Enjoy folks! (Evil laugh)

Chapter 20

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"Roma!" The members of the council gasped in shock as she and Sebastian entered the chamber where the World Council was in session.

The did a double take at their state, her clothes torn , blood caked on the side of her forehead, she no wonder looked terrible.

She raised her hand as she stood in the center of the room.

"I am fine, thanks for your concern. I believe a few elements figured out it was in their best interest if I never showed up to the council meeting." She said "Unluckily for them, I survived their assassination attempt."

"Preposterous!" Lockbourne bit back "Everyone knows these are neutral grounds, no werewolf would dare to break the peace in Ontario.

"The dead folks in the highway apparently didn't get the memo" Sebastian quipped in his signature dry humor.

"We promise to have this thoroughly investigated" Australia vowed.

"Roma, please take a seat" The Russian Alpha said kindly.

She moved over to take the empty chair while Sebastian stood a few feet behind her against the wall. She was flanked by Asia and Africa and on the opposite side of the table were America, Australia and Russia.

"I am sorry to inform that I don't put my faith in this institution anymore" Roma said, responding to Australia's earlier promise.

"Yes, I am sure" Lockbourne interjected sarcastically "Shall we get back to the point of this meeting then?" he asked sounding bored.

Roma raised one of her eyebrows "Which is?"

"Returning Colorado back to the American Council to whom it rightfully belongs." He said.

"I see" was all she said and then looked at the other two alphas across the table "What do you think?" she asked them.

"We only hope to find an amicable solution to the escalating tension between Roma and America, further violence would not serve anyone's interest here and if that is the best solution so be it" Australia responded and Russia just kept quite closely observing her.

"I see" Roma said again. "What about justice?" she asked.

The alphas looked at her confusingly.

"My family has been attacked multiple times...Maxim Roma assassinated, the previous Roma killed in attack, my parents killed by American wolves. My mate is in a coma, fighting for his life. Where is the justice for this?" She demanded.

"Roma" Australia said calmly "Both sides lost people, It would be better if we don't get in to reason and instead look forward for an solution which is in everyone's interest and also What do the American wolves have to do with Maxim's death or attack on your mate?" Australia asked.

Roma looked at Lockbourne with a piercing glance "Do you want to tell then?" she asked as all the alphas looked between the two confused.

"What nonsense are you talking about girl?" Lockbourne spat. How dare this eighteen year girl throw accusations at him in front of this council? He seethed. If she was anybody else he would have crushed her neck by now.

"Roma" Evelyn said in a calm tone "Don't forget titles alpha" She said.

"Listen, the council is not interested in your wild allegations and that will not deter us from our agenda today" Lockbourne said looking around the table.

"Roma" Australia said with a warning tone "We don't quite like what you are implying, you are accusing the chair of this council for murder. I hope you realize the seriousness of your allegations and the hit on your credibility if such allegations are proved baseless. We ask you to use caution in what you speak here" The tone of the Australian alpha implied disbelief.

"Indeed?" Roma asked nonplused. "I hope this council carried out all investigations with all the seriousness you mentioned regards to the death of Maxim Roma and his mate. I hope they have answers for why my parents were killed? I hope they will explain me why attacks on my life were made multiple times?" Roma seethed in anger.

The council sat in silence reeling at her accusations.

"Roma has enemies" Russia said coolly "many enemies, not everything is to be blamed on this council." He said skeptically.

Roma sat back in her chair getting ready for her long speech.

"Let me tell you a story" She began. "It all started when the Roma Empire was on the verge of collapse and Europe was in chaos. Maxim Roma rose out like a phoenix from the death throes of Roma Empire. With just his sheer will he not only held together his dying Empire but also started reclaiming territories that were once part of this mighty empire and in just a few decades he reestablished this empire to its former glory."

