Leaders of the Pac

No sex in this one guys, just letting you know. More of that later. •

*

Exhausted and frustrated, Mira stared at Natalie. The girl held out admirably against her questioning.

Strength can be an annoying trait in people I need information from.

"Natalie, is there any way I can possibly impress upon you the necessity of your cooperation without making your existence as unhappy as the last group of people you spoke to?"

Natalie was truly uncertain how to take that question. "I think you've made it pretty clear where you stand with me."

"You know, the part I find ironic," Mira asked, trying a new angle. "You spent months trying to convince your previous captors that you had seen werewolves and vampires. Now. Here you are. Seated in front of a woman who already believes you saw exactly what you were claiming, and you're denying all of it."

Shifting uncomfortably in the chair, Natalie busied herself with staring at her feet or the floor; anything that wasn't Mira's face.

"I know they hurt you. I know they made your life hell for months. I don't want to do that too. But I promise you, if you push me to that point you will find that my versions of torture are far worse than anything you dealt with in that asylum. You see, in the end they didn't have as much to lose as I do. And they weren't convinced you were telling the truth. I on the other hand have complete reports of everything you told them and not only do I believe you, but due to some minor things you said, I can't ignore you."

Natalie looked up at Mira finally. The cold fear that flowed through her was no longer tempered by the gentle tone in Mira's voice.

"Natalie, if you don't give me what I want, you may end up dead. Not in an asylum or a nice white padded room anywhere. I want you to think about that for a little while. I have other matters to attend to. Right now, I'm going to send you to a nice room where you will be fed and allowed to get a bath and some rest. When we talk again I hope you will be more cooperative."

Mira reached for the phone on her desk with the intent of calling a servant to escort Natalie to a room when a heavy knock echoed through the room. Mira knew that it was Trey before she ever got there. He had a knock all his own.

Opening the door, Mira found her second standing with an annoyed look on his face. "I don't think I want to know what's causing your stormy expression. I'm too tired right now."

"Sorry," he growled and pushed his way past Mira into the room.

Mira closed the door and leaned back against the wall next to it. "Make it quick."

Hearing the annoyed tone in her voice, Trey decided to just tell her.

"We don't really have enough information to figure out who yet. But someone assassinated Nora Senach."

Closing her eyes, Mira began rubbing her temples. "You're kidding."

"I wish I was." Trey looked over at Natalie. "I guess you don't have the information you wanted from her yet either. If you need help with that," Trey started, his eyes shifting to a molten gold as he stared at Natalie.

As tired as Natalie was, she still managed a solid glare at Trey. Knowing that he was trying to scare her only made it come easier. He grinned back at her defiance.

Shaking her head, Mira walked back to her desk. "Enough Trey. Take her to her room and make sure someone gets her something to eat. Leave her alone until I tell you I need you."

Trey nodded to Mira and went back to what he was saying before Natalie distracted him. "Luther is looking into the matter of Nora Senach, but no one is talking. He can't decide if it's because they're that scared to say anything or if it's because they don't know anything."

"I wanted the meeting stopped but not like this. Am I right in assuming that the Council meeting isn't going to happen?"

"Yes and no. Remember, there's Aislinn. We're still watching to see how the Council handles the problem. And either way they can have their own little meeting if they want."

Mira sighed. "The damn lycans are too intelligent, you never know what they're going to figure out."

Smirking, Trey nodded. "I have a few favors I can call in."

"Not until we know what you'll be asking for. Just take her to her room for now."

With an amused grin parting his lips, Trey walked over to Natalie. Her knees pulled up to her chest, she sat with her feet on the edge of her seat and her arms wrapped around her knees. Glaring vehemently at him as he approached, Natalie sat farther down in the chair as if she could keep him from taking her out of it by will power alone.

It was all Trey could do to keep from laughing at the way she stared so defiantly at him. "Do you actually think you can stop me from following my orders?"

Coming quickly to the conclusion that it would be stupid to resist being taken to a nice warm bed and food, Natalie stood up voluntarily as if that had been her intention all along. "I wouldn't dream of making your job difficult."

