Ty eased past him, moving until he stood slightly before Keen and to the right. It was a position of dominance without being protective. One that said Keen was his bear, but he could stand on his own paws. At least his eldest brother gave him that much. Van still looked like he wanted to go after Trista.
He’d really hate to have to kill one of his brothers. It’d piss off his mom.
“Anyone?” He tried again and the men in the room exchanged glances, his enemies looking for a sign from the others before stepping forward. It was like that, then. They were working together somehow.
His dad pushed past him and Trista, taking up a stance that mirrored Ty’s. It surprised him, this protection and assistance. What was his father playing at?
“Van?” Dad’s voice cut through the tense silence.
Van shook his head, blazing glare focused on Keen for a moment before shifting to Trista. “It’s better this way. He’ll be free of her. You have to see how that’s better for him. It will mess up some things, but…”
Lauren reacted before Keen had a chance to let his brother’s words sink into his heart. The pregnant woman yanked her arm from Van’s grasp and spun on him, shoving his shoulder until they faced one another.
“What do you mean ‘free’? You said we were here to support Keen. That you still had an issue with her being a hyena, but that you wanted to help your brother,” Lauren snapped and snarled. Very threatening considering she was a human.
“Quiet,
human
. What place does she have in this room?” That came from the older male beside Quinn. He wasn’t sure what the man had to do with the proceedings, but Keen didn’t like him already.
“Oh, bite me,” Lauren growled, curling her lip. Pregnancy had made the woman scary.
“Female…” The older man took a step forward, his eyes darkening to black, and that had Van shoving Lauren behind him, answering the male’s rumble.
Keen spared a glance for Reid, noting the smirk that graced his features. He really wanted to neuter that wolf.
“Enough.” Ty’s voice was quiet, but firm, and everyone fell into silence.
Except for Lauren. No, the woman stomped from Van’s side and came straight toward their small gathering, pushing her way behind Ty. He glanced over his shoulder and found her with one arm wrapped around his mother’s waist while the other was circling Mia’s.
He turned his attention back to Van, narrowing his eyes. “How will I suddenly find myself ‘rid’ of Trista, Van? Do you hate her, hate me, so much that you’d betray your brother and his mate?”
“She’s not your real mate, Keen.” Van shook his head. “She’s bad news and it’s good that you haven’t—”
“
She’s mine!
” he roared, shaking the entire home with the strength of the sound. “Bound by claim and bite, she’s
mine
.”
Trista’s grip tightened but he didn’t scent fear from her, only pride.
Van’s face paled, skin lightening until it was nearly white. “You…” He swallowed hard, Adam’s apple bobbing along his neck, and Keen’s bear was tempted to rip out the flesh. Van was involved in something, a plan to separate him and Trista. That wasn’t going to happen. “You bit her, you’re fully mated?”
“Yes,” he hissed, daring his brother to comment further.
“Oh, shit.” Van’s gaze shifted to Reid’s and then Quinn’s. “You can’t do this.”
“Oh,” Quinn smirked. “I definitely can.”
Keen gave Quinn his full focus, noting the excitement filling his gaze as well as the fur that covered the man’s scarred arms. The male at his side was similarly eager for what was to come.
“Ty? Do the introductions.” He didn’t blink twice at giving his brother an order and Ty was smart enough not to comment on the lapse. Keen was too close to the edge to beg and scrape for anyone, not even the clan’s Itan.
Ty raised his arm and pointed around the room, repeating names as his focus changed. “Reid, Redby Alpha. Adrienne, Redby wolf.”
“Beta,” Reid put in. “I made her my Beta.”
“Right. Beta,” Ty added.
“Progressive of you.” Keen raised an eyebrow.
Reid returned the expression. “Convenient.”
“Hmm…” Keen hummed.
When he said nothing else, Ty continued. “Quinn Foster, Southeast Keeper.”
Keen knew who he was. He was more interested in the other male.
“And Malcolm Porter, Second-in-Command to the Southeast Itan.”
Malcolm tilted his head in acknowledgment. Keen didn’t bother returning the gesture. He hadn’t recalled meeting the male during the Southeast Itan’s visit almost seven months ago, but the clan had been in an uproar.
Every opponent in the room was part of a puzzle and he was anxious to fit the pieces together. It wasn’t until they were aligned in a pretty row that he’d realize the shit storm that’d erupted around them.