She looked around to the alphas who were listening to her with rapt attention "This was not done without bloodshed, the Roma Empire was re-forged in blood of thousands of packs now assimilated in to one strong empire. Over the years that followed, most wolves resigned to the new power, some even saw the benefit of being a part of a larger empire instead of small packs which constantly fought between themselves for territory or food. However some of the wolves now part of the empire still resented the bloody consolidation."

"One such man was someone who worked to Maxim Roma, though he worked closely with him he resented what the man had done to his pack and someone decided to exploit this resentment. They convinced Drake and erstwhile alpha of a former pack now part of the Roma Empire to help them in restoring the old balance. Drake influenced by these men, shared some critical secrets of Maxim Roma's security detail...and you know the rest." Roma said.

"But our story does not end here...it actually begins here, so unlike everyone thought Maxim Roma was not assassinated by some rogues but a clever enemy, the only way to find out who this enemy was to find this former alpha Drake who had conveniently vanished in to thin air. So the Roma wolves provided a cover story to the entire world while looking for Drake on every corner of the globe."

"Now this is where America comes in" Roma said "Roma never paid interest to the rogue attacks in Colorado but something caught our attention, the rogue army in Colorado was very effective for rogues and some of the techniques used by them were very familiar...they were ours."

The alphas shuffled in their seats at this revelation.

"So, someone in Colorado were using standard Roma attack tactics to eliminate the packs. This is when my predecessor got involved, she suspected that Drake was somehow involved. So you see, our involvement in Colorado was more than just us being some greedy land grabbing family which I am sure we have been painted as. This was an opportunity for us to get to some answers if our hunch proved correct and our hunch paid off." Roma said.

She now had captive audience except Lockbourne who appeared equally interested but was squirming in his seat.

"It was Drake who was leading the rogues in Colorado, the Roma wolves while defending my previous pack successfully captured him alive. He disclosed information in exchange for safe passage for him and his mate, he had found her in America. Drake was approached by an individual calling himself Charles who had convinced him of his betrayal and allegedly promised him safe haven in America, he was asked to settle down in Colorado and he was free to consolidate a few packs around him and Charles told him that he had enough clout in the American council to ensure they looked the other way and apparently he did because even though the packs pleaded for intervention of the council of seven, no help came. I was in one of those packs so I know."

"This is pure allegations with malicious intent to defame the American Council" Lockbourne Roared.

Roma looked behind her "Sebastian" she called him and he walked over to her. She whispered something to him and he took out a brown envelop from his coat. She nodded to him and he walked over to the Australian alpha and handed the cover over to her.

She looked confused.

"This alpha is the address of Drake now living in Australia with his mate. He was granted safe passage to Australia in exchange for this information, he will corroborate everything I have said till now. I caution you to use this information wisely and safely...I place his life in your hands, this information in the wrong hands will lead to his death." Roma cautioned.

The Alpha nodded hesitantly taking all this information in. "So shall I continue?" Roma asked looking around and meeting only silence. She took this as their consent.

"Using Drakes description we managed to have a sketch artist recreate the image of Charles, who ever this Charles is, he was our number one enemy now." She again nodded to Sebastian who again pulled out a few sheets of paper and Roma took them from his and circulated these sheets of the sketch impression around the table.

Lockbourne looked at the picture and shook his head "Never seen him" he said. Roma just smiled.

"Now we were very hesitant in going to the American council with this information and you would understand, it was alleged in Charles's own words that he had considerable clout on the council and if we approached them, this information would pass on to him and he would quickly go deep underground. So Roma took matters in to their own hand. We used our resources in the US government to help us out and we did manage to find his location but before we could take action local law enforcement intervened and Charles escaped." Roma stated and again looked at Sebastian who managed to pull out one more envelop and gave it to her.

She put it in front of it and pointed at it "This is the report of the Law enforcement agencies, I will pass it on to you momentarily, however we continued perusing all leads and then again we got some intelligence that Charles was hiding in Patrick Lockbourne's territory. Imagine our surprise" Roma stated.

