Everything You Hear [Acapella]

He listened, and he despised what he heard. The fact that she didn’t seem to think she’d done anything wrong was baffling. He waited until she was finished, however before his voice answered, its chill ever deeper.

“Let me tell you about Marina. She wasn’t pregnant when she joined this pack. Those kids? Their sire, “ and here he spat out the word like it was some vile acid on his tongue, “raped her. Did you not wonder why the hell she had a broken leg?! No wolf would do that kind of harm to herself for an act, nor would she have been able to. You want a healer’s opinion on her injuries, ask my brother Tornach. He’s a loner in the Range. He patched her up until she was well enough to make it home with her son’s help. This pack was no bloody pawn to her. It was a second chance. One I gave her. One she hoped her children could have.” The disgust he felt lay heavy on his voice as he went on.

“That you chatted at all with that resentment filled wolf, shared business that was not his to know at all, and that you see nothing wrong with it is proof enough that you have either forgotten this pack’s laws, or don’t bloody care about them. Did you stop to think that he could decide to go after Marina and kill her? Harm her even further? You should have called the pack and let us send him off. I believe this pack is intelligent enough to consider watching the other borders while Greed was seen off. A simple howl to be on guard would have worked fine.”

His jaws snapped together with a soft snarl as he added, “And by the way. You should never believe someone who clearly hates the wolf they speak of, without getting both sides of the story. Nothing about them will be said in a good light in their eyes. I told Marina’s story at the meeting after she first joined. That you would dare to speak so badly of a wolf who fought to protect this pack in the raid, and was the first to meet and intercept their party… I’m beyond disappointed.”

He turned and paced a few strides away before turning back. As family, he was upset that he would have to act as the Archangel. As the Archangel, he was furious enough to do his job. The two sides of the stone met in the middle in agreement.

“You have broken pack laws. Not once, but twice. And your activity in bringing in prey was lacking even before you were involved in the raid. You were promoted from Punished only because you gave your all to fight off the raiders. I know you lost a great deal. Marina knows it too. She may not have thanked you for your help, but I’ve no doubt she blamed herself deeply for your injuries. But did you ever approach her to ask after her? Somehow, I don’t think so.

“As your cousin, I hate what I must do. But as the Archangel, I have no choice. Your willingness to freely share words with a wolf who helped to hurt this pack with his actions is too much of a liability for Celestial. It doesn’t matter how harmless that information seemed. You should never had shared it. You are at liberty to forgive him for yourself, of course. I don’t care if you talked about yourselves, that was fine. But you endangered the pack by crossing the line between your business, and Celestial’s business.

“Celestial’s business is who is and who is not in this pack. Whether Marina is still in this pack or not, is Celestial’s business, and hers, alone. Whether her children are in this pack, or not, is Celestial’s business, and their own, alone. Your chat may have seemed harmless, but you can never know, especially when you don’t know if another wolf is simply a damn good actor and can morph his voice to be sincere, and you cannot see his face and body to know for sure. There are a lot of silver-tongued liars out there.”

His voice had grown heavy, tired, and if he could have rubbed his face, he would have. Anything to remove the damned headache he was forming.

“You are Banished, Acapella. You are already blind, thus, to maim you further as the law suggests would be a show of abject cruelty, and so, you will escape that punishment. On account of your lack of sight, I will ask one of my companions to help guide you to where-ever you wish to go, whether it’s Lirim, Abaven, another pack, or merely to be a loner, and to help you settle in unless you have others to help you learn the area. But after that, you are on your own.

“Never speak of Celestial’s inner workings, count, members, or any other information that even seems harmless to those who aren’t members of Celestial. If they truly must find something out, refer them to me.”

His tail flicked irritably as he paced away, then back again, sending a bark out for Artashir. The ink black mountain lion wasn’t far off and had been watching the exchange with those ruby cat eyes of his. He dropped from the top of the wall and padded silently over, nodding.

Regulus huffed out a long sigh and said, “Guide her where she wishes, help her learn the area she chooses, defend her if she is attacked. If she joins another pack, let them handle it.”

His eyes turned back to his cousin, and he finished, “You will not be welcomed through the passages of this pack’s wall ever again save for life or death reasons... However, your children – should you bear any in the future – will never be cast away should they wish to make Celestial their home. You are my family. Nothing about this changes that. But I must also be a leader. Doing this is not easy. I believe I may have said something very similar when you were demoted to Punished on your return.”

There was no pleasure in his voice, only a bone-deep weariness. But he was unyielding in his decree. Aurielle would lead someday, and she would have to face the same struggles when wolves disobeyed the laws or didn’t pull their weight in the pack.

He leaned forward and gave Acapella a familial lick on the brow before he stepped away and spoke his last to her. “Walk safely, Cousin. May you find love, happiness and prosperity in your path.”

He nodded to the cat who offered a light brush of his tail and a muttered, ”This way,” to the wolf that would be his charge for a little while.