I stepped up close to him, close enough that a good insult would have made us touch. "There's something weak in you Jacob. I can smell it, and so can they. You may challenge Richard and win, but the pack will never accept you as Ulfric. You winning will tear them apart--it'll be a civil war."
Something flashed through his eyes.
"That doesn't scare you. You don't care," I said.
He stepped back from me, averting his eyes, his face. "You heard the Ulfric. Go fetch your cat before we change our minds."
"You couldn't change your mind with a hundred watt bulb and a team of helpers."
He frowned at me then. Sometimes my humor is a little esoteric, or maybe it's just not funny. Jacob didn't find it funny.
"Go with her, Sylvie, make sure she gets everything she needs to get him out of there and back to the cars safely," Richard said.
"Are you sure you want me to go?" she asked.
"We'll stay with him," Jamil said. None of them tried to hide the fact that they were looking at Jacob while they said it. Not only didn't they not trust him, but they didn't care that he knew that they didn't trust him. How had things downgraded to that? What had been happening in the pack that no one had told me about yet? Plenty, from the looks on everyone's faces.
"She can't go home until after the ceremony to break her ties with the pack" Jacob said.
"She will go home when I say she goes home," Richard said, voice low and full of that deep tone he got just before his voice crawled to something growling and inhuman.
"The candidates have all come prepared tonight, Ulfric, dressed to please you."
"Then they can dress to please me another night."
"You disappoint ..."
"You are about to overstep yourself, Jacob." There must have been something in the way he said it, because Jacob finally shut up and gave a small bow. But he managed to make the movement mocking, and even from a distance you could tell he didn't mean it. But he lowered his eyes with his head, as he bent at the waist. It's a mistake to take your eyes off your opponent.
I asked, "Am I still lupa until the ceremony?"
"I suppose," Richard said.
"Yes," Sylvie said. And they looked at each other.
"Good." I kicked Jacob in the face, though not as hard as I'd hit Richard. You didn't have to kick as hard to do the same kind of damage.
I watched who in the pack made movements towards us and who didn't. I didn't see what everybody did, but I saw enough. Nobody near the throne made a single move to stop me, or help him.
Jacob staggered to his feet. His nose had burst like a piece of overripe fruit. Blood poured from his face, over his hands, like crimson water. He yelled at me, voice thick with the blood running down his throat. "You broke my nose!"
I was in a defensive stance, the one I'd learned in kenpo, just in case, but he didn't try to hit me back. I think he knew that there were too many people close at hand aching for an excuse to hurt him. Jacob was weak, but he was smarter than he looked, and not quite as arrogant.
"I am lupa of the Thronnos Rokke Clan. Maybe just for tonight, but I am lupa here. And he is Ulfric, and you will by God show some respect!"
"You have no right to question the Geri of this clan. I've earned my place. You just fucked the Ulfric."
I laughed, and it startled him, made him unsure. "I know pack law, Jacob. It doesn't matter how I got the job. All that matters is that I am lupa, and that means that except for the Ulfric, my word is law."
His eyes looked uncertain, and the first faint trace of fear showed, like a bitter scent on the wind. "You are about to be dethroned as lupa. Your word means nothing here."
"I am Ulfric here, Jacob, not you, and I say whose word means something and whose does not. Until we have the ceremony breaking her ties with our pack, Anita is still lupa, and I will support what she says."
"And I," Sylvie said.
"And I," Jamil said.
Shang-Da said, "I support my Ulfric in all things."
"Then let's have a little irony," I said. "Since it was Jacob's idea to put Gregory down in the oubliette, let him take Gregory's place."
Jacob started to protest, hands still trying to stop the blood flow from his nose. "You can't do that."
"Oh, but she can," Richard said, and there was a coldness in him that I'd never seen before. He wouldn't have come up with the idea himself, but he liked it. It let me know just how frustrated he'd been with Jacob.
"Great," I said. "Shall we all walk like civilized wereanimals to the oubliette and rescue Gregory?"
"I will not go willingly down in that hole," Jacob said. His voice sounded a little funny, what with all the blood and his nose smashed to hell, but he sounded sure of himself. He shouldn't have been.
"Your Ulfric and your lupa have both decreed you will go," Sylvie said. "To refuse the order is to refuse their authority."
Jamil continued, "To refuse their authority is to be declared outlaw from the clan."
Jacob glared at me when he said, "I will obey my Ulfric, but I do not acknowledge the Nimir-Ra as my lupa."
"If I say she is lupa, then to deny that is to question my authority as Ulfric," Richard said.
Jacob's eyes flicked to Richard. "We voted her out as our lupa."
"I'm voting her back in," Richard said, voice deep and quiet, but loud enough that it carried.
"Take another vote," Jacob said, still trying to slow the blood from his face. "It will go against her again."
"No, Jacob, you misunderstand me. I said, I am voting her back in, not you, not anyone else, just me."
Jacob's eyes widened. "You've preached about democracy in action since I joined this clan. Are you going back on all of it now?"
"Not on all of it, but we don't vote for Freki, or Geri, or for Hati and Skoll. We don't vote for Ulfric. Why should we vote for lupa?"
"She's fucking the Nimir-Raj. For that alone she should be cast out as lupa."
"That's my problem, not yours, not the pack's."
"You going to fuck her, too? You think the Nimir-Raj will share?"
Richard started to say something, but Micah spoke first, taking a step from the rest, his guards flanking him. "Why don't you ask the Nimir-Raj?"
Richard looked at me, a question in his eyes. I shrugged.
"Ask him, Jacob," Richard said. The blood had almost stopped dripping from Richard's mouth.
"You mind if the Ulfric fucks your Nimir-Ra?" Jacob was still bleeding like a stuck pig. His chest, stomach, even the front of his shorts were soaked with blood.
"I've agreed to any arrangement that Anita wishes, as long as she remains my Nimir-Ra and lover."
"You'd share her with another man?" Jacob said, voice thick with disbelief
"With two other men," Micah said.
That got almost everybody staring at him. I glanced at him, but mostly watched everyone else's reaction, especially Richard's. The others looked shocked, Richard looked thoughtful, as if Micah had finally done something he didn't hate.
"She is the Master of the City's human servant. Being my Nimir-Ra has not changed that. I've felt the mark that binds them together, and it is not something that will break, as, apparently, the mark that binds her to the Ulfric will not break."
"Nothing binds her to the Ulfric but her stubbornness, and his," Jacob said.
"You think so?" Micah made it a question.
Jacob looked uncertain. The blood from his nose was finally beginning to slow. "You've seen more than I've seen, if you think they still have a special bond."