The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Noah-

I see a glass bottle flying across the hall, towards the podium. I quickly duck.

"Where there are lycans, there's deceit!" Someone yells.

"Yeah!" People yell in response.

So much shit has flown towards me this past hour that I have lost track. Shoes, bottles, cups, hats... underwear.

"Listen, as I said before, this is only an option for you guys if you don't want to continue working for the Houses," I throw my hands up, defeated.

I'm tired at this point and my voice is hoarse from yelling over people.

The meeting actually started better than we anticipated. People were receptive to everything I had to say, up until the point where I mentioned that if they wanted to stop working for the Families, we would offer them a home at the Castle; I even offered them land, but that was the point of no return.

"Some of these lands have been in our families for generations! You can't ask us to leave it!" Someone had said.

"All of my sons and grandsons were born there, I won't let someone else take what's mine!" Another one had yelled.

"This is just another ploy for the lycans to get our land! They just want us to hand it to them!"

And so on, so forth.

Right now, people are even arguing amongst themselves to see who can come up with the most nefarious theory as to why I'm offering this to them. After all, the land by the Castle is the most sought after and priced, they can't believe I'd just give it away. "Silence! Silence!" Tom yells, "Please! This is a town meeting! Nobody is forcing you out of your land, so please, quiet down!"

Apparently, Tom is influential enough for people to listen to him because the chatter dies down in a couple of minutes.

I nod at Tom in a silent 'thank you'.

"Your Highness, if I may," someone raises their hand.

"Yeah?" I say, sounding more and more defeated.

"Lycans have used us for generations as forced labor. We work the farms, we work at the Castle. we work at the Houses. We have again and again been used as bargaining chips in every dispute imaginable, and right now, you are doing the same." The yelling begins again, agreeing with the woman.

I raise my hand, trying to calm them down, and this time, they actually do.

"Please, explain what you mean," I tell the woman once the crowd has quieted down.

It takes her by surprise,

"We - well, Your Highness. None of us actually want to leave our home. That's all we've ever known, and you are asking us to leave. Why?"

I stay silent, looking at her.

I really don't have an answer for her. What she's accusing me of is absolutely right, now that she puts it that way. I'm trying to use them to stick it to the Houses, to leave them without a workforce, but in the process, I am asking these people to leave behind their homes and all they have ever known. I hadn't even thought of the effect this could have on them.

I rub my face with my hand. The entire room has become quiet, waiting for my answer.

"Okay, listen. I'm going to be honest with you, which is what I should've done in the first place. It's no secret that I'm new at this. In fact, I hardly ever know what I'm doing; this is one of those cases. As Tom said, nobody is forcing you out of your homes. If you want to stay, you stay. What I *do* know however, is that I'm not happy about any of this. I'm not happy about the Houses raising your taxes, I'm not happy with the Council and those in power trying to always look after themselves and at your expense no less. I'm not happy about how you all have been treated and I'm not happy with... *feeling* like this Kingdom could be so much more. And to be honest with you, I don't know how to change any this. So, please, if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears."

The people before me are so shocked at my revelation that they don't say a word. Quite frankly. even I am surprised at my admission. It's the first time I have admitted, even to myself, that I have no idea what I'm doing.

With the Council, I always have to fake this bravado to be actually be listened to; I have to pretend I know better than everyone in the room. Here, that has backfired phenomenally.

A shy voice comes from the back of the room.

"Yo Your Highness, perhaps we could start by lowering the taxes? Last month the Houses took half our crops, this month they want to take more. It won't leave me enough to feed my family." "Unfortunately, I can't do that. The taxes are established by the Houses."

"Bu - but they've always said they're established by the Crown," the voice says again.

I raise my eyebrow.

"I'm afraid you've been lied to. Not once have I suggested nor authorized, for that matter, a tax increase."

Chatter breaks out once again in the room, until Tom stands up. His expression has changed. It was passive before, but now he seems angry.

The room quiets down once again when they see that Tom has stood up to address me.

"Your Highness, I want to thank you for coming in and explaining the situation to us. You can rest assured that you have my and my family's support moving forward," he says, sitting back down. "And mine," someone else says.

"Mine too!" I hear form the corner of the room, followed by many others.

The meeting ends on a high note, considering that nothing was thrown my way as I stepped off the stage.

"Noah," I hear from behind me. Turning around, I notice it's Tom who spoke.

"We really did want to thank you for coming here. Most of these folks are highly distrustful of lycans, but you coming here means a lot to them. Previous Kings never talked to us directly, so going to the towns and villages and addressing the people will go a long way."

