Chapter Sixteen
Execution Order
T
he next morning, Monica headed to Seth’s parents’ house early. So, Jules gathered up her courage and got in her car to drive straight into the conversation she did not want to have.
She walked up the driveway to Gabriel and Eileen’s home and raised her hand to knock but couldn’t bring herself to connect her fist with the door. She considered going back to her car but knew that she needed to do this now. It was time. So, she knocked.
Moments later, Eileen yanked the door open and smiled at her. “Jules is here,” she called back into the house and simultaneously stepped to the side of the threshold, so Jules could enter.
“You did mean it then?” Gabriel said in an almost accusatory tone as he appeared in the bedroom doorway.
“Gabriel, try to be nice,” Eileen said, walking up next to him. She slid her hand down his arm and intertwined their fingers. “Won’t you sit down Jules?”
Silently, Jules nodded and sat in the armchair.
Eileen pulled Gabriel behind her and made him sit next to her on the couch.
“I have to tell you something,” Jules admitted.
“Should I give you some privacy?” Eileen asked. Jules noticed that she seemed to be silently begging to be excused from this conversation, but Jules couldn’t let her go. Eileen was Gabriel’s stabilizer. He was going to need his wife.
“Please stay,” Jules said, her voice almost inaudible. She let her eyes shut. Her eyelids felt so heavy. Every part of her felt guilty for keeping this from him for so long. The lie felt worse than the secret’s subject. She was in love, she didn’t want to feel ashamed for being in love with Luca, werewolf or not.
“Jules, what exactly is going on? And why do you look like you murdered someone dear to me?”
“I don’t want to hide the truth from you anymore,” she said honestly. “I just don’t…”
“Just rip off the band-aid,” Eileen suggested.
Gabriel glared at his wife, who shrugged back at him and gave his hand a squeeze.
“I’m in love.” Jules felt it was important to make that clear before telling him what she was in love with.
“In love? In love with whom?” He looked taken aback.
Jules spoke at such a rate that a human couldn’t have understood her. “His name is Luca. He’s a friend of Seth’s. He saved me and brought me home the night I was attacked at the school.”
“Jules you’ve buried the lead,” Eileen pointed out as Jules stopped to take an unneeded, but steadying, breath.
Jules looked from Gabriel to Eileen.
“Just say it,” Eileen suggested.
When Jules looked back at Gabriel, he was no longer looking up at her but staring determinately down at the floor.
“Please tell me he’s not a werewolf,” Gabriel said, not looking up at Jules until he’d finished his statement.
“He’s the Beta,” she admitted and then swallowed hard.
“That beast!” Gabriel shouted, standing now.
Eileen stood also, placing her hand on Gabriel’s arm. He shook it off and threw her an accusing look. “How could you not tell me this?” he snapped at Eileen.
“Hey,” Jules called, standing too. “Don’t yell at her. It wasn’t her secret to tell.” Jules felt stronger now than she had in centuries. Stronger because she was defending something, someone, whom she loved.
“How long?” Gabriel asked. “How long have you kept this from me? How long have you put Eileen and myself in danger without my knowledge?”
“You’re not in any danger from him,” Jules said as calmly as she could manage.
“I think she’s right Gabriel,” Eileen said, speaking up at last. “When I met him…”
“You met him,” Gabriel said. It didn’t sound like a question.
“Briefly,” she admitted.
“You, of all people, know how dangerous werewolves can be. How could you keep this from me? I’m your husband!”
Eileen was looking at him incredulously.
But before she could defend herself, Gabriel turned on Jules. “And you! How could you put us in danger like this?”
“Luca is not a danger to anyone!” Jules screamed back at him as Eileen stared at him, looking livid.
“Gabriel calm down. You’re being unreasonable,” Eileen said.
“Unreasonable! The fact that you kept this from me tells me that you are the unreasonable one. I thought I could trust your judgment, but now I’m not so sure,” he snapped back at her.
