Priorities and Possibilities

Teddy’s POV

Axel was right, my own fears ruling what I should be considering with a level head. Word after word he read out loud, his face became more stern, his voice shaking with barely contained rage. “Part five; unclassified rogues will be shot on sight if identification is not made readily available the moment of entry into any territory.”

Each section he read out loud, letting the words I was only brave enough to write down and not speak myself be heard by my own ears. I was ashamed of myself for even thinking them; knowing that some of my friends over the years were Rogues by no fault of their own, Chip being an example.

“Ted..”. “If you enact these laws, it might as well be World War Two all over again; but this time, it will be aimed at our own people.” Axel shook his head at me, waving the paper u see my nose. “And I know for a fact that this is coming from a place of fear, so I’m gonna take this and burn it like you should have done the moment you wrote it down.”

“I’m sorry.” My voice sounded small I. The room, even Walter and Alvin looking ashamed themselves.

“Don’t be sorry to me, man. Be sorry that you aren’t using your own brain. I know it’s in there, so dust it off and use it; why don’t ya?!” He walked over to the fireplace and took a match, lighting it and setting the list ablaze as he tossed it into the hearth. “Now; do you have any more time of those Avian race bullshit papers on the desk I need to burn?” He glanced to Walter as the old wolf shifter some stuff around and handed him a folder. “I’m gonna assume that no one else has read any of this?” He raised an eyebrow in question.

“That’s it. No one else knows about them either.” Walter confirmed.

“Good.” Axel lit the rest and tossed them in, coming back over to join us. “Now then… we have three council members left, a bunch of hired Rogue’s attacking us, Black Haven to finally smother; anything else I’m missing?” He leaned his head against his hand like nothing was out of the ordinary now, all forgiven and swept under the rug.

“Someone hired them?” I asked, making him nod his head.

“I had every body checked before they melted them. One of the fuckers was bound to slip up during that attack. Most of the Rogue’s are hired minutemen and small militia groups. Trained, but not to my standards. One of them just happened to have a small scrap of paper in his pants pocket before we melted him. ‘CDL on prsn, elmnt trgt nd tk pkg.’ it was in gel-pen and written on wax paper, so we’re very lucky nothing else was erased from it.”

“What is CDL?” Alvin leaned onto his cane and scratched his chin, going over the paper Axel wrote out for us. “It’s definitely not a driving license.”

“Based on where they were aiming, my money’s on Melody and her necklace.” When Axel pointed that out, my blood ran cold.

“They’re after Corazón del la Luna, aren’t they.” I said it like a fact, the message becoming clear to me. “They want the Goddess’s heart and are prepared to kill Melody to get it.”

“It seems that way.” Walter mumbled to himself as he wrote out next to Axel. “Corazón de la Luna on person, eliminate target and take package.”

“They almost killed my wife and my daughter for a necklace.” The notion was preposterous, but utterly believable. ‘Melody, I need you to lock up your necklace in the safe for the time being love; or even have the maid do it for you.’ Alberta was watching her at the moment, a rotation of staff on alert to her condition at the moment. It worried me that she only sent me a soft alright in reply, not even asking me why I needed her to do it. “I’m having Melody lock it away now. From now on, that thing stays at the estate and only comes out in the most rare of occasions.”

“Agreed. Especially if Melody can’t access the Goddess anymore. I’m sorry to put it like this, Teddy my boy, but we’re going to have to wait until your daughter comes of age before we can even access her again. Well.. You will all have to wait, I’ll be dead.” Alvin shrugged like he was talking about the weather and not his own demise.

None of us said anything at that, both Alvin and Walter approaching the end of their lives sooner than the rest of us; especially Alvin since he was human and all. “Then I’ll keep it locked up until she’s twenty five… Lucy or Felix, whoever decides they want the throne.” I nodded, feeling like it was too soon to tell which of our kids would receive it.

“And back to the other part of everything.” Walter nodded back at the table, darting a glance to the fireplace. “We should consider a census at least, or even an ID card system for wolves. We can forget about all the other things written down; but we do need a way to unite our people more thoroughly as a kingdom, and that way seems very viable.”

“Well… what about if we do have the census, issue the cards, and fine everyone who doesn’t get one until they do register. No moving of people, no bullshit shooting, no messy moves. And then when we have Black haven and the last Council members locked up, have the census and declare us all untied. Win, win.” Axel shrugged, twirling some in his seat.

“Three month then?” I looked at the men around me, all of them nodding in agreement. “Alright, three months from now; we’ll have all of this wrapped up and declare ourselves officially the Kingdom, or Queendom I should say, of America.” It was going to be a lot of work, but with the friends I had on my side, I was sure we could pull it off.