Artiface of Strength Ch. 07

Even though there hadn't been a new mating in the Billington pack in well over fifty years, it was still only a Monday night and John couldn't really make the decision to throw a pack celebration party in the clubhouse. He would have loved to make that call, but the pack was currently on a war footing, and it would have sent the wrong message to everyone. He did the best thing that he was able to do; he introduced the entire pack to William during dinner and announced that there would be an official welcome to the pack, blow-out party on Friday night.

He ordered his warriors to scare up a couple of feral pigs from the surrounding forest and the pack would have a feast on Friday before heading over to the clubhouse for the real party. Every member of the pack was excited; they all felt that this surely meant that the pack's long mating drought was over, and while the Goddess had always provided for the Billington pack, she hadn't seen fit to give any of them mates or cubs for decades now. Wolves are amazingly loyal creatures, but they also tend to be impatient; the Lady sending them an actual human for Florence's mate seemed like an omen to them. Every unmated wolf in the pack... with the possible exception of Sam, hoped that they might be the next to find their mate!

At the conclusion of the meal, John stood and made a second announcement to the entire pack. William and Beth were to report to John's office along with the four permanent Betas: Florence, Sam, Tom, and Tristan. A cheer rang out almost instantaneously; Tristan's temporary promotion to Beta was being made permanent. Tristan had always been quite popular within the pack and his hard work had been noticed by everyone. John shook his hand and congratulated him on a job well earned.

Tristan seemed a bit stunned by his promotion. He had been so focused on Florence, planning to defeat her and then to bed her, but then he'd seen along with everyone else, just how dangerous she really was, and all his plans to challenge her had been shelved. He had not yet started to think of a way to challenge Sam or Tom for their spots. His long-held plan disintegrated, but he'd never stopped working hard or thinking positively and John had noticed. Tristan had never been arrogant enough to think he deserved the job, and this had worked in his favour; John saw him as asset to the pack and decided to reward him.

Florence swatted him on the ass and warmly congratulated him, taking the time to assure Tristan that he did indeed, deserve the promotion. Looking into her eyes, Tristan realized that he may have lost his shot at the girl, but maybe he did deserve the job after all. His face broke into his usual boyish grin and he thanked John for the opportunity.

"C'mon everyone," said John, "Let's get to my office; we've got to make plans for tomorrow." He then headed for the door and headed out. The Betas quickly rose and followed their Alpha for a war counsel.

John remained silent until everyone was in his office and seated comfortably. "Tristan, once this door is closed, we are much less formal. If you have an idea or an objection, I want to hear it. Express yourself, there are no yes-men in this room. Do not defer to us here, we need your brain, as well as your obedience!"

Tristan replied, "Yes Alpha, or should I have said, no Alpha?"

"Moving on," John said with a grin, "Beth, I've brought you in on this because most of this deals with relationships between Were and the People, and I'd like to get your...ahem, unusual perspectives on this."

"Sam and Tom, I'll be sending one of you to each front. I don't care who goes where, you two can decide on that.

Florence, you will be accompanying William to visit his grandfather, and Will, you have my permission for full disclosure with your grandfather. By the way, what is his real name anyway?"

"He is called Ja-mul, sir, although his given name is actually Marris."

"No freaking way," Sam laughed. "It can't be the same guy; he's got to be dead by now!"

"Marris Yazzie?" John asked, rubbing his temples as if in pain.

"Yes, sir," replied William.

Sam laughed at his Alpha's obvious distress, "Oh, this gets better and better!"

Beth broke in, "John, there's no way that it can be him; that was almost two hundred years ago. Maybe he's a descendant or something?"

Florence said, "Alpha, that story that you told me about the two cousins that you and Tom dated...you only said that the guy you married them to was named Yazzie. His name was Marris Yazzie?"

Will interrupted, "I think it was a family tradition of some kind, Alpha. He doesn't really like the name; he never uses it and I guess the tradition will die with him though. He took the name Ja-mul from his adopted people, the Achumawi."

John looked down at his desk, rubbing his 'Beth-spot' absently before answering. "Okay, change of plans. Sam and Tom, both of you head on down to Fresno. Beth, it looks like you get to go on a road trip with the young ones. I'm sure that you remember how Marris felt about having mothers-in-law; let's see if that is still a family tradition as well."

