Chapter 19

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Noises.

That's what woke her up from her unconsciousness with a start.

Noises all around her, he opened her eyes slowly, blinking them trying to focus, her head was throbbing as if a thousand wolves were all howling in her dead and something was biting in to her waist and across her torso, biting hard.

Shouts, screams, loud popping noises.

She blinked slowly, her body still waking up still regaining focus she looked around, the window next to her broken she could see outside, men were running around, hands extended, sounds emitting from their arms extended..then she realized guns..they were holding guns. Why were they holding guns?

And why were they all upside down?

And then she realized, it was not them, it was her. She was upside down or rather the whole car was upside down and she was stuck in it and the thing biting in to her was the seatbelt. With a shaking hand she found the clasp of the belt still holding her and then released it.

She fell on the roof of the car and grunted at the impact of the fall and then winced. She was now on all fours on the roof of the belly up car. She peered out of the window still looking at people running around fanatically.

Then she saw him. Her eyes widened and senses sharpened. Sebastian.

"S.." she tried calling out to him but her throat was dry and words refused to come out. It was chaos out there. One fact penetrated her mind, they had been attacked, yet again.

Anger poured in to her, so much anger that she was surprised and then she realized her wolf was trying to manifest and the beast was trying to break free.

She tried to calm down and get her beast under control, it would be unwise to release her wolf without knowing all the facts and studying the surrounding. The beast would not see what a calculative human brain could see and analyze. The beast relayed on instinct.

Still steadily trying to breathe in and out, she looked out of the shattered window to assess the situation. She saw one of her men getting killed. Fury build up in her as she struggled to gain control.

And then out of her peripheral vison she saw Sebastian shoot at someone furiously and suddenly she saw him falter and fall, she saw the blood spill.

Her breathing stopped.

Her heart beat slowed...

Ice cold feeling seeped in to her veins.

Her hands were no longer shaking, her mind was no longer in turmoil, she blocked all the noises around her.

With absolute calm she undressed, neatly placed her discarded clothes in a pile next to her and then let out a deep breath.

Her heart thundered and the beast took over with relish.

The beast...now unchained was totally in control. The alpha which ruled over a thousand others, the power of alphas flowed through her veins like charges of electricity and then she leaped out of her car, breaking open the remains of the door.

The wolf between the battle of humans form disoriented a lot of them and the fighting stopped momentarily.

She howled a war cry they unsettled her enemies, for the power of the Roma wolf was weighing down upon them and then she turned and looked at the men attacking her convoy and jumped at them.

She made an easy target as everyone focused on her but her men also converged around her giving her covering fire and taking out distracted attackers.

She leapt and jumped and criss crossed around, making herself a difficult target to pin point and as she zig zagged in a break neck speed her paws and razor sharp claws swiped at the right places of her attackers, necks and arteries were being cut.

The attackers were having a terrible time, trying to shoot at the mad wolf cutting their numbers down from within and at the same time trying to cover themselves from the fire from the Roma guards. But their primary target was this wolf so they all focused on her. She moved quickly between vehicles for cover and her men moved behind her providing her cover. They fired, when the enemy ducked for cover she leapt in to their midst and tore them apart, slowly but surely their attackers numbers started to dwindle and finally the remaining few were taken out by her men.

None of their attackers survived. Her men were thoroughly checking them just in case so that no nasty surprise popped up. She ran to where Sebastian was who sat up groggily holding the side of his bleeding abdomen.

She put her nose and took a whiff.

"I will survive, clean exit." Sebastian told panting "Clearly not silver, I don't think they had enough time to plan for silver bullets, not sure but not complaining."

He could feel his internal wounds already healing, he should be as good as new within ten minutes.

"Fuck!" he said panting. "They attack us when we are going to council meeting, someone is getting desperate."

Some of the men came over and helped him up. As Roma stood aside.

"All clear sir" The man told Sebastian.

"Good, did we call for backup?" He asked.

"On the way sir" The guard responded.

Roma trotted back to the upside down car and crawled in. The men consciously did not look at it because they figured she would be changing back.

"The backup should be here in less than five sir, what is the plan?" The guard asked. They needed orders.

"Get the plain to refuel and be ready on the tarmac, we go to the airport and fly back"

"NO" They head the no firmly from the car where Roma had disappeared in to and she slowly crawled back out of the car in human form. Her clothes were torn at shoulder, she had some blood on her neck and forehead and she had dirt stuck all over her for all the crawling she had to do to get out of the car.

"What?" Sebastian panted. He was already feeling a little better.

"We don't go back, we go to the council meeting" Roma insisted.

"Like this?" he asked ridiculously. They were a mess.