"This is baseless allegation and even if you say this guy was there this does not prove Patrick's involvement" Lockbourne countered.

"Let Roma finish her story alpha" Australia said, her tone leaving no room for arguments a sea of change from her original attitude.

"We realized sending in our soldiers would mean a violation of the treaty, we respected the treaty but at the same time we wanted to get to Charles, so we choose a middle path. We hired independent contractors to track him down. They tracked him down but it cost them their lives." This time she put her hand up and Sebastian slipped in to her hand few more papers.

"Local law enforcement reports of their deaths" she waved the papers and added it to the previous pile in front of her "It will be clear for us the way they have been killed it was by werewolves and not humans. You can check the autopsy reports I have here." Roma stated.

"Now around this time was when Maxwell Roma found out I was his mate and was kept fairly under wraps for a while but a news like this eventually leaks out and then one day there was an attack on my convoy while I was going to school. I had been found out by Roma's enemies. I came out unscratched but the wolves who carried out attacks were all American wolves."

"They were all Rogues! Nothing to do with our packs" Lockbourne barked out in defense.

"I never mentioned they were rogues, I wonder how you knew that?" Roma asked him skeptically.

"Who else can they be, no pack would attack you!" He shot back confidently.

"Perhaps" she said and then looked around "Anyways, around the same time alpha Lockbourne had invited me to Colorado, hosted a party in his cousin's pack in my honor. The new mate of Maxwell Roma and all. So I went and that is where I met him." She stated.

Everyone waited in confused silence.

"Charles was in the party." Roma stated and the alphas looked at each other uneasily and spared sideways glances at Lockbourne.

"To be fair, at that point I was not aware of all this information and was clueless of who Charles was. So I met him in this party in my honor, in the pack house of Patrick Lockbourne's balcony. We had a small conversation and he left, but he did make an impression on me." Roma stated.

"Meanwhile Sebastian recommended to the previous Roma to send in a reconnaissance team in to Patrick's territory, they suspected he was hiding with the blessings of the alpha and she approved. It is around this time that there was an attack on my mate's and his mother's convoy and she died in the attack" She paused for this information to sink in.

"While I was grieving this loss, Sebastian comes back with these photos" Sebastian hands over a few pictures and she circulates them around the alphas.

"Charles was found well within Patrick Lockbourne's territory and was moving freely which resulted in only one conclusion, the Lockbourne family was shielding him and providing support. So we sent in a team back in to quickly extract him. Even then we did not want an all-out war, we just wanted Charles and it was clear that the American council would not help us." Roma explained.

"But Patrick's pack anticipated our attack and easily laid a trap for our men, all of our men died in that ambush and Charles escaped yet again and as if this was not enough, the Lockbourne family felt that what we did was wrong so they executed two innocent wolves who had no business in this whole affair except their only fault was they were my parents." Roma paused, her voice wavering.

"I hope the alphas on this table can understand my anger when I ordered execution of the Colorado pack" Roma said. "We did not start this war, we did not escalate this war, we did not begin to kill innocents."

"He did!" She pointed a finger to Lockbourne who shook in furious rage.

"Lies! You bitch you lie, all lies!" he spat with venom in his voice barely able to control himself.

"Do these lie?" she seethed back picking up the papers from her desk and hurling them at him. "No alpha...facts don't lie."

"So you see" Roma said looking at all the other alphas "We have lost faith in this council which is being run by such men and no longer wish to be associated with it." She stated.

"Effective immediately, Roma withdraws form the world council, we recommend our allies to do the same" she said looking at Asia and Africa.

"Also all funding from Roma to this establishment is stopped with immediate effect. The Council banks have already been issued notifications. Our bankers will not honor any requests for payment" She declared to the stunned audience.

Silence followed her declaration as the world alphas reeled in shock, this was unprecedented. The council had stood for a thousand years helping maintaining peace across the globe and now Roma in a single move was destroying it.

