Penn advanced on the boys and ignored their low growls, tense stances and the hackles rising on their backs. They weren't much of a threat to her, even in their furs. So, she waited and watched for her moment. When they both decided to strike at each other, going for each other's throats, Penn did the inadvisable.
She dove in between them, wrapped her hands around their gaping lower jaws and with some force drove their muzzles down to the floor. Grabbing their lower jaw afforded her much more control over them despite the fact that she had to sacrifice her fingers to get that control.
Reflexively the boys clamped down on her fingers. Penn gave a little hiss of pain as her lip curled up a bit on the left side of her face. She couldn't be sure but she thought perhaps Ace had broken one or two of her fingers when he clamped down on her left hand. But, even so, Penn did not release them - not even when the boys immediately let up the pressure on her fingers.
Instead, she pushed their jaws down harder to the floor and held the boys both down in this awkward way until they submitted. Both boys stopped growling and let their bodies fully relax. Moments later they transformed back into their skins and Penn's fingers were freed from their sharp fangs entirely. She remained crouched between them blood dripping from her punctured flesh.
She did not need to scold or lecture them. The two boys remained huddled on the floor and quaking with shock and shame. Penn might have petted them on the heads to let them know all was well but her hands were a bloody mess. So, she opted simply to ask instead in a calm and quiet voice, "Could someone get the boys blankets to cover up?"
She wasn't angry. She knew exactly what would happen the moment she reached for them. It was her decision. And besides, she knew it was better for them to draw her blood than each other's. Though she hoped the shock of hurting her unintentionally would set them right again and help them to restrain themselves in the future from such unnecessary violence.
Cassidy appeared and gently placed throw blankets from the couches on both boys.
Penn looked up at Cassidy and said, "I'll need a towel and get Fancy to call the good doctor."
Cassidy looked down at Penn's hands and saw the pool of blood forming on the floor. The sight of so much blood startled her.
"By the moon Penn," she exclaimed with alarm, "You're bleeding!"
Penn gave her a half smile and said, "It's alright. You always bleed more from your hands, feet and head."
Penn looked down at the mess she was making and then back up at Cassidy with that same half smile. "It looks worse then it is. I promise," she said with amusement. "But, better call Fancy and get her to contact the doctor. I think some of my fingers are broken."
At the mention of broken fingers both boys let out mournful whines. Cassidy spared them a quick look and her heart swelled for the both of them. She could only imagine how ashamed they felt now that the heat of the moment had passed. She looked back at Penn's unruffled face and thought at the same time how lucky the boys were that she was not given to mood swings or a flaring temper. Otherwise, there would surly be hell to pay for what they did.
Cassidy looked back at Penn and nodded quickly at her before dashing off for the landline on a narrow, rectangular table near the stairs. She dialed Fancy's office extension and then instructed Emma, the only thirteen year old in the group, to get paper towel from the bathroom to help clean up the mess Penn's hands were making on the floor. Emma wasted no time running off to the bathroom for the paper towel.
Penn remained where she was waiting patiently for Emma to return with the paper towel. There was no point in moving. She didn't want to make a mess of the Common Room by bleeding all over it.
She sighed a little and looked over the two boys who were now wrapped in the throws, sitting up, and had their heads deeply bowed in contrition. She felt sorry for them and had no desire to add to their burdens. She knew they were not themselves. She knew they were grieving losses they could barely comprehend.
So, instead of a lecture she gently asked, "You two going to be okay?"
Whether it was the unexpected question or the sincerity in her tone, it was hard to say, but both boys broke down and cried. And once the two boys began to cry, well, all the pups, who had been huddle together fearfully awaiting the outcome of the confrontation, began to cry until the whole room was filled with the sound of young pups weeping and wailing.
Penn looked back at the little crowd. Jackson and Cassidy, whose own eyes were full of tears, had their hands full trying to hug and comfort the most heart broken of the pups. And so, the communal mourning had begun. Penn smiled sadly as she looked back down at the blood dripping from her fingers. All this crying, together, would be good for them.
The wailing was momentarily interrupted by the sudden and unexpected arrival of several startled guests coming through the doors leading upstairs. Penn, the only one in the room who was not crying, turned to see who was wading into this sea of sobbing, grief-stricken pups. She half expected to see Fancy, but was shocked to see Alpha Troy and several unknown grey heads flanking him.
His face looked alarmed and then horrified when he spotted her hands.
Penn hadn't seen him in days - not since the night he said 'I believe you.' And she felt strangely refreshed to see him now - even under such bizarre circumstances and with six aged strangers in tow behind him. Before she realized it she was smiling warmly at him. He, on the other hand, was rushing over to her - his face creased with deep concern.
"It looks worse than it is," she heard herself tell him softly as he took the paper towel from Emma's trembling fingers. She had reached Penn's side at the same time the Alpha had. The girl looked petrified. Like the rest, she hadn't expected to see the Alpha and she was afraid of what he'd do when he found out what the boys had done.
