Folks I am publishing a new book as well one more werewolf one called "Mismatch" which happens in a completely different universe, request you to check that out as well and let me know your thoughts.

Chapter 24

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Alex was annoyed.

This was the third time he was intercepted by an alpha before he tried to move towards the door that led to the balcony. He could not be rude to the alphas they wanted attention and he could not snub them.

It was the same case with Sebastian, who knew damn alphas could be so chatty? But he also knew the alphas were sizing them up, asking inconspicuous questions to assess their potential opponents, so if ever a time comes to choose sides this conversation would make them decide, so they had to tread carefully.

Plus there were guards posted outside who had line of sight to Evy and they were reporting back in his ear piece her status every minute. What was worrying that she had company, he had told them to observe and intercept at the slightest sign of trouble.

***

"Evy" Charles repeated her name "Evelyn for short, I presume a nice name, I like it."

He had an air of honesty, it wasn't as if he was sucking up to her.

"Thank you" She politely replied.

"So how does an all American girl like yourself ends up being a mate to a Roma wolf?" He asked her.

"Fate perhaps?" she responded cynically.

"Touché" He said with a smile "Perhaps it is for the best" he pondered.

"What do you mean?" She asked curious.

"You have been brought up in values of our packs, may be you can cascade some of those values to future generations of Roma" he suggested.

"I don't quite like the implication" She added in hostility. Who did he think he was? Judgmental much?

"Oh, please" he said putting his hands in surrender "I mean no offence, it's just that monarchy can be dangerous" he added defensively.

"How so?" she asked wanting him to explain what he meant.

He gave her a searing look and for the first time she felt being uncomfortable in his presence.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely Miss Parker" He said coldly with absolute conviction.

"Isn't it true with any leader?" she retorted.

"Why, yes of course!" he readily agreed "but in a structure like ours there are checks and balances, while alpha has a lot of say the council ensures that power is not abuse excessively." He defended.

"And that is why we have no reports of crime?" she asked sarcastically, packs abused their members often and Alphas got away most of the time then not.

"A process is only as effective as its people" Charles admitted honestly "and I admit, we can have better people" he conceded.

"But, can you say the same for monarchy?" He asked her in return.

"Are you comfortable being judge, jury and executioner?" He asked her.

"Are you saying that's what a monarch does?" she asked back.

He surely did not have high opinion of monarchy, she wasn't sure if it was in general or if it was specific to Roma wolves. One thing that was sure, behind his eyes there was a lot of experience and knowledge, which meant either he would make a powerful friend of foe.

"No. But a monarch has the authority doesn't he? Take for example if Roma wanted someone dead, say for instance the old me...do you think I would have a chance? I would be given a fair trial? Will have a group of peers hear my side of the story? It would be a high possibility that I would disappear one fine day and nobody would even know why?" He explained his viewpoint.

"If someone like Roma wanted you dead...for instance, I am sure she would have a very good reason" she said looking at him "As for due process I am sure a monarch would not involve in petty crimes of every citizen and execute them on whim , I believe they would not have a lot of citizens to rule over in that case" Nobody would put up with killing people indiscriminately monarch or not.

"True" He conceded "I think it is the powers one single person holds that unsettles me" he confessed.

"As you mentioned it's the people that wield it that matters" She quoted his earlier statement "It doesn't matter if it's one individual or a group of people, but what they do with the power they wield that matters. For me what I see is that a group of alphas of a council could not save Colorado while a decision of one person did" She added, take that, you old goat!

He bowed to her "I concede to your argument" He said in grudging admiration "But I surely hope one failure of the council does not put them in bad light with you" he added.

"No, she said. Like I am sure you would not condemn the entire monarchy for one failure too." She countered.

He smiled at her and wondered "So, what is your opinion, personally I wonder, do you support monarchy?"

