“Eat breakfast first, I’ll arrange the flight,” Erik said. He looked at the two American Council members as he left the room. “Your recommendation is liquidation?” Both nodded. “I have to make a call.”
The captured women from three Packs were on their way back home by noon, along with Alpha Mitch and Charles. The Pack was designated for liquidation, which brought a whole bunch of new problems forward. Every Pack in the world was affected, and dozens of people would require transport to their new Packs once the divisions were made. Erik set a date to start the liquidation, five days from then, allowing the Adirondack Pack time to carry out the executions and return.
The twenty-one in the cells would wait. Every Pack had been affected, it was only fair they were at the trials and punishment.
The Suburban and the panel truck pulled into the circular drive in front of the Adirondack Pack House, where the entire Pack was waiting for them. The Beta got out of the truck as the volunteer escorts got out of the SUV and were warmly greeted by the Alpha pair and Charles. “Take them to the cells, we will deal with them tonight,” Alpha Martin said. “Jackson, thank you for bringing them here. Once they are settled, get some rest.”
“Thank you, Alpha.” He waved at a few men, then got in and drove around to the security building which was guarding the entrance to their underground prison. It only took them a few minutes to carry each of the small cages out of the truck, the unconscious wolves inside them. They were placed in cells and the silver removed, when the drugs wore off they could change back to human form until it was time.
Night came early in the wintertime, and Charles had a long time to consider their execution on the flight back home. He spoke to his son and daughter-in-law, who agreed to the plan and got the necessary permits from the human authorities. There was an old barn on their property that was dangerous and needed to be torn down. Martin told them they were pulling it down then burning it, and got the proper permits. With the recent snows, there was no worry about the isolated building spreading a fire.
The entire Pack stood as silent witnesses, joined by cameras and the visiting representatives of the other East Coast packs. They had all watched the trial, but now the kidnappings had affected them too, and the ringleader was being punished here and now. Eight Alphas had made the trip, most bringing along family members of those taken. Two brave women who had been freed were standing tall, eager to see justice. Alpha Martin waited until the five men were secured to the floor, their bodies chained spread-eagle to bolts in the ground, and then stepped forward. “Fifteen years ago, these men led an unprovoked attack on another Pack, wiping out the men, women and children. Among the victims was my only sister, pregnant at the time.” He paused to gather himself. “Luna Joanna was unable to shift, and these men attacked her, broke her bones, then left her helpless in her home as they burned it around them. Justice requires the same to happen to them.”
He picked up a sledgehammer and walked inside to where Todd was chained down. “This is for my sister,” he said before he brought it down on his thigh. There was a sickening crunch as his femur was crushed. He handed it to his father, who took out his other leg. There had been no shortage of people wanting a piece of the five, and the line moved quickly as arms and legs were crushed. Their howls of pain into the gags gave no one pause, their wolves delighted in the punishment they were getting.
When the line was done, Martin lit a Molotov cocktail and stood before the men. “May you all burn in hell for the rest of time,” he said before he threw it to the back wall of the barn. The flames caught quickly; his men had spread kerosene around, and the flames soon forced the Pack to retreat. The screams lasted for a few minutes before they stopped, and ten minutes later the burning structure collapsed upon them.
Martin hugged his mate and father, then they walked back to the Pack House. They would fly back for the liquidation, then there was one thing left to deal with. He had a niece out there, and it was time to bring her home.
Charles walked out of the indoor training field where the floggings and executions for those people involved in abducting other wolves had been held. Ahead of him, Alpha Martin was walking with the families of the two women taken from their Pack, one eleven years ago, one five. Both were still back home and dealing with the effects of their enslavement. It would be a long time before things got back to normal.
The Council had not left, in fact the European members had joined them, and Alphas and senior leaders from every Pack in the world were in attendance now. The liquidation of the Pack was the main topic, but even that wasn’t easy. Generations of teaching would have to be undone; there were young men who had learned nothing else, and just moving them into a new Pack would not be wise. There would be enough problems absorbing the widows, the women and the children into the fold. Of the two hundred and eighty-seven werewolves who made up the Pack just a week ago, about one hundred and ninety remained after the executions, imprisonments, freeing of the slaves and suicides of the widows. That meant each Pack had to take around a dozen people, and that created the problem.
The easy way to disperse them was taken first; the Pack members were allowed to meet with leaders of Packs they were interested in, and in turn the Alphas could interview them. They would then sign up with a first and second choice of where they wanted to go. Most asked for placement in nearby Packs, which caused some problems as they had more people wanting in than their share.
The other problem was the thirty-two younger men, those who hadn’t been involved in the attack or the kidnappings but had been raised thinking what their Pack did was all right. What did you do with a young man who thought women who weren’t mates could and should be used to satisfy their needs and bear children? How could you bring a young man who had used sex slaves as a matter of course into a Pack where those same girls were now free? This was the source of the arguments now; no one wanted to bring such problems into their Pack.
“What are you thinking about, Dad?” Martin had sent the others ahead and pulled his father to the side. As a retired Alpha, he could not vote but Martin depended on him for counsel.
“We can’t send the rapists to the same Packs as the victims,” he said as he looked at the crowd leaving the building.
“Those that deserve punishment are getting it.”
“Yes, but then what? Give them a year in prison or a flogging, but who takes them? Us? Would you expect our two to sit and eat dinner with men who used them like that?” Martin shook his head no. “And what happens if one of those girls finds a mate in our Pack? Should she have to look at reminders of her slavery? What will happen when her mate finds out her past, and figures out those men fucked her against her will?”