Later that night, Troy, Lucas and Jules retreated to Troy's office and had a private conversation about the events of the day - but mostly about Penn.
Jules kicked it all off by making the most unexpected statement, "I think she is quite extraordinary."
She sat in a wing backed chair by the lit fireplace in Troy's office and looked from her mate to her Alpha expecting them to agree. Neither of them offered anything right away. Troy seemed distracted and Lucas was watching him carefully. Troy was sitting on the edge of his desk, arms crossed loosely over his chest, and he was looking down at the floor moodily.
Jules tried to catch Lucas' eye but he was too intent on watching Troy. Finally, in a loud voice Jules said "Well?" and dragged the word out for emphasis. "Don't you think so too?" She wasn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed with the two of them.
Lucas, cautiously offered, "She has a remarkable story. That's for sure." He was still watching his Alpha closely. Something had changed in him since he came back from the private meeting with Penn in the cafeteria. Lucas wasn't sure what was different but he could feel there was a change in Troy – he could feel it in his gut. It wasn't a bad thing necessarily. It's just that it was new and that caused Lucas to wonder what had happened in the cafeteria.
Jules, disappointed by the men's reactions, got up from her chair with a little huff and made her way over to her mate. She slid her arms around his waist to get his full attention. When he smiled lovingly down at her she frowned up at him and asked, "What is it? What am I missing?"
He laughed out loud and shook his head. "You'll have to ask your Alpha. He's the only one that knows." He grinned at his wife and she stuck out her tongue at him, which he responded to by kissing her playfully.
The two turned to look at Troy afterwards but he hadn't heard a word of their exchange or even been aware of their flirtatious behaviour. He was still deep in thought and still staring at the wood floor. They watched him for quite some time knowing he'd come around.
"What was it you were saying Jules?" he asked after a long silence.
She walked over to him now, smiled gently at him and asked, "I wanted to know if you thought Penn was as remarkable as I did." She saw some kind of emotion flash in his eye and then disappear.
He unfolded his arms and pressed his hands to the edge of the desk while turning his face to her and then to Lucas. Both of them were looking at him intently.
"Yes, quite," he offered quietly, soberly, thoughtfully.
Jules eyes lit up and she whirled around to look at her mate with excitement. Lucas smiled but said nothing. The two of them had come to the same conclusion, but it seemed that their Alpha had yet to figure it out for himself.
Lucas pressed a single finger to his lip and Jules understood she was not to say anything just yet. Instead, she turned back to her Alpha and asked with increasing curiosity, "What did you talk about in the cafeteria?"
Troy dismissed the question with a wave. "I already explained all that to you when we got back to the Common Room. We just talked about what happened in the morning."
"Well," Jules huffed, arms now crossed over her chest as she came to stand just a couple feet from Troy. "Something happened. Something more than just some back and forth between you two about the cook. Look at you. You are acting very strange," she declared indignantly.
Troy looked down at himself and then at Jules. He knew all to well what she was talking about but he didn't dare say a word to her until he had spoken to the elders about the bewildering encounter he'd had with Penn. He looked to Lucas who was still looking at him oddly – like seeing a puzzle he was trying to figure out. It seemed Lucas had noticed too. Troy was going to have to talk to the elders first thing in the morning before Jules and Lucas got any wrong ideas.
"Do you deny it?" Jules half accused and half laughed.
Troy looked at her and frowned. He didn't want to lie to her but he also did not want to admit anything just yet when he wasn't at all sure himself what was going on. His only course of action was to deflect and so he did by saying, "I thought we were here to discuss Penn. Why are we talking about me?"
He got up from the desk and walked over to the fireplace briefly before making a loop around his office and settling back down at his desk.
Jules and Lucas exchanged knowing looks. Anyone could see that he was not himself. However, they felt it prudent not to press the issue if he was so unwilling to acknowledge that something was different – very different about him.
"Can we confirm any of her story?" Troy asked in an effort to change the subject entirely.
"About this morning?" Jules asked confused.
"No, about her exile," Troy responded thoughtfully.
Jules looked at both men and then reminded them, "Didn't our Master at Arms say that he was there the day she had been exiled?" She went over to the desk phone and said, as she picked up the receiver, "A quick call should confirm it, right? I'm sure he's still up."
Anex answered the phone and was pleasantly surprised to hear from Jules. He then was put on speaker phone and found he was in a conversation of sorts with his Alpha, his Beta and Jules about Penn.
Anex knew they would come asking him what he knew about her eventually. He had made sure to mention to Beta Lucas that he knew the woman's strange circumstances back when he first discovered who she was.
