Part 21 (2/2)
So as not to seem too sympathetic, Alexia began vigorously brus.h.i.+ng off the meringue crumbs covering his jacket.
At the same time, she looked over at the Kingair Beta and said, ”Settle the issue to your mutual satisfaction, did you, gentlemen?”
Dubh gave her a deadpan expression that still managed to indicate a certain profound level of deep disgust in her very existence, let alone her question. Alexia only shook her head at such petulance.
The Kingair claviger returned bearing a flask of cider vinegar. Lady Maccon immediately began to copiously douse her husband about the face and neck with it.
”Ouch! Steady on, that stings!”
Dubh made to rise.
Lord Maccon instantly struggled to his feet. He would have to, Alexia surmised, to maintain dominance. Or it could be that he was trying to get away from her vinegar-riddled attentions.
”I know it stings,” she said. ”Not nice to have to heal the old-fas.h.i.+oned way, now, is it, my brave table warrior? Perhaps you will pause to consider next time before you commence fighting in a confined s.p.a.ce. I mean really, look at this room.” She tutted. ”You both should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves.”
”Nothing has been settled,” Dubh said, returning hastily to his slumped position on the carpeted floor. He appeared to have gotten the worse end of things. One of his arms looked broken, and there was a nasty gash in his left cheek.
However, Lady Maccon's brisk application of vinegar seemed to have shattered everyone else's collective inertia, for they began bustling around the fallen Beta, splinting up his arm and tending to his wounds.
”You still abandoned us.” Dubh sounded like a petulant child.
”You all know exactly exactly why I left,” Lord Maccon growled. why I left,” Lord Maccon growled.
”Uh,” said Alexia timidly, raising a questioning hand, ”I do not.”
Everyone ignored her.
”You couldna control the pack,” Dubh accused.
Everyone present in the room gasped. Except Alexia, who did not comprehend the gravity of the insult and was occupied trying to pick the last of the meringue off her husband's dinner jacket.
”That isna fair,” said Lachlan, not moving from his stance. Unsure of his allegiance, the Gamma simply stayed away from both Conall and Dubh.
”You betrayed betrayed me. me.” Lord Maccon did not yell, but the words carried and, even though he could not change to wolf form, there was wolf anger in them.
”And you pay us back in kind? The emptiness you left, was that fair?”
”There is naught fair about pack protocol. You and I both know that; there is simply protocol. And there was none to cover what you did. It was entirely unprecedented. So I was cursed with the dubious pleasure of having to make it up myself. Abandonment seemed to be the best solution, since I didna want to spend another night in your presence.”
Alexia looked over at Lachlan. The Gamma had tears in his eyes.
”Besides”-Lord Maccon's voice softened-”Niall was a perfectly good Alpha alternative. He led you well, I hear. He married my progeny. You were tame enough for decades under his dominance.”
Lady Kingair finally spoke. Her voice was oddly soft. ”Niall was my mate, and I pure loved him. He was a brilliant tactician and a good soldier, but he wasna a true Alpha.”
”Are you saying he wasna dominant enough? I heard naught of lack of discipline. Whenever I ran a recognizance on Kingair, you all seemed to be perfectly content.” Conall's voice was soft.
”So you did check up on us, did you, old wolf?” Lady Kingair looked hurt at that rather than relieved.
”Of course I did. You were were once my pack.” once my pack.”
The Beta looked up from where he still lay on the floor. ”You left us weak, Conall, and you knew it. Niall had na Anubis Form, and the pack couldna procreate. Clavigers abandoned us as a result, the local loners rebelled, and we didn't have an Alpha fighting for the integrity of the pack.”
Lady Maccon glanced at her husband. His face was carved in stone, relentless. Or what little she could see behind the puffy eye and bloodstained cravat seemed that way.
”You betrayed me,” he repeated, as though that settled the matter. Which, in Conall's world, it probably did. He valued few things more than loyalty.
Alexia decided to make her presence known. ”What is the point of recriminations? Nothing can be done about it now, since none of you can change into any form at all, Anubis or otherwise. No new wolves can be made, no new Alpha found, no challenge battles fought. Why argue over what was when we are immersed in what isn't?”
Lord Maccon looked down at her. ”So speaks my practical Alexia. Now do you understand why I married her?”
Lady Kingair said snidely, ”A desperate, if ineffectual, attempt at control?”
”Oooh, she has claws. Are you positive you never bit her to change, husband? She has the temper of a werewolf.” Alexia could be just as snide as the next person.
The Gamma stepped forward, looking at Lady Maccon. ”Our apologies, my lady, and you a newly arrived guest among us. We must truly seem the barbarians you English take us for. 'Tis only that na Alpha these many moons is making us nervous.”
”Oh, and here I thought your behavior sprang from the whole not-being-able-to-change-shape quandary,” she quipped back sharply.
He grinned. ”Well, that too.”
”Werewolves without pack leaders tend to get into trouble?” Lady Maccon wondered.
No one said anything.
”I don't suppose you are going to tell us what trouble you got into overseas?” Alexia tried to look as though she wasn't avidly interested, taking her husband's arm casually.
Silence.
”Well, I think we have all had enough excitement for one evening. Since you have been human these many months, I a.s.sume you are keeping daylight hours?”
A nod from Lady Kingair.
”In that case”-Lady Maccon straightened her dress-”Conall and I shall bid you good night.”
”We shall?” Lord Maccon looked dubious.
”Good night,” said his wife firmly to the pack and clavigers. Grabbing her parasol in one hand and her husband's arm in the other, she practically dragged the earl from the room.
Lord Maccon lumbered obediently after her.
The room they left behind was filled with half-thoughtful, half-amused faces.
”What are you about, wife?” Conall asked as soon as they were upstairs and out of everyone's earshot.
His wife plastered herself up against him and kissed him fiercely.
<script>