"Tristan, you will remain here and run the day to day stuff with the warriors. It will give everyone a chance to see you running things without any of us looking over your shoulder."

John paused briefly, looking around the room, and said, "Now, everyone, have I missed anything?"

When no one spoke up, John nodded and then said, "Florence, I know that you intend on taking William on his first wolven run tonight, but I have a request. Since we are tight on time, and you will have to leave early tomorrow morning, can you spend tonight teaching him how to send instead? You really may need to communicate mentally when you are dealing with Marris, if he's anything like the other one."

"Yes Alpha."

"Now, does anyone else have anything else to contribute?"

When no one spoke up, John commanded, "Meeting adjourned; you are all dismissed!" He then stuck his tongue out at Sam and strode defiantly out of the room.

"I guess he told you," Tom snorted at Sam.

~~~

Tuesday evening had arrived before Beth parked the car next to the double-wide trailer where William had spent his childhood. The mobile home was permanently placed on a few acres of land below Ako-yet, what the Europeans had renamed, Mount Shasta. Will's grandfather had lived here ever since he'd relocated from the desert where he'd been born. He had always claimed that he'd taken one look at Ako-yet and instantly known that he was at home, maintaining that a vision had led him here, although until recently William had never believed a word of this claim. But then again, he'd never believed his grandfather's stories about spirit animals either, and they'd proven to be all too real.

The beat up old truck belonging to Ja-mul was parked outside in its usual spot, and William was not surprised to see it parked there. His grandfather rarely went anywhere in the evenings and he'd had the same ugly green Willys pick-up since William had been a boy. The old coot could easily afford a new one, but he always said that Old Willy wasn't worn out yet, why should he buy a new one?

William hadn't phoned his grandfather before coming and he couldn't have if he had tried, Ja-mul had never owned a telephone. He'd always maintained that if anyone wanted anything from him, well, they could damn well get off their lazy ass and come see him for themselves.

Ja-mul appeared in the doorway before the car had even had a chance to come to a complete stop. "Come in, come in," he said excitedly as they exited the vehicle, "I have dinner ready and you are right on time!"

Surprised, the three wolves just blinked at the old man.

"Of course I knew you were coming." He said with a huge smile. "I've only been looking forward to this day for my entire adult life. Quit standing there with your mouths hanging open and come inside and eat dinner!"

Beth and Florence looked to William for some sort of instructions, but he just shrugged his shoulders and followed his grandfather into his trailer.

How the Hell did he... Beth sent to Flo.

No clue, maybe he's just making it up, Florence returned.

"Nonsense," Ja-mul yelled back over his shoulder, "I knew you were coming; I've already set the table."

Beth's eyes goggled at this. How the Hell could he know what they were sending to one another? She decided that she would just shut her mouth and wait to see what he'd say next.

The old man saw the look on Beth's face and laughed to William, "Enjoy that look on your mother-in-law's face; you won't get to see it much, no one manages to shut her up very often!"

Beth's eyes widened again, but this time, she foolishly took the bait, "All right you old bastard; you've had your fun. How on Earth did you know that I was the mother-in-law?"

"Sit, sit," he said grinning, "You call her the Goddess, but we called him 'Xwun'. Either way, he told me that you'd be coming a long time ago. Try the venison stew; I worked on it all day!"

"Shit," Beth mumbled.

"No, I think he said 'sit'," laughed William as he sat down and began dishing up bowls of stew.

Florence watched the interplay between Beth and Ja-mul and enjoyed herself enormously. No one ever managed to shut Beth up, and the old codger now done it twice in just under five minutes. All she said was, "I'm pretty hungry Will, give me a large serving."

The four sat down and ate dinner, and the wolves all enjoyed his cooking. William and Florence greatly enjoyed the mingling of flavours within the slow cooked stew, but Beth didn't notice, she spent most of her meal staring daggers at the old man, who seemed content to ignore Beth's spite and instead flirt with his grandson's mate. "Granddaughter, I've waited so long to meet you, and I'm dying to know, what did my stupid grandson look like when you cuffed him to that tree? Did his eyes get as large as your mother's eyes are now?"

For an instant, Florence was afraid that Beth would explode at this, but Ja-mul's latest taunting seemed to have the opposite effect. Instead of yelling or cursing, Beth instead relaxed back into her chair with a look of understanding upon her face.

"I went too far, didn't I?" Ja-mul said grinning.

"Okay old man, you've had your fun," William said, "Go ahead and tell us your story. I thought I would finally have the better story for once, but it looks like I may have been wrong again."

Ja-mul laughed. "Yes grandson, you have a Hell of a story to tell, Werewolves, Goddesses, a crazy mother-in-law, and general mayhem. I'm so jealous; I've waited my entire life just to watch this. Do you have any idea what it's like to wait sixty years to see your vision finally come to pass? And yes, mother-in-law, I realize that you've waited even longer than that, but you've never known your fate. I've always known mine, and I've waited so long for it to arrive!"

"So you always knew?" William asked.

"Yes, grandson, I've known all along, but I couldn't tell you what I'd seen. Your Goddess told me that I'd have to wait and remain silent if I wanted to become your shaman."

"What?" Beth almost yelled.

"Your Di-yin, your pack doesn't have one. I'm not sure how John missed that trick; he set up an entire culture, but never thought to institute a priesthood. He must have really hated those Puritans!"

Beth's mouth dropped open and Ja-mul calmly reached forward and pushed up on her jaw, closing it.

"You...you are going to be our Shaman," Beth gasped.

"Do you have any other prospects?"

"Umm..." Beth dithered.

"It's okay, John won't be thrilled by any of this either, but don't worry about me, I've already had the truck serviced and I'm almost packed and ready to go. He won't have to put up with me long anyway, his time is almost over."

"I tried to tell you," William said, "But neither one of you really listened to me. Hello! He is a coyote at heart. You can't trust a single word that he says, but most of them seem to be true anyway. Grandfather pisses everyone off!"

"I love you too, grandson." Ja-mul said smiling.

