LEXION
CHARACTERS
Malakai 'Kai' - Lex's gamma
Sebastian 'Bas' - Lex's delta
"So what's it like to have a mate?" His gamma Kai asked.
Lex paused to look at him for a minute then went back to mowing the lawn. "You've heard that answer a thousand times," he dismissed.
"Yeah, but hearing stories and reading about it is not the same as firsthand info." Kai persisted.
"Doesn't change the fact that it's just like everyone says."
"What our esteemed alpha is trying to say is he can't answer you without sounding like a twelve year old girl experiencing her first crush." His delta put in.
Lex glared at the wide, idiotic grin Bas had on and wanted to carve his face in with his fists. The worst part, he was right, Lex couldn't explain it without sounding like a love struck idiot.
"Don't you have something better to do?" He demanded.
"No." They said in unison.
Lex stood back up. "I'll mindlink my dad and tell him you're volunteering for anything he can come up with."
"Harsh bro." Kai quipped, his relaxed posture showing he knew how empty the threat was.
Though Lex wasn't in the mood for company, he knew better than to come right out and say it. He had a lot to think about and pushing a lawnmower gave him room for that. If only these clowns would leave him be.
Realizing the pause in the conversation had turned a bit awkward he looked back at Bas to see a hesitant look on his face. Kai wouldn't meet his eyes, which was more telling than Bas' unease.
His gamma had a tendency to be bold, forthright. Since Kai had started by asking about his mate, chances were whatever they had to say was about Nia. He knew they'd know more about what the pack thought of Nia, things pack members would never say to his face.
"Just spill it." He sighed. Much as he didn't want to hear any negativity about Nia he needed to know where she stood. "I promise I won't jump down your throats."
"Yeah, well, we don't really know your mate so..." Kai replied, his hesitance evident.
"She's not really comfortable around males." Lex stated.
"We know, and that's understandable given her situation. But before yesterday everybody agreed on not liking her," as he said that Kai took an involuntary step back before he realized it and stood his ground. As if Lex hadn't promised not to attack him.
"The guys because she was standoffish," he continued. "And since Leo was against her, the girls followed her lead. Now we're all kinda afraid of her."
Lex frowned at the last thing he'd ever expected. "Why would you be afraid of her? Nia would never hurt anybody, she's a healer for crying out loud."
"Why would we be afraid of her?" Bas was incredulous. "She ordered a god around as if he were a five year old and he didn't blast her out of existence, for one. Two, I've never felt anything like I did when she ordered him to stop. I mean, I know the power of an alpha command and that was nothing like it. And when she did whatever she did to Santiago? Every one of us felt the presence of our mates."
"What?!"
"Nobody has ever been able to feel for someone's mate Lex," Kai put in with a worried face. "Not even the ancient healers. And she did it for all of us, but we were just collateral."
"Nia's pretty powerful," Lex agreed, "We just don't know what she can do."
"Yeah, what with her being a godling of unknown blood and adopted by the Moon and all." Kai's voice held an edge Lex couldn't quite define.
"Look guys, I've had a lot on my mind lately. It's not like we've had time to hang since Nia came. I would've told you about it eventually." Not that he owed them an explanation, he was their alpha and he could withhold anything he wished.
Bas glared a warning at Kai who shrugged and looked away. Lex knew them well enough to know Bas was just cautioning Kai on his tone and not what he'd said.
"The thing is," Bas put in. "We all know gods are bad news and already that other god showed up because of them. Everybody knows our realm is fair game to them, their fighting ground. How long before some even more unfriendly ones show up because of your mate and her siblings?"
Taking a deep breath Lex held it for a few moments longer then slowly exhaled it. He'd read some mystical mumbo jumbo that said such breathing helped to calm one's rage. Lex didn't want to be the kind of alpha who lashed out at the least provocation, let alone some semblance of truth he didn't want to hear.
And Bas was right, the older generations where full of stories where the gods had fought, turning the world into a bloodbath. The worst was when they went to war, it was their people who suffered. People who turned primitive and did unspeakable things to their enemies.
There were stories of gruesome rites, sadistic sacrifices and masochistic mutilations, all to please or appease some god. The wars between mythkind races had fallen to a few tensions that rarely resulted in death. But if the gods turned against each other - as they might over the moon's children - then those wars would resurge.
"Huehuecoyotl was already here when they came." He explained, his voice distant as his thoughts raced.
He hadn't even thought about any of this, too caught up in the joy of having a mate to use his brain. Not that he'd ever leave Nia, that was unacceptable, he just needed to start acting like the alpha he was. He needed to anticipate problems and come up with solutions. The obvious place to start would be with Bas and Kai who hadn't been as short sighted.
"Wee wee who?" Kai asked, looking at an equally confused Bas.
"We we kojo t" he enunciated. "Primodial form of the trickster god, very powerful, interested in Santiago for some reason, which might explain why he's had a hard time in his life. I mean in every story I've heard about the Coyote, he's muddled up things."
"Wow, back up and explain things a bit." Kai interjected. "Primordial gods? Coyote?"
Lex explained what he could. Some of the knowledge had come from Nia's subconscious when she'd shared her experience with the god. He explained how the god had kept tabs on Santiago from the time he was born, punished his birth pack for daring to lay a hand on him and blessed the Shadow's end for their treatment of Santiago. He sketched the essence of what Nia had shown them, leaving out some things that were personal.
"So he'd already possessed Leo before Nia came?" Bas asked, revulsion in his tone.
