Artiface of Strength

Chapter 14

Ja-mul never quite admitted that the wolves had possession of John and Beth's 'bodies'. He never really had to deny it either; he was more than happy to let the Governmental negotiating teams bow and scrape whenever they were together, continually apologizing dozens of times over the next three months. Indeed, the Di-yin never even mentioned the Alphas during negotiations, although he was always careful to put a very sad and wistful look upon his craggy face whenever they were mentioned by others.

The humans, of course, bought his routine hook, line, and sinker, but after the second month of seeing it, Jefferson had stopped believing. He knew that something was up. He'd even told his mate that he smelled a coyote-sized rat somewhere but couldn't quite tell from where the smell was emanating. This made him grouchy, Alphas don't like uncertainty.

The Billington pack and its new leaders had been strangely quiet throughout the entire negotiation process. Both Jefferson and Carol had been rebuffed every time they had tried to contact the Billingtons, and their worry over this had first turned to resentment, and then finally to anger.

At first, Carol had attributed the pack's silence to a need to mourn their beloved leaders, but after a few weeks of that, Jeff began to suspect that there had been a leadership challenge at Whiskey Lake. Jefferson knew full well that Tom and Sam would never challenge for the pack's leadership, as both of them were mostly allergic to work or responsibility, but he was unsure about Tristan's goals. He'd always thought the wolf sharp enough to lead a pack, but John had always said that Tristan was more of a natural Beta and unsuited for the top role, but Jefferson also knew that unsuitable wolves frequently would strive to rule, so he was not so sure that the young wolf hadn't attempted it.

...and that bought the Billingtons a few more weeks of peace.

But unfortunately for Jefferson, Carol wasn't taking it nearly as well as he was, and she was driving her mate insane, constantly prodding him for news of her niece and her mate. Her moods were becoming increasingly volatile during this delicate time of negotiations, and things came to a head after she'd stormed out of his office following her latest tirade. He'd had enough. He was the Alpha; he

would

get some answers...now.

He personally dialed the Billington number and without even saying hello first, he

ordered

Joe to connect him to

whoever

was leading their misbegotten pack, reminding the code-talker that they were still on a war footing, and as the Alpha's Alpha, he

would

speak to the Billington's Alpha, now!

Joe wasn't especially surprised by any of this; he'd been expecting this call for the last week or so as Jefferson had been getting increasing hostile during his calls. So Joe begged the Alpha Jefferson's pardon and placed the angry Alpha on hold while he contacted the Billington Alpha, promising to try to get William on the phone. Then he breathed deeply and sent, "

Will... Jefferson is on the phone and he's reached his limit. He just threatened me, and I'm pretty sure that he meant it this time."

William was more than a little irritated by the interruption, but he stopped what he'd been doing, and replied,

"Sorry about that Joe, but I promise that I'll buy you a toupee for the fur that he burns off of your ass."

"Gee...thanks Will. I'm sure that will look entirely natural."

"Okay fine, tell him to put his code-talker on the phone, and when he does that, tell his 'talker the truth about John and Beth and why we had to keep it secret from everyone. If you get lucky, the 'talker won't share this information with Jefferson until after he disconnects the call. Let Jeff's 'talker take the heat."

"The poor bastard..."

Joe sent back.

"Oh...and Joe..."

"Yes Alpha?"

"Take the phone of the hook for an hour or two."

"Yes Alpha! Thank you Alpha!"

Florence rolled over in their bed and asked, "Trouble?"

William grimaced, saying, "Jefferson finally exploded. Joe is on the phone coming clean with Jeff's code-talker now."

Florence immediately reached out from under their sheets and pressed the button to kill her cell phone. Seeing her do this, William cocked an eyebrow questioningly.

"You just have to deal with Jefferson," Florence said defensively. "There is no way that I'm answering that until she's had a day or two to calm down. She's going to be furious, and while she may not be able to say why she's so mad at me on an open line, she will feel free to call me every name in the book. I'm reasonably sure that she'll start with, "Fuck you, just fuck you", and then it'll get worse from there."

"Yeah, you are probably right about that, but Jeff may challenge me physically."

