Chapter Forty Two - The New Commandments

There was a great blast of icy wind and the werewoves found themselves being drug back towards the hill where the council had assembled. “COULD LAKE. OCEAN MONE. LA LUNE ROSE. LONE WOLVES. VISITING WEREWOLVES. ALL WEREWOLVES MUST ASSEMBLE!” There was a loud rumble followed by a series of pops, like popcorn in the large theater popping machines. Wolves and people began appearing from thin air, all facing the lycan with their heads bowed.

“Where is the pup from Cloud Lake who they call Zinnia?” A girl stumbled forward from the back of the assembled wolves. There was a bag over her head and her hands were tied. Both the bag and the rope disappeared, the only reminder that they had been there was a faint red line around her neck and wrists.. “Where is the mate of Zinnia?” Dylan’s wolf appeared beside her and she dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around his neck. The council members all looked to one another and nodded.

“The Bane is dead,” they said in unison. His body appeared on the ground in front of them.

“It must be revived. We must make it aware of its crimes and exact the punishment agreed upon. It must be thrice killed.”

“Who is responsible for its death now if it was not us?”

Selene stood and stepped forward.

“The she-wolf it tormented. This is unexpected.”

“Under the Supreme Laws, any werewolf who kills a Lycan must be put down.”

“NO!” Liana stood, pulling her hand free from Jake’s as he tried to tug her back down to her knees. “Surly there are allowances for self-defense!”

“There are none. Under the law, a Lycan has authority over all werewolves. Always. They must submit to our bidding. Even if it means their own death or the death of their kin.”

“But is the Bane protected by Lycan laws?” asked one of the Lycan. “The day we banished him, we stripped him of all Lycan privilege. Should that not include our protection? We ourselves sent the werewolves to hunt him. How were they to apprehend him if not by force?”

“The she-wolf did not know this.”

“I did not even know he was Lycan,” Selene said, hanging her head. “We have never seen Lycan in the arctic. He was simply a big wolf who smelled of rotting fish and alcohol.” The Lycans hissed in disgust. One of them approached and used his claw to puncture a hole in the Bane’s neck. He tasted his blood-dipped claw.

“She speaks the truth. None of us have ever visited the white lands and the Bane poisoned itself with human intoxicants.”

“If we pardon her for ignorance every werewolf who challenges a Lycan will claim the same.”

“Then pardon her because he was banished. Or pardon her because he was not acting under Lycan Law when he tortured her, or because he was breaking your laws when he tortured her without cause.” Lia insisted in her mother’s defense. Jake tried to silence her, but she wouldn’t listen to him. “You said it was a nuisance that you had to kill it three times, now you only have to do it twice. Or perhaps even just once?”

“She shot him. That is one death. And he was not informed of the reason prior so it was not a punishment.”

“Surely he would know that she would want him dead for all he has done to her. For all that he planned to do to her, and to for all he planned to do to me, her pup. For all that she knew he has done to his other children.”

“Other children?”

“Search my memories,” Lia suggested. “His men were talking about some of his past actions when they thought I was still unconscious. Or read Margaurite’s memories of what was done to her. In those memories, I am sure you will find even more crimes to charge him with.” The members of the council looked at one another but said nothing, so Lia continued. “My mother shot him five times with silver bullets, which may or may not have been lethal shots, but caused enough injury that he sank to the bottom of the ocean where he surely could have drowned. On top of that, the bullets were coated with wolfsbane, so if the bullets themselves had not killed him, and he survived a prolonged time underwater, the poison could also have killed him. There is cause, if not a precedence, to count that as more than one lethal sentence being enacted. He knew the crimes he was committing as he did them. He stole pups from their parents. He kept my mother against her will without truly mating. He tortured her when she hadn’t broken a law. He planned to torture and then sell me, her pup. He has tortured and sold other she-wolves. Surely he knew what crimes she would want to condemn him for. The book of Supreme Laws has a statement right at the opening, the very first paragraph on the very first page says the laws within the book may be amended by the Lycan Counsel over time as the order of the world changes. It says the book of Supreme Laws will update itself when the council unanimously agrees on updates and has one pack add the law to their book. Surely having the first banned lycan ever is change enough in the order of the world to require some fine-tuning of the laws on how werewolves are aloud to act when defending themselves against Lycan who are themselves breaking Lycan laws.”

They considered silently, the crowd motionless around them despite the cold, biting wind.

“Agreed. We can revive the Bane to know its charges, then terminate him permanently without the need to do it repeatedly. Then we can show mercy to the she-wold but still punish her. She has lived as a human for eighteen years without shifting to her wolf. She will live the next eighteen years as a wolf without ever being human.”

“Agreed,” they said in unison. When the staff of the tallest Lycan hit the ground, Selene transformed instantly into her wolf. Lia gasped, but a small tip of her mother’s head was enough to silence her.

The entire pack of werewolves watched as the Bane was lifted magically from the ground, placed on his feet, and resuscitated. They could not hear as the Lycans talked among themselves, but they heard the Bane’s defiant roar of anger a moment before he burst into pieces.

“Now for the Alpha who wishes to steal a pup.”

Suddenly the Alpha from the Ocean Moon pack was pulled to the center to stand in his human form right where the pieces of the Bane had disintegrated to flecks of black dirt on the white snow. “But she is my granddaughter!” He protested.