“Any reason Terrence didn’t want to tag along?” He kept his tone smooth and free of emotion beyond passing curiosity.
Ever since he’d spoken with the Southeast Itan months ago, he’d been on a first-name basis with the powerful male. They’d eventually moved from speaking about the laws broken by Mia’s grandfather to their favorite sports teams and the antics of his growing and adult children. They weren’t close friends, but they weren’t strangers either. Terrence appreciated Keen’s computer talents and knowledge while Keen appreciated talking with a man who took the time to know him as a worthy bear, not as an Abrams brother.
Malcolm bristled. “How dare you speak of—?”
Quinn placed a hand on the older man’s arm, cutting off his posturing. “Unfortunately, Itan Jensen is otherwise occupied. We are here in his place.”
“Uh-huh.” Keen crossed his arms over his chest, uncaring if his aggressive stance annoyed the opposing males. “What’s this about?”
Van approached him from his right and he looked to his brother. When Van opened his mouth as if to speak, he cut him off. “Oh, you’re not talking right now. And depending on what happens next, you may never will.”
He’d make sure of it. He’d lived with disinterest, survived the agony of his punishment only to be thrust back into the world of apathy. Now that he’d found something to live for, he refused to acknowledge anyone who threatened his new peace.
“So, who’s first?”
Quinn stepped forward, the Second-in-Command at his back. Typical old male. Useless.
“When you were fourteen…”
Screw it. Keen would finish the story. Give a nice summary for everyone in the room. His father knew most of it, but he doubted many others did. “I fell in love with Jessa Clark, but she didn’t want me. She wanted to be fucked by you. When I found you two together, I beat the ever living shit out of you and hurt her in the process. I thought you were dead. You weren’t. I was punished and have lived with the guilt and remorse every day. Oh, and you were an asshole then. It seems like you still are now.” He looked around the room, letting his gaze linger on the other males, shifting his attention from the Second-in-Command as he still cowered, to Reid and his she-bitch, then Van’s still pale face. “Anyone got anything else they wanna know?”
Ty leaned in. “You were fourteen.”
“Yup.”
“He was—what—seventeen then?”
Keen nodded. “Not long after his birthday. A few months maybe.”
“So, he had the beginnings of an adult’s bulk and two years of training? And you kicked his ass?” The disbelief was easily heard in his brother’s voice and Keen’s bear didn’t care for it at all.
Letting the bear rush forward, he increased in size, his teeth sliding free in a flash as fur rippled over his skin. He knew his abilities and knew how they compared to the others in the room. He was faster, larger, stronger… He just didn’t want to do anything with all that power.
Keen stared at Ty. “Yes.”
Quinn coughed, bringing everyone’s attention back to him. “Your father and mine argued about your punishment and it was ultimately placed before my grandfather as he was the Southeast Keeper at that time.”
Keen wasn’t sure how that’d all gone down, but it seemed he was about to find out.
“Grandfather heard testimony, including Jessa’s, and it was decided that, as a young male, you’d assumed more emotion was attached to your friendship than what truly existed and felt you were defending a mate. Your strength notwithstanding, he determined you were a child in need of retraining.”
A child shouldn’t have to endure daily beatings that merely enraged his animal rather than trained it.
“The thing about it is, Jessa has had… a change of heart.”
Keen froze, tumbling the words through his mind. “What do you mean?”
“She has admitted that you two planned to assault me, kill me, because you were jealous of what I had.”
He snorted, he couldn’t help it. It was too funny for words. “What did you have that I didn’t?”
Quinn’s voice was filled with ice, his eyes holding nothing but malice and hate. “A loving family.”
The words speared his heart and he sucked in a harsh breath. The pain dug into him, the truth making it ache even more, and he fought to appear unaffected. Anger flowed from his father, the scent tinged with regret while pure confusion floated from Ty’s direction. Of course his brother wouldn’t understand.
“No objection?” An evil smile played around Quinn’s lips.
“We didn’t plan anything. Jessa may have been…” He hesitated. The words “a slut” popped to his mouth, but he swallowed them back. “… free with her favors, but I doubt she’d fuck you just to lure you to your death.”
The Keeper shrugged. “And yet she admitted she did.”
“And what punishment did she suffer for her part?”