Smiling, Trey gave a little bow, indicating that she should walk in the direction of the door, then followed along behind Natalie as she led the way out. Trey nodded respectfully to Mira as he closed the door behind them.

Arms crossed over her chest and stomach aching with remembrance of her last encounter with the large tattooed man in front of her, she couldn't help the unhappy looks she kept giving him.

"I don't know if my feelings should be hurt or not," he teased as he turned down the hall and led Natalie through the mansion.

For the first time since she had gotten there, she had a good look around. The place was beautifully decorated. It didn't look like the kind of place where people got tortured. It all seemed to have come out of the renaissance. Carved wooden arches framed hallway entrances, tall thick brocade curtains covered all the windows, oil paintings hung ceremoniously precise in alcoves and gargoyles stared back at Natalie from corners and above doorways.

"So you're not going to talk to me now," Trey asked, noticing her scrutiny of the decor. Mira wasn't concerned about the girl. At least not in the sense that anything should be hidden from her. It had already been decided that she wasn't going to be able to return to her human life. They didn't know what was going to happen to her exactly, after all of this. That would depend on the decisions she made.

Natalie continued to remain silent as she followed Trey to her room. He made too many turns and she was too tired to be capable of keeping track of how to get back to where they'd come from.

What the hell am I thinking? Why would I want to get back to that damn office? I need to know the way out,

she thought. But there was no indication from any of the directions they went in, or from the look of any of the doors or halls they passed of where the exit might be. The few open windows Natalie noticed only told her that they were far from the city and very high up.

"Well here it is," he said, finally opening a door and ushering Natalie in. "There isn't a lock. We don't need one. You leave this room and we'll find you."

Oddly there was no threat in his voice, it all sounded matter-of-fact, as though he was merely giving her a friendly piece of information. Confusion coursed through Natalie. She had no idea what to think of all this. "Does any of it really matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"So if I told that woman everything she wants to hear, and she goes and finds whatever she thinks she's looking for or doesn't find it, then what?"

Trey sighed, "I honestly don't know."

"How likely am I to end up dead no matter what I say? Will I ever get home?" Tears began to run down her cheeks from unblinking eyes.

I hate it when women cry,

Trey thought. Backing Natalie into her room he guided her to sit down on the bed and brought her a tissue from the box on the end stand next to the head of the bed. "Look, no one will hurt you if you cooperate. That's what she said wasn't it?"

"And I'm just supposed to believe that? Why? Because you're the m swiped her face. She thought she had run out of tears months ago.

Trey paced away from her and then paced back. "To tell you the truth, you may or may not be able to leave. But, you seemed to take a good look around on your way here. Would it be so bad to be stuck her for a little while? No straight jackets, no lights, no drugs. Just not leaving."

She thought about that for a minute. Shaking her head, "If you were told that you were getting a life sentence in the most beautiful prison in existence what would you think about that?"

"Yeah, a prison is still a prison."

"Yeah."

"It's hard to say what might be able to be worked out if you give her what she wants. But I can tell you that she'll get the information one way or another. She doesn't have a choice. We need to know where the tapes you took out of that fight went."

"I know, lives depend on it. She told me," Natalie said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'm sure that I can't say anything to you that she hasn't already said. So I won't bother trying to convince you of anything."

As Trey turned to leave, Natalie realized that she was going to end up alone again. It had been so long since she had contact with anyone, she hadn't realized that there was a small part of her that didn't care what they did to her, as long as they didn't leave her alone again. "Wait," she blurted, as he reached for the door.

Turning back toward her, he couldn't help but hear the note of desperation in that last word. It was totally different from the attitude that permeated the rest of what she said that night. "What?"

Staring at his strange face, Natalie's brain raced for something to talk about, anything to talk about. "What are your tattoos supposed to be," she asked suddenly.

"I don't think any woman in the history of women I've known has ever been quite as confused as you are. I'm going to let you slide on the likelihood that the Feds knocked a number of screws loose in your head. Relax, I'll send someone with food eventually," he said, putting more emphasis on the word 'eventually' than Natalie liked.