"We live in a diverse world where people have multiple opinions, what I worry is that one day our secret will be out to the humans out there and they might not react positively and if we squabble within ourselves, I don't think we have a chance of surviving that" She said, but completely evaded his question and added "And Roma is in a unique position in the world, who can claim sovereignty of a nation, can you afford to alienate that?" Roma might be the only refuge for werewolves hunted down by humans if it came down to that.

"Hmmm...True, true" he nodded, she had a point there and added "you are a worthy opponent...in a discussion of ideas of course"

"And you would make a worthy ally...someone who would call a spade a spade" He just nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"I think I want to go back now" she told him and he gently stepped back and indicated her to step forward with his hand. As she reached the door she stopped and looked back.

"And I am sorry for what ever happened to you, I hope you don't condemn us all for wrongs done against you" She added. She had seen it in his eyes, his resentment was personal and deep.

All blood drained from his face, he looked shell-shocked and lost his composure but without waiting for a response she opened the door passed through it and closed it behind her.

"Oh! There you are!" Alex exclaimed he had been coming towards the balcony door himself after finally getting rid of an alpha who wanted to impress the Roma wolves of their prowess.

"You were out for a long time?" Alex inquired coming next to her as he pt his hand in her arm.

"Needed some fresh breath" She explained. She would tell him about Charles and his discussion later.

"Yeah me too, I am being hounded by alphas!" He added in frustration. He barely had a minute after escaping one alpha before the other one swooped in. Sebastian was not fairing any better.

"May be they could not resist your hotness?" she said with a straight face but with mischief in her eyes.

Alex's mouth opened wide in shock and he leaned in to her and whispered "You are evil my lady!"

"I did have a good master to teach me my lord" she whispered in his ear.

Any further discussion was interrupted by Gordon Lockbourne walking towards them. Alex whispered who he was in her ear.

"Princess Roma" he said, addressing her with her proper title and executed a perfect curtsy.

"High council Lockbourne" She referred to his title as the chair of the world council. Thank god for the crash course by Alex.

"I hope you find our ball enjoyable" He asked politely.

"It has been a pleasure" She replied with equal politeness.

"I am glad!" he gave a small smile "I hope we put our past differences aside and work with each other. I am happy and proud that an American girl one day will be the Queen of Roma."

She offered a polite smile in return "I am an American wolf and nothing would make me happier then have close ties with them."

He broke in to a genuine smile "Splendid!" he rubbed his hands in glee and picked up two flutes of wine from a passing by waiter and handed over one to her.

"For a new beginning" He said raising his glass to her as a toast.

"For peace and prosperity" she said clinking her glass to his and taking a sip. She hated wine.

Sebastian stepped up to the group and spoke to Evy "Sorry for the interruption but we need to return" He added.

Evelyn readily agreed. She was done for the day.

"Let me walk you out" Gordon added.

As they walked out to the waiting cars Gordon said "I have a granddaughter your age you know" he told Evelyn, affection was evident in his voice.

"I am sorry I missed meeting her today" Evelyn added "I am sure I would have loved to meet her"

"She is studying Berkeley" he said with pride only a grandfather could have "She had tests to take and she couldn't make it, I am sure she would have loved meeting you too." California was heart of Lockbourne territory too and she was safely tucked away in it.

"Well, there is always a next time" Evelyn added reaching the car.

He gave her a smile "Until next time, then, Princess Roma" he took her hand and gave a gentile kiss to the underside of her wrist and let her hand go.

She slid in to the car and Alex and slipped in next to her while Sebastian went forward to ride shotgun.

The convoy gently started, they would directly be heading to the airport.

"You didn't tell me he has a granddaughter?" Evy asked Alex as their journey started.

"Yep, my bad" he said "He keeps her away from limelight, extremely low key. Hardly any pictures of her."

"What about her parents?" She asked.

"Killed in a power struggle by the beta" Alex said and elaborated "The beta thought the alpha was too soft and thought he could take over. How he thought he could beat a bastard like Gordon was beyond me." Alex expressed his view on the beta's disastrous plan.