Australia's alpha began visibly shaken "Roma, we understand your point of view...but the council has helped maintain peace for a millennium...helped our species, you cannot possibly break the treaty....it would lead to chaos."

"You see this was her intention all along! The plan of Roma empire to destabilize us, can't you see this?" Lockbourne barked, shooting in the dark.

"Some serious allegations have been leveled against you and the American wolves today alpha Lockbourne" Australia said sternly "I feel these need to be investigated thoroughly and immediately but we cannot do it unbiased if you remain to chair this council. Keeping the recent events in consideration and under powers vested in Chapter 16A of the treaty I call for a motion to impeach the current chair pending all investigations. Who backs this?" she asked looking around. To impeach an existing chair of the council they need unanimous consent except the person being impeached so they needed five votes.

All alphas took a minute to absorb the extraordinary events taking place, too shocked to reach. The Australian alpha's hand was up in the air. Roma gave a small smile and gave a nod of acknowledgement to the alpha and raised her hand as well. Asia and Africa follow suit...four votes only one more was needed.

Everyone looked at Russia...the alpha was deep in thought, looking down at the table and everyone waited with baited breath.

He looked up, looked around the table and then raised his hand.

"Alpha Lockbourne" Australia stated "You are relieved of the council chair with immediate effect"

He pushed his chair out and got up to storm out when Roma called out.

"Alpha Lockbourne" She called out "I am not done yet, while you may no longer be the chair you still represent the American wolves and what I have to say will impact them as well so I suggest you take a seat."

He looked around weighing his options, he wanted to storm out but he looked around and decided that doing that will only further damage his reputation and his cause, so reluctantly he sat down.

Roma looked at the alpha of Australia "thank you alpha!" she said "This is a start but the damage is done, I still will not change my mind about the council. Roma on behalf of Europe will withdraw from the treaty."

"I beg you to reconsider" Australia pleaded. The Russian alpha "Crazy Ivan" as he was nicknamed just sat in his seat taking everything in, his expressions not reveling anything.

"However" Roma said ignoring the plea from Australia looking squarely at Lockbourne "I have a score to settle with Lockbourne family, you have attacked my family multiple times, you have attacked me multiple times and this action cannot go unpunished. You must pay for your actions, your family must pay." Roma declared.

"What?" He asked all blood draining from his face.

"I regret to inform you that your granddaughter Serena Lockbourne is dead" Roma told him.

He looked at her with horrified disbelief "You lie" he told her in denial.

She shrugged "Why don't you call and check?" She asked and then nudged him "Do call?"

With shaking hands he picked up his cell and called her number. No one answered and the whole council sat with baited breath.

Dread seeped in to him, he disconnected and called his beta with renewed urgency

The phone rang and it was answered promptly "Yes boss? I thought...."

Lockbourne cut him off "I want you to call the guards guarding Serena and check on her..." He barked hysterically.

"Um..ah.." The beta said still trying to reel in the orders.

"NOW! Dammit, NOW!!!" Lockbourne yelled.

"Sure boss, just a second, be on the line, I will call using the landline." The Beta jumped in to action.

Tense silent moments passed while Lockbourne fidgeted and the beta came back on the line "Boss, something is wrong no one is picking the phone" He answered worriedly.

"I am sending someone right now there boss...even better I am going there right now" His beta tried to reassure.

"They are all dead Lockbourne" Roma added calmly "Don't worry your beta would corroborate then in a few hours." She told him.

He dropped the phone, he was shaking in rage "You bitch, I will kill you!" he screamed, he was losing control of his form, his cloths were ripping, his wolf was manifesting.

"You tried and failed remember?" she asked.

"This time I will do it with my bare hands!" he vowed with absolute hatred.

"So you agree you tried to kill me?" she asked.

"I will finish off every wolf with the name Roma!" he vowed "I will finish off what I started, I will kill that whelp who is in coma with my bare hands and that I vow you."

She gave him a death glare "You can try you bastard!"