"So you're not going to tell me?" Natalie stood up and looked as though she might stop him bodily from going out the door.

Trey started to feel like he may have some leverage that Mira hadn't possessed during the prior questioning.

But you'll have to be careful about it,

he warned himself.

"Why? You wanna get some just like it?" He reached for the handle on the door again, just to see what she would do.

"Maybe," Natalie squeaked and took a couple more steps.

Stop caring so much,

she told herself.

Alone isn't so bad. You can think when you're alone.

That's what I'm afraid of,

she answered herself. "I only thought that they looked weird. Whoever did it, didn't do a very good job."

Trey grinned; he knew exactly why she said that. "Oh?"

"They're all smooshed together. Like your face was squished after it was done." Suddenly a thought occurred to her, as he stood there grinning wider and wider. "Your face did change after it was done, didn't it?"

Trey scratched his chin and chuckled, "get some rest Natalie. You're going to need it." He reached for the door again.

This time the couple steps she took put her in front of him and she grabbed his wrist. Trey could feel her trembling, as her small fingers dug into his arm. "Seriously, you're a," she started but couldn't finish.

"So what if I am?" His eyes bored into her. Molten gold, flooded the brown and he waited for a reaction.

Fighting her impulse to pull her hand away, she stared hard at him, searching for the right answer that would get her out of this nightmare. "How do I know I'm not having some bad dream? What if the Feds have drugged me up and are playing more mind games? What if I'm still in that cell and I'm hallucinating? What if-"

"Whoa, slow down." Trey took her by hand and led her back to the bed, barely managing to coax her into sitting back down. "This would be a pretty weird hallucination, don't you think?"

"I would have thought that all hallucinations are weird."

"Okay, good point," he said. "What do you want me to tell you?"

"I don't know," Natalie responded angrily. "I don't know what to think about anything anymore. One day I'm going along, working, everything's sane and rational. Then the next day all the things in science fiction, horror flicks, and the recent romance with non-human things craze are all real life. Am I really supposed to believe I'm currently talking to a werewolf?"

"Lycan," he answered.

"What?"

"The PC term is lycan."

"You can't be serious."

"Hey, our world has its politics, same as yours." Trey was measuring her. At least she was referring to the fight she taped as real instead of denying seeing it. That was progress.

"So prove it," Natalie dared. "I want to see it with my own eyes."

"I thought you already had."

"It was dark and I was looking through a camera. That's more different from seeing up close than you might imagine."

"Tell me where the tapes are."

"You show me that I'm not insane and I'll take you to the tapes personally," Natalie growled right back.

Trey stood up and walked over to stand in front of the door. He didn't want her freaking out and bolting after he shifted. He thought for a moment trying to decide which form would be least intimidating. Finally he decided that he would be better off taking the hybrid form.

At least that way I can talk back if I have to.

Taking a deep breath, Trey rolled his head back and forth across his shoulders a couple times. Natalie heard it crack, as he shook his shoulders and seemed to stretch, like some athlete getting ready for the big event. Natalie brought her hand to her mouth, partially to stifle the scream as Trey's body began to grow in all directions. Hair covered him, his face elongated; the tattoos seemed to flow into perfect patterns that followed the line of a wolven muzzle.

It was all she could do to keep from fainting as the lycan took his final form, standing there in front of her. Natalie could feel her heart racing and she couldn't slow her breathing. As the room started to go black, she heard a strangely slurred voice growling, "SSShit, ssshez faintinggg."

* * * *

A few moments after the text announcing Nora's death, a follow up text sent a chill through every lycan in the manor. "Initial findings indicate she was attacked by a lycan." Cadifor checked the number that the text was coming from only to find that it was blocked.

The confusion and upset immediately following the texts about Nora Senach was comparable to the uproar following JFK's assassination. Each of the various leaders had runners looking for their subordinates and colleagues. Private meetings were being called. Suspicious glares were crossing the room between the lycans who fostered the link with the Circle and those who had opposed it.