"The daughter survived?" she asked surprised, a family rarely survived a power struggle, even children and infants were rarely spared.

"A few loyalists smuggled her out" Alex explained "And Lockbourne's vengeance was terrible."

"He destroyed every single supporter of the beta and then he destroyed their family and their second family and any connections they had, he purged the family names off the map of the supporters of beta. I heard it was a brutal massacre." Alex elaborated.

Evy, shivered at the violence of it but it was the wolf way. Power struggles were high stakes games where if you lost you lost terribly.

"He has been keeping her closely guarded since then and away from pack politics" She was his only living immediate family.

Evy nodded and looked out of the window to the passing scenery in silence.

"Sir, we have a potential situation" the radio in the car crackled from the advance vehicle, breaking in to the momentary silence that had lapsed in to.

Sebastian picked up the two way radio and asked "elaborate."

"We see a roadblock 100 meters ahead, car and some unidentified people around it, potentially hostile."

"Stop the convoy at lease twenty meters before the roadblock. Your primary objective is to secure Evelyn, can we ram over the roadblock if we have to?"

"Yes sir, we can ram through" The pilot vehicle confirmed.

"Ok, keep that option ready. I will get out and I just want one guard from the escort vehicle everyone else stays in their cars" Sebastian said and turned around to look at Alex who nodded his head in confirmation.

Evy sat tensed. This was too close to comfort and was Déjà vu all over again. A dread spread over her. The driver reached under his seat and pulled out a small box, opening it he handed over one gun to Alex and the other he kept with himself.

Evy closed her eyes. Not again! She should not have come in the first place!

"Don't worry Evy, this is just a precaution" Alex gently told her. Even though he knew it was unlikely that it was only a precaution.

As the convoy came to a stop Sebastian stepped out quickly and instantly the driver locked the doors. Sebastian walked back to the boot of the car and knocked on it gently.

The driver pressed the button for the boot and it opened. Sebastian took out his sword and closed the boot and walked to the front of the convoy. The sword visible in his left hand.

"Is there a problem here gentlemen?" he politely asked as he stepped in front of the first vehicle of the convoy. There was a good twenty meters distance between them.

The road was blocked by a car and men surrounded it...wolves, he could catch their scent in the air.

"No, no problem" one man jumped from the hood on of the car he was sitting on and walked a few feet towards Sebastian and stopped "No problem at all!" he said "We heard we had distinguished guests on our territory and wanted to give a fitting...farewell."

Sebastian looked at the group, there were twelve of them, fools! they had not thought this through so definitely it was not a sanctioned kill. This was some moron action on his own, the most efficient way to lose is a fight is to act without knowing your enemy and this guy was right up that alley.

"Look, this looks like a badly thought out idea, so I suggest all of you get in to that piece of crap car of yours and be on your way and nobody has to die" Sebastian said trying to reason hoping the idiots would care enough for their life.

"The only one doing the dying today will be you" The other guy spat.

Sebastian sighed "very well, let's get this show on the road."

He brought the sword still sheathed in the scabbard in to his front.

"A sword really? What are you a knight or something?" The guy taunted and his minions laughed.

"Didn't you forget your horse?" his taunt continued. "What's with you guys and weapons, cant fight like a honorable wolf? tooth and claw you know? or have your gone? fallen off somewhere?" He said spitting insults.

"How about this? there are twelve of you and I am just one guy, so it's me against the dozen of you and my little sword....I say that's a pretty even fight." Sebastian responded as his right hand clicked on the mechanism on the scabbard and the cover fell down near his feet. The sword shone as the light from the headlights of the car behind him.

He put the sword over his head, the hilt over his head and the sword pointing backwards and the sharp edge pointing to the sky.

"Let's skip the taunts and get to the fun part shall we?" Sebastian egged him.

Three men walked towards him, one coming straight and the other two flanking his left and right. He stated in his position like a statue and as they came closer he put one step forward and swirled and the sword flashed above his head and then brought it down in a flash swinging it from right to left.