"Yes, exactly like this. Let the council see what happened with us first hand. Let them see the danger Lockbourne presents to them. If he can do this to us today, he can do the same to them tomorrow. I want to go to the council meeting and take that son of a bitch down, no more hiding" Her beast was growling in her head, she wanted Lockbourne's head and nothing less would satisfy her and she for once was completely aligned with her beast.

Their backup arrived in the form of six SUV's loaded with men and guns.

"Let's go" she told them and walked towards the closed SUV.

***

They had been waiting for Roma for the past thirty minutes. Lockbourne has summoned one of the council officials in to the chamber where all the representatives were waiting and asked him to call Sebastian, their point of contact for Roma. He called while standing there and put the phone on loud speaker. It rang and rang and went in to voicemail, he repeated this activity four time when Lockbourne finally dismissed him.

He could barely hide his smile. Hopefully the men they sent out finished her off. Unfortunately due to the short time in planning they could not plan it extremely well, they had to put a rag tag of men and send them out. Hoping that the element of surprise would work in their favor. If Roma did make it out alive she would be hightailing back to America by now and he would influence the council to get an outcome he wanted. The way he saw it, it was a win-win situation for him.

He leaned back in his chair and started "So, it seems Roma is too busy to attend the council, we must continue without her in such case."

"This is very unusual" The Asia alpha said "Roma said she will be making it and there were no change of plans, this concerns us" Everyone knew Asia was in Roma's pockets and firmly in it.

"Yes, what is concerning is that she snubbed this council's invitation, she snubbed her chance of making peace and avoiding bloodshed, she has insulted every member of this council and clearly letting us know that we don't matter in her scheme of things." Lockbourne said looking at Russia and Australia, they were vital to his plan and if they backed him up the rest would fall in to place.

"If Roma said she would make it, she would have unless something unforeseeable happened, I suggest we wait until we find that out." Africa, one more of Roma loyalist suggested. He was worried too, this was too important to be missed.

"And yet, none of her enormous staff at her disposable managed to give us the courtesy of call and inform us. No sir, I think she is sending us a message by doing this. She wants to prove that what we do here does not matter to her, the council does not matter to her. Which is of a grave concern indeed. This council has helped keep peace between us for centuries and now if Roma turns rogue and disregards this institution then what happens to everything we fought for here and made possible by this council? No sir, we need to go ahead and decide. No postponing. If Roma really wanted to be here, she would ensure she was here, come what may."

There was a moment of silence and then Australia broke the silence "Lets continue" and Russia nodded in agreement. Asia and Africa was now a minority. Lockbourne smiled, it was a good start. This is how he envisioned his night going.

The enforces were guarding the council building and protecting it. It was one of the duty of the enforcers.

In fact David, the head of enforcers was standing outside the meeting chamber door guarding it, he would not move from his place until the meeting ended.

His radio crackled. "We have incoming"

The men at the gates stood as they saw a convoy approaching and as it slowed down to a stop.

One of the men approached the lead car of the convoy as the window rolled down on the driver side.

"Her highness, Evelyn Roma of Roma to attend the council meeting" the driver announced.

The guard nodded his head to the other guards standing at the gate and then they immediately opened the gates and gave way.

"Roma has arrived" David's radio crackled. The drama would shortly begin. Lockbourne had been forting at the mouth for this moment. He did not move from his spot, it was not his job to inform the council of the new entrant.

Roma got down from the vehicle surrounded by her men and Sebastian. As they waked through the hallway. The enforcers looked shocked at the state Roma and some of her men were in. They could identify her second in command Sebastian, the rest were guards.

David saw the entourage walking towards him and did a double take looking at the state Roma and Sebastian were in dresses torn and blooded and them an uneasy feeling formed in his gut. He could guess what happened and he knew once Roma goes in to the chamber something would happen for sure.

"Roma are you ok?" he asked concerned and worried.

She ignored him totally and just said. "Announce me, I am going in" to the usher.

David's sinking feeling intensified. He would have to warn all his fellow enforcers. Come want may, his job was to maintain peace in this building. The building was crawling with grim looking Roma's men, he needed to keep an eye on them.

***

"So I propose to put checks and balances on this rampant monarchy and through this council demand the return of land inside the United States to the America wolves, to whom it rightfully belongs." Lockbourne was just concluding his heartfelt monologue to his audience when there were two frim knocks on the door and then a moment later the usher stepped in opening the door.

"Alpha's of the council" He greeted them with formality "Her highness Evelyn of Roma" He announced

The alphas gasped in shock and Lockbourne sat back grim faced as Evelyn entered the chamber