~~~

Another fucking day loading baggage, put it on, take it off. All of these bags are going places that I'll never get to visit, and I'm stuck here watching it all go by. Maybe I should have joined the Navy; I could have traveled the world, maybe got me one of those pretty Asian women for a bride. I could have learned some sort of skill, maybe become an air traffic controller or something, those guys make bank!

"George, hurry your ass up! We gotta get this bird done; we're already behind schedule!"

George casually looked up and shot his supervisor the finger. Nick didn't mind, he and George were old friends, and no one would be upset. George did, however, stop lolly-gagging and turned his full attention back to his work. He knew that they'd both be in deep shit if they made this flight any later than it was already.

Nick and George were actually pretty good at their jobs. Most people would see their scruffy appearances and the Raiders tattoos and assume the worst about them, but the two men usually got everything done perfectly and almost always on time. Life might be stepping all over them, but they usually shook it off and had a good time anyway, even while they were at work. Their boss, the airport manager, was considering finding a way to cut their pay again as he needed a way to pay for redecorating his office, but the two men were oblivious to all of that. As long as they had their beer and the football game was on the tube, they were good. They were better than good, they were gold!

"Hey Whore-gay, check that out; you see the size of that dog?"

"Shut up Nick, don't be givin' me that 'Whore-gay' shit again or I'll start calling you 'Little Nicky' like before!"

"Just yankin' your chain bro, but really, check out the size of that dog; it looks like it is coming right for us!"

"What's a dog doing on the tarmac? Whoa! You're right, that's a big-ass dog!"

"He's got something in his mouth."

Sam hearing this exchange, tried not to grin. Humans always saw the teeth and started worrying. He withheld his amusement and trotted right up to George before dropping the day pack that he was carrying at the man's feet. Seeing the pack, George feared the worst. "Bro, we are gonna be in trouble, this has 'lost luggage' written all over it!"

"Well, at least the dog seems friendly," Nick responded, "He's way bigger than any of my pits. What kind of dog do you think it is anyway? It looks like a husky or something."

"I think it's a wolf, Nick."

"No way, what's a wolf doing in Fresno?"

"Don't ask me man, ask him. But I'm telling you, he looks just like my tat, I'm sure it's a wolf!"

"You and all of those ugly-ass tattoos! Hey, what's in the bag? You might as well look; I think the doggy wants you to have it."