The sword clearly cut the head of the man on his right, the one on front of him had his neck and shoulders slashed and the third guy on his left in the torso splitting him in to half. The three lifeless bodies collapsed around him. The bodies gave out a burning smell.

"Silver" the leader of the group spat. Looking at the sword wearily.

Four more men advanced simultaneously. One head flew off its shoulder, two of them had their hearts pierced and the luckiest of them all had both his legs chopped off and was lying of the road moaning and withering in pain.

The remaining men flew in to rage, two of them morphed in to their wolves and attacked from left and right. Jaws wide aiming for the kill.

In perfect precision, he navigated the sharp edge of the sword of the wide open jaws of the wolf pouncing from the left, slicing its upper jaw and head off and he swirled the sword to the right bringing it down hard chopping the right flank's wolf's head off.

The leader growled in rage, as his clothes tore from his transformation but instead of pouncing he attacked from the ground, trying to bite in to Sebastian's legs, the remaining men were too shocked to move, one of them was vomiting violently.

As the leader now in wolf form tried to attack Sebastian, he slapped his face away using the blunt side of his sword, the skin burning in contact with the silver sword, red angry blister formed on the side of the wolves face where the blunt side of the sword made contact, enraged he tried again and again with great tact he slapped the wolf away with the blunt side of his sword.

He was playing with him the wolf realized, which only enraged him further and started attacking mindlessly and Sebastian swatted him away with the sword effortlessly. Angry burn's formed all over the wolf and the wolf knew something. He was above his head and he had never encounter a skill like this. He knew he needed to retreat, for the first time he realized he had not thought this through thoroughly.

Sebastian saw the fight go out of the wolf's eyes and he knew now its survival instinct would kick in.

The wolf was still growling, its canines bared but was slowly backing away from him.

"uh uh uh...he shook his finger at the wolf..big bad wolf does not back away...promises of death and all you know....I have it when people break their promises" Sebastian taunted the wounded wolf.

The wolf saw red and pounced to kill. Sebastian fell on his knees and put his sword up. As the wolf went over him, the sword slashed the wolf's soft underbelly.

As the wolf fell down all his entrails spilled out of his body. Sebastian got up, the remaining men abandoned the car and had run away. He turned around and looked at the wolf lying on the ground his insides spilled on the road. The beauty of it was that they were all still connected to the wolves body and were fully functional, he had just sliced open the stomach, not harming the organs that spilled out.

Only if someone would pack them back in to his belly he would still live. But now his body would heal fast as a werewolves body does, so as the cut healed the connection from his insides to the organs outside his body would be crushed by the healing skin, chocking them in that process. The werewolves healing ability would be its reason for death and a painful one too, as the organs would be denied blood and oxygen.

Sebastian walked over to the wolf, lying on its side, its chest expanding and contracting form its breathing and took his sword and put it on his chest, the wolf's fearful eyes flickered at him. He slowly put pressure on the sword as it tore through his skin and Sebastian flicked the sword ever so slightly as he nicked an artery which supplied blood to his heart. Instead of slicing it off he punched it so that for every heart beat a small amount of blood would spill out in to his body, denying blood supply for healing and with every heartbeat he would lose blood, death would be agonizingly slow but certain.

"Your death will be slow and painful" Sebastian told the wolf voice devoid of emotion "It will serve as an example for all those fools who think they can bare their claws at Roma. Your death will not be in vain wolf, as it will be a lesson for others like you." He said ad started walking back but paused at something glowing at the side of the road.

He walked over and bent to retrieve it. It was a cell phone he recalled it falling over when this wolf had transformed, shredding it's clothes.

He pressed a button on the phone, it was a simple one nothing fancy, werewolves' in general abhorred technology and were extremely slow adapters. It was a basic smartphone. The screen lit up as he pressed the home button and it unlocked. No password.