"What can you tell us about her, Anex?" His Alpha asked.
"She was Warrior Class in her pack and had participated in the annual Strongwolf Tournaments for a couple years. I never came across her in the competitions since she was just a pup and could only participate in her age group or equivalent levels. But, people did talk about her. She was very powerful for her age, but oddly enough considered a real oddity among her pack."
"Why was that?" Lucas asked, curious.
Anex gave a short laugh before responding, "I hardly need to explain, do I? You have met her haven't you?" He laughed again but did go on.
"She was an odd one they say, from the beginning. She was altogether too powerful for her rank and age and she had no sense of fear – no sense of the pecking order, so to speak. She sort of lived in her own world, I guess, which was fine in a way until the new Alpha came along. Alpha Carson was as much a jerk back then as he is now. Time hasn't improved his Alpha skills or his personality," Anex complained.
"What else do you know about her?" Jules asked him. She did not want this to become a discussion of how stupid and arrogant the Alpha of the Phoenix pack was. No one liked him much and he wasn't worth talking about.
"That fool had it in for her, I was told. She was a few years younger than him but because of her unusual strength she was often pitted against males in the age category above her own during the tournament - to make things fair given her unusual strength. She beat him, her own Alpha, in several categories, or came close to it. It's hard to recall now.
"I just know he went out of his mind when she beat him soundly during the three-day endurance test. She beat every endurance record ever made in the 75 year history of the Tournament. It was spectacular, really. Anyone would have been proud. She was truly outstanding," Anex bragged.
He could not help the sound of awe in his voice as he recalled her incredible endurance win. She hadn't just beat the Alpha by a hair. She'd beat him and everyone else by a clear mile and no record in the history of the tournament came close to doing what she did. If she hadn't been exiled and her name stricken from the official records, people would still be talking about her. As it was, she'd become a distant memory and in some cases people thought the story of her win just that - a story.
In a quieter and more subdued voice he continued the story of her exile.
"That same night, after his defeat, he called everyone to the public square. No one knew what was going on but there were rumours swirling around that he was not happy about the day's events and it was likely heads would role in one fashion or another. None of us could have known he'd exile her. It was so over-the-top, so bizarre.
"I'll never forget it though," Anex confessed in a voice thick with emotion even after ten years. "He brought her, in chains, before all us wolves. There were pack and non-pack wolves alike there to witness it too. He didn't wait for us to leave. He wanted to maximize her humiliation and disgrace I'm guessing. He's that sort - really vindictive.
"Some of us thought that something had happened after the endurance test – that maybe she'd challenged him or something. But, it wasn't like that. We were shocked to watch him strip her of her rank, her name and her place in the pack all because he lost. I'd never seen such an abuse of power in my life. By the moon, it pisses me off just thinking about it now," Anex confessed with feeling.
Here Anex took in several deep, audible breaths, as he tried to reign in his emotions before he continued with great venom in his voice. "You know, he claimed that she'd been subtly undermining his authority in the pack since he'd become Alpha and that she had rigged the endurance test to make herself look good and to humiliate him in front of his pack and the non-pack members that came. He called it a traitorous act on her part," Anex scoffed.
"The only traitor was him. How could any Alpha do that to his own?"
There was no reply from the other three listening in. So, Anex continued. "Even in her weakened state, after that three-day endurance test, she remained calm and collected despite the public humiliation and injustice of it all. I'd say she wasn't surprised. Maybe she even saw it coming in some way. It was hard to read her. I saw her parent's and brother's though. They were devastated. But, they didn't do anything to help her," he said sadly.
Here he was interrupted.
"What do you know about her family?" Troy asked with interest.
"They were warrior class, of course, but didn't have any kind of prestige or political pull in the pack as far as I understood," Anex offered. "I was surprised none of them spoke up and tried to defend her. I guess, if they did speak up, they risked being called traitors and being punished in a similar manner." Anex sighed heavily with frustration.
"Still, how could they just hang her out to dry like that? I'll never understand them - not her parents or her brothers. If she'd been my pup, I would have fought for her. I would have at least tried to take that stupid Alpha down," he growled with excessive feeling.
"What do you know about them now?" Troy asked, ever more curious about her family.
"I don't know anything now, Alpha. I never went back," Anex explained. "But, I've got friends there. I could ask around quietly, if you wanted?"
"I would appreciate that Anex," Troy replied.
"What happened after he stripped her of her rank, name and position?" Lucas asked feeling they were getting a little sidetracked and hoping to get a better understanding of what happened to her from an eye witness they could trust.