“Oh, her cooperation was rewarded with a suspended sentence. You, however, won’t get so lucky.” He clucked his tongue. “You should have shown more control. Now you’ll have to pay for that.”
Keen kept his gaze centered on the too cocky Keeper while rolling through the laws of the clan. God, he knew
today’s
laws, but not those from years ago. Each year they were changed, tweaked, and refined. What was valid then might not be valid today and who knew what it’d be like ten years from now.
“What’s the charge and how will I pay?” So many laws overlapped.
“Premeditated initiation of a Challenge outside a clan sanctioned gathering.” Quinn laid the charge at his feet and Keen waited for the rest. The male gloated, happiness spreading with each passing second. “As for your sentence, I’m going to be merciful. My options are death or permanent marking of your disgrace and banishment.” Quinn’s eyes deepened to black. “I choose to dig my claws into your face and retroactive banishment.”
“What…?” Keen furrowed his brow.
Malcolm cackled then, crazed joy overtaking him while the sounds echoed off the walls. “You won’t be tainting the bears further, Abrams. Your brothers are destroying their lines, but you won’t add to the destruction of Grayslake.”
Trista fisted his shirt, her fear palpable in the room, overriding every other scent. “Keen, oh God.”
His bear reacted to her panic, pushing forward, forcing his body to swell and prepare to shift. He wouldn’t tolerate anyone scaring her. Not his family and sure as hell not the Southeast Second. He didn’t give a fuck about the man’s position when it came to Trista.
“What does that mean?”
“Oh, shit,” she gasped.
“Trista?”
“She knows.” Quinn’s gaze shifted from him to Trista and Keen was quick to cut off the man’s line of sight.
“Trista?” Keen tried again.
“He’s right. The laws say he can do that. And banished retroactively means you haven’t been part of the Grayslake clan since you were fourteen. Which is fine, because a banishment strips your clan association, but not your family. You were still allowed on clan land as long as your family is in power. But,” she faltered, her breathing audible and harsh in the room. “But because you’re not part of the Grayslake clan, it means I’m not either. So…”
“My objection and ruling regarding her presence stands.” Reid’s voice rang out, booming and loud as it overrode Trista’s. “And Trista Scott, bastard daughter to Brigham Scott and half-sister to Heath Scott, will face Adrienne in a Challenge to the death. She’s either strong enough to hold her place in the territories or she dies.”
Reid’s shrug gave off the appearance that he didn’t care either way, but the flare in his eyes, the hunger, told a different story.
Ty stepped forward even further and put his growing body between Keen and Reid. “I claim her now as part of my clan. You’re not touching her, Reid.”
“Ty? What are you doing?” Keen didn’t need Ty to fight his battles.
His brother looked back at him over his shoulder, a hint of regret etched in his features. “I may not understand, and part of me may not like it, but she’s yours and you’re my brother even if I’ve been a shitty one.”
With that, Ty looked at Reid and they waited for the wolf’s response.
It was another feral, crazed grin. “The thing about today’s laws is the timing. You can’t save another by making broad claims after the fact any longer. She was violating the laws by staying on your land for too long. As a leader of my own pack, upon finding a shifter in violation of the law, I made a ruling and sought to enforce the law.”
Trista’s hands twisted and knotted his shirt, her body pressed firmly against his. Any other time, he’d be aroused by the nearness. Right now, it fueled his rage.
His words tickled Keen’s brain, had him sifting the words and picking them apart. “But you didn’t press the issue earlier in the front yard when I claimed her because…” Deep red filled the man’s features and Reid’s attention flicked to Quinn for the barest of moments. “I see. Because you didn’t know that my claiming her didn’t negate your ruling. You didn’t know that whatever I did—claiming her—couldn’t save her from the Challenge. You were ignorant about the intricacies then and Quinn helped you out with that when he came into the area.”
Reid snarled and stepped forward, fur sprouting and coating his face as his lips and jaw half-transformed to his wolf. “I’m not stupid, asshole.”
“Ignorant means uninformed, not stupid. And that response was ignorant, asshole,” Keen volleyed back.
Panic had him lashing out, fear had him panting, and Trista’s terror had his bear scraping for release. If only… For now, he had to step back, had to regroup and figure out a way to keep Trista safe. He didn’t care about his punishment, about Quinn marking him and being banished from the clan. Nothing mattered but Tris and her safety.