Daughter of the Moon (The Moon People, Book Two) (24 page)

"Ah, the lies." Khelt threw his hands in the air. "I have not been here one night and already you seek to pull me into your web." He fixed her with a hard look. "I will not sully my honour by lying to the other alphas."

"But you would seek to preserve it by denying them the truth?" Adel said with a hint of ice in her voice. "It is your lie or mine, and mine will at least do us both some good. It is barely even a stretching of the truth."

Perhaps Khelt was only focused on keeping his temper in check, but he said nothing.

"Tell the alphas you exiled me and my seers for performing dark magic."

"What?" he snorted. "Tell them you are the witch they all believe you to be? I have half a mind to, but I will not cast the names of your followers in the dirt also. You are crazed, woman."

"Consider my status, Khelt," Adel said as patiently as she could. "I have no warriors. Alpha Miral already has a taste for my blood, and Caspian cannot protect Netya and the others from his wrath by winning drunken challenges." She looked at him poignantly, and was satisfied to see him twitch with discomfort. "So what am I to do? You know better than any that I refuse to make myself thrall to another alpha, but that is what I and the rest of my seers will become if the other packs do not respect our power."

"So," Khelt murmured, "you would rather them think you a conjurer of dark spirits? They already know you are powerful. It is foolish."

"Then tell me how else I am to win my status among the other alphas? I must have their respect, Khelt, as must you. If you say nothing of what happened they will begin to spin their own tales, and if you speak the truth..." She allowed herself to trail off. Khelt did not need reminding of how an alpha who willingly allowed his den mother to leave with such a sizeable part of his pack would be viewed.

Khelt paced up and down the length of the tent, growling and muttering to himself like a frustrated beast. "You tie me up in your threads," he spat. "Does Caspian know of this?"

"He was too weary from his night of drinking and fighting for us to speak of it. But you and I both know he would agree with me."

"Would he?" Khelt murmured. He seemed unconvinced. "Curse you for taking him from me, this is why I need that man at my side." He paced for a while longer, then rounded on her. "If I do this, then you must understand one thing, Adel. If you fail to protect your pack, then I will not allow those who follow in your footsteps to fall along with you. I will bring them back into my clan by force if the only other choice is to watch them be claimed by another alpha."

The den mother nodded solemnly. "Be it you or any other alpha, I would have failed either way."

Khelt nodded abruptly, paced a few more times, then turned back to her. "Very well. I will do as you ask, but only for the sake of Caspian and the others."

"Thank you, Alpha." Adel bowed graciously. She was willing to let Khelt have his moment of supposed victory. He thought he had struck a fair compromise, but as always he had not thought it through. If Adel and her clan fell victim to another alpha, he would be too far away to intervene in time. He might not even learn of what had happened until the next gathering. There would be no refuge for her followers back under the protective wing of their former alpha, try as he might to convince himself of it.

Her business done, Adel ducked out beneath the tent flap and made her way back into the trees.

Approaching Khelt's camp had been simple, but the den mother was less welcome in the next pack's territory she sought to enter. This time, however, it was no alpha to whom it belonged.

Octavia's camp was nestled half way within the trees, bordered by a loose ring of her warriors' red-feathered spears driven into the ground with the tips pointing outward. It was a clear warning for outsiders to keep their distance, and the rest of the clans seemed happy to leave the strange female-dominated pack well alone. A great tent, equally as lavish as the throne she had been carried in upon, dominated the centre of Octavia's camp, supported by the low branches of the trees and surrounded by several smaller shelters that housed her warriors.

As the spears they carried suggested, her pack seemed strangely averse to taking the shapes of their wolves, and the two sentries watching the camp's entrance were armed not with their teeth and claws, but with long wooden clubs into which sharp blades of bone and flint had been pressed. The pair rose to their feet when they saw Adel emerging from the trees, the red feathers in their hair bobbing as they lifted their weapons.

The den mother bared her palms to them openly, slowing her pace and coming to a halt a few yards away. "I seek an audience with your leader."

"Octavia seeks her own audiences when she wishes to speak with outsiders," one of the women replied. "Return in daylight, and perhaps you will find her in a better mood to speak with you."

Adel lifted her chin and pulled her cowl back partially, though not far enough to reveal herself to any who might be watching from a distance. "Tell her Den Mother Adel wishes to speak with her."

The warrior smiled, lowering her weapon. "There is no need. You are the one woman she has been eager to speak with since we arrived. She wondered whether you would come to us first."

Adel returned the smile, though internally she was already regretting her decision. If Octavia has been just as interested in her, then she had sacrificed much of her bargaining power by being the one to make the first move. Perhaps it would have been wiser to wait.

"Come." The warrior motioned with her weapon. "She will not object to your interruption."

Adel followed the woman through the camp while the other sentry sat back down at the entrance, pulling her cowl forward again as several of Octavia's other followers eyed the stranger in their midst. It was dangerous to have come here alone, but Adel needed to know where she stood in the eyes of the closest potential ally she had.

Relatively little was known of Octavia's clan among the other packs, at least since she had wrested leadership from her former alpha. They made their den somewhere beyond the southwestern borders of Miral's territory, distant and isolated from the others. Adel knew that at least two other alphas had made attempts to attack and subjugate her clan in the past, but their warriors had been hunted and picked off one by one in the marshlands near to Octavia's territory until they turned tail in fear. She seemed a cunning and ruthless leader, one who fought fiercely to protect what she had made for herself, and willing to go to extreme lengths to preserve it.

Though many of the males in Octavia's pack had been exiled following her ascent to leadership, Adel recalled there were many more who had simply disappeared.