Anex growled lowly before saying with disgust, "He gave her a good beating, in front of everyone, defenceless as she was, and then had his Beta drag her away. I'm not sure she was even conscious at that point. No one moved a finger. Her brothers did look distressed, but they didn't do anything. Maybe everyone was so shocked that they didn't know what to do. I don't know. It was a real mess.
"I'd never seen anyone exiled before. It's something you only read about in the history books, you know." He paused as he tried to piece things together in his own mind. "We all learned the next day that she'd been taken out to the edge of pack territory and left for dead. The Beta of the pack declared the following morning that anyone in the pack who assisted her would share the same fate. Then, later in the day, her name was stricken form the books. No one was allowed to talk about her or they'd be severely punished.
"The tournament finished up a day later and I never knew what happened to her. None of us did. I think we all thought she'd probably die from her injuries or go mad being left to wonder the wilds alone. I can't tell you how shocked I was, when we were in the hunting lodge and she told me who she was.
"She looks different now, but as soon as she began to explain who she was I knew I knew her face. I knew I'd seen her before. I knew she was the girl that'd been exiled all those years ago. What I don't understand and can't wrap my mind around is how she survived after all this time? Why isn't she a raving lunatic?"
He fell silent then. He'd told them all he knew.
There were a few minutes of silence on the phone. Everyone was thinking. Alpha Troy spoke up after a moment more. "Anex, I need you to make some discreet inquiries about her family. You contact me when you know more, alright?"
"Yes sir," came the prompt reply.
"Goodnight then," Troy responded before hanging up the phone and turning back to his Beta and Jules.
Jules jumped in with, "So, she's not a typical rogue. She's really an exiled wolf. What are the rules for exiles? Do we know? How were they treated or dealt with by other packs in the past? Either of you know?"
"It sure explains a lot doesn't it?" Lucas said looking from Jules to Troy. "You know, why she's so different from everything we expect a rogue to be – she's not hostile, violent, disrespectful or hates authority. Sure, she's cautious and reserved, but there's nothing else rogue-like about her is there?" The other two were nodding at him. "Heck, she even smells good!" He offered with a smile. Jules shot him a dirty look and struck him in the arm hard.
"Don't you be taking too many deep breaths around her or I'll break that Grecian nose of yours," she said half in jest and half in jealousy. Lucas laughed wholeheartedly as he grabbed her and wrapped her in his arms.
"You've got nothing to worry about love. No one smells anywhere near as good and as tempting as you." Here he nuzzled her neck and placed a few hot kisses on it before she grabbed his face fiercely between her palms and kissed him thoroughly to remind him just how much he loved her and her alone.
Lucas knew there was no one more passionate than a jealous she-wolf! He'd have to remember to bring up Penn's scent more often if he wanted to stir Jules up a bit. He was smiling down at her, pleased as he could be, when she broke the kiss.
"You're a jerk," she said to him in a playful growl. He just gave her a boyish grin in reply.
Suddenly Troy's voice broke into their little amourous fight. "In the past, an exile could seek sanctuary from a neighbouring pack. Usually one that was strong enough not to be drawn into a war over it. But, smaller packs couldn't take in exiles for fear of starting wars."
"Yes, yes! I remember that from our history classes," Lucas replied looking excitedly at Troy. "We could do one better than give her sanctuary though. I mean, in this day and age, could we just invite her to become a pack member? It's not like she betrayed her Alpha. She's not a traitor even if she was exiled. So, we could offer her a place here, couldn't we?"
Lucas' excitement was stilled by the strange look on Troy's face.
"What's the problem Troy?" He asked cautiously.
"I'm not adverse to asking her to stay," Troy confessed. "Though, it might be hard to convince her," he offered soberly. Had they forgotten that Arn had tried to kill her? How could she possibly trust she would be safe in the pack until they got to the bottom of Arn's attack.
"What do you mean?" Lucas asked feeling puzzled by his Alpha's uncertainty.
"I'm sure the pups could convince her," Jules offered with an encouraging smile.
Troy frowned as he looked them both in the eye. "How can we convince her to become part of a pack whose own Second Beta tried to kill her on her first day in the heart of our territory? Why would she trust us?"
The truth was, Troy was really worried she wouldn't trust him.
For the hundredth time he'd wished he'd seen the attack coming and had prevented it. He felt like he'd already failed Penn and let her down as an Alpha despite the fact that she wasn't even a member of his pack. What chance did he have of convincing her to accept Orthos as her pack when he hadn't been able to protect her that first day? The odds didn't seem favourable and Troy's heart sank a little with the weight of the regret and doubt he carried.