Watching Out For Fangs (The Cloverleah Pack Book 7) (13 page)

Chapter Sixteen

Josh felt his form shimmer, and seconds later he, three other wolves, a Fae and two vampires all appeared in what looked to be a plush sitting room. An elegant looking blond woman was laying on the couch, while a skinny, insipid blond looking vamp seemed to be trying to win her attention. This was Ermine?

Apparently so. “What the fuck are you doing here, brother,” the skinny man said. “You have no right to be in my quarters, no right to be out of the cells. Guards, Guards, attend me,” he yelled. Josh could hear the sound of pounding feet as Vadim strode over to his brother.

The door to the room burst open and ten guards came running in.  Josh immediately put himself between the guards and his mate, his friends backing him up. The sight of four wolves all snarling and showing teeth seemed to have a quietening effect on things.

“This is a challenge for the Regency,” Vadim roared, the room filling with power. “No guard may interfere. I am Lord Vadim D’Arcy, of the ruling family line. This is my right. Guards, stand down or be disciplined.”

“No. No. I don’t accept the challenge. You can’t take away my position and you have no right coming in here with fucking wolves. Lorraine will have a fit about the hair on the carpet. Guards take them away and send for the cleaners.” Josh almost snorted in his wolf form. Ermine seemed to think he was still in charge.

The guards, who all seemed really pleased to see Vadim, just stood there. “Er, sir, it’s a familial challenge. You have to take it under vampire law. We can er…take the dogs out, but we can’t interfere now Lord Vadim has issued his challenge.”

“You won’t be touching my wolves either,” Vadim snarled. “These men are with me, my friends, and as you Ermine have done nothing but pander to wolves for the past year or more, I’m sure a bit of hair isn’t going to bother you or your wife.”

“What’s that Fae doing here? Is he the one who cursed my beloved brother? Kill him.” Lorraine had finally seemed to realize she wasn’t the center of attention anymore, and clearly didn’t like it so she fixated on Aelfric.

Jax growled, and all of a sudden the room got smaller as he let his Dire wolf form free, the smaller wolf beside him doing the same thing.

“Nobody touches the Fae,” Vadim said, grinning at the look of shock on the guard’s faces. “You’re wasting time, Ermine. I’ve challenged you, now face me and fight, right here, right now and if any of your guards touch anyone with me, their heads will be rolling next.”

The head guard looked around, probably trying to find something to do.  Preferably out of the room.  He was closest to Jax who hadn’t stopped growling. He caught sight of Max, who was leaning against the wall, just watching how things were playing out.

“Lord Lipovsky, will you be witnessing the challenge, sir?”

“I will, and my friends should be at the front door shortly, so please ensure they are allowed in.  Have anyone currently in the coven sent into the ballroom for an announcement in fifteen minutes. If anyone resists, then hold them in the cells until further notice.”

“Yes, Lord Lipovsky.” The guard looked a lot happier now that he had something to do, and herded his men back out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

Josh went and stood by Vadim’s side, watching Ermine closely. The guy was a weasel, there was no other word for it. He was pleased when Vadim rested his hand on his head.

“I have issued a challenge, Ermine. I have a witness to the challenge. Your guards have been informed there will be a legitimate coven takeover within the next fifteen minutes. Have I missed anything?”

Ermine was sitting with Lorraine as though that would make a difference.

“You’ll upset mother. She won’t like it if you kill me.” Ermine seemed sure he had made a valid point.  But Josh felt Vadim shrug.

“I spoke to mother just twenty minutes ago. She will be sad about your demise, but she knows that you will never change your ways. Your lust for power, your uncaring attitude towards your coven members, your total disregard for donors. You broke our mother’s heart with your stupidity and lack of honor. She understands why I have to do this.”

“Let me speak to her. I can show her how much I can change. Just let me keep my position and I will, I give you my word.”

But Vadim shook his head. “Your word means nothing. You have had all the time in the world to change, and change you have. You’ve got worse, especially since you married again.”

“But that’s why I have to stay Regent, don’t you see? Lorraine is pregnant, she will give birth to the heir. She deserves everything she wants and more. You prefer men, so not likely to ever have children. Lorraine is necessary to the continuation of the D’Arcy line. You can’t kill the father of her child.”

Josh turned his nose towards Lorraine, and then sniffed hard, moving a bit closer. He smelled perfume, a lot of perfume, but…. He backed up towards Vadim again and used the mind link.

She’s not pregnant.

Not even possibly?  We can usually scent the changes in the blood, but she wears so much damn perfume I’ve never been able to tell.

Wolf nose sweetheart. That will be why she’s wearing the perfume. She is no more pregnant than I am.

Fates, you can’t can you?

Not even maybe, sweetheart. Now focus.

Vadim’s face remained a mask, his lips just tilted up enough to show the hint of a smile.

“Your wife has been lying to you Ermine. She isn’t carrying your child, she isn’t carrying anyone’s chi…”

“That’s not true. How dare you spread such lies.” Lorraine leapt to her feet, clearly intent on doing Vadim some harm. Josh moved quickly, but Aelfric was quicker.  All of a sudden Lorraine was contained in a glass case, and although her mouth was still moving, not a sound could be heard.

