Chapter 155: Safe Word
Guanina's POV
I'm blushing like a motherfucker! Ugh! Of course HE would go there! But it's fine. Tony has been helping me be ready for today and we had a long convo about EVERYTHING. We both decided I would do my best to make amends with his support, I AM Blessed to have him. My dear mate lost EVERYONE from his family and has become VERY invested in his new family, he's now excited for our Heat. After we met he would come and see me in the basement cleaning the paintings. I wanted to make sure there were no traces of ash and he would sit in the library reading the diaries of several of our ancestors for hours. He even has favorites like if they were characters in a book or movie! It's too funny! But we ALL have our favorites. Mine isn't even an original Mirabal...
I am named after Guanina Oller, who was an Epsilon and only female crew member of the galleon 'El Lobo Infernal'.
Imotonex's eldest son and heir, Yacahüey, The Bloodied Sea Demon or 'El Demonio Sangriento', his favorite targets being British and Spanish ships headed back to Europe full of riches, he only left ONE survivor EVER, Captain Silverio Navarro de la Fuente of the armed carrack the Santa Lucía, to tell the tale... he knew they would deem Silverio a lunatic. He just wanted the description of the Jolly Roger to be made clear. Lunatic or no, sailors are very superstitious and Yocahüey was banking on that. He wanted that when the flag be seen, the crew would be full of fear weakening them.
Anyway, Yacahüey was madly in love with Guanina since he was a boy and pleaded with his father for rituals for a mating for when she turned 18. The Great Beta approved, she had proven her metal. Plus Imotonex wanted strong grandchildren to carry his legacy. He would allow it only if Pablo agreed (they were partners and besties, Imotonex was a ruthless SOB, but loyalty was very important to him, he would never make a move like this without his closest ally's consent and father of the intended).
Pablo agreed to the match. Paco once told me that in his diaries, the Great Master was over the Moon when two of his children were mated into our family and the Lady Cacicaná was mated to his primary heir, the Master Francisco Oller the 1st, Paquito is the 3rd. The Goddess looked at the match with favor and granted Yacahüey the fierce and beautiful Guanina, and since she was her son's mate and member of the family, Adelola granted her the bow that was given to her by her mother which originally belonged to her father. Guanina would rain arrows in rapid fire from the crow's nest, being still an artist in her own right using only red as her color, so she christened the bow Ris, the Taíno word for red. It's the bow Ura uses today, engraved with our family crest. Izzy has it's twin Ke', that Adelola accepted from her sister, the Lady labalaba, a High Priestess of Avalon, powerful with the elements of Earth, who gave it to her as she lay dying after being poisoned with an unknown poison in Martinique while they were trying to find the sea ledgers of the slave ships that transported their ancestors trying to pinpoint where exactly from Africa they were. She died childless and had already named, her little 17 year old sister Adelola as her heir.
They were not attacked by humans! But by another pack from Spain who wanted to conquer Martinique as their own. They were trying to negotiate with them explaining that they had no intention of invading their territory, that they were just there for information. They tried to reason with them that they had their own pack and that they were Priestesses AND princesses in their own right! But they didn't believe the girls and they had no Truth Seers. What surprised them the most was that this pack wanted to ENSLAVE them because they were not white!
They couldn't believe that wolves were acting like humans! And what infuriated them the most was the fact that this new pack HAD a Priestess of Avalon of their own, who should be guiding them better. However she had her own agenda. She later became the second of the Cursed Roses... The Lady Esperanza Lizardi Sánchez. She fucking double crossed the sisters by assuring them in good faith as a Priestess that all will be well. She poisoned labalaba with a gas agent she inhaled while she slept. However, before she administered the poison to Adelola, she awoke by a fast link from her sister and cast a powerful spell she had already practiced with her sister rendering even a Prime Priestess of Avalon completely immobile shutting off their brain with a single command! I hear that Moira still uses that technique to this day.
