Sandy’s son ran around and out the back door first. When Luc reached the back porch, he saw that the boy had found lawn chairs for the injured. Luc sat down gratefully. Looking across the patio, he could see Duke passing back and forth in the cage. When he saw the people filing out of the house, he snarled.
“Who will speak for Duke?” Luc asked. He looked around and saw that most of the people were not making eye contact with him. This wasn’t looking good. Ginny looked at him and shook her head no. Finally, one of the cousins stood up.
“Don’t really want to, but I know it needs done,” said the cousin. The cousin and Jeff went to talk to Duke.
Luc nodded. He shifted in the chair, and realized that there was no comfortable position. He looked around and saw that everyone was watching him. “This afternoon, Duke attempted to attack Meg. This was after he tried to pick a fight with her at work. Over the last few weeks, he has fluctuated between being nice, ignoring Meg and being downright aggressive towards her. His list of complaints included loss of revenue, chaos in the office and general disorganization caused by her presence. He further stated that if she wasn’t around, I wouldn’t have been injured and that Alpha Wolf Technologies would not be in chaos. He complained to Kevin and Ginny,” he said. Luc took a deep breath and tried to ease the ache in his shoulder.
“Duke should have come to me with his complaints. He didn’t, even though I saw him frequently when he delivered papers from the office. He had ample time to as questions, or discuss issues with me. He chose not to. It is true that the business has been a bit short handed and for the first day or two after the attack, life was hectic. However, there has never been the chaos that Duke chose to see other than in his own mind or caused by his own hand,” said Luc. He looked out over the group gathered. Most were nodding their heads in agreement. No one disagreed.
“It is true that I was injured while out with Meg. However, it might have happened regardless of who I was with. The important bit is that Meg had the presence of mind to take matters into her own hands and get me safely to help. Without her, I would be dead,” he said as he took Meg’s hand in his own. “The real issue that I see is that Meg is human. I believe that Duke is transferring his frustrations and anger over the situation with his wife Penny onto Meg. His attack of my mate breaks our rules. Does anyone want to speak?” Luc asked.
A hand went up in the back of the crowd. Luc nodded and gestured for the man to step forward.
“Are you two really mated? Or is this a last minute thing?” he asked.
“We were waiting for me to finish healing before we made the big announcement and invited everyone for dinner, but we are mated,” Luc said and pulled the chain out from under his shirt. He knew that Meg’s was visible to most of the people.
“Oh, Okay. Good enough. Let me know when it is,” said the man as he stepped back into the crowd.
“Luc, we all know he’s crazy as a loon. Whacha gonna do?” asked another man.
“You know the rules,” said Sandy before Luc could answer. There were more murmurs and nods across the room.
“Duke is my brother. I know him best of all, and he’s gone over the edge,” said Ginny stepping to the front of the crowd. “We are all sorry that his marriage went off, but it isn’t news to any of us. The events of Bitty’s coming of age were just a repeat of history. Duke and Penny are both coyote crazy. Right now I’m doing my best to hold those children together and give them some kind of life. However, he had no right attacking Meg,” she growled sub-vocally. A shudder went through the people.
The cousin and Jeff walked back over to the group of people. Behind them, the wolf was pacing the length of the dog run. The two men stopped in front of Luc.
“Luc, I’ve checked him out as best as I could. No one’s home,” said Jeff. The sadness in his voice hushed the low chatter.
“It’s how I see it too,” said the cousin. “He wouldn’t talk. Just growled and slobbered like a dog with rabies. I can’t defend someone who won’t help himself. Sorry Ginny,” he said turning to her.
Ginny nodded. She went to stand next to Luc and turned to face the crowd. “Way I see it, Duke needs to be put in the care of Jeff here up in the mountains. Maybe he’ll come to his senses, maybe he won’t. At least up there, he won’t hurt anyone else,” she said with a heavy heart.
Luc stood up slowly and wrapped his arms around Ginny. He hugged her and then turned back to the rest of the people. “Jeff, will you take charge of Duke?” Luc asked.
“Yes, I will take responsibility for Duke,” said Jeff.
“Ginny, will you take charge of the children?” asked Luc.
“Yes, I will take responsibility of the children,” said Ginny.
“Does anyone wish to challenge me?” Luc asked.
Meg was trying to follow this and had figured out the ‘trial’ part of what had gone on. This last bit confused her. Luc was going to have lots of explaining to do afterwards. She looked around at the people present and watched as a huge man stepped forward.
“Luc,” said the huge man.
“George,” answered Luc.
“Anyone wants to challenge you will have to go through me first,” said George who scanned the crowd as he talked. No one said a word.
“Thank you George,” said Luc. He breathed a sigh of relief and then taking Meg’s hand in his, he addressed the crowd once more. “For the records keepers, gossips and anyone who just might be curious, Margaret Stewart, is our mate.” “There, now it’s official,” he thought.