Florence grinned down at her mate as she resumed running her nails along the inside of her mate's thigh, "I believe in you; you can beat him, my love!"

"Yes, but that's what I'm afraid of. There's no freaking way that I want his job! And if I took that from him, then Carol would

really

be pissed!"

"Oh, I don't know about that," Florence said seductively to her mate as she continued moving her nails upwards and began to run them along the underside of his testicles. "That would mean that Carol could drag Jeff down to Argentina to visit with my parents. She'd probably like that."

"...and leave us alone with the whole mess?" William replied in horror. "No, and not just 'no,' but 'fuck no!', although this last bit came out of his mouth as a hiss as Flo's ministrations were beginning to cause the wolf to lose control. He fought a shudder as she began to work him slowly."

"Why are we talking business again?" Florence cooed into her mate's ear.

"Hell if I know," Will replied before rolling Florence over and aggressively taking control of her, holding his lover's hands above her head while beginning to nuzzle at her throat. Flo fought back momentarily, but her heart wasn't really in it, she didn't want to win this battle. Well...not unless he started nibbling on her ribs again, and then he would pay dearly.

Back in Washington, things were decidedly less friendly than the game play that was going on in Florence's bed. Jefferson's code-talker had just finished giving his report to the Alpha, and now the poor wolf held his breath as he stood nervously before Jefferson. It was clear that Jeff's eyes were now spinning in a cold fury, and the 'talker was being careful not to move; he was not even breathing for fear of drawing his Alpha's anger upon himself. He'd heard far too many stories about what happened to those who'd been in the presence of a truly enraged Alpha, and none of these tales ended well.

Fortunately for the 'talker, he saw that his Alpha

seemed

to be controlling his anger for now. Jefferson hadn't yet shifted, hadn't made the expected change to hybrid state, and the poor 'talker was starting to believe that he might live through the next five minutes, but that's when Jefferson angrily hissed, "Get my wife in here, and get that miserable bastard of a Di-yin in here too. Get them now, and 'talker..."

"Yes Alpha," the wolf stammered.

"If a single word of what you just heard leaves this office before the day you die, I will happily remove your head permanently. Do you understand me, 'talker?"

"Yes Alpha, I will go get them right away" the wolf said as he hastily backed out of Jefferson's office and went to fetch Ja-mul, relieved that someone else was going to be the focus of the coming explosion.

Ten minutes later, Ja-mul and Carol arrived in Jeff's office simultaneously. Jefferson immediately locked the door behind them, and Carol knew that something was up, Jeff

never

locked that door. She hadn't even realized that the door had a lock on it until now. Then Jeff went to his electronics panel and turned on all of the electronic counter-measures that he only needed when dealing with humans and their accursed verbal speech.

He then glared at Ja-mul, but before he could begin to speak, the shaman headed him off by interrupting Jefferson, saying, "Do you realize just how much more land we managed to get turned over to us because the humans were terrified that you might go on a killing spree because of John? They were absolutely horrified by the damage that you could do if you were angry, and they could see the anger in your eyes every time that we met with them. They were afraid that you'd want to kill someone..."

Jeff snapped, "You mean, other than you?!"

Ja-mul hid a grin as he said, "Yeah... well now you do... sure."

Carol couldn't take it any longer, "Jeff, What's he done now?"

Jefferson responded dryly, "Oh, you just wait; you just think that I'm mad at him right now. You are going to come absolutely unglued, and I ought to let you throttle the dishonest bastard when you do."

Carol just waited; she didn't like where he mate was going, but she figured that he would get to the point quicker if she just kept her mouth shut. She did notice when her mate edged out from behind his desk and placed himself between herself and Ja-mul. And then he said, "John and Beth are alive, and this conniving asshole has known it all along. He let us think that our best friends were dead just so he could get a better deal from the human government."

Carol let out a screech as she lunged for the shaman's throat, trying desperately to get her claws into the old man, but her mate was too quick for her. He managed to block her initial charge long enough for her to get to her second, and much less violent, impulse. She stopped cold. "What? They are alive? Thank the Goddess!"

