The Gamma's Birthright - Book 2

After ten uncomfortable minutes of forced small talk between the rest of them, during which Toni has withdrawn into her protective shield of silence, she still can’t work out why Alpha Joseph would have a reason to want her dead; because that’s what it feels like, that he’s on his own personal crusade.

Still, it’s unlikely if this trial is unknown within the Royal pack, that it’s still valid, she muses, so maybe she’ll be off soon, but she will need to keep one eye on the Alpha if he doesn't get his satisfaction here, she feels he will try elsewhere.

The Alpha held real anger behind his attempted attack, it wasn’t thought out and calm, but instinctive; he’d seen her and reacted with what could only be described as a natural response to an external trigger; just that trigger was her.

Nothing was pre-planned or false about his reaction, yet no matter which name is dragged from her internal list of the dead, she finds no link from any of her actions back to him, bar through Roy.

Royal Beta Dan walks in with another man, who bears an unmistakable resemblance to Hazel, carrying a large dusty and old book, Antonia stands and acknowledges the Beta bowing her head in respect out of habit, but as far as she’s concerned, she’s spent too long here among these people already and if she never has to step foot on the Royal Pack land again, she will be a happy wolf.

After a round of painful introductions, which just seems to waste even more time, the focus moves onto Hazel’s father Harry, who coughs, slightly embarrassed, as all eyes move to him

“Well,” his voice doesn’t carry confidence

“This is a little awkward.

Hazel is right, I did come across a new, well”

He laughs awkwardly more to himself at his internal joke,

“An old trial, I guess I should say.”

He looks around the room at the small smiles until he comes to Toni, whom he turns away from quickly.

“But I hadn’t gone beyond translating the first few paragraphs, but I have just checked into the current laws with the Beta, and it seems it just faded out, rather than was ruled out by law.”

“It’s a valid challenge then,” Alpha Joseph asks impatiently

“It appears to be, Alpha, but the exact rules I can’t tell you yet it’s written in a long-forgotten language that died out not long after the great war after a law was passed for us all to learn the common tongue, to help ease inter-species tensions.

Translating this is going to take me a while”

He pats the book gently

“We don’t have a single source of the language, no simple translation tool, so we are having to build it up slowly.

Let me read you the first lines that I have translated.”

He stops taking a drink, before opening the book and clearing his voice.

“I’ll do it first in the original language and then the translation, but you have to understand this is a dead language, so translating and cross-referencing just a page of text can take me weeks to complete.”

He sits looking around proudly, overly clearing his throat

“Drey hashlo seapafire drey Meanak Coothally Selene” his words spoken haltingly

“Please stop”

Toni interrupts quickly, all eyes falling on her

“You are butchering the pronunciation and it’s painful to listen to.

It should be pronounced

“Dre haslo sepafire dre Minak C’thale Selene it translates to the trial before the Moon Goddess Selene.”

Toni is shaking her head

“You speak the old tongue”

Harry is trying not to look directly at the Gamma, knowing the reputation she has, but in awe that she had just spoken the old language, he lets his eyes dart to her briefly, trying not to annoy her.

“It was known to me as C’thaleal wirdal, Goddess’ words, but yes, I guess I do if it’s the same thing, it was the first language I learnt and the only one I used with my father.”

She sighs

“You are not the only speaker, oh my”

Harry starts getting excited, words coming out of his mouth so fast

“We have a small group of native speakers…. How did that go unnoticed……

This is fabulous... I need to come and stay with your family and…”

“Enough”

Toni’s harsh tone interrupts his verbal diarrhoea before he can lead himself too far into his own thoughts.

“I am the only one left, my family passed away and I don’t think me teaching you the language is in my foreseeable future.”

“Alpha Joseph, I can translate this on the fly now, if you trust me and I will give you my word that I will do so honestly.

Or we can leave it to Harry and reconvene when he’s done to see if I face you in this challenge, as long as he isn’t allowed to speak the original words out loud, I don’t care.

It’s your choice.”

