wolf energy. It seemed to help, and she sucked in air.
“Thank you.” It wasn’t even a whisper, just her mouth moving, but I caught it anyway, even from behind her.
I put her to my side with my arm still around her, and offered my hand to Julian. He accepted it, and he, too, breathed easier. He’d been a friend to my kitten, so it was the least I could do. The three of us followed His Majesty, but I kept us on the edge of the field when we approached it. His Highness climbed the steps to the stage and stood with the two men still beside him, his hands squeezing their biceps so hard, their hands were a deep red. Both men appeared to be in pain, and neither moved.
“For the most part,” the Amakhosi said, his voice ringing out without the need for the sound system, “I focus on my lions and allow the other cats to govern themselves. However, when a group proves it can’t do so responsibly, I step in.”
He looked around the field, then towards us. I’m certain he met Kitty’s gaze a second before he focused on the group as a whole again.
“I regret that I allowed Vincenzo to claim responsibility for what happened. If I’d questioned Mike, I’d have seen the truth of him, but I didn’t. If I’d seen the truth, I’d have meted out far different consequences. As it stands now, I no longer believe Vincenzo is the right leader for your ambush. His judgment has been questionable too many times. My first reaction would be to implement a ruling counsel, so no one person is in charge.”
He took a breath, looked around again, and made his pronouncement. “Michael Gowd is hereby sentenced to death by enema. A fitting death for one who raped the bottoms of young teens. Any women or girl he violated will be allowed to pour water into the bucket leading to his tubing, once it’s in place.”
Some in the crowd were pissed, but a whole lot seemed to be happy with this pronouncement. Mike had been Vincenzo’s enforcer as well as his pet rapist, and the man had made plenty of enemies, it seemed.
But His Majesty wasn’t finished.
“Vincenzo Aurelio is hereby stripped of any and all titles given to him by tiger society and the ambush. He is a common citizen with no power or assets, and will be outcast for a minimum of one year, with no guarantee of being welcomed back. A lion of my choosing will arrive within hours to keep the peace in the ambush until you can set up your own ruling body. If at the end of a year, you wish to go back to a dictatorship where a single person decrees everything, you’ll be able to vote that back in if you choose. However, for one year, you’ll exist under a counsel you’ve voted into being.”
He turned and looked to us. “Squatch. Have Kitty take you to her father’s house. She’ll know how to get in. Wait for me there, please.”
I was still holding Julian’s hand, and I still felt His Majesty’s power holding the crowd in thrall. However, Julian let go of my hand when I looked at him.
“Thank you for the help,” he told me, “but I should stay here.”
“Thank you for being a friend to my kitten.”
Kitty started walking, and I walked beside her, holding her hand, no idea which direction we were headed, but I knew she’d keep us away from the crowd.
Kitty
I walked us all the way around the festival grounds, a half-mile through the woods, and then down the wide pathway to my father’s house. When I left, the passcode to get into the front door was my oldest brother’s birthday, but backwards. I tried it and it didn’t work. I tried all of my brother’s birthdays, forwards and backwards, and then tried mine.
And the door opened.
“What was it?” Squatch asked.
“My birthday, backwards.” I said it with zero emotions, because if I let my feelings have even an inch then I’d be curled up in a ball somewhere, crying and sobbing and a complete mess.
“He loves you, Kitten. He’s made some horrible decisions, and he’s clearly a bad judge of character, but he does love you.”
“I always thought he knew what Mike was doing. I mean, clearly, he knew the bare-bones facts, but I assumed he knew all of it, and now I’m not so sure.”