"Inhabited." Lex corrected. "Demons possess, taking over a person's free will and all. On the other hand the gods find common ground with someone, share their bodies and don't influence them one way or another without them agreeing."
Bas' face had a horrified look to it. "How about the 'Inhabiting'?" He asked. "Did Leo agree to that or do they just come in uninvited?"
Lex's face tensed as anger washed over him. "Oh yeah she did. Years ago apparently. I can't figure it why she would agree to it though."
"And Santiago? Did he know he had a god watching his back?" Kai asked.
Lex laughed at that. "I've never seen the man of steel more freaked out."
As he knew they would, Kai and Bas laughed at the idea of Santiago being freaked out. The man wore his emotions up his sleeves it was hard to imagine him being anything but a calm strong center. Though the laughter was incredulous, it was better than the tension that had surrounded them.
The serious looks that replaced the laughter showed the duo wasn't done though. Lex almost groaned but drew himself short. Something told him they were going to be even more personal so he switched off the lawn mower. While Weres could filter out certain noises, Lex decided to shut off the distraction and confront whatever they had to say.
Kai took the clue and stated. "So Nia's going to have her baby in four months time."
Unlike humans who gestated a baby in nine months, mythkind carried a child for six. It was one of the reasons their kind didn't mingle with humans. The fact that their children were born early would be noticed.
"Yes, and I'm going to stand in as that child's father." He stated.
"You're both kind of too young to be parents." Kai observed.
"Doesn't change what is. I don't know how she got pregnant so young, I mean we all know werewolf fertility kicks in around a century old but hey, Nia's different."
"The child will be an alpha blood." Bas observed. "What will happen when the time comes for him to claim an Alpha role? You'll be contemporaries and he doesn't have Petersen blood."
The Shadow's end pack was inherited through the Petersen bloodline, his mother's line. She'd been the older of two alpha blooded sisters and been mated to the younger son of the Heinlein alpha blood. Which meant that while Leo was technically considered a Heinlein, he and his parents were Heinlein-Petersen.
When Leo mated with another alpha line she'd have a hyphened name whilst her mate and children would not. On the other hand Lex's children would be of the Petersen blood.
"The Eastaungffe Alphas are just holding the position for the child," Lex explained. "Once they lost the title they could never regain it and Jake has been disinherited, which leaves this child as the reigning Alpha."
"So this child will be born as the Eastaungffe Alpha?"
Lex shook his head at that. "By ancient law, Jake lost the bloodline its alpha status so the child will have its mother's name as a new alpha line."
"I didn't know that could happen." Kai muttered.
"Yeah, the alpha bloods are not so eager to have that knowledge out there."
"After this, it'll become common knowledge though." Bas said.
Lex nodded then decided to bite the bullet. "And since you're dancing around the subject, Nia's not used goods."
"We're not..., we'd never..."
"Maybe," Lex agreed. "But you can't tell me some people aren't thinking that."
Lex nodded his understanding at their shamed silence. His wolf stirred at the insult to their beloved mate. He wanted to demand the pair tell him who exactly thought that of her and tear their limbs off. He was sure their sister and her posse would be some of them.
'Calm down,' Lex ordered the beast. While most weres believed in fighting their wolves for control, Lex preferred to compromise and talk the beast down from his angry stance. 'Fighting the pack won't change their views. We need to reason with them since we won't always be with Nia. She needs them as much as they need her.'
Grumbling, his wolf stopped fighting for control but stayed alert to the two. From the apprehension he sensed in his gamma and delta, Lex knew his eyes held that strange mix of human and wolf.
It wasn't something most wolves could achieve, a balance of consciousness that was neither wolf nor man. Wolves had glowing amber or green eyes. Lex's wolf had amber ones and in this state, his eyes became a glowing pewter ale.
"Rape isn't about sex," he stated, trying his best to stay as calm as he sounded. "It's about control, the need to exert power over someone, to humiliate then and show them they're nothing by comparison. Jack Eastaungffe was the youngest Alpha in were history, one for the history books, but that wasn't enough for him. He wanted more power and nothing could ever have been good enough for him."
"You've thought a lot about this." Kai mused.
"How could I not. I mean I expected people around here to sympathize with Nia and not victimize her further."
"No one is victimizing her Lex."
Lex felt his control shifting. "Really?" He demanded "No one is asking why she didn't fight him off? No one is saying they'd rather have died than give in, that it'd've been better to die? No one is asking what she did? What she was wearing? If she seduced him and decided at the last moment that it was rape?"
Stunned silence met his outburst. He was aware that some of the pack members had stopped what they were doing to listen to him. He didn't care, they were just as culpable. None of them had reached out to Nia, so caught up in themselves to even think she could need someone to just say 'sorry for what happened'.
"We might be a society based on hierarchy but that doesn't excuse anyone from using their brains." He continued "Leo's too busy thinking about how she's no longer the alpha female of her generation and like silly little lambs all the pack females follow her. Too blind to see what she's doing." Lex knew his sister and there was no doubt in his mind that had been part of the reasons she didn't like Nia.
"Jack Eastaungffe forced himself on pretty much every unmated female in his pack, maybe even some of the mated. None of you even thought of reaching out to them, let alone Nia who's right here. You're all too busy thinking about what the world will think about you having such a luna, too selfish to think beyond yourselves."
"Lex!" He turned to see the pack Gamma, Kai's father standing by the door to the pack house. "Your father would like to see you."