She then noticed her dying sister but couldn't pinpoint the scent of the poison, she brought her body back with her, as well as the Lady Esperanza, to try to at least figure out the poison that killed her sister. Adelola handed the Lady Esperanza and her grimoire to Moira. After a while her father commanded her to let it go and lay Iabalaba's bones to rest in The Catacombs under The Fort. Moira latter found the spell Esperanza used to disable Iabalaba's Priestess Mark, yet no one has been able to determine the poison.
It was quite an unfortunate event that made Adelola cast a dark forgetting spell on every man, woman and child from that pack... what they forgot was how to breath! The sisters did find what they were looking for. However it lead to another dead end and she felt her sister died in vain. They're only two portraits of labalaba left, we have one, the Ollers the other. Adelola is not only OUR great-great grandmother, she's theirs as well! It's hard to imagine her doing such a thing while looking at her gentle gaze while cleaning her paintings. She was just as the ruthless as her mate... And yet we are still reaping the glory they brought to our family name to this day.
Adelola enchanted every weapon in our armory to never falter or break or lose their strength, edge or beauty, the spell also guaranteed that the weapon return to the armory if ever it would be lost. However when Asenath brought Coa, Adelola was stumped for she didn't have a spell that could protect Damascus steel. Either way, I can't wait to start cleaning up my namesakes portraits!
After the mating and Marking, Yacahüey and Guanina were inseparable, yet for all their efforts they only had one pair of twin daughters, they were both Betas, Paola and Paulina, who he dotted upon just as much as Guanina.
The whole family died at sea when the girls were only 16. They joined the rest of the crew and tried to steal a British galleon to expand the 'business' to the Indian Sea. After they thought they had successfully secured the galleon The Sacred Heart, the rest of the crew went back to the main ship, Yacahüey and Guanina stayed with the girls on The Sacred Heart to give the girls experience on sailing such a large ship with a small crew... Unbeknownst to them, the British had left a booby trap and since the ship was full of barrels of rum, nobody was able to scent out the miniscule amount of gun powder set up in a particular contraption that blew the ship, leaving those on the other ship to witness the explosion of their kin in horror. It took them days to find as many body parts as possible to bring back home... At least they found all of their heads, their skulls and bones lay downstairs. The new heir apparent was Baguanao and he and his mate, Isabella Acosta Spogel had no Beta children.
We are all that's left of the MAIN family...
The fertility tragedy that befell that generation left our great grandmother Asenath, as the last Mirabal Beta of that generation and her mate Master Fernando Oller as the Head of the family, opening the door for the ONLY Mirabal Beta of the next generation, the Beta Urayoán Mirabal-Oller (He used to bootleg rum and smuggle other goods into Tampa during prohibition with his cousins Pedro Oller-Mirabal who was a Gamma and Epsilons Bjørn and his sister Björk Spogel-Mirabal, increasing our family's wealth to carry Imotonex's Legacy... WE know him as ABUELO, yet we never knew him except through his diaries and the stories about him. He was mated to a Gamma from a pack outside of Warsaw, Poland, Klan Księżyca Lycan. The beautiful and fair Marushka Dukovich, who's family emigrated from the South of Saint Petersburg in Russia. He found her just before Chairman Adolf Hitler became Führer.
Sure we have cousins in SEVERAL families, and Mami and Dad got pretty busy with 6 of us! Naughty! And Ayiti with wolfman X with 3... NAUGHTIER! Tía never really gave me much shit about my stunts, she DID came pregnant from THREE missions, without being mated. And she had them a little later in life... She never found her mate so it's like she made due with what she had! It's the same dude for sure, I helped Tali check it years ago. Unfortunately Talia doesn't have access to the Top Secret ledgers in OPIA.