But then her eyes narrowed again, "Wait... that means that John signed off on all of this. He allowed us to go through the pain of thinking Beth was dead."

"Just Beth," Jefferson said with the ghost of a smile. "You don't want John to be alive?"

Carol snapped back, "I'm considering it!"

"Umm Carol," Ja-mul started slowly, "John sent you a message, but could Jefferson hold you very tightly while I pass it along to you?"

Carol grimaced, knowing that what was coming her way was going to be painful, but she did force herself to walk to the farthest end of the room and then sit down before she'd allow Ja-mul to continue, "Go ahead," she said in resignation.

Ja-mul wasn't trying very hard to disguise his crooked grin as he said, "John... ahem...my Alpha, the wolf I have to obey..."

"Get on with it!" Carol growled dangerously.

"...has commanded that I give you the following message."

Jefferson winced; he had a bad feeling that it was going to be very loud at home tonight. Maybe he could work late or something.

"...he says that as a thank-you for your forty or fifty years worth of meddling into his private affairs, tirelessly attempting to force a certain, Bethany Fawn Yellow-Eagle upon him as a mate, that he wishes to show his appreciation for your hard work by continuing to breathe... which will take some of the heat off of poor, hapless Jefferson here. Oh...and he said to let you know, he finally feels even with you now."

Carol began to shout, "Why that rotten, horrible, selfish..."

"...and Carol," Ja-mul interrupted.

"What!" she screamed back.

"Do you want your message from Beth?"

Carol stopped yelling immediately. She began to catch up, and it was hitting her that her oldest friend in the world was deeply imbedded into this plot as well.

"Go ahead," she said, sounding defeated.

"My madam Alpha," Ja-mul started.

Jefferson winced once again.

"...also wishes to thank you for your extensive match-making, but she chooses to correct John and point out that you have been working on it for more like two hundred years than fifty. She also wishes for you to refrain from hurting John, because after all, he has only asked for a single present from Beth to celebrate their successful mating: namely, an opportunity to get even with you, Carol. And my Madam Alpha wishes to point out that if you kill John, then all of your work will have been in vain. And besides all of that, they really couldn't tell anyone that they were still alive, much less that they were finally mated, so you should just forgive John and wish both of them well."

"They've mated?" gasped Jefferson. "Finally?"

"...and we didn't get to come to the party?" Carol said, her voice rising once again.

"Oh, they haven't been able to hold a celebration yet. Beth said to tell you that they can't have one until the humans finally figure out that she and John are alive. When that happens, she says that you and Jefferson can throw them the biggest and most expensive party in Were history."

And while this information mollified Carol; Jefferson, on the other hand, heard the word 'expensive' and winced once again. Ja-mul saw this look of pain, but he didn't let it stop him, he continued with his message, "but in any event, until such day that they are unmasked, both John and Beth will remain in Argentina, where they plan to enjoy their vacation and stand ready for the day that their grandchildren ask their father for a ride north... By the way, they say that the beaches are wonderful there."

"So I'm stuck being in charge of this whole mess?" Jefferson groused.

"John says that he trained you well, so suck it up and get used to it. Besides that, he says that he's sent you his personal Di-yin to keep you company."

Jeff looked pained when he heard those last words, causing him to put his forehead on his desk and begin moaning. As Ja-mul watched his new Alpha in pain, he realized that it was true, John

had

taught Jeff all of his tricks, but the shaman felt that it would be best to keep this observation to himself.

The two months of lying on the beach in the Buenos Aries sun had caused quite a change in the lovers' appearances, few would recognize them now. And while it was true that John didn't blend in as well as he would have liked; there would never be any disguising his pale white European skin in Argentina, even if he had developed a deep all over tan. The bronzing of his skin and the brushy beard that he was now sporting, gave the previously well-groomed John the look of a castaway. He told Beth that he was on vacation though, so he was given some latitude as to what might be appropriate for his new station in life. The stupidly large straw hat that he wore everywhere was just the icing on the cake.

Beth had experienced an easier time of disguising herself than John had. For one thing, her likeness had not been as widely publicized as John's had been over the past few months, and this time in the sun had darkened her native-American skin into something that was nearly identical to the Argentinean natives. She'd also used the sun, and not a few chemicals to lighten her hair considerably, and like John, she now wore it long.

