“This gentleman here is Aiman Bashara.” The man bowed his head to William and William found himself bowing in return. His skin tone was similar to Acharya’s. He stood shorter than William by an inch or two. He had dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was very well dressed in slacks and a shirt. It seemed to fit him. He wore a serious look on his face, but it was neither a scowl nor intense. It was a look that commanded respect but not fear.
“This lovely woman is Tara Kitcheyan.” The woman was striking. She looked all of twenty years old, if that. Her face was very elegant and angular. Her high sharp cheek bones and slightly tilted eyes gave her the look of extreme beauty or hard-edged anger. Her skin had a rich mocha color to it. Her long brown chestnut hair seemed to capture the light around her. Her brown eyes were solemn and there was the familiar weight there that William had felt when he looked at Ares or Huan Li. He could tell that regardless of how old she looked she had seen a lot of this world.
Acharya gestured to the wolf that was sitting among them. “This young wolf is Asclepius.” The wolf lowered his head but kept his gold eyes on the newcomer. William couldn’t help but notice that the wolf was a little awkward looking. His ears seemed to be just a little too long and his body seemed more dog like than wolf. His fur coat was reddish brown with a black swath running along the nape of his neck down to his mid back. It looked more like a lion’s mane than anything else. Asclepius had three black boots, while his left rear leg was the same reddish brown as the rest of his body. His tail however was just as white as Physis was.
The last woman that Acharya gestured to was the tallest female there. “This is Malikah Samadi.” The woman nodded her head. William could see that she might have been good looking once. She was still young, in her mid-twenties he would guess, but her body had defiantly seen the knife more than once. Her lips were as big as anything he had seen, including Goldie Hawn and just as fake looking as her chest. Underneath the frizz of over using products and the tell-tale split ends of over dying, her brown hair was barely recognizable under the deep broad blonde highlights that permeated the long strands. He could see her dark roots coming in under the highlights. Her skin was splotchy and ashen with the overuse of products. Her skin was not quite white though it could have been mistaken for white by most people. She didn’t seem to be wearing any make up at the moment, but her skin had the tired look of someone who had used makeup extensively at one time.
“Well,” Acharya said, “You have met our little band. How about the stranger introduce himself as well?”
William cleared his throat. He found himself looking at Asclepius. The wolf tilted his head to the side in a very dog like expression of inquiry. William had to smile at that and looked up at the group once again. “My name is William Setford.” He reached up to scratch the back of his neck. “I, uh… I’m looking for someone.”
“Looking?” interrupted Acharya. “Found someone you have I would say, yes?” The group broke out into laughter. William couldn’t help but laugh too. William stood there shaking his head laughing and enjoying the joke with the small group. Asclepius looked like he had no idea what was so funny and the serious but light look on Aiman’s face never faltered. He wasn’t scowling but he wasn’t laughing either.
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“I’m sorry, William. But you have to admit, you walked right into that one.” Acharya said.
“Yes, I did,” William admitted. The laughter seemed to break up the subtle tension that William had been feeling and he found that he had no problem expressing himself now. “But in all seriousness, I was looking for a wolf. Her name is Aceso. Do any of you guys know where she might be?”
A seriousness fell over the group. They all seemed to look from one person to the other avoiding William’s eyes.
“William, uh…” Acharya said. “Aceso is off limits to everybody in the city.” Acharya looked very uncomfortable as he lowered his eyes and had become very interested in studying the street. After a moment or two he raised his eyes to look at William’s face. “No one is allowed to see her. I’m sorry but there is just no way for you, or anyone else to see her.”
The revelation struck William as a physical blow to the stomach. He felt empty all of a sudden as the words sunk in. He didn’t want to believe it at first. There is no way that his Alpha had done anything so egregious that she would be refused visitors. And who were these people to tell him that he couldn’t see her.
Acharya raised his hands in a gesture of neutrality. “Hey, listen this is how the city does things. You may not like it but it’s how things are done. It’s been the same way since the beginning. The laws were set down by the first Elders and we have lived by those laws ever since.” He placed his hand on William’s shoulder. “When she has completed her penance then she will be allowed to reenter the city and you can see her then.”
William stood up straight so that every bit of his six-foot two-inch frame towered over the smaller man’s stature. “I appreciate that piece of wisdom. I may even be able to abide by it in the near future but right now Aceso is being punished for something I did too. I said the words. She didn’t make me say them.” He shrugged off the hand from his shoulders. “I don’t know if you guys know this or not but she saved my life more than once just trying to get me here and if she is being held under some sort of penalty, than I should be sharing in the punishment.” The group of people stood there looking at William. To him it seemed like they all shared a secret guilt that he didn’t know about it. Even Aiman seemed very uncomfortable at the moment.
Malikah was the first to speak. “We know, William.” Her green eyes were somber as if she couldn’t believe that she had spoken in the first place. She brushed dyed strands of hair away from her face. “We know all about what happened on your way here. It’s all incredible and Aceso is pretty much a hero.” Malikah took a deep breath that heaved her chest up two or three inches before she exhaled. “But that is exactly why she is where she is.” She adjusted her stance to one that William had often thought of as the female power pose. “William, you have to understand where we are coming from and one day, probably a lot sooner than you realize, you will learn why the laws that we live by are so serious.” She shot a glance to either side before she lowered her head once more, probably studying the same place on the street that had interested Acharya a few moments ago.
William didn’t know what to do. He felt like his anger should be rising. He wanted to punch someone in the face. He wanted his other to explode out of him so he could show just what he was capable of and the damage that he could cause. But as he stood there looking at the honest and apologetic faces of the young people around him, he found that no anger would come. Acharya stood there surrounded by the people of his pack and William saw the sincerity in all of their faces.