Instead of saying anything, she stood and walked to the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Jules could understand. Gabriel was acting like a real ass right now. She had known that he wasn’t going to take it with a smile but taking his anger out on Eileen wasn’t like him. In fact, this whole thing wasn’t like him. This was not the kind and caring man that she knew.
Silence stretched between them for a few more painful moments; Gabriel seething with anger and Jules staring at the floor waiting for her friend to regain control of his emotions. Finally, once Gabriel appeared to have calmed down a little, Jules answered his question, “Luca is the one who saved me, Gabriel.” Jules’s voice was low, barely a whisper. She sank back onto the chair as she waited for him to respond.
“You keep saying that. Why? And how did this even happen? Last I checked the werewolf species wanted us dead, you in particular.”
“He’s that friend of Seth’s. The blind date that I went on for Monica was with him.”
“So, you couldn’t kill him. How does that make you love him?” Gabriel was talking at a more normal volume now, but the tension had not left his voice.
“I don’t know how it happened. It just… did.”
“He’s a werewolf, a mindless beast. How can you love that?”
“He is not a mindless beast at all. He’s kind, and caring, and sexy as hell.”
Gabriel said nothing but gave her a look that suggested disbelief. Whether it was in her or in what she was saying, Jules didn’t know. She guessed it was probably a bit of both. So, she continued. She needed him to understand. “If you and Eileen had met later and she had been a werewolf, would you not have loved her anyway?”
The bedroom door cracked open. Eileen peeked her head out and paused there for a few seconds while Gabriel pondered the question. When he didn’t answer, she walked out to sit beside him. He took her hand. He looked up at her and then down at their intertwined fingers. Jules could understand now what had just passed between them. It was love. Even when the person you love screws up, being in love with someone meant truly loving them, mistakes, faults and all.
Gabriel leaned back against the soft sofa, sighed, and answered her, “well considering her death is what caused me to see werewolves’ true colors, I don’t know,” he hesitated but then continued, “but knowing what I do now, the answer is no. I would not have fallen in love with her. I wouldn’t have even given her a chance to get close to me.”
“But after? After you had spent a day with her? Could you have still hated her then?” Jules stared into his eyes as he thought.
He sighed. “It would have been a lot harder.”
No one spoke for a while. Eileen and Jules were giving Gabriel time to process everything he had just heard.
“Gabriel, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I don’t want to lose you over this, but I couldn’t keep lying to you either,” Jules finally said, almost under her breath.
Gabriel sighed. “You’re never going to lose me. But I don’t know how I’m just supposed to accept this.”
“If you would just get to know him…” Jules cut herself off. She knew she’d just said the wrong thing.
“No. No! I don’t want to get to know him,” he said, almost matter-of-factly. “I don’t want you knowing him. In love with you or not, he is our enemy.” Gabriel’s tone had an unwavering finality to it.
“No, he’s not.” Jules tried emulating his tone. “Gabriel, can’t you see it. You are judging the man I love because of his species. What you’re doing is no different than judging someone because of their skin color. He was born what he is, he had no control over that. And isn’t it our choices that determine who we are? Right now, yours are wrong. Hating all werewolves because of the actions of a few is wrong.” Jules looked at him imploringly.
Gabriel met her gaze but said nothing. After a few moments of contemplation, he offered a look full of pain. “I don’t know Jules. All I see is danger. I hear what you are saying, but this pack is obviously dangerous and full of their own hate. I can’t just live with that. I’m sorry Jules. I just can’t see past it.” With that, he stood and walked out the door.
Jules just sat there, staring after him. Eileen walked over to her and squeezed her shoulder. “He’ll come around. I think with time, he will accept this.”
Jules said nothing as a tear of blood ran down her cheek.
“I’m going to go after him,” Eileen said. She turned and trotted into the pouring rain as well.
Jules wiped another tear from her cheek, smudging her face with blood. Well, there is no going back now, she thought. For better or worse, Gabriel knew her secret. What he chose to do with that information was up to him.
