The only good thing was that Rori hadn’t gone to reporters claiming they were werewolves.
The car stopped in front of the Pack House. “I’ll have your bags delivered to your room,” she told them as she opened the door.
They stepped out, the Council Chairman was waiting for them. “Good flight, Alphas?”
“Yes, thank you sir for sending the plane.”
“The Council is waiting, follow me.” They walked into the big Pack House, taking the stairway to the top floor and the Chair’s conference room. The men inside stood as he walked in; pointing to some empty chairs for the two, he walked to the head of the table and sat down. Everyone sat, and he began. “Introductions first,” he said. “Gentlemen, may I introduce Alpha Martin King and former Alpha Charles King of the Adirondack Pack. You know the Council, but we’ve also asked some of the staff here to attend. On this end is our Pack Doctor, Doctor Phillips, and our head Warrior, Beta Rob Carlson. I’ve also asked two of our Council Lawyers, Mark Restwell and Vernon Kemp.”
“Thank you for the invitation,” Martin said as he looked around.
“Let’s cut the bullshit and talk honestly here,” Councilman Forrest said. “This situation is more fucked up than a football bat.”
“No kidding,” Councilman Waterman agreed. “You’ve had her under surveillance since January, you even had a Pack member befriend her enough to come visit your Pack lands. Then, in a span of less than a day, you freak her out, force her shift, let her escape AND let her human side see wolves shift. Her mother and grandmother, both human, know you were watching them, and the Princess has disappeared. That pretty much covers it?”
“Yes sir, it does,” Martin said. “We will find her again, and this time we will have a better plan to explain to her what she is and bring her in.”
“No, you won’t,” Chairman Gruber said. “The Council is taking over the search for and apprehension of Rori King, effective immediately.”
“SHE’S MY GRANDDAUGHTER,” Charlie said as he jumped to his feet.
The Chairman stared him down, his dominance forward, until he sat in his chair again. “Alpha King, I suggest you control your Pack member before he gets thrown out of here.”
“Yes sir,” Martin said. He was shaking and fighting back his own emotions, the news was a slap in the face to his leadership. “May I ask why?”
“This is bigger than your family, Alpha. Doctor Phillips?”
“From what we know of her and what you reported from the short time with your Pack, her wolf is completely disconnected from her human side,” he said. “Her wolf has been suppressed for years using drug therapies meant for people with serious disorders, and the long-term effects of this are unknown. We fear her wolf has no control, that she may be feral and unstable.”
“Her wolf was happy, loving, thrilled to be with us at my Pack,” Martin said. “She wanted to be with us. Let us return her to the Pack and help her adjust, we were so close.”
“She is somewhere out there, scared and alone, and her wolf has been violent and unpredictable,” Councilman Forrest said. “The wolf and the human fight for dominance, and what if she can’t control when she shifts? All it takes is ONE shift caught on tape, and our secret is out. And what if she bites someone? She could doom them to a painful death and wake up not knowing how she did it!” His concern was warranted, a werewolf’s bite was a deadly poison for humans, killing them within an hour.
“Even without it, she saw your men change. She could talk about it, bring unwanted attention to your Pack, maybe the police or the press,” Councilman Waterman said.
“Councilman Forrest will be heading up the search. All North American Alphas will be instructed to cooperate, and Beta Carlson will have the responsibility to apprehend her if off Pack lands. If she is found on Pack Land, of course, that Alpha will be required to take her into custody.”
“And then what,” Alpha Martin said.
“She will be brought here,” the Chairman said, “where she will be treated and evaluated. If the Doctor can help her reconnect with her wolf, she will be trained properly and returned to your Pack, if that is what she desires.”
“And if she cannot reconnect?” Charles looked at them in fear.
“Then she will never leave.”
“You boys better put some muscle into those scrub brushes,” Coral said as she watched the men from the door of the kitchen. The three men who had thought to force her into sex were now hers every night from 2000 to 2200, when the rest of their class had rest and study time. Extra duty six days a week, and Coral was all about making it suck. Since they victimized the Omegas who cooked, cleaned and took care of the facilities, she found the worst jobs they did and took them over.
Tonight, they were in the Pack kitchen. All of the stoves, fryers and other equipment had been moved away from the walls. The three were scrubbing the walls and floors underneath them, removing years of buildup of gunk and stains. It was nasty work, perfect for their punishment. They didn’t grumble or argue; in a hearing, the Alpha had sentenced them to fifty lashes and ten years hard labor, all suspended pending the results of their next year of training. If they didn’t do everything they are told to the best of their abilities, their next stop is the punishment pole.
“Beta Coral, report to the Alpha’s conference room immediately,” Beta Carlson said over the bond. “Karsten will replace you on the extra duty supervision.”
“Yes Beta,” she said. “Make sure you get the brush into the corner,” she said as she turned around. A few minutes later, she knocked on the conference room door.
Beta Carlson was there with the other instructors, and quickly explained what was going on. “I will be working with the American Alphas, enlisting their help in investigating, tracking, surveilling and retrieving Rori King,” he said. “The Alpha has directed me to pass off duties here to focus solely on the search effort. As a result, Beta Coral will take over as lead combat instructor until I can return.”
Coral’s jaw dropped, she never expected this. Only twenty-four, she was by far the youngest in the room. The four other Betas on staff were retired Pack Betas or Gammas and had actual combat experience, and all were more than a century old. They had a similar reaction to the announcement. “Me, Beta?”
“Yes. You are young, but your combat skills are superior, a testament to your bloodline and training. You are also Alpha-born, so you are naturally more dominant.” She sat up a little straighter. “The Chairman agrees. After all, he was the one who scored your combat evaluation.”
“Thank you, Beta. I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t. I have been impressed by your ability to teach and inspire the class, and that is what I am looking for here. You have four other instructors, with lots of experience and varied talents, use them for their strengths. A lot of leadership is just putting the right people in the right spots and motivating them to excel.” He looked at his instructors. “Get some rest, after breakfast we will meet in my office to turn over the training schedule and some other matters. I expect to be on the road by lunchtime, so I hope you’re a quick study.”
“Of course, Beta. I look forward to it.”
Meanwhile, back in the Pack Clinic, Doctor Phillips had brought Chase into his office for a similar discussion. “We have a very interesting case to prepare for,” he told the student doctor. “A young werewolf female will be brought to us soon, and it’s something I’ve never seen. She appears to have no connection to her wolf, it has been completely suppressed through use of psychotrophic drugs.”
“Drugs? What pack would use those to suppress a wolf?”
“It isn’t a Pack, she’s been raised completely among humans.” His eyes got big, wolves lived together for a number of good reasons, among them the need for an Alpha and the support of a Pack. He was well aware of how packless wolves could struggle, and the mess they left behind if their wolves went feral. He listened as the Doctor explained what he knew of her case.
“Where is she now?” His heart went out for her, not even an adult yet and already her life had been filled with so much loneliness, rejection and pain.
“We don’t know. Beta Carlson is leading a team to find her, and when he does, she will be brought here. You only have a short time here before you return to school, so I want you to research this when not working in the Clinic. I don’t know of any cases like this personally, so you will need to talk to every Pack Doctor you can, retired and active. Have them search the archives of their Packs.”