"Bayoán I HAD savings, I didn't pay Maco because I'm a greedy cunt ok?! I had convinced myself that since the big marshmallow let it go with Nía and Lola, I would be left off the hook too. Dude, I UNDERSTAND the difference and how stupid it was not to see it, ok? And LOOK! I'M APOLOGIZING! Plus, Antoine has an account in Luxembourg. The whole pack's founds are there and divided by family. They have agreed to it fork it over as well as a company they have that's about to go bankrupt. I called Professor Gonzalo Ibarra, remember him Bayoán? I think you guys hung out a few times right?" His brows furrow.
"Yeah, he's a brilliant Beta from my year! He was fun competition in class! He's Víctor's cousin and yeah, last I heard about him heading the Economy Department at the University... What does he say about it?" Yes! I'm no strategist but I have my ways of derailing a conversation!
"Well, he went through the books and said that we could easily use the current global situation to correct the underlying problems the company had and take advantage at the plummeting stock market, and since they have a factory close by and can be operational ASAP, he would even be willing to go out with a team of pupils and Bruno wants to give some field experience for some graduates!" Antoine kicks himself all the time for the demise of his pack. But even after his father died, him and his Beta Louis would stay closely allied with Cesar and Beta Basili. And they did every move to ensure the survival of their people... Thousands are alive because they had the strength to let go of that instinctual unyielding Alpha pride.
"Marcus was telling me the same thing about Blood Moon's assets, also their territory is not theirs just by their own efforts to protect it by Council Law and Avalon Law. One of the first things Marcus did as Beta was look for all the ancestral documentation of their family and their claim according to HUMAN law to those lands. Apparently they're descendant from a branch family of the Hatfields! Anyway their family started making money in moonshining (funny right? WE were pirates, bootleggers and smugglers)! Now their family and pack corporation deal on importing liquor and wine. Before OUR incident they were negotiating about buying a vineyard out in Nappa! Apparently with the money Alpha Keaton and his lovely mate made by selling US out they intended to leave their sons to rule Blood Moon and their company while they enjoyed retirement in a vineyard in Cali! Anyway both him and Kayden decided to put THEIR personal families wealth in our family account adding to the family wealth to help add to our financial power. Nina I brought Marcus here yesterday and he went into his nerd mode and says that he's got documents, diaries and pictures, as well as the original still their Hillbilly family used to make Moonshine and even has a piece of their clan tartan, the colors of the sett intact, from the time before their family emigrated from Scotland! He also has documents of how their great grandfather offered his pack as a stop in the Underground Railroad and even showed me a picture of him with Harriet Tubman! We can create a perimeter to protect anyone from the Archeology Department of the University, to check out where they would let the escape slaves rest up in their village. Since they were a wolf pack they really didn't have to HIDE them, anyone who went into their territory they would just end! However, they have a letter of a house slave who knew how to read and write who funny enough wrote that the place was a little creepy and that the people around seem to be possessed! Ha! If only he knew they were REAL monsters! Oh and even though they didn't partake in any of the human wars, they would end any Confederate soldiers that happened into their territory! Since this is also part of the ancestry of the future Alpha and MY own kids I consider it to be very interesting information to add to their genealogy. Maybe something to help them with clearing Marcus and Kayden's name a little bit clean from what their parents did? They feel REALLY bad for what happened. What do you guys think?" Whoa! When I brought Antoine for the first time to the house and told me about handing over not just his personal wealth to the family, but any pack asset to be handed to the Treasury, he was telling me about family records paintings and pictures that he had shipped to Luxembourg when he saw that things were getting really bad.