Toni sighs and sits back this is so ironic, she may end up being the source of her own death, but the Moon Goddess has a twisted sense of humour she decides.

“Beta Dan, this can’t be!” Harry blurts out

“The Gamma is the source of so much information, she can’t face a trial by combat, her knowledge is too essential to so many of the pack historians and the werewolf world as a whole, how the knowledge of this language has gone unnoticed is remarkable.

Think of the things we could achieve with the old scrolls translated without each one taking months or years of painstaking effort.” Harry urges

Beta Dan sighs sadly

“Even if this challenge doesn’t happen, I know that Alpha Vincent would not allow her to be seconded to us, so this isn’t feasible.”

Beta Dan tries to shut the conversation down gently

“But the Royal pack can force the secondment for the good of wolf history, it’s been done before” he continues

“Harry!”

Toni’s voice is loud but without command yet it still gets the attention of the room

“It will not happen, it’s five and a half years too late, even if the Royal pack forced the secondment onto my Alpha, I would not attend willingly, I’d rather go rogue.” She declares loudly.

There are several shocked faces in the room, in reality, if she couldn’t willingly leave the Nightshades pack, she couldn’t go rogue, but how many of the people in this room knew that, plus it did its job to shut down the conversation.

Before she can address the Alpha again, Chief Delta Alek starts to talk.

“Alpha, I can confirm that Gamma Woodfield can be trusted.

She’s given me her word before and, even when the result was detrimental to her, she didn’t once break it”

Alpha Joseph looks towards Toni, this time with some grudging respect.

“Fine let’s get this done” Alpha Joseph replies bluntly

Harry hands her the book, when she looks over the cover she shakes her head

“This is a religious text, not a reference book, you know that right?”

She looks towards Harry who signals he didn't, shaking his head.

“You can tell by the imprinted mark on the outer binder here”

Her finger traces the intricate design

“This symbolises the full moon in a chariot, the old sign for the Goddess Selene moving to earth to offer her wisdom.

Any book so marked is a religious textbook”

She smiles gently while looking at the book, feeling a calmness come over her.

She tilts her head up, palms upwards and her right palm resting in her left as if to receive an offering, elbows to her sides and recites a verse in the old tongue before swapping to English

“For those who don’t understand your words, Goddess, I beg your forgiveness as I use the common tongue to repeat your prayer.

Goddess Selene whom we carry within our hearts, hear this, our plea to you today.

May I read your words faithfully, holding true to the meaning as if you speak them directly into my soul.

Let your teachings bless us and bring us closer to your love and protection.

May we not stray out of the path that the moon guides us on, in this life and beyond.

Keep us strong in your belief and grant us wisdom and knowledge through our wolves.

Bless us with your protection and understanding.

In your name, we dedicate our lives.”

She holds the pose for a minute more, enjoying the silence of her mind, prayers always give her a feeling of peace, as if she’d been blessed by the Goddess for a short time, but all too soon it fades.

Relaxed Toni picks up the book ignoring the astonished looks from those assembled in the room, all her earlier anger and frustrations have been appeased, as if they were washed away as the words of her prayer bathed over her.

Starting to read it translating it to English as she goes, aware Harry is scribbling wildly down her words as she speaks them out loud, looking over now and again to see where she is reading from.

Twenty minutes later she sets the book down, Harry is still scribbling madly but with a look of blissful awe on his face.

“Ok, so in short, it’s a trial by combat, alongside a contract with the Moon Goddess, so we document the terms of the fight and have a religious person there to call forth the Goddess to stand in judgment over us.

The idea is she decides the victor, the challenge can be withdrawn by the declarer up until first blood is taken, after which time the fight has to continue until one winner emerges, either by death or submission.

Only one such challenge can be completed by an individual during their lifetime, so once you and I fight in this way, neither can be challenged under this trial again.

I can see why they stopped using it, technically you could challenge someone if they looked at you oddly”

Toni sighs

“The rest is like the trial by combat, to the winner, goes the spoils.

