Silver Kitsune Clan 03

She stared at him for several moments and then a cruel smile crossed her face. "I accept the challenge. I will meet you in the spirit house." She turned with a swirl of robes and walked out the door on her level.

Geoff bowed to the Elders and then to his mother. "Please excuse me Clan Leader, but it seems I have a challenge and will be back forthwith." He turned and strolled out of the council chambers with a total lack of concern. Then again, he knew that he had a sort of ace up his sleeve. *Mari contact Dan and open the pack bonds please. I might need the power of the pack. I don't think so, but just in case.* He hadn't even thought about needing it.

Mari managed not to blink but she did focus on the bond with Dan. *My Alpha, I need your help.* She normally couldn't reach that far but for some reason today she could.

*Mari? What do you need? Are you okay and how can I help?* There was concern in his mental voice.

*Geoff is fighting a challenge to have me as his mate with an elder and he might need some of your power via me if you are willing. Please help me and my mate, my alpha.* She knew what she was asking and hoped he would help.

Dan didn't even think, *Done and call me when all is said and done.*

As she had been talking to him, the voices in the chambers were starting to get loud. "Why do we need a damn wolf in the clan?" Another was saying, "The spirits willed it and that is reason enough." Another, "she is bottom of the pack and a weakling, do we want that in our blood?" Who ever said that said the wrong thing and she stepped forward.

"I wish to address the council. Who uttered the asinine line about me being weak? I demand an answer." Her eyes were still glowing a light violet color and her wolf was now standing up growling. The sound was echoing in her voice as well.

"Go away weakling, you aren't worth our time." That was an old wrinkled elder and she guessed he was the one who had said it.

Mari glanced at Alysson and she smiled slightly and waved her towards the council. "I wish to beg to differ old man. I am stronger than you are in almost any way that counts. I have lived through things that you can't even begin to believe." Her voice was a snarl when she said that. *Lady Alysson I need your help to project some of my memories and forgive me before I do. This is going to hurt, and badly.*

"This is some of what I have had to live through and I am still here you old fossil. If you could have lived through this, then and only then do you have the right to call me weak." She closed her eyes and called up when she was twelve and her father had been killed. The next memory was when she was 16 and chosen to please the alpha. Now that memory she transmitted with every feeling and fear that she had felt. Just for good measure she tossed in a few more of the various assaults she had experienced over the years. As an added bonus she showed the abuse of some of the others getting assaulted both physically and sexually in the public places in the manor. By now many of the elders were starting to gag and choke.

The one elder who had been mocking her had run from the room but Mari made sure that he was still feeling it, every feeling, thought, and memory. One of her final memories she showed them was when she had watched Dan break free and then stalk outside and killed the three worst offenders on the spot. *Now tell me I am weak you piece of shit. Come face me or don't ever come back. If you don't face me if I see you again I will rip your face off.* By now Mari was beyond angry with him and even Geoff's grandmother.

"Does anyone have any questions for me? Anyone else want to insult me by calling me weak? I am still here and they aren't. I have to live with this and I have to overcome them which I am doing right now. Till one of you have stood in my shoes, go fuck yourself." She turned away and her face was strained with controlling her wolf. Her eyes were closed and it was going to be a close call.

Eventually she managed to convince her wolf that running him down and ripping his throat out was not a good idea and she managed to open her eyes. "I am sorry Lady Logan, I shouldn't have told them to go screw themselves. I will do what you choose as my punishment." She was facing towards the doors when Geoff walked in looking sort of confused.

"Is there some reason Elder Johnson was running screaming down the hallway?" Since he walked back in she assumed he had won the challenge.

She moved over to him and wrapped her arms around him and to hell with the clan. *Just love me after what I did Geoffrey, please love me.* Tears were starting to flow down her cheeks as she buried her face in his chest.

*Mom?* He sent as his face hardened and looked around to see who might have made his mate hurt and cry. He might be far more integrated with his fox than lycans were with their wolves but protecting their mates was an emotion they both felt.