Cadifor gathered his allies and followers and laid claim to one of the main meeting rooms. Cullen and Keith recognized Stephen La Rayne, Neill Odgar, and Sean McDougal as they took seats at the table alongside all the others. Rollo Ganger was there with his men as well and Makeda had joined them in a rare appearance at this kind of meeting. That alone was enough to make Cullen sit forward in his seat and pay more attention than he already did.

Standing from his chair at the head of the table as the last of the men filtered into the room, Cadifor slammed the door shut and walked over to Rollo. After a brief quiet conference between the two men, it seemed that Cadifor was elected to head up the meeting.

"So here's the situation," Cadifor began with his usual angry intensity that commanded everyone's attention. "I think we've all heard what apparently has delayed the meeting which was called for this evening. I don't have to tell any of you that the kind of information that was texted to everyone is not normally distributed that way. Whoever sent the information either is looking to give us a heads up or to cause conflict between the Council and the Circle. At worst it was meant to delay the meeting for some reason. At best this information will only cause a brief delay in the original intent of this gathering. At worst it could put the rift between the Circle and the Council firmly back in place. We don't even know if the information is accurate at this point. Though, the absence of the Circle representatives leads me to believe that there may be some truth in the messages.

"The original meeting was meant to discuss if we should act on a recent break in at a government facility which released a large number of the weres Rafe created." Cadifor sighed heavily and his forehead creased with concentration as he appeared to think carefully over the next few sentences. "So we need to consider that the page was sent by someone with access to all of our numbers and who might want to cause trouble within the Council itself as well as with our allies. It could be the NSA trying to delay us and cover up whatever happened. It could be Jenna or Brennus or whatever the hell they are trying to cause trouble. It could be something else entirely. I'll entertain any reasonable suggestions at this point."

There was a pause as everyone considered the levity of the situation. When the pause continued with no response, Rollo sat forward, tapping the table unconsciously with his fat hand. "I'm not sure what you're looking for Cadifor. You've pretty much covered all the bases. Actually, I'm not sure what we're doing here. We are all forced to wait for confirmation of the messages. One fool started calling meetings and the rest of us followed suit. I assume, because we feel as though we need to act. It's in our nature. But I don't know that there's anything we can do at the moment." Rollo sat back and then looked over at Cullen, even though he continued to project his voice as if he was speaking to the entire room. "Not unless you have some way of getting information from the Circle that the rest of the men in this building don't."

Cullen shifted uncomfortably in his seat, seeing exactly where the comment was going. "Aislinn remained behind. Not to mention, she is not directly connected to the Circle. She was raised human and her alliance with them is tenuous at best."

Rollo nodded. "But rumor has it that the girl is able to obtain information from visions or contact people with her mind," he suggested.

Growling, Cullen looked to Cadifor. "If you want me to contact Aislinn and ask her to look into it I can. But I'll tell you now, that she is close to the end of the pregnancy and had a vision or two recently that make no sense as it is. She already told me about those and I see no immediate connection to the current situation."

Cullen turned his focus back to Rollo and tried to not sound too annoyed with the man, knowing that he only had rumors about what Aislinn was capable of. "Aislinn, unfortunately, doesn't get to control her visions. The Fates tell her what they believe is important and leave it to the rest of us to interpret. So whatever she might find out is subjective at best that way. And she has never been able to contact the Circle or anyone other than me mentally by volition."

Rollo held his hands up as if to say he was giving up the argument and sat back in his chair. "It was merely a suggestion. We're all grasping at straws here."

"I have to ask," Cadifor said, drawing everyone's attention again. "I would be a fool, after what we've learned of Aislinn's visions to date, to not ask what she saw."

Cullen thought about the various mental images that Aislinn had conveyed to him on the car ride here. "Okay, but I have to preface with the caveat that I did warn you it doesn't make sense." Cullen could feel the attention on him as if he was the single most important person in the room. He hated that kind of attention. "There was something about a girl in a straight jacket, maybe in an asylum. But there was no indication of who the girl was or where the actual place was. There was something about a large open door covered in runes. And there was a last warning about Jenna and the birth of our children."