"Thanks Tali and congratulations on being able to say all of that in one breath! I'm aware of that and I do want a Council meeting for the collective wealth of the pack! I ONLY want today to be for OUR FAMILY matters. So with regards to Tony's and Marcus and Kayden's PERSONAL assets we can definitely add to our own and and Tony also wants to add some heirlooms belonging to his family since the times of The Crusades he has in his vault in Luxembourg. Morgana also had mentioned handing the deed to her family's Brownstone in Pierrepont Place in Brooklyn Heights right Bayo? Inform the others to convey a Council meeting with the other Alphas and leaders from overseas to discuss how we will proceed with any PACK asset before returning to your Leave. Anyway, Bayoán Nina answered your question, she's sorry and she has the money to pay it back to Maco and she's going to use her and her mate's money to add to the legacy of our family. Let's stay on point! The item of Nina's shameless abuse towards Maco's hopefully GONE pushover nature and we being pissed at her it is now OVER AND DONE! Besides let's be fair, Nina DOES contribute to the family a lot and not just by making sure our name was plastered on the tabloids EVERY OTHER DAY!" HEY!
"Sounds good, and yeah Maco has the deed to Morgana's family home, she handed it to Dad when we moved into the Small House." And he just keeps eating.
"HEY! Thanks for reminding everyone of the PAST DEAR sister!" I glare at her wanting to watch her BURN!
"No NEED to thank me Nina! Hey, did ANYONE in this table NEED ME to remind them of every damn time Nina would go ahead and embarrass the fuck out of not just Dad, but EVERY ONE of US?!" She shrinks her neck and shrugs high raising her hands as if she is innocent of having to remind me. I look at their faces. Maco puts down his cutlery and rubs the stress away from his face and just looks at me as he puts his elbows on the table, lacing the fingers of both his hands together resting his lips on them glaring at me ready to contest anything that comes out of my mouth. Ura just reclines himself back crossing his arms smiling, yeah I already know what YOU think! Suania turns her face at me and rolls her eyes and looks forward shaking her head. Bayoán doesn't even look my way drinking the rest of his wine with one go. Umbros is cleaning his mouth with the napkin glaring at me like I'm the next course. Lola is exactly like Ura, except she isn't smiling... Tía is eating like she wasn't part of the conversation at ALL! And Talia...
"Nina, don't try and find ANY rescue from me! Damn bitch! Do you have ANY CLUE how you fucked US up?! Why do you think we go on missions with a select few? YOUR public bullshit made Tío look weak and that reflects on the WHOLE family's reputation, a TON of field ops refused to be paired up with us because they thought WE were weak! Do you think I LIKE dealing with Umbros's childish bullshit 24/7?! Puñeta Nina, I had a TON of fun with a TON of men and women but I did it on the down low! You wanted to hook up with celebrities doing your damn best to steal the limelight! Then you went ahead and created that whole brouhaha with that model what's her face?! We even had that fucking LEGAL dispute that Tío had to pay all that hush money and an ACNDA tax to assure we ALL didn't have to pay for YOUR stupidity, so if we REALLY were to go into guanies and cents you don't only owe Maco money, you owe ALL your siblings money, because Tío used HIS personal wealth to pay to clean up YOUR mess. I bet my thic ass that Maco already saw the HEAFTY amount it was! So spare me the outrage Nina, I have ALREADY told you what I thought of your tantrums! Damn I'm only a little tipsy and high, Ura you were right! I feel really light now!" I have no words. Holy shit, Ura didn't even mention how my shit affected their WORK.
"WHOA! Don't fucking put ME in with THIS SHIT TALIA!" Umbros stands up pissed at Natalia's mention of him.
"SIT THE FUCK DOWN UMBROS! We'll get TO YOU in due time!" Izzy bellows him the second Alpha command he's gotten from her today and she's livid with him AND me... AGAIN! It was so full of anger we felt the house rumble a little. He sat down immediately and shut his trap.
"ALRIGHT! LOOK I'M SORRY FOR THAT TOO! FINE! Tell me how much Dad had to pay Isabella to accept the Alpha Command consensually and never be able to talk about what happened, I'll pay it back! I REALLY want to make it RIGHT! I'm taking fucking responsibility! FOR FUCKS SAKE, we had a SAFE WORD!" I can explain... Damn it! I'm sorry.