*Geoff you are going to need to be very gentle with her tonight. She showed the elders some of what she experienced when she was growing up including being raped when she was still a kit.* "Well does anyone feel that Lady Marissa Ryan is not of a sufficient match for my son?"

Geoff's face hardened. "Who forced her to relive that?" His voice was harsh. "I will challenge them and kill them. Nobody hurts my little wolf. Nobody." A blue flicker started to form around him as he was snarling that out.

One of the elders stood up and called out. "Damn but I am jealous of you young Geoffrey and that is one hell of a mate you are going to have." He started a slow clap and everyone remaining in the chamber, even those who didn't agree, started a slow clap in honor of Mari and Geoff.

"Go take her to your rooms for the time being. I will send Gettie up to help you till it is time for the official meal." She lightly struck the gong and dismissed the council. "Well crap, time to update the clan elder roles and send out applications for two seats. Damn paperwork." She gentled Geoff till the flames went out.

"Yes mother I will take care of my intended mate and god help anyone that pisses me off today." He glared at the council before walking out of the room with Mari in his arms. Once outside he pulled her close. *Mari I will always love you. I know your history since I have relived some of your nightmares. It wasn't your fault and there wasn't anything you could have done to keep it from happening. I love you no matter what. Let's go to our rooms and..."

"No, I have to call Dan or we are likely to have an enraged Alpha here before you can believe it. I am sure he felt my emotions via the bonds and if I don't call him he will come up here with killing in mind." That thought made her both pleased and terrified.

"Um, might be a bad idea for that since I have a feeling he wouldn't be to discriminating when he got here." Geoff shuddered at the thought of the decimation Dan might wreak before he was controlled or killed and he would take a lot of killing. "Let's go call him." Her office was closest so he headed in that direction.

She flopped in her chair and pulled the phone to her and dialed Dan's office. When Saul answered he was sounding more than a bit strained. "Oh god Mari what the hell is going on? Dan is freaking out and right now half the pack is wolf and the other half is straining hard not to change."

"Oh god, put me on speaker please." A moment later she called out and her voice was soft but tear filled. "Oh my alpha, please hear me. I am fine and not hurt at all. Geoff is fine and he didn't hurt me and neither did anyone here." That was somewhat of a lie since inside she was in agony over the memories she had to dig up to show to the elders.

"Don't frigging lie to me Mari. I know that you are hurting." His voice was very guttural and the growls almost over rode the voice.

"Dan I am okay. I was challenged in the council and was called weak. I accepted the challenge and showed the Elders what I had gone through and was still here. The councilor who challenged me ran screaming right after he felt what it was like to be raped." Her wolf came to the front when she was talking about it and there was a more than satisfied growl in her voice.

"Geoff? What the hell were you doing during this?" More growls and overtones.

"I was facing a challenge by my grandmother. I was starting to lose when she collapsed in the spirit house and I assume that was due to Mari now." His voice was both sad and showed his pride in his mate. "Dan you turned Mari into one hell of a woman and I thank you so very much for saving my mate from her old alpha. I owe you more than I can express. I am going to take my intended to our rooms and hold her for a while. She is fine and my parents wouldn't have let her do something that she isn't capable of dealing with. Like I said, you made one hell of a wolf out of her."

There was heavy breathing on the other end of the line and they had to listen to it for several minutes before Dan finally responded. His voice was far less strained than it was. "Geoff, next time she is going to be or might be challenged like that, tell me. I damn near changed and as rough as the feelings were that wouldn't have been good. Take better care of my little wolf or else." There was a click on the other end.

"Why do I feel like next time he will come up here and make me a two tailed Kitsune?" His voice was plaintive when he asked that. Mari simply fell into his arms and pulled him close and tucked her nose in his neck and inhaled his scent for a while.

~~~

They actually didn't make it to their suite and ended up settled in her office on the sofa she had moved in