Currently, they were sitting on their new favourite beach. It was a semi-private beach that had access restricted to only the wealthy humans who lived in the enclave surrounding it. John had bought Beth a house on this beach and the two of them were now luxuriating in the warm sand and enjoying their new favourite activity; they were watching their grandchildren play in the sand.

Liz was nowhere in sight, as usual, had quickly tired of family time, and had instead hired a collection of nannies to ride herd on her children. Most days, Noah and Sarah played on the beach while one of the surprisingly well-armed nannies sat watching nearby. Liz didn't know it yet, but all of her nannies were members of the Aguirre pack who ran most of northeast Argentina.

By this time, Burton had found himself down to the last member of his original security team. One by one, each of them had left his employ, all of them seeking to distance themselves from their now thoroughly disgraced employer. Williams' old friend, Dave was the only one who was still on hand. He was there just as William had hoped, because Dave, like everyone else in the Waters complex, now took their real orders from William. The employees only pretended to work for Burton.

Dave, as the head of security, had final authority over every hire in the household, and these days, he only hired wolves. Not only did this make his job exceedingly easy, but he was also getting two checks each week-- one from Burton, and a much larger one from William. As far as Dave was concerned, he was willing to sweat blood to make sure that Burton never found out what was going on; Dave figured that he was the highest compensated jailer in human history.

No, neither Burton nor Elizabeth would be leaving Buenos Aries...ever again. Currently, they were on every single terrorist watch list in the world, as well as being highly sought after by the United States government for their part in the Were crisis. So they were stuck; they were living in luxury, but their mobility was a thing of the past. Burton thought himself to be like Napoleon exiled to Elba, and he endlessly plotted his return to power, but most of the world saw him as just another Nazi war criminal hiding in Argentina. They were as imprisoned, as if they had been in jail cells.

The United States Government could have convinced the Argentinean Government to extradite him back into their custody; and the C.I.A., or even the wolves could have easily kidnapped him, rendition was easy for them; but as Ja-mul was prone to saying, "why bother?" Everyone knew where Burton was, and no one actually wanted him back, so the world left him there in his mansion...to rot.

So John dozed on his beach towel under Beth's ridiculously large beach umbrella, armed only with a full cooler of beer by his side. He wasn't crazy about the local beer, but it sure beat drinking the local water. He sighed and realized that everyone had to make some sacrifices in life. At least Beth was there beside him, enjoying her lazy day and perfectly happy to watch the children play. She hadn't actually gotten to meet them yet, but she already loved them dearly.

As the children ran around on the beach, they threw an American style football back and forth and behaved as children always do, loudly. But the next time that Noah threw the ball though, Sarah missed making the catch. The ball sailed over her head and rolled under Beth's umbrella, coming to a stop at her feet. The children ran after the ball, but they stopped short when they saw Beth holding it with a wry smile.

"I'm sorry ma'am," Noah said, "I threw it, but Sarah isn't very good at catching it yet."

But before Beth could say anything in return, Sarah suddenly said, "You're them aren't you?!"

Beth smiled indulgently and said, "We are 'who', dear?"

"You are our new grandparents aren't you," Sarah said, boring in.

"...and why do you think that?" John responded quickly.

Noah responded with conviction, "All of grandfather's employees are wolves except for Mr. Dave. Mother and grandfather can't see it, but they just ignore the help most of the time."

"...and you two are always here when we come to the beach," Sarah accused.

John and Beth looked at one another briefly, and then Beth asked, "We live right over there, but what makes you think that all of your grandfather's people are wolves?"

Then Noah and Sarah shared a brief look, before Noah answered the question, "My father always told us to keep our eyes open and to be aware of our surroundings."

John said, "Like when you threw the ball over here on purpose?"

"Yeah," Noah said, "Sometimes when mother or grandfather is mad, they will shout at the help; and whenever they do that, our nannies eyes always turn yellow. They clearly hate my grandfather, but they hide it for some reason. Mother can't see it, but Sarah and I can."