We need seconds to follow through with any requests we may have if we die, but they cannot be involved in any way and have a protected status, as does the ‘vessel’ for the Moon Goddess who has to be able to read the prayer at the start which channels the Goddess to the fight arena.

It cannot be watched by anyone outside the named parties in the contract, so just the challengers, the seconds and the vessel for the Goddess have the right to watch, although it’s only actually mandatory for the vessel to be there.

They are acting as the eyes of the Goddess on this earth, and the fight has to be under the light of the full moon when the Goddess is closest to us.”

Toni just sits back silently.

So, twenty-four days.” Alpha Joseph murmurs to himself

“If you choose to go ahead with this, I can write the verse that the ‘vessel’ needs to do phonetically, because I will be leaving directly after this meeting, there will be no time to teach them.

So Alpha Joseph, do you wish to challenge me under this trial before the Moon Goddess, both of us submitting to her will and decision?”

“Yes, do you accept?” he asks

“I do, I told you I would not refuse a valid challenge.

I won’t require you to decide on what part of my reputation or alleged actions you are challenging me on since you didn’t want to use the real reason before, and I would appreciate neither of us lying before the Goddess.

How about you use my reputation as a whole?”

Alpha Joseph looks a little uncomfortable and embarrassed but agrees.

“The only consideration is where, clearly not your pack lands, nor mine, has to be somewhere private and neutral.

And I won’t be coming back on the Royal pack land, they seem to require me to have an escort at all times, so that is incongruous with the no spectator’s rule.”

Toni states her response calmly without accusation, but she can feel both of the Delta’s and Beta’s eyes on her before Chief Delta Alek speaks up

“Gamma, one of us could act as your second….”

“No” Toni cuts in quickly

“While I appreciate the offer, there is little in my life that I have control over.

This is one area where I will make my own choices and retain full control, so I will, respectfully, decline your offer.”

Eventually, the fight location was agreed upon, privately between Alpha Joseph and Toni.

It was a disused lunar temple, now abandoned, the original pack had been exterminated or disbanded during the war.

At the time the Righteous pack had been the preeminent expert on the ways of the moon and the moon Goddess Selene, before they died out, so it seemed strangely fitting that it was there, that they would present themselves for judgement by the moon Goddess.

Toni stopped and looked at the book once more, reading the front page, this book was written by the Righteous pack, but she guesses that wasn’t so strange when they were the experts on the Moon Goddess and at the time, the ruling pack.

She sits back, looking at the book once more, this time she isn’t reading it, but thinking through the circumstances that led her to this point.

Surely this can’t just be a twist of fate, this is her pre-ordained destiny she thinks, maybe that’s why Alpha Joseph was so fixated on fighting her, maybe they were both locked into this destiny without choice by the Goddess.

“Gamma Woodfield?”

Toni looks up

“Did you have any other requests or conditions to add to those discussed?” Chief Delta Alek asks

He’d taken the role of mediator to ensure all the terms were ‘agreeable’ and formed the conditions the challenge had talked about.

“Only one, should I lose, my second, well the person I am hoping to have as my second will need to be escorted to safety, I know they have a protected status during the fight, but this is more than that.

They are not linked to the Nightshade pack, but they are also no warrior.

Will you agree to escort them to safety Alpha Joseph, that you and your Beta will ensure their safety out of No-mans-land and that no harm comes to them?” she asks

“You have my solemn vow I will see no harm comes to them and I will go so far as to ensure their safety back to their home pack”

He nods, aware that at so many times she could have denied the challenge, and walked away at no risk, add that to the way she dealt with the young pup, protectively, giving her support, and removing any possible trace of guilt has left him feeling a little conflicted now he has calmed, this was not what he’d expected based on the Gamma’s reputation.

If this is her only request, he will abide by it.

“Then I have no further requests to make”

Her voice breaks his thought process before he can form regrets for what he is doing, reminding him of what they are there to do.

He looks over and she seems content, not fearful, nor prideful, thinking she will win, but just content with her choices, something he struggles to understand, few, if any Gammas would welcome a fight with an Alpha.