"By the moon," he blurted out just like Cassidy had. "What happened Penn?"
Penn glanced at the two boys. They looked pale and horrified. She felt for them.
"It's nothing, " she said evenly as she looked directly at Ace and Jacob. Neither boy had the courage to raise their heads though.
"It was just a bit of horsing around that went too far. But, no harm done," she replied to Alpha Troy who was now gently wrapping her bloody hands in paper towel after throwing a pile of it on the floor to soak up the blood there.
"We need to get you cleaned up," Troy said in response to her unsatisfying reply.
He was stunned by the scene he and the elders had just walked into. But, without knowing what actually took place, he could only take his cues from Penn and she was clearly trying to play the whole thing down. Having nothing else to go on and trusting her implicitly when it came to the pups, Troy didn't question her or the two pups sitting dejectedly on the floor in front of her. So, instead of lecturing the boys for injuring another wolf and commanding the sobbing children to be quiet, which was his first impulse, he helped Penn to her feet and quietly ushered her to the bathroom.
"We need to get Reagan," he told her as he peeled the paper towel from her hands, which she held over the sink.
"It's done. Cassidy took care of it," she told him as she watched him work quickly and anxiously.
Penn took in a deep breath and enjoyed his scent, which reminded her of warm days spent basking on sun-baked sand by the riverside. She closed her eyes and could see herself there. His scent was easily recognizable, but she'd never taken even a moment to linger over it - over how it made her feel. It had a soothing affect she thought bemusedly.
Troy didn't know why she was smiling softly or why she was so ambivalent about her punctured and bleeding hands. The more relaxed she appeared the more stressed he felt. And when he felt this uptight he needed action - he needed something to do. So, he busied himself turning on the taps, getting the water warm, looking for a first aide kit, and finding a towel to dry her hands with later.
Troy wanted to ask her a million questions, but he didn't know how to do it without turning it into an interrogation. Seeing her hands all cut up and bleeding had his heart racing with panic and his fingers trembling a with adrenaline. So, he wisely kept his lips shut tight and just concentrated on the task at hand - getting her cleaned up before Reagan arrived.
He stuck his fingers under the tap and when the water reached a good temperature he silently pulled Penn's hands under the rush of warm water. He noticed that she never protested when he touched her and that she never even hissed when the water hit her torn flesh. He sighed heavily as he gently washed the blood from her hands.
It seemed obvious to him, as he looked at the puncture wounds that she had forcefully separated the boys for some reason. What had they been fighting about? Why did Penn think it was okay to put herself at risk just to put and end to a disagreement between two adolescent wolves? And why were all the pups crying hysterically?
He'd been stuck in his office for nearly a week trying to follow every lead he had concerning Codax and had deliberately left Penn and the pups to their own devices. But, something had changed in the basement suite that week and he was completely out of the loop. He didn't have any idea what was going on or how things deteriorated to such a point.
Frustrated and disappointed, Troy mentally lectured himself as he patiently dried off Penn's hands and dug out the antiseptic from the first aide kit he'd found. He silently set about cleaning each and every puncture. In the process, he felt his heart rate decline and his nerves settle. The wounds had stopped bleeding and, as Penn had said earlier, it wasn't as bad as it had first looked.
He took a moment to look at his patient, who'd been as quiet as a mouse and as gracious as a queen while he pulled and pushed her about in his desperate attempt to handle the situation. She was watching him work and didn't seem the least bit pained or even upset.
"You were right," he said to her as he continued on.
Penn looked up at his solemn face and frowned. "About what?" she asked with some curiosity.
He spared her a quick look and gave her a half smile. "It's not as bad as it looked."
Penn looked down at her hands and turned her free hand over one way and then the next. "They'll heal fast," she replied. She looked back up at him. He seemed less tense now, and that came as a relief to her. She watched him nod in agreement as he turned his attention back to swabbing her wounds.
"I'm sorry I haven't been around this week," he confessed after another long silent spell between them.
"You picked a good week to be busy," Penn replied with an amused laugh.
She didn't think the Alpha would have fared well if he had to deal with the emotional highs and lows of pups in mourning all week long. He seemed on edge as it was and he'd just walked into the basement suite only fifteen minutes ago. Though, she had to admit, he couldn't have picked a worse time to walk in. Anyone would have been flustered under those circumstances.
"That bad," he asked sympathetically as he let his eyes search hers for a moment. Her good humour appeared genuine and he marvelled a little at it. It seemed that little the children did, good or bad, ruffled her fur. He admired her patience and her ability to just go with the flow.
"They've begun to grieve," Penn explained.
Troy stopped dabbing her wounds and frowned thoughtfully down at her before saying, "We'll organize a mourning ceremony for them."
