Chapter 99: The Hereditary Mark
Bayoán's POV
It looks like Tiago has already wretched twice.
"This is just one of your tricks! My mate and my daughter are just fine!" Our people in the inside already gave us profiles on EVERY Council top heads and their families. We had already read the report saying that his mate and daughters were safely in Nova Scotia in two locations.
"Of course Tiago! They were doing just fine in that charming home outside of Lunenburg, very nice! However we did get a little mad when you and your buddies decided it would be ok to burn our DAMN ISLAND! Now that wasn't very nice! So we thought to ourselves, why not just take everything they love and give it the same respect?" I looked at his mate and daughters both have her dark brown eyes and golden hair.
"Impossible! Not even Armand knows were they are!" Tiago's eyes are black and his canines are out. Perfect, because his other two daughters are an hour South of Halifax.
"Víctor send a team out for another pick up South of Halifax, I want a nice family reunion were Tiago will see his remaining lovely daughters each drink a healthy amount of wolfsbane and leave them here with him so he can see them rot as much as the others. The scents will complement each other!" Víctor keeps it going.
"For just two, we can just port them in! I am sick of waiting Bayoán, give me 15 minutes I want them all dead now!" And he heads out the door. And right on schedule.
"I told them that it was a mistake! Many of us knew it was a stupid move, I moved my family before the attack! I stayed to make them think I was going along and take any suspicion away from my family. Please leave my youngest daughters, they don't know anything, they are innocent!" I look at Víctor and nod, if we have to bring them here and their screams fill his ears because they will smell their dead mother and sister, so be it.
"I don't care about your dead Tiago... We have over 1,500 of those! Víctor's sister there was an elementary school teacher who had just found her mate. Víctor, how would you like for Tiago's lovely daughters to smell what he's smelling, to know that they are dead and their father a criminal of war?" Tiago's eyes started to show panic.
"I already told you, I'll be back in 15 minutes! Maybe we can sample it, as long as I get to hear it and we can put them all in the pit were we put the others, I'll be right back." Víctor left the room, still we gave Tiago the chance, dude we really don't want to do this but if it gets us what we need, we will.
"NO PLEASE! KILL ME! I PARTOOK!" Whatever... Yet Izzy comes in with a Kosioorun on her nose and her tablet with the information. Why did she decide to come?
"So that's why they're going to Halifax!" And Tiago goes to her feet and she just kicks him away. "Stay the fuck away from me!"
"Mercy Mighty Alpha, I beg for your mercy!" Izzy just looks repulsed by him.
"Beg all you want Chairman, you won't find it from me, you want mercy for your daughters?! I would have wanted the same courtesy for my people, but you had to be greedy idiots who didn't give a damn about mercy! You were directing the attackers in Gambia knowing that we were extracting packs YOUR people were attacking, packs that were under YOUR jurisdiction. Is that true or not?" She wanted this confession badly. With this we have the strongest case against them for our declaration of war, the seed of doubt on other packs.
"Please Alpha Loiza!" He begged.
"I asked you a question, yes or no?" And as Tiago kept thinking about it, we already heard screams outside. Víctor came in with two teenage girls with gold hair. They went to the floor with their father. 'I thought we were just going to bluff.' I ask Víctor. 'It was The Alpha's order.'
"I want that answer NOW CHAIRMAN! Or your lovely daughter won't look so lovely in ten seconds. I want her face gone Víctor, I want that everytime he tries to remember her face, he also remembers she doesn't have one." Damn Izzy ain't playing today.
"As you command Alpha! 10, 9, 8, 7..." Víctor cocked his gun and had it locked on the first girl's face.
"YES! YES IT WAS!" He finally says. She orderers me to sit him on the chair and lock him. She takes his daughters in each hand with her claws extended and locked in their bones so Tiago knows she's serious, the girls couldn't stop crying and screaming.
"Look into that camera and say exactly what you did, say it all true, I hear both these girls are Kappas and that they really enjoy drawing. I know you really don't give a damn what your people need to have a good life and don't care about the Greek Alphabet code but I bet you really enjoy watching them draw! If you even THINK of lying I WILL KNOW, and before you watch both your remaining daughters loose their beautiful faces you will listen to them scream in agony at the loss of their precious hands as I rip them to shreds! So START!" Víctor and I are both caught off guard. But it seems to give Tiago no choice and she doesn't look like she's bluffing. She starts riping one of the girls wrists and she screams in pain. And Tiago starts singing like a bird.
He confessed how The Warewolf High Council lost a lot of the earnings from taxes they collect from the packs under their jurisdiction to terrible investments. How Chairman Armand put his own son, a Delta, in charge of these trades, Deltas and numbers don't mix. So to hide the lost of those founds he started taking from very small packs whom no one payed attention to. But it wasn't enough. He needed REAL money to cover this blunder and the only pack with the amount they needed was us, he already had buyers for our tech!