“She has a fated mate. The will of a fated mate takes precedence over all. It is an offense against the Goddess to separate a fated pair, even if the bond has not yet formed. For repeatedly breaking the Supreme Laws and attempting to remove the pup from her mate your wolf will be interred alive.” He gasped, stepping back. The Lycan staff hit the ground and he shifted to wolf, then the ground opened up in a giant sinkhole and swallowed him whole, closing again over the top of him, leaving a wolf-shaped brown batch in the snow.

Next, Zinnia’s father was pulled to the front. Liana watched as Dylan, now human, grabbed the girl and turned her to face him burying her head in his large chest. One of his arms was wrapped around her tightly, holding her body to his so she couldn’t run, the other hand held her head so that her face was pressed into his chest and she couldn’t see. Liana wasn’t sure if this was to protect her from the sight of what might happen to her father or to prevent her from objecting in case the Lycan then punished her.

“You also wished to break the Supreme Laws and must be punished. But a Lycan has spoken for you. You kept a runt she-wolf alive until her mate was found. Protection of a weak female is rare among werewolves and we have deemed your actions commendable. You will be scarred, but allowed to live.” The man gasped and clutched his chest, then four large claw marks bled through the front of his shirt. He gasped again and fell to his knees, four more long lines of blood seeped through the back of his shirt. A third invisible blow hit his face and he crumpled to the ground with a gash that ran from his chin, across his cheek, and into his hairline.

Four men and two wolves were pulled into a group just behind Zinnia’s father.

“Accomplices all,” the Lycans chimed, “But they quit before the deed was done. A shot to show their duplicity and be a warning to others.” The four men screamed out in pain as a bullet hole formed simultaneously in the left shoulder of each of the Ocean Moon warriors. It sealed over as quickly as it had formed. The men were too shaken or too internally injured, to do more than fall to their knees and sit on the grass where they’d been placed.

The Lycan with the staff walked up to Liana and touched her forehead with his finger. A sneer curled his lip. He then walked over to Marguerite, who flinched away in obvious fear. The lycan paused and turned to Alpha LeGrand who came to stand beside the girl and spoke to her in French. “He only wishes to see what happened to you, little wolf. Lia has already shared what she learned of the men on the boat, you saw what happened, it did not hurt her. The Lycan wants to see what happened to you there as well. It will not hurt, and you will not have to revisit the memory while he sees it.” The little girl swallowed hard and held on to her Alpha’s hand, nodding and looking up to the Lycan as he touched her forehead. His lip curled again.

“If we had not denigrated him already we would have had to kill him again.” Said one of the Lycan.

“There is certainly a need for further investigation,” the Lycan with the staff agreed, “how many girls are missing? Do we even know?” The werewolves looked around at each other, uncertain if the Lycans were expecting them to know the answer.

“Do you want to keep these memories, little wolf, or would you like me to separate you from them? They will still be in your mind, but it will feel as though they happened to another and you merely watched. It has eased the healing of others in the past. I can do this if you wish it.” Alpha LeGrand translated for Marguerite. She chewed on her lip for a moment and then nodded. A vacant looked passed over her face, then she smiled softly.

“She is an orphan now,” the tall Lycan said, “her mother was killed by the Bane. The child is half a werewolf and half Lycan. The she-wolf’s mate was infertile and a Lycan chose to inseminate her without her knowledge or consent. Will the girl's grandfather accept the girl and raise her as his kin, knowing that his daughter did not break the mate bond as was assumed?”

“If he does not, she still has a home in our pack, as did her mother. Neither had been banished.”

“Why is he not here?”

“He has traveled north for work,” Alpha LeGrand said, “he found it difficult to live here once his daughter chose to move to the city. I will let him know what has happened. If he does not return to raise her I will ensure she is cared for.”

“Acceptable.” The council chimed.

“Luna Liana” the Lycan all spoke at once in an eerie, chanting voice. “You will scribe the New Commandments of the Lycan Counsel.” The book of Supreme Laws and pen appeared suddenly on the ground in front of her. Jake picked them up and shoved them into her shocked hands, urging her to do as she’d been told. The book flew open to a blank page and held itself suspended in front of her.

“A new order is needed to ensure the survival of werewolves through the trails of the earth that are coming.”

After the initial sentence, each lycan spoke one new law:

1-From this day forward, every werewolf's life is to be considered sacred.

2-Any werewolf life taken by another werewolf will be punished with instant and extreme pain.

3-Pack wars are illegal.

4-Blood feuds are illegal.

5-The number of werewolves needs to increase to ensure our survival, all werewolves are required to do their part in seeing this happen. Every she-wolf is encouraged to whelp as often as possible to ensure the population grows. Male mates are responsible for all the pups of their females.

7-Putting down a pup is illegal.

8-A Lycan will be present at every birth to ensure the survival of the mother and witness the health of each pup. Only that Lycan has the right to put down a pup that is ill.

9-In two years' time, any she-wolf who is twenty-five or older and has not whelped at least one pup will be claimed by the Lycan council for insemination at our discretion until she is deemed incapable of fertilization.

10-Every mated pair must result in pregnancy within a year of mating or the women will be lycan inseminated. This applies to fated mates as well as chosen wives.

11-Werewolves who abandon a pup will be punished.

12-Werewolf males who brutalize a pregnant she-wolf will be punished.

13- All laws previously punishable by death will now require unanimous council approval. Lesser sentences of pain and captivity will be considered as alternatives but are not guaranteed. As such, werewolves can defend themselves against other werewolves if their lives or the lives of another werewolf are at risk. They may also defend themselves against a loan lycan if they are certain he is acting without council approval.”

“We are agreed,” the entire council chimed, “let it be so.”