Penn nodded her agreement. It was a good idea - a thoughtful and caring idea. She looked at this alpha with new eyes. He consistently proved to her over and over again that he was nothing like the alphas she'd known all her life. She wasn't even sure Lara's mate was as even-tempered and generous as Troy.
The Griffin pack Alpha, was, by far, the most reasonable Alpha she'd met in a long time. After all, he tolerated his mate's relationship with a rogue who lived on the edge of his territory without ever raising a fuss. And she knew his pack's pups had loved and adored him. However, he never treated her as if she were an equal the way Alpha Troy did. And it wasn't lost on Penn, as Troy fussed over her wounds, that he was as considerate with her as he was with the pups. She smiled at his bent head. He was such a mystery to her.
Their quiet tête-à-tête was suddenly interrupted by a light tap on the open bathroom door. Both looked up to see the doctor at the door.
"I'll take over from here Alpha," she said politely as she nodded at them both.
Troy gave a curt nod as he released Penn's hands and stepped away from the sink giving Doctor Reagan room to have a look. However, he didn't exit the room. He stood back and watched over the woman's shoulder as the Reagan carefully examined Penn's hands.
Reagan tossed him a strange look as he hovered. Then she cleared her throat and said, "Don't you have some elders out there you need to be looking after Alpha Troy?"
Troy cursed under his breath. He'd forgotten all about the elders the moment he'd smelt blood and saw Penn's hands bleeding. He excused himself straight away and disappeared down the hallway.
It was Penn's turn to sound alarmed. "Elders?" she asked pensively.
Her birth pack had an Elder Council. She remembered them well. They walked around the pack day in and day out making sure all the wolves adhered to pack laws whether social or legal ones. Everyone in the pack dreaded the elders. They had both political and social power within the pack that was only rivalled by the Alpha's executive power.
No one wanted to get on an elder's radar. It could easily result in social suicide or ostricization within the pack. Sometimes, the social effects of their displeasure could last for several generations - effectively ruining the social status of many a formerly prominent wolf family.
Penn felt deflated. She'd only barely survived the scrutiny of the Elder Council in her old pack, who, she felt had turned a blind eye to her in many respects because she was already a social outcast even as a teen. However, she didn't imagine these elders would treat her with the same indifference. They were likely going to find and list every one of her short-comings just to prove to the Alpha, the pups, and the pack why she aught to get going.
Her heart sank a little when she heard Reagan reply, "Yes, the pack Elders have come to meet you."
"Me?" Penn asked a bit breathlessly. "Not the pups?" she wondered aloud.
Reagan could practically see Penn's countenance fall right before her eyes. She pretended not to notice. It seemed the she-wolf didn't have any fond memories of elders from her former pack.
Reagan couldn't blame her. As far as she could gather from the bits and pieces she had heard from the Master at Arms, and the odd conversation here and there with Beta Lucas, not even the elders in her birth pack had stood up for her when the young, impulsive Alpha cast her out. Reagan could only guess that she expected to get the same treatment, or worse, from the Orthos pack elders.
Only, Reagan knew the elders here were a bunch of softies. They were going to like Penn just as much and just as easily as everyone else who had come in contact with her did - despite the crazy atmosphere going on in the basement suite right then. Reagan knew those old wise souls would be able to see through all the chaos out there and right to the heart of things. She had great confidence in them. They were a wonderful group of intuitive, intelligent and kind-hearted elders.
Reagan worked quickly to finish bandaging Penn's hands and securing her two broken fingers with surgical tape. It was quick, easy work and she was done in no time. But, Penn seemed reluctant to leave the bathroom. She just stood there staring at her bandaged hands for several moments while Reagan cleaned up her little impromptu work space.
Finally Reagan grinned at the younger woman and said, "Come on, I'll take you out there and introduce you."
She watched Penn's eyes grow anxious for a brief moment before she shut her feelings off and put on that mask of indifference she so often wore in front of everyone.
This made Reagan chuckle out loud and pledge to the she-wolf, "I promise, they wont bite."
She could tell from the cool look Penn gave her that she did not believe her one bit. And it didn't appear that she was at all inclined to go out and meet the elders on her own. So, Reagan reached out and gently but firmly took hold of Penn's upper left arm. She then proceeded to practically drag the woman out of the bathroom.
Penn let the good doctor haul her down the short corridor to the Common Room. What else could she do? It's not as if she could refuse to meet the elders. If she did, wouldn't that be cause enough for the pack to send her on her way before the pups were settled - before she was ready to let them go?
She gritted her teeth and schooled her face to appear as phlegmatic as ever. She wouldn't let these elders run rough shod over her like her birth-pack elders had. Penn reminded herself that she wasn't a little powerless pup anymore. She would survive whatever they dished out and she'd do it with dignity because she respected herself even if she was just a rogue.