Jules sat for several moments more until her phone buzzed in her pocket. The message was from Luca, it read, “morning Babe.”
She typed out, “I told Gabriel,” and hit send.
With this, she stood and walked to the sink to rinse the blood off of her face. She splashed herself with cold water once more than was probably necessary and leaned over the sink, focusing on her breathing.
She looked at Luca’s next message upon being alerted by her phone. “Meet me at your place?”
She typed out three little letters and then ran out into the rain to see the one person that could make this fight with Gabriel completely worth it.
Gabriel
Eileen caught up to Gabriel several miles away from the house. Once he had started running, he hadn’t stopped. If he did he’d have to deal with what he’d just heard. No wonder they had both been keeping it from him. Gabriel could barely grasp the fact that Jules was in love, let alone with whom. Or what.
Gabriel heard Eileen walk up behind him. Without a word, she took his hand in hers and pulled him to a stop. She then reached up to kiss him. He accepted the kiss tentatively. He still hadn’t forgiven her for keeping this secret from him. In truth, they were probably even. He had openly admitted that he wouldn’t love her if she had been a werewolf. I am a prejudiced ass! He kissed her back more enthusiastically.
“I’m sorry I took any of this out on you,” he told her. And he was.
“And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I couldn’t. It wasn’t about you at all. It was about loyalty. If we don’t have loyalty to our coven leader, then we don’t deserve to be in this coven.” She was saying something he’d said to her many times.
“I understand. In most circumstances, I would have done the same.” He looked down into her eyes and sighed. “This has made me consider if we shouldn’t be though. Jules should never have asked you to keep something like this from me. I know she didn’t mean to put us in danger, but she has. And I do not know how to live with that.”
“Gabriel, Jules is in love. You must accept it. Or you will lose her.”
“I’m going to try, Eileen. I really am. But I don’t know if I…”
She put her finger on his lips, silencing him. “It’s alright not to be comfortable with it as long as you don’t let it destroy the relationship you have with someone you love. Leaving this coven without giving Jules a chance to prove that he is not a threat will destroy what you two have spent so long building. This is not the kind of decision that can be made in anger. Give yourself some time to think about it. Talk to Jules. Because I love you, I’m begging you, try to work this out. Please.”
“You are right, my love. I will try. But I think I need some space. And I need you safe. We need to leave Aboit.”
“Leave Aboit? When?”
“Now. Today. Honestly, I don’t want to be here another minute.” Eileen started to protest, but he continued, “please my love. I will call Jules when I am ready. But I know I won’t be able to think straight here. We need to go.”
Instead of responding, Eileen looked into his eyes. He didn’t know what she was looking for, but she must have found it because, after a few more long moments, she nodded.
Gabriel let out a long sigh of relief and stroked her hair out of her eyes as he held her. “I love you,” he said softly.
“I love you, too. Even if you were a werewolf.”
Gabriel could have gotten angry at this, but the look on Eileen’s face said that she was only poking fun at him. So, without another word Gabriel smiled peevishly, threw Eileen over his shoulder and sprinted back toward their house.
CARSON
After a night of truly restless sleep, Carson lay awake in his empty bed as the rain pelted the roof over his head. Demetria was up and gone already, presumably job hunting. Carson had told her she didn’t need to work outside the pack, in hopes of keeping her indebted to him longer. But, for some reason she’d insisted. Regardless, he was quite enjoying the company of his old bedfellow.
This morning though, his mind was on other things. He had the proof he needed to rid himself of this Beta once and for all. This thought should have put his mind at ease and yet he was starting to doubt his hold over the pack. First Kyle, the boy he’d practically raised from a pup, and now Luca, whom he’d taken in during the darkest of times. Both should have been irrevocably loyal to him, and yet both had done unforgivable things. Granted, even taking Hayley Reynolds from him paled in comparison to sleeping with the enemy. Luca had to pay.