He shakes my hand.

"I appreciate that, and hopefully, you're right."

He goes on to shake the hands of my companions and more men come up to me to shake my hand.

I don't know what I said to make them change their mind, but I'm happy it did.

"I think we should head out. A crowd like this can draw attention, if the Council's little spies come looking, we better be long gone." Eli says.

"Oh, but you can't! We prepared a feast and everything!" Ivy says, hanging on to Ethan's arm and coming towards us.

"I'm sorry we can't stay, but surely next time we're here Noah will try your fantastic cooking. Ivy," Ethan says, patting her hand.

This seems to please her enough to leave the subject alone.

Truthfully, we could've stayed longer and eaten with them, but Ethan was so quick with his answer I'm assuming he doesn't want to stay here much longer.

We exit the meeting hall after it's been almost completed vacated.

Once again, we meet Tom at the exit.

"Tom, thank you for making this happen." Ethan says, shaking his hand, "it's more important than you realize."

Tom has taken out a pipe and proceeded to light it, smoking whatever herb or root he put in there.

"Don't worry about it," he says between puffs, "I mean, no one here is stupid, most of us understand that the Houses haven't aligned to the new leadership and now the King must do something about it. Believe me, if it comes down to it, no one will support the Houses, anyway."

This statement takes me by surprise, but before I can ask him about what he's heard or what he knows, he winks at me,

"So, Noah, you better not make fools out of us."

I smile at him and shake his hand again.

"I won't," I tell him.

After this, we all turn to leave, wasting no time to get out of here and onto the next town. Our

schedule is tight if we want to make it back to the Castle before anyone starts suspecting anything.

We begin walking into the forest, away from everyone, before I hear a stomach rumble.

It's mine.

"Well, the King has spoken," Mason says, much too happy to be away from the crowd at the village.

I chuckle.

"We can walk a few more minutes and reach a clearing. The day is nice, might as well take advantage of it." Ethan says. Ethan knows this area well since most of the time away from the Castle is spent here with Charlotte and her parents. We all walk towards the clearing in our human form.

We walk in smaller groups, and I take the opportunity to finally ask Ethan what is wrong.

He's been... off... lately. No one knows what's wrong with him and he's been like this for so long I'm actually starting to get concerned.

"Hey, Ethan, are you okay, man? The guys and I have noticed you've been off lately, I'm starting to get worried," I tell him.

He purses his lips, not looking at me.

After a couple of minutes, he finally speaks.

"Charlotte is pregnant," he says.

This takes me by surprise.

"Pregn.... Is it yours?" I ask him.

He stops walking to look at me through narrowed eyes.

"Of course it's mine, who the fuck else do you think?"

I raise my hands up, defensively.

"I didn't mean anything by it I just... it's just... you're lycan and she's human."

He continues walking.

"Don't I know that," he murmurs to himself, "we're here."

We all stop at the edge of the forest and the beginning of the clearing. Ethan is right, it is at beautiful day.

We all sit on the shade of a tree and unpack our lunches.

"So, what are you guys going to do?" I ask Ethan, sitting beside him.

"Do about what?" Mason asks.

"Charlotte is pregnant," Ethan says.

Mason, Eli, and Caleb pause for a second, staring at Ethan in disbelief. He doesn't meet any of their gazes, he just unpacks his lunch and begins eating.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

"I asked her to get rid of it, but needless to say, it landed me on the floor for several nights."

"You can't just ask a woman to get rid of a baby," Caleb says.

"Why the fuck not? She's a human, there's no way she'll survive that birth." Eli says.

I throw a rock at him.

"Hey!" he protests.

"Stop being an asshole." I warn him.

"He's right, though. That's exactly why I asked her to get rid of it. Do you know what the mortality rate is for humans birthing lycans? Over ninety percent."

We all slowly begin eating, not sure what to tell him.

"Have you tried telling her how concerned you are that this pregnancy might take her life?" Caleb asks, trying to be tactful.

"Yes. She says it's a risk she's willing to take."

"There isn't much you can do, then," I tell him, resolute.

"I mean what would you do if Vera ever got pregnant with your pup? Even for a wolf it would be dangerous," he says.

I have mixed emotions at the mention of Vera bearing a pup of mine. As much as I love the idea of Vera having my pups, I would never put her life at risk in order to do so.

I stay silent. I think it's evident that none of us here would put the life of our mate's at risk in order to have kids.

With that, we drop all conversation pertaining to Charlotte's pregnancy and continue our meals in complete silence.