The Twelfth

Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Cain Lucian

My middle finger tapped the cedar table rapidly. I had no idea I was doing it, until I earned a few nasty looks. It was nerves, I knew that much. It wasn't every day a woman appeared in your life who looked like the dead ringer of your dead wife.

All the events that have occurred of late were so massive that my brain had not conceptualized it yet. The emotions were not laced with the fact that my wife, or her spirit, was alive. I was living on pure action and realism at the moment. I bet if I gave it a few hours, all the emotions I shoved deep down into the abyss I call myself, would bubble right back up.

I just had to focus on one thing: making sure Olana stayed alive, which meant getting her the protection of the council.

All eleven members, including myself, were gathered in the circular meeting room of my house. The room was large enough to fit a table that curved like the letter "C" and could fit up to 14 people. At the center of the room, a book was positioned on a pedestal.

My house, or better described as a multifunctional plaza that houses over 400 ranking pack members, staff, and criminals, was nestled into the Alp Mountains. "Secluded" and "remote" just scratched the surface of possible descriptive words. My castle/mansion/palace or whatever you wanted to call it, acted as a beacon for all seventeen packs. Even though my house is cloistered in Switzerland, it still served as neutral ground for all packs. This meant that even though there might be feuds between rival packs, nothing violent can occur on this land. Even though I ruled all the packs, there were always disputes between them. Especially between the Raiders (a pack in Iowa) and Wolverine (pack in Michigan). Yet, I always intervened right before bloodshed and total annihilation.

This land also served as a home for wolves that did not want to choose a specific pack, but also did not want the designation of "rouge." There were probably only about a thousand neutral wolves on my land, scattered out over 5,000 acres. There was just enough to make a school and build a Trader Joe's, but not enough to have their own football team.

The council and myself agreed that it was best to conduct our investigation on Madeline at my place. The main reason was for her safety, as if word spreads that there might possibly be one last royal Spirit Seeker, danger could be descendant on her. I also wanted her here in hopes that it might jog some of her "old" memories. If she even is Olana.

But why would she have a protector, and John's old one at that?

I had so many questions swirling through my mind that I barely registered Loarn's words. I just kept tapping my index finger and staring at the drabby blue wallpaper.

"....don't you agree, Cain?" Loarn said, dragging me out of my thoughts. I liked Loarn. He also lost his wife a long time ago, and helped me process mine. I turned toward him. He was sitting in between Kateylnia, the Dragon Queen, and Jeremiah, the Hydro King. Jeremiah was a somewhat decent man, besides the frequent trists with women that were not his wife. Kateylnia was someone that only showed her face for the annual Balls and the quarterly Council Meetings. She lives in a different dimension she dubbed "Egardon." In the Medieval times, when the Dragons were prejudice against, she found access to this dimension, and herded the other Dragons in there for their safety. She had barely left since. Fae and Demons are the only other ones who lived in a different Dimension.

I debated just going along with whatever he said, but I decided against it, "Can you repeat that, Loarn?"

I knew he would get annoyed, and in all other circumstances I probably would just have nodded my head in agreeance, but when it came to "her" it's too important.

He let out a mostly silent sign and repeated what he said, "I would be ignorant to think that Miss. Constantine did not bear any resemblance to Olana. In actuality, they look exactly alike. Also, the fact that her name is "Constantine," which was the late middle name of Council Member Halder, is too much of a coincidence. And the security camara's do show her talking to seemingly thin air, and then a few seconds later attacking Head Protector Rhys in his one and only weak spot. And don't get me started on the fact that John Halder's supposedly dead protector is alive and well, and just happens to be watching over Miss. Constantine," He stated as he quickly glanced at Robert, "All these signs point to the fact that she is a spirit seeker, and the last royal one at that. Don't you agree, Cain?"