Still unsure of the 'doggy's' intentions, George slowly reached down to pick up the pack, even if it wasn't a wolf, this dog was bigger than anything he was familiar with. Sam just rolled his eyes and waited, figuring that these two would move quicker if he remained quiet and unthreatening. George got the pack and opened it, gasping at what he saw inside.

"Bro, there's a bunch of money in here, and a letter. Hell, it's addressed to me! Is this some kind of joke, Nick?"

"Like I'd send you money. How much is in there, and what does the letter say?"

"George did a quick count of the money before he read the letter. "Looks like about two thousand dollars Nick, all in twenties. The letter says: George Medina, I've sent my wolf." He stopped reading long enough to give his friend the finger again and say, "see bro, I told you it was a wolf!"

"Shut up bitch, just read the letter!"

"I've sent my wolf to you with a proposition. The money is yours to keep whether you come or not, but there will be more of it for you if you'll meet me tonight and hear what I have to say. Come to the Crossroads Nightclub at 7 pm tonight. Just give your answer to my wolf; he'll understand you, he's pretty smart."

"That place is pretty rough. There are bikers, gang members...fights."

"Like you don't know most of those guys."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. So if anything goes wrong, we'll be surrounded by friends, I guess."

George looked down at Sam and said, "Okay Mr. Wolf, tell your owner that we'll be there." Sam gave the man a wolfish grin and loped off."

"Bro, you think he knows what you said?"

"I guess we'll find out tonight."

At precisely 6:58 PM, George and Nick walked into the Crossroads. It was only a Tuesday, so the place was pretty close to empty. Not seeing a wolf anywhere in the bar, the two men spent a moment scanning the place to see if anyone might be looking for them. Seeing two men gesturing to them from over in the corner, the two baggage handlers shrugged their shoulders and headed over.

Sam and Tom had already ordered a couple of pitchers of beer and had four mugs waiting. "Mr. Medina, Mr. Calvillo, thanks for coming to see us tonight. And yes, Mr. Calvillo, that was a wolf that you met earlier today, not a doggy. So, let's get right to it. I'm Sam, and this is my brother Tom; we've come a long way to meet you and to hear your story about the Chimariko tribe and how it might be involved with the Burton Waters Land Development Group. As the letter said, we are willing to pay for information if what you know is important to us. We gave you two thousand earlier, and we have another two for you after this conversation. Sound fair?"

George looked confused. "The Chim-a-what tribe?" He then looked at Nick questioningly, "Bro, you ever heard of that?" Nick merely shook his head, also with a look of confusion on his face.

Sam saw the looks on the two men's faces and said, "Mr. Medina, we are glad that you brought your friend with you, but really, this is all about you. Mr. Calvillo has no connection to this that we are aware of."

Still looking confused, George replied, "Dude, I'd love to have something to tell you. Two grand is a lot of money to me, but I honestly have no idea what you are taking about. You said something about land developers?"

"Okay, let's back up a bit," Sam said, "Have you signed any legal documents lately?

"Just that stuff for medical insurance, and I was lucky to get that after those County bastards took away our coverage at work!"

Nick nodded his head, but he didn't say anything.

"Health insurance?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, that salesman guy hooked me up with some sort of Government program; he said it was only for indigenous people. Hell, I didn't even know that Mexicans were indigenous! He had Nick sign a bunch of that stuff too; he said that we'd have insurance by the end of this month."

"We signed a ton of stuff," Nick said. "At least a couple dozen pages, we had no idea what any of that stuff meant. Who understands that insurance stuff anyway?"

"Did you guys get copies?" Tom asked.

"No, he said that we'd receive them by the end of the month, but I haven't gotten anything yet."

"That was last month, bro," Nick interjected.

"Okay, I think I'm starting to figure this out," Sam said slowly, "Do you guys have any contact information for this 'salesman guy'?"

"Yeah, I think so," George said, reaching for his wallet. "He gave me his card...ah, here it is," he said, as he handed it to Sam.

Sam looked at the card and immediately recognized the name, Jebidiah Walker of Kristol, Rice, Lieberman, and Feith. He scowled and then handed the card to Tom. "This is the law firm that works for Waters Land Development. As far as I know, they don't do medical insurance."

George looked surprised, "How would I know that? I'm from Fresno!"