The Ring Bearer (16 page)

25

The next morning, Daniel could feel eyes on him as he entered the area designated to Callin’s trial. He wasn’t sure what he expected to encounter. Sideways glances with ire and murderous intent would have been his first guess. Dodging fisticuffs would have been his second guess. Instead, the council hushed at his entrance and marked it with silent observation.

The glares he anticipated were replaced by probing assessments. He didn’t feel threatened, but rather stripped naked. It was the same freakish fascination Nevia held for him. He didn’t want to delve too deeply into the relationship between these women and Nevia, but it was a notable similarity. 

Frederique nodded to him respectfully. It was the same nod he might have given a man he had brawled with the night before. It was an acknowledgement of the battle—won or lost, and a peace offering at the same time.

Her eyes moved behind him to Nevia. She had been following behind him some distance back. He hadn’t spent the night with her last night, even though he wanted to. It was too early in their relationship for him to make assumptions about his territories and privileges. He only hoped that her intentional distance was for the sake of professionalism and not a back slide in their progress.

Nevia had veered off course and met up with Leona. Overnight, the new mother had transformed. Her attempts at hair and makeup were reduced to barrettes and a smattering of face powder. Her expensive suit was now a pair of gray slacks and a loose top that was no doubt just as expensive as her suits, but looked business casual. She was plain and unassuming, but she looked rested, and was not dappled with baby vomit and food remnants.

Nevia gave a wide birth and kept her movements slow. “Is she well?” she asked motioning to the carrier holding the new born girl. Daniel could just make out the cast wrapping her leg.

Leona stood and Daniel froze prepared for the impending altercation or sarcastic response that she had made herself known for. Instead she nodded. “Yes,” she said so meekly that he almost couldn’t hear it. She couldn’t hide her response from a room full of animal inspired ears, so he assumed she was simply offering apology with the decibel level. “She will heal without repercussions. The doctor said she is developing slower than average, but she is healthy.”

“Good.” Nevia looked down at the baby. “She is a beautiful child.”

Leona nodded at the compliment. When Nevia turned to leave, she reached out to her. The sudden movement caused a moment of tension in his body, but the open hand resting on Nevia’s shoulder was no more a threat than a verbal “excuse me.” When Nevia turned in askance to her impediment, Leona waffled for a moment. She didn’t seem to be the type to lack words, but she was without them for several seconds.

“Thank you,” she finally said. It was either the only words she had, or a brief summation of the many words she couldn’t express with any accuracy at the moment.

“You’re welcome,” Nevia said with a demure smile. She got back on course and saw Daniel watching her. Her annoyance gave him pause, and he pretended to look at something else before moving on to join Heaton and Ethan in the bleachers.

Nevia didn’t like being babysat. Most women claimed to be independent minded and self-assured, but Nevia actually was. She was confident in her abilities, assertive in her opinions, and most importantly she knew when to shut-up. It sounded archaic and domineering, but women—at least the women he was familiar with—spent too much time speaking about nothing. Not that women shouldn’t speak, but better to make your statement and walk away, then to batter your point until the objective is blurred into disinterest.

Daniel gave Heaton a grimace as he climbed the bleachers. Heaton laughed at him. “In trouble already?”

“Aye, I guess that was my warning to mind my own business.” He settled down in the ample space between Heaton and Ethan. They had probably left the space there to keep the chumminess at a palatable level, but he didn’t want to lean over to talk across, so he took it for a saved seat. They adjusted appropriately while he slumped down and did his best to pretend Nevia didn’t exist. It was a fruitless attempt since she was already
actually
ignoring him.

“I’m surprised Leona is being civil,” Ethan said looking over at her. “She looks almost normal. I barely see the “elitist French bitch” tattooed across her forehead.”

Heaton and Daniel chuckled at that.

“What is your main objection to her?” Heaton asked.

“It’s a long story and most of it isn’t mine, but the most recent event happened last night when she tried to hurt Cori.”

Daniel whipped his head over. “Hurt?”

“Easy, Daniel, let him finish.” Heaton nudged him.

“Emotionally hurt. We handled it.” Ethan looked lost in thought for a moment. “I think the entire incident finally broke her though.”

“Cori?” Heaton asked.

“No, Leona. She hit rock bottom last night, you know. Her favorite chew toy is biting back.” Ethan sighed like just the memory of it was tiresome. “I don’t know what Callin sees in her.” He nodded to Callin who was admiring Leona and his child from his cell. Leona was at least returning his gaze. She even turned her baby boy so that Callin could see his face. He lit up at the view of his child. “He deserves the right to be with his child,” Ethan said with almost as much bitterness as Nevia might have.

“Yes, he does,” Nevia chimed in from her spot below them. Daniel and Heaton exchanged a look of concern. Between Ethan and Nevia the unbiased observer title was starting to crumble.

“I think we are all in agreement with that,” Heaton said diplomatically, “but we are no more a part of this trial than a fan is a coach to a televised game. We need to remain impartial, or risk another incident like yesterday.”

“That incident was caused by Frederique’s unwillingness to listen to Callin,” Nevia hissed, trying to keep her volume down while the council members questioned the father of Leona’s baby girl.

“He was soap boxing. This isn’t a political forum.”

“Bull shit!” Nevia’s volume passed the ignorable limits and several faces looked over. Daniel smiled and waved at them offering a mouthed apology. Heaton nudged him again, and nodded for him to say something.

Daniel’s mouth dropped open and he shrugged. Heaton didn’t necessarily offer the option of saying no, so he begrudgingly slipped down beside Nevia. “Let’s go for a walk,” he mumbled.

“Not now,” she answered distractedly.