By all rights, there should be a pack wide trial but wasn’t Carson the judge? Sentencing would come down to him, and his sentence for this action was death. This thought roused Carson and he stood. Now, who to instruct to carry out the sentencing? Max was loyal and crazy enough; however, he had nowhere near the concentration to carry out the deed. The tracker had the brains, but not the brawn. He would not sully his rightful Beta with the task. There was only one logical choice. All brawn and no brain was what Carson needed.
Carson dressed and then stomped across the hall. He balled his hand into a fist and was about to knock when he heard moaning from within. He took a moment to scowl and roll his eyes and then pounded on the door.
“Busy!” came the male voice from within.
“Now!” Carson shouted back.
There was a great groan and then moments later the door swung partly open. “What can I do for you Alpha?” Kip asked, relatively chipper considering Carson’s urgency. Carson looked passed him into the room. The human was fumbling with a sheet, trying to cover herself.
“I need you downstairs,” he said. Carson couldn’t have this conversation standing here in Kip’s doorway in front of the human girl.
“Kinda in the middle of something.” Kip pointed over his shoulder.
“Yes, and it’s a shame,” Carson replied. “She’s pretty. Get rid of her a get downstairs. You have five minutes.” Carson put an urgent emphasis on this, Kip did not have a choice in the matter.
Kip flinched under the weight of the command.
Satisfied that his instruction would be followed, Carson walked away, leaving Kip rushing around inside his room.
The stairs creaked under his weight as he descended them. He turned the corner and saw the boy sleeping on the couch. “Wake up,” Carson said loudly.
The boy didn’t stir.
“Up!” he shouted louder. If Demetria was going to go out for the day, she could have at least taken her brat with her. “Now!”
The boy sat up quickly, startled.
“I need the room,” Carson said, after a few moments of the teenager staring at him blinking.
“Where exactly am I supposed to go?” Ricky asked incredulously.
“That is no concern of mine,” Carson snapped. “Out.” He pointed into the hallway to exemplify his order.
“Whatever,” the boy muttered, rolled his eyes, took too long to gather some of his things, and then walked out of the room in his boxer shorts and tee-shirt. Carson heard him running up the stairs but was joined by Kip and his mind was put back on task.
“What was so important?” Kip asked, still looking flushed, the human ran from the house behind him.
“I have an urgent matter,” Carson said matter-of-factly.
“I figured that one out for myself, funnily enough,” Kip retorted.
Carson glared.
The larger wolf coward, dropping his cheerful expression altogether.
“I need you to handle something for me.”
“Okay.” Kip was ever the simpleton, but that was helpful in this situation. “What?”
“There is a traitor in the pack and I need you to take care of it,” Carson explained.
“A traitor?” Kip asked. “Who? What did they do?”
Carson pulled out his phone. If he was going to ask Kip to carry out sentencing than he should at least know the grievance. Carson handed him the phone, clearly displayed on it was the picture of Luca and his vampire slut. “Luca Cain.”
“How can you tell that’s Luca?” Kip asked, examining the photo closely.
“It’s him.” Carson’s anger flared, questions were not Kip’s place.
“Alright,” Kip said, conceding. “It’s Luca. So, it will need to be addressed at the next full moon. What exactly do you want me to do about it? It needs to be brought before the pack.”
“It will not be brought before the pack. No one must know of this repulsive betrayal. I need you to handle it now, today.” Carson put all of the Alpha authority he possessed into this order.
“But you can’t just…” Kip began to protest.
“I am your Alpha. I can do as I see fit.” Carson reminded him. “You will do as I instruct, and you will tell no one that I have done so.”
Kip’s lips rose into a snarl that was stopped short by a stare. Carson’s eyes went yellow.
“What… are your… orders… exactly?” Kip’s voice was strained, as if he was attempting to reject the order, luckily, he could not.
“I want you to find Luca Cain.”
Kip nodded.
“And I want you to kill him,” Carson said.