The warrior stopped at the entrance to the central tent and lifted the hide flap, remaining outside as the den mother ducked in. A rich scent of spiced herbs assailed Adel's senses, the rush of warm air welcoming her far more pleasantly than the draft of Khelt's tent had. The broad interior was strewn with woven mats laid over the grass, illuminated by four clay braziers each held up by a wigwam of freshly cut wooden poles. In the centre sat Octavia's throne, now draped with thick furs, broad enough to be used as a bed. Upon the seat sat the woman herself, dressed plainly in a loose wrap with her braided hair hanging free and her bare legs exposed. At the foot of her throne knelt the pack's alpha, though if his title had been little more than ceremonial before, it seemed utterly farcical now.

The handsome golden-haired man was barely clothed but for a loose leather kilt, cradling his mistress's ankle in his hands as he lavished attention on it with his tongue and lips, worshipping her more obediently than any concubine Adel had ever set eyes upon. Octavia glanced up at the den mother's arrival, making no attempt to interrupt her alpha's attentions as she inclined her head with a relaxed smile.

Adel walked forward cautiously, trying her best to appear unperturbed by the scene, though she still allowed her eyes to wander curiously to the alpha as he caressed his female with adoration.

"Even my pack must have its males," Octavia said, brushing her toes up beneath the alpha's chin. "A select few to give us children. Though only the obedient ones."

"So I can see," Adel replied. "The other packs would not approve."

Octavia shrugged lightly. "What will they do? I have demonstrated my strength in their eyes, whether they approve of me or not. Only Miral still seeks to challenge my pack."

Adel motioned to the alpha, who still seemed oblivious to her presence as he suckled upon his mistress's toes one by one. "And yet you hide this from them, yet show it openly to me."

"I will hide nothing from you, Adel. Consider it a gesture of my trust. Men are bound by many things, but as women we are free." She leaned forward to curl her fingers through her pet's golden hair. "When you take away a man's need for honour, his status, his lust for strength and power, you see how little he truly is. I have no interest in the other packs save for keeping them out of my territory. But you I will deal with."

"It pleases me to hear that," Adel replied. "You know I mean to make a place for myself alongside the other alphas."

Octavia shook her head. "They will not accept you."

"They accepted you."

"I came to them with my former alpha's skull in hand and cast it into the fire before their eyes. I came with three dozen warriors at my back and those who defied me bound as slaves, gifts to the other clans. You think you come with power, but not in the eyes of the men who sit at the centre of that circle. They see only what they can take by tooth and claw. But I see the truth of it. The women who travel with you and the talents you possess are worthy of greater respect than a hundred warriors."

"Then I will need your voice to be heard," Adel said. "I would be glad to count you as an ally should you help me secure my place."

Octavia paused, her long-nailed fingers curled against her cheek. Unlike her warriors, she was not a physically powerful or imposing woman. The man grovelling at her feet could have broken her neck like a dry branch if he so desired. And yet, she held him captive like a bee drowning in its own honey.

"Even with my assistance," Octavia said, "they would not accept you. They will pick your clan apart like carrion feeders, and I have no desire to see that happen." She rose to her feet suddenly, tugging her foot away from the alpha and sending him scuttling off to the side. "I can offer you more than that. My clan has few seers, but with your assistance we would become powerful indeed. Not even Miral would dare challenge our strength."

Adel kept a steady eye on the other woman as she shook her head. "I will not pledge myself to another leader, not even you."

"I do not ask for your blind loyalty, I am no alpha!" Octavia swept forward with a grin, seizing Adel's hands in her own and clasping them to her chest. "I would make you my den mother, leader of all your seers and of mine. I have heard the tales of your wisdom. We would lead our pack together, strong with warriors and guarded by the spirits. No clan would dare to harm us!"

It was Adel's turn to pause and consider. She studied Octavia's expression for any hint of deceit, but the woman's eyes only glittered with burning passion. A joining of their packs was perhaps both wise and timely. If Miral threatened both of them, then it made a great deal of sense. If the den mother chose to strike out on her own, then she risked much. She thought back to the harsh winter, and the grim days following the flood when her pack had been cold and hungry. If Octavia proved true to her word, then they would no longer have to live in fear of such hardships.

"We would be equals?" Adel said. "Leading together? And your pack would accept this?"

Octavia nodded excitedly. "Everyone knows your name and the tales that are told of your power." She reached up to stroke the den mother's cheek with a gentle palm, staring deep into her eyes. "It would honour us greatly to have the beautiful Adel among our pack."

"You would welcome us all? Even the sun wolf and the males who follow me?"

For the first time Octavia's warm expression faltered. She allowed her hand to drop. "The sun wolf would be welcome, but we have no need of males. They are unnecessary."

"They are the mates of two of my seers, and the third is as good as the same to my apprentice. You would be asking me to break them apart."

Octavia's brow wrinkled in frustration. She let go of Adel, turning and pacing in the direction of her throne, before spinning back to face the den mother again. "Perhaps we could make room for one. He could be taught to be subservient. Your pack will learn to do without the others, just as we have."

Adel closed her eyes, her heart sinking. The sound of Netya's weeping earlier that night was still fresh in her memory. She could not force her pack to choose between loyalty and their loved ones again. They had already sacrificed so much in leaving Khelt's clan behind. What had been the point in the past year if not to build something better? Octavia's offer was tempting, and at many other times in Adel's life she knew she would have accepted without hesitation. But she cared for the people who followed her. Cared, and perhaps even loved. The title she carried was more than just a name. Women like her were mothers to all their pack. There were many years when Adel had felt no such bonds of kinship with the people she watched over, but those times had passed now.

Octavia was no den mother. Perhaps that was why she did not understand.