Devil’s Mate(18)

“So what? A man doesn’t have to be liked to rule.”

“Any man can rule, but that doesn’t mean he’ll rule well. Remember when you told me that?”

“I’ve had enough of this,” Brand said, turning away.

“Open your eyes, Father! You must see what others already see! If you don’t, we'll face anarchy within our own pack.”

“Get out!” Brand’s words were heavy and deep as thunder.

Sebastian turned and walked out. Moira she took his arm and led him to her own room. There was a fountain with a waterfall, small and self-contained, in one corner. She led him there and turned on some music. Most of the wolves had incredibly acute hearing; they deliberately tuned out most things, but the twins knew that if anyone were lurking about right now to eavesdrop, it would be very dangerous.

“I heard what you said to Father,” Moira said quietly. “He won’t listen to you, you know. He’s blinded by his love for Lana, and I believe he always will be.”

“I know. If you heard, then surely some of the others heard as well.”

“You were not saying anything that they haven’t already thought or said amongst themselves. Anarchy is coming, Sebastian, and Gregory is stirring the pot more and more each day. He wants that, don’t you see? It would be his one big opportunity to remove everything standing in his way.”

“You mean me.”

“I mean all of us: you, me, Father and Devon.”

Moira did not have to explain any more. If anarchy came, death would follow. If rogues tore apart the entire line of succession, Gregory would be the only one left who could rule by law.

Sebastian did not want to believe that his half-brother was capable of killing his own father or anyone else in his family, but he knew this was untrue. “If I die you must keep Devon alive,” Moira said. “He is so much like his father, except Liam remembered what it was like to run free and Devon has never known that.

“I don’t think Gregory can turn Devon as he did Liam,” Moira continued. “We both know that if you die before Devon, that it would be me who inherits. If you and I were both gone, Devon would be the next in line simply because he is already a century old and proven, while Gregory is far too young. None of the kings of the Fallen Council would allow Gregory to become King unless there was nobody else.”

The twins sat silent. Sebastian knew how much she mourned for Liam; she had followed him around from the day she’d been born, it seemed. Liam had been centuries older than she, and the match had not been looked on with much favor until it became clear how deeply the two loved each other.

Devon was all she had left of that union  . Liam had not been too old to mate, but his child-bearing strength was diminishing with every year and they had never had another child. Devon had never run free; like most of the Fallen, he wore heavy silver around his neck or wrists to keep the shift from happening.

They did shift — they had to. As part of the Covenant they had to shift at least four times a year or die. But even when they shifted, they were not entirely free. The ranches upon which they hunted had heavy silver chain-link fences surrounding the lands, keeping errant wolves locked within thousand-acre prisons they themselves had designed.

For those who had never run free, for those who had once been Wolf and nothing else, the Covenant was especially difficult. Even those younger than the originals, like Liam and Brand, often chafed at the restrictions that the Covenant had placed upon them.

Once upon a time, they had shifted with every moon — thirteen moons per mortal calendar year. Thirteen blissful nights of feeling the freedom that only shifting could bring.

They all knew that the Covenant was necessary. If they were to remain upon the earth and to remain strong, there must be law. Sebastian’s pack had turned to outlaw ways. They had discovered motorcycles and crime. They had discovered money and power as a way to stay nomadic. But being bikers meant drawing attention to themselves on a constant basis, even as they deflected it.

Other packs found their own way to survive the restrictions of the Covenant. Sebastian often wondered what people would say if they had known that some of the most notorious criminals in history had simply been werewolves looking for freedom.

“I had a vision, Sebastian.”

It had been decades since Moira had seen anything. Sebastian knew this was important, so he leaned forward to hear her speak even more quietly than they had been before. “What was it?”

“I saw a wolf outside of the Tribe’s sacred circle. I saw a Queen leaving her people and racing for a wolf. That Queen had the ability to subvert nature itself, Sebastian. She could fly.”