to her chagrin, as she passed the large open doors to the great room, someone spotted her.

“Aislinn,” Rissa’s voice called.

Aislinn winced and tried to keep going, but Rissa vaulted the couch, and was out the door grabbing Aislinn by the arm, before she could get away.

“Hey. You’ve been missed,” she said with sparkling eyes and a smile almost too wide for her face.

“Hi Riss. I was just looking for Sarah. You seen her?” Aislinn hoped desperately that Rissa would let her go without a fuss.

“Sarah is currently in the middle of an argument with Terrick. Keith is in there too. So you’ll probably have to wait in line. Something about a messenger. I don’t really know exactly. It seemed serious.” She smiled again. “Come in here, and we’ll entertain you while you wait for her.” Rissa beamed and started to pull Aislinn into the great room. Just then one of the new omegas approached them, causing Rissa some obvious discomfort.

The man was a theta before the incident. It made a lot of the lower ranked lycans in the pack uncomfortable to see someone they respected having to act as an omega. The punishment was harsh, but at least they weren’t dead.

He nodded respectfully to Aislinn as he spoke. “Excuse me.”

Aislinn recognized the man as one she helped move the week before. “Yeah, whatcha need,” she answered in a friendly voice, trying to offset the sudden tension.

He bowed his head and lowered his eyes, then cast a skewed glance at Rissa in a way that asked Aislinn for some confidence. Aislinn stepped aside with him to see what he wanted, and Rissa waited patiently. She wasn’t letting Aislinn go for a second.

“Sarah asked a couple of us to take care of the penthouse when you appeared. Will you be downstairs for a time?”

“Uh, yeah, about that. I mean, I don’t know if anyone should really go up there right now. What did Sarah tell you?”

He smiled knowingly at Aislinn. “She didn’t tell us anything. Didn’t have to. Most of us can guess. She chose a very specific few to deal with it. There’s no need to worry,” he said reassuringly.

“Alright. I guess if Sarah said so,” she answered nervously.

He nodded again.

“Yeah, I’ll be here for a little while. I’m going to get something to eat and talk with Sarah.”

His smile broadened. “There’s not much left in the kitchens at the moment. We’ve had a lot of people around here lately. If you like I could get someone to bring you something from the Taigh-O
è
sda,” he said eagerly.

Aislinn thought to refuse at first, except he looked so happy about it. “I hate to have people doing all this for me. Cullen may be used to it. I don’t know if I like it.”

“That’s half the reason we don’t mind. What would you like?”

“I guess just a steak and a salad. Medium rare,” she answered reluctantly. It was going to take her some time to get used to stuff like this.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said and then headed off.

Aislinn walked over to Rissa, momentarily forgetting that she was trying to get away. “I feel so bad. He’s trying to be helpful, and I still don’t know everyone’s names around here. Who was he?”

“Travis. His mate’s name is Lisa. He’s a good guy and sweet.”

“I can tell,” Aislinn said.

Rissa grabbed hold of her arm again and returned to dragging Aislinn into the great room. Reluctantly, Aislinn followed her into the great room and sank down onto the couch, in a seat that another woman happily vacated.

All Aislinn could think was that she didn’t have the rank to be doing stuff like that.
Vicarious rank really sucks,
she thought. “You don’t have to do that. I can sit-“

Rissa stopped her. “No you sit there. So,” Rissa said with a grin and someone in the room turned the TV off, “where you been this week?”

It looked suspiciously like a conspiracy. Aislinn glanced around at all the expectant faces. She felt like a million eyes were boring straight through her head. She cleared her throat. “I wasn’t really feeling well. I was in bed.”

Rissa growled. “Come on. I believe you were in bed.”

“Okay, so Cullen was there too once in a while,” Aislinn said, suddenly deciding that she was not going to let Rissa play her. The minute she got the girl alone they were going to have a serious conversation about respect and rank.
Gods, maybe I am getting used to things around here.
“What are you getting at Rissa?”

“It’s just weird for two people to disappear like that. I mean there are reasons for it,” she said with raised intonation, as if the implication were obvious.

Aislinn sighed in exasperation. “I hate to disappoint you all, but I really wasn’t feeling well. I was force fed some shit that turned me into a werecat, and then my grandmother was killed. I attended a funeral, and when I got back here all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there. Cullen kept an eye on me.”

Aislinn’s tone was too convincing for Rissa’s liking. In fact the entire scenario proposed was incredibly plausible. “That’s no fun.”

“No it isn’t.” Aislinn smiled to herself behind the serious look she gave Rissa. Technically she didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. She merely implied a different slant to it. “Now, can we all stop staring at me as if I’ve grown a third eye and go back to watching television?”

After a few head bows, as if Aislinn gave an order, the TV came back on, and Rissa apologized. “I don’t really know what I was thinking Ais,” she said.

Aislinn leaned over to Rissa speaking very quietly. “You don’t seem to have any concept of correct timing or decorum. We’re friends and I’d like to stay friends. You were the only person to give me the time of day for a long time. Even so, if you want to keep our friendship on the same level it was on, you need to start thinking about how to act with an alpha. Cause technically, I don’t get to be an omega any more. At least that’s what they tell me.”

Rissa looked over at Aislinn wide eyed and nodded gravely.

“Now,” Aislinn smiled and settled in for the movie, “what are we watching?”

* * * *

Cullen sat down at the heavy, round wooden table, in the middle of a room decorated with tapestries and stained glass. The ceiling vaulted high above them, and hanging from the wooden beams was a gaudy, supposedly antique, chandelier. It continued the way--too--new--to--be--a--real--castle motif nicely. The Pack Council couldn’t be accused of not having their own special sense of humor. Cullen once asked Cadifor who was supposed to be Arthur. The two of them laughed long and hard over that.