Daniel glanced back at Heaton. He was starting to feel the complications of being in a relationship with his partner. He had always followed Heaton’s lead, but since Nevia had bullied her way into the alpha dog spot, she wasn’t likely to listen to him. The only advantage he had was the boyfriend card. Since the card had yet to be laminated, he felt like a heel using it.

“Nevia, we need to speak privately.” She turned to him and offered him a glare that he hadn’t thought possible. He didn’t imagine seeing her angry at him would hurt so much, but it did. He wanted to be the source of her joy not her ire. At that moment he questioned everything just as he had two nights ago. If she hadn’t softened at that moment, he would have walked away and given up any hope of being with her. He wasn’t a proud man, but he certainly wasn’t going to be in a relationship with a woman that hated him. He had already seen his parents endure that. He wanted no part of it.

She either sensed his disappointment or read the depth of it on his face, because she calmed her attitude and agreed to leave with him. They shuffled off the bleachers and skirted behind them. Heaton watched him go with a stern expression that told him he wasn’t to let her come back until she was calmed down.

It was way too early for him to be volleying his loyalties like this.

26

Daniel followed Nevia into the next section. It was the same line of cells as the last section, minus the tenants and the trial. She turned around and crossed her arms waiting for him to speak. The ever present holstered gun only exasperated her “Don’t fuck with me” image. She would have been scary, if she wasn’t so damned cute.

“What Daniel?” She asked.

“What’s going on, Nevia? You’re usually cool as a cucumber.”

“Do you realize how important this trial is?”

“No, explain it to me,” he said honestly wanting to understand.

“Callin is the first werewolf to make a stand against the council. He isn’t just demanding that he have rights to his children, he’s demanding that all males have rights to their children.”

“Okay, so let’s help him do that by staying calm.”

“They won’t approve it. This trial is a joke.”

“Joke or not, it has to happen so they can appear to give a damn, so let Callin say his piece and he can go from there. He won’t be in jail indefinitely. He can continue this fight on his own.”

Nevia crossed her arms. “So, just sit down and shut-up?”

Daniel groaned feeling the entrapment of that statement. “Do you have any idea how much that woman hates you?” He pointed to the door.

“So what?” She said. “I hate her too.”

“Yes, but she’s a fem-wolf, with lots of fem-wolf friends. Hunters don’t hunt fem-wolves for a reason. The last thing we need is for you to piss off the entire council. We don’t want to be the hunted.”

“I’m sorry if my political views are getting in the way of your easy lifestyle.”

“Fuck you!” Daniel turned away to get his anger under control. He could hear Nevia stomp toward the door. “Don’t you dare leave now,” he bristled without looking at her. “You cast that stone and I’m not finished responding to it.”

He heard her stop, and he finished his breathing so he didn’t inadvertently hurt her. When he finally came to face her, her stoic face and rigid back was no less stubborn then it had ever been. “I have very few friends in this world, but I think I’ve made it abundantly clear in our short acquaintance that I want you to be listed among them. My friends get nothing less than my indisputable allegiance. I wouldn’t think for a second about standing in the path of a bullet for those two men out there.” Daniel jutted his finger out to resonate to her the two specific men he meant. When he found his finger connected to a shaky hand, he pulled it back in.

“My concern with your actions is based on their safety as well as yours. It has
nothing
…” Daniel paused to let the volume come under control. “…to do with my
easy
lifestyle. I’m just asking you not to start a war with the Council of the Moon. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request.”

Nevia relaxed slightly and nodded. “It’s not an unreasonable request. You’re right to ask it of me, but I would like to know where things stand between us if I can’t meet that request.”

Daniel felt the last bit of anger release from him. He wanted so much for this to be a little tiff that they would simply kiss and make up for later. Maybe it still could be if he could just get over it, but that wasn’t likely to happen.

Daniel rubbed his forehead before approaching her. He leaned down and kissed her. It wasn’t a sweet gentle good bye kiss like it probably should have been. It was a sloppy, wet kiss that tormented both of them. When he pulled away he let his hand trail from her chin to her chest before falling away.

“I don’t know. Do what you got to do? Just don’t expect me to be okay with you veering us into the path of an angry werewolf pack.” Daniel didn’t wait for her response. Nor did she stop him to offer one, but the crossroads had been established and he was taking his way. He really hoped she followed, but that wasn’t likely to happen. After all, her independence was her most attractive quality.  

27

Ethan watched Daniel return to the bleachers without Nevia. He took his original seat between him and Heaton and stared off into nothingness. The conversation had obviously not gone well. Heaton was not too shy to ask about it though. “Well?”

“If this goes south, you may wish you had put in for a transfer,” Daniel said. Ethan glanced at Heaton, but he had no response to that. “She’s going to do whatever she wants to.”

“Then she can take the heat for it,” Heaton murmured. “I’m not about to fight off a pack of fem-wolves just because she has a political statement to make.”

Ethan leaned back to observe the trial. He didn’t want to admit to Daniel and Heaton that he agreed with Nevia. He wasn’t sure why she was so devoted to the cause, but even after spending a short amount of time with Callin, he knew he was a good man. He was a better father than most men, and indefensibly devoted to Leona. If he could do anything to help Callin, he would.

Nevia arrived back some time after the full roll of the trial had ensued. The look she gave Daniel suggested that she felt guilty about something, but at the same time had no intention of not doing what she was feeling guilty for.

She sat for several minutes looking at the seat beside her like she was keeping Daniel in her peripheral. Ethan wasn’t sure what was going through her mind, but he was sure that he had seen it before. It was the same look Cori had given him before General Clark’s men dragged her away. Nevia was begging for forgiveness but to his knowledge she hadn’t done what she needed forgiveness for.