They already had our location but they couldn't attack us face on. They needed the purest blood to cast a powerful elemental spell and a Prime Priestess of a powerful lineage to procure it. Mortiana entered The Council after Kayden's mother so she didn't swear any Oath. So in the end the hardest part was to get the Unicorn blood and Marius was able to get it, as long as The Council left his pack to do what they wanted. He even said how after we got Karaya again, they increased the attacks at packs that would call for our aid or aid us. He explained how Blood Moon was spared because they couldn't extract Kayden's parents to make it look like a kidnapping because Kayden had commanded them to be guarded and not be able to speak after he found out. But that Keaton had already made sure it would look like the pack was attacked and leave, if their sons refused to join them, they would have to die, too. I saw Izzy retract her claws from the girls. I signaled Víctor and he acknowledged it... Kayden knew only just then and because of his dumb fear for loosing Izzy, and just had the dumb luck of ordering his parents to silence and watched... They couldn't attack us because they could in fact risking their biggest connection to US! His mother! He really didn't betray us as much as just trying to keep his mate. Izzy looked sick, just as Tiago finished his full confession, she looked green.
She had let go of the girls and Víctor held on to her and escorted her out.
Loiza POV
"Alpha, here." Víctor helped me with the Kosiooruns and to get to the control room were I was able to sit. And just as I am processing everything said I can't stop thinking about Kayden and out of the blue ANOTHER DAMN Mark burns through my left wrist of the symbol for Earth!
"Are you KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!" And then I felt it, it wasn't just me! I leave the control room and go to them! I leave the dungeons and go upstairs, pass the South wing close to the entrance to the kitchens, pass the second inner courtyard and up the back stairs to my own chambers, I could already hear them crying. Isla, Mónica and Suanía are trying to calm them, I take Jade's tiny left hand and there it is I check out Deacon and he too has it. I take off The Guanín and unclasp the top of my dress to latch them to me, it's about time they ate and it will soothe all three of us.
"They just appeared mija, why would Gaia Mark them?" Isla asks.
"I think this Mark has nothing to do with me..." I show them mine. "I feel this Mark has to do with Kayden, what has he done?" I ask more to myself. I link Gloria... 'Gloria, I want a report about what just happened at Blood Moon or if something happened with him ASAP!' He has a new title. 'On it Alpha!' She responds.
"Izzy what's going on?" What could he have done? "IZZY! What happened to the babies?!"
"Kayden has a new title and a Mark that goes with it, and from the fact that we all got it, it's hereditary. I have Gloria investigating." I link Víctor and tell him to give the girls forgetting potion and send them back to Halifax, we have what we need, to contact Braka and Ayiti who sent a team to a Council safe house in Tanzania to get everyone in it... Shomari's calculations were on point. And to have The Lady Magdalena ready to receive me and my pups at the shrines. I look down at my pups playing with the necklaces of gold strands with intermittent different colored stones and their wide eyes now dry and calm.
I have Isaura unbraided my hair, while her daughter and apprentice Cordelia, removes my makeup. Ximena gets me a simple white gown for my visits to The Shrines. Isla and Nía got ready to go with me, they each carried one of the babies, the Lady Magdalena was waiting with wreaths of white roses for Selene, green for Gaia. The gardens looked like a rainbow exploded, Magdalena was doing her job wonderfully and under her care every flower of every tree was blooming, even the plum trees which gave me so much trouble. She already had everything ready for their naming to the Goddesses. Both Shrines were lit and each had their summonings and offerings and the placid scent of sage. It was almost dusk, the times were commuting with the gods was more possible... Dawn and dusk.
We placed them naked on the new Altar the Lady Magdalena asked to be in the center instead of a bench. It was large enough to have private gatherings for Blessings, like the one the twins will have when they turn one. They get a Blessing ceremony and then a Birthday party. I heard more people coming in the gardens, this is supposed to be very intimate affair, but the numbers of my family make that impossible, and I guess Víctor didn't want to miss his mate perform her first ceremony as Osupa. Even Maco brought Amelia, I smiled at them, he signaled that they would leave right away, 'Amelia wanted to see this.' He said. 'You know this isn't that big of a deal Maco, the real party is next year, I just wanted to name them today, their father gave them a gift and I want to honor it.' He did something that will grant them protection from something or someone, he'll be here for them one way or other. 'It's fine sister, she just wants to know what to do when her time comes' I look at him with a huge smile and he motions to not fuss and pay attention.
All in simple white clothes, no embellishments, no shoes, this place is Hallowed Ground. As their mother I am crowned with white chrysanthemums, the father is also supposed to be so, in lack of the father, the mother's father is to stand in as the male figure which will help mold them. I feel Maco take my hand, he is my oldest brother and real head of our family, so he is taking it upon himself the lectures to gide both on their own masculine side. I look at him and he doesn't even let me take it in. 'Pay attention Alpha!' And I look forward at my babies on the altar.
"We are here in this Holy place where our mothers from above and below keep us in balance and harmony. We are here to stand witnesses to the Blessings that shall be bequeathed upon these New Alphas of our people, their names already burning and being sent to the realms of the Goddesses where their names shall be engraved and be given places of honor to the sounds of Alpha Deacon Mirabal-Black and Alpha Jade Mirabal-Black. Today they have already received a Mark from the Great Mother herself by way of a Blessing from their father, Alpha Kayden Black of the Blood Moon Pack, whom also has Blessed their mother Alpha Loiza first of the Mirabal Dynasty, Cacique of the Hollowed Island of Karaya. May the Blessings of the Goddesses keep falling on this house, it's inhabitants and everyone who lives in this island and it's surrounding waters. Blessed Be." She finishes.
"Blessed Be!" We all repeat.