Jenna reclined comfortably in the seat next to Cullen. It once belonged to Brennus. Cullen watched the pretty blonde with a resigned sense of change. He stared at the back of her head and Aislinn felt a distinct sense of loss and sadness filter through their bond. Closing her eyes, Aislinn tried to let him know that she cared. Cullen was surprised to feel the sympathy returned and he smiled inwardly. The strength of their bond amazed him. He never thought she could catch his upset and then answer, at this distance. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he nearly missed the beginning of the meeting.

The lycan alphas from his area sat at one side of the table and around the opposite side gathered Cadifor and the Pack Council leaders from around the world. In this room, the Council made sure that the human population never found out about the lycan population. The men and women didn’t all get along, but they all agreed on one thing. A human--lycan war was out of the question.

Cadifor tossed a pile of paperwork onto the table that Cullen recognized as the reports he had sent in. “So here’s the reason you’re all here,” Cadifor began.

* * * *

Slamming doors and loud insistent growling told Aislinn that movie night was over. The entire group in the great room saw Terrick storming toward the elevator. Anger radiated from his eyes. Amused glances were exchanged in the great room and they all settled back into their respective seats to finish watching the movie.

Aislinn put her take-out box from the Taigh-O
è
sda down on the table and got up to go to Sarah’s office.

“Hey Aislinn,” Christoff called after her. She turned around. He was a younger lycan. He had smiled at her with a more than friendly look a couple times that evening. But he was too smart to even consider hitting on the alpha’s mistress. “You gonna finish that steak,” he asked enthusiastically and one side of his mouth turned up in a half grin.

“No,” she laughed. “It’s all yours.” Aislinn walked down the hall as Christoff and one of the other guys in the room descended on her leftovers like a couple of squabbling siblings.

Sarah’s door was closed and Aislinn could hear venting coming from behind the door. She almost left, except she couldn’t help the feeling that she needed advice now. So she tentatively knocked on the door causing the room to fall silent, before Sarah yelled to come in.

Aislinn cracked the door and poked her head around. “I don’t mean to interrupt,” she offered. “It’s really just a quick question. I hope.”

Sarah sighed. “Not a problem Aislinn. Come in. We’ve been dealing with one of the problems Cullen left behind. That always tends to result in arguing.”

Keith growled. “I still say we throw his ass in the muin holding pen.”

Sarah eyed him to shut him up. Aislinn was only sort of in the main group. Cullen didn’t appear to have any reservations about talking in front of her, but her rank wasn’t established yet. She wasn’t an elder and she wasn’t even technically a beta. As of yet, the Terrick info was still need to know. Keith rolled his eyes at her, and their conversation ended.

Aislinn glanced back and forth between them. “Okay?”

“Yeah Ais,” Keith said. “What’s up?”

“Another vision,” she said despondently as she sat down in the chair next to Keith.

Both of them groaned. “Just what we needed,” Sarah said. “What’s going to explode now?”

“Well that’s the problem. I still don’t know. I was given a message to give to a druid named Nora. I can tell you that it’s important that it be dealt with as soon as possible. But I personally don’t know how to contact the Circle. The thing is that Cullen said there would be druids at that meeting he went to didn’t he?”

Sarah considered the suggestion. “You want to call Cullen with the message.”

“I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me if it was a bad idea.”

Keith shook his head. “Pack Council meetings aren’t something that should be interrupted, unless you’re willing to risk your throat over the information. Do you think it’s that important?”

“I feel like it is. Cullen didn’t seem to think the last few visions were important, though.” Aislinn sighed heavily. “I have a terrible feeling that we’re going to be too late,” Aislinn said.

“Too late for what,” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know. Just too late. The message was that I was to tell Nora Senach that they were using the bone dust of a dire wolf. The implication is that Nora will know what that means or be able to figure it out. I can’t help imagining what a fight with a lycan who changes into a dire wolf thing would be like,” she said softly and looked at Sarah. “I don’t know what Jenna is doing with those men or the books. I don’t know when it’s going to be too late to stop. Would you all rather take books and prisoners from her or get into a fight with an army of lycans that have been turned into whatever Jenna thinks is more dangerous than a normal lycan?”

Keith and Sarah exchanged uncertain, concerned looks. “So let’s call Cullen,” Keith said.

Sarah nodded her agreement.

Keith grinned. “I say we have Aislinn do it. He might not yell first if her name’s on the caller ID.”

* * * *

Maon leaned on the end of the table where the druids were working. He growled menacingly and smiled broadly at the same time. “Are you sure this will work?”

Jacob shrugged. “It’s never been done. We believe it will do what your Mistress asked for. However, we won’t know until someone tries it. That’s why Rafe experimented so much before he used his formulas on himself.”

Maon grinned. “I guess then we try it on someone.” He stepped over to the door and looked out into the hall. Spotting a relatively puny omega carrying a try of food somewhere, he stepped up to the young man and knocked the tray out of his hand onto the floor. The blonde lycan dropped to his knees to start cleaning up the mess, apologizing for being clumsy.

Maon grabbed the kid by the collar of his shirt. “You’ll work perfectly,” he said with a chuckle and dragged him into the room with the druids.

Jacob eyed the young man sympathetically. There was nothing he could do about it.
At least it shouldn’t kill him.

Maon waited, glaring expectantly at the druids. “The whole thing?” He held up the bottle of foul smelling brown liquid that they gave him.

Jacob stepped up to Maon. “Actually I need to make some marking on him first. Then, yes he’ll need to drink the whole thing if you want it to happen all at once. I have to warn you that it’s painful and dangerous. If you want to do it right--“