“Knew I forgot something,” Aelfric said brightly, as he stepped back between his mates.  “Carry on.”

“Lorraine isn’t pregnant, Ermine. She has lied to you, manipulated you and what’s worse, is you let her.”

Ermine had crumpled on the couch and if he hadn’t been such a shit, and didn’t pose such a threat to the pack, Josh would have felt sorry for him.  As it was, all he wished was for Vadim to hurry up.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing all this?” Ermine cried out. “You live in your mansion, you don’t care about anyone, and now you are challenging me for a position I’ve held since your beloved Edward died. You don’t care about wolf packs, or territory or anything.  What the fuck are you doing?”

Vadim strode closer, leaning over Ermine as he cowered on the couch. “Don’t ever speak Edward’s name. He would have made a better Regent than you and he was human. Do you know who the men with me are? Do you know where they come from?”

“Atlanta pack?”

“
Cloverleah
Pack. The pack you want to wipe out so you can give that bag of bones you call a wife a piece of dirt. I’ve met the Omega you keep trying to use as a bargaining chip – he’s a kind, decent sweet man who wants nothing more than to live in peace with his mate and his friends. He never did anything to you and yet you’re hell bent on wrecking his life. You had no right.”

“I still don’t understand why you care,” Ermine shot back. “You don’t care about anyone. What the fuck do half a dozen wolves from some piss-assed pack in the middle of nowhere have to do with you?”

“Because, thanks to you, I found my true match in Cloverleah. Found him, claimed him and now, when you threaten the men at that piss-assed pack from the middle of nowhere, you are threatening my reason for living. Do you understand that?”

Vadim was shouting now, and Ermine could only nod his head, his face scrunched in fear.

“Good. It will be the last thing you ever do,” and with those words Vadim’s claws came out faster than Josh could blink and seconds later Ermine’s head rolled from his body. Still encased in glass, Lorraine’s mouth opened in a silent scream but Vadim didn’t seem to care. He was staring at the head on the floor, the sightless eyes still open in shock. Fortunately Aelfric hadn’t forgotten her.

“What are we going to do with her?” He said gesturing to the glass enclosure.

“Can you zap her to the basement? I can take care of her later, if you like,” Max said, pushing himself off the wall and coming to stand by Vadim’s side.

“Just don’t marry her,” Vadim said. He laughed when Max gave a fake shudder, and Aelfric waved his hands, and the case disappeared.

“You have to take the head,” Max said.  Josh thought he couldn’t have heard correctly, but Vadim seemed to be nodding in agreement.

That’s gross!

The coven needs proof that Ermine is dead. A head is usually proof enough.

At least get something to wrap it up in, you’ll drip all over your suit and the carpet.

So practical babe, so practical.

But Vadim found a cover and wrapped Ermine’s head in it, tucking it under his arm.

Can you shift?

Er, yeah, if you want, but I thought you wanted us in wolf form until we got back to Cloverleah.

This is the last time I will stand in front of my coven,
Vadim replied.
I want to do it with my mate by my side.

Josh shifted, taking the clothes that Aelfric gave him and putting them on quickly, flicking his hair out of his collar and hoping he looked respectable. Then the motley crew of vampire, wolf shifter and Fae left the plush sitting room, still immaculate except for a headless crumpled body and a growing blood stain on the couch. Somewhere on the walk through endless corridors, ornate rooms and fancy fixtures, Vadim took his hand and held on tight. Apparently Vadim wasn’t as unaffected by killing his brother as he made out.

Chapter Seventeen

Vadim could sense Josh’s thoughts and he knew his caring wolf shifter was worried he was upset at having to kill his brother and to a small degree, he was. He had tried, when he had been talking to Ermine, to find something, some reason to banish the man instead of killing him. But the callous way Ermine had talked about the wolves, the way he brought up Edward, Vadim knew there was nothing worth saving in the weak man.  Letting him and Lorraine live would have meant that he and Josh would have been looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives and Vadim wanted his mate safe.

His reason for living. As soon as he said the words, he knew they were true and now Vadim held onto his mate’s hand like a lifeline, scared of what that truth meant to his vow. In just a few days his mate had become his everything – a situation Vadim never thought he would ever be in again.

At the door of the ballroom, Vadim straightened his back and raised his head high. Max flung open the doors for him, and flanked by the wolves, with Max and Josh on either side of him, and Aelfric falling in behind, he strode straight through the gathered vampires and humans, heading for the stage where his mother sat in regal splendor. Although her eyes were sad as she glanced at the package he held under his arms, she nodded, showing her approval.

Walking to the middle of the stage, Vadim turned and faced his coven, for what he believed would be the last time. He had to go through the formalities, to ensure that Max and his mother would have a safe and hassle free reign. Whipping off the cover from Ermine’s head, he held it up, showing the crowd. There were a few gasps, someone cried out, but slowly every single person in on the floor sank to their knees, paying their respects to their new coven leader.

“I am Lord Vadim D’Arcy, eldest son of the D’Arcy line. As is my right, under vampire law, I have challenged and beaten my brother Ermine. Is there any here who challenge me for the Regency? Who would take this coven away from the D’Arcy line?”

You never said you had to do that?
Josh’s angry whisper whipped through his head.

Formality,
Vadim sent back, keeping his eyes on the crowd. No one would even dare look at him and Vadim was secretly pleased. A coven changing hands was the only time another vampire could attempt to take the coven, substituting the ruling family line with his own. It barely ever happened, especially in the Atlanta coven, but the offer to fight had to be made.

“Please stand,” Vadim said when the requisite five minutes had passed. “Anyone who no longer wishes to be a part of this coven, now is your time to speak or leave. You are free to go wherever you like, but if you leave this coven, you will no longer be welcome in this territory for any reason. Speak now if you have something to say.”

There was silence for a moment, and then a hand was raised. “Speak. You wish to leave?” Vadim said, watching as a young vampire came forward. He had curly dark hair, and a round face, his body lean and from his scent he was clearly young. Vadim didn’t know him but then he didn’t know many of the youngsters in the coven anymore.

“No Lord Vadim,” the vampire said quickly. “Please, the Regent…he…er…he wanted us to fight wolves sir. I see you have wolves with you and I wondered if…well, if there is going to be more fighting of wolves, for wolves, me and my family would rather leave. We just want to live our lives in peace, the way we used to.”

“What’s your name, son?” Vadim said quietly.

“Bertram Palenski, sir.”

“Bertram, these wolves with me are not from the Atlanta pack. They are from Cloverleah.”

“The pack we’re meant to kill?” Bertram looked shocked at the idea.

“Not anymore,” Vadim said firmly. He turned and looked at the rest of his coven, well his for the next five minutes.

“Listen to me, all of you. What Ermine tried to do was wrong. We have been here longer than the town itself. Our territories have always been well established – we have plenty of room to hunt and play and build our lives among the humans if we wish. I know most of you know nothing about shifters, but they are decent people, just like us. The men who got killed on the last escapade to Cloverleah were trying to remove a young man from his home and the people he loved. None of us have the right to do that.”

“All contact with the Atlanta pack will cease from this moment. I know they still plan to attack Cloverleah and I will be helping the wolves there with their security efforts. But that is for personal reasons, not political. This man here, Josh Francis, is from the Cloverleah pack and he is my true match. I’m sure you all understand how important that is, and why I must leave to ensure the safety of his territory and his pack, the same as I have done here.”

“Does that mean you killed Ermine because of your mate? You didn’t care about the coven?” Bertram didn’t seem to be able to keep his mouth shut.  But the boy had made a valid point.

“I have always cared about this coven,” Vadim said loudly. “I know those of you who are old enough remember when I lost my way, but before that I was a good leader, a fair man and one who tried hard to keep you all safe and well. I am doing that again. The powers in Cloverleah are unmatched in the supernatural world. The wolves there are favored by the Fates, finding their mates and creating a close knit group that should be nurtured not destroyed. I won’t allow this coven to be decimated by taking on something that does not concern them.  Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Lord Vadim.” The shouts rang around the room and Vadim was pleased to see the response was largely positive. He did have a couple more things to say, though, and hopefully they would be as well received.

“I took out Ermine to save this coven, to protect my mate, but more importantly to remind you all of the laws I put in place more than five hundred years before. Laws relating to honor, respecting our donors, caring for those in our community, and working together instead of getting involved in shit over territory disputes and crap that was resolved when this town was forged and the wolves settled here. We may live in modern times, but our histories should not be forgotten.”

Vadim looked around him. His mother had a proud look on her face. The wolves were laying down, apparently bored with the whole thing. Max and Aelfric stood to one side of him, Aelfric giving him two thumbs up when he caught the man's eyes, Max standing completely at ease, simply letting Vadim go through the necessary rituals. Lastly, he looked at Josh, his mate with the beaming smile and the beautiful eyes who looked at him as though he had hung the sun and moon combined. Vadim knew he was making the right decision.

Squeezing Josh’s hand, Vadim turned to the room once more. “My friends, the Fates have called me to Cloverleah. I don’t know why, but I do know that my mate here, Josh, would be very unhappy living in our fair city, so I am going with him…”

“Maybe you should promise him a garden,” someone called out from the crowd and Vadim smiled as laughter broke out around the room.

“I’m not the garden type,” Josh said with a bashful grin of his own.

“No, my mate is not one for gifts and flowers, or land. He needs his home and my place is with him, for as long as the Fates give us. As I have no idea how long I will be gone, I have asked my good friend Maximillian Lipovsky to act as Regent Proctor in my stead, and he has agreed to care for you all in my absence. My mother, the Dowager Regent has given her consent to the appointment, and I ask you all now, to show your respect for your new coven leader.  I give you Regent Proctor Lipovsky.”

As the crowd roared their approval, Vadim stepped back, pulling Josh towards his mother. He had time for just one more goodbye, collect up some of his things and then they could head back to Cloverleah. With any luck he would have time for some loving with his mate, and a nap.  After the incident with Ermine, Vadim was in desperate need of both. A sip of his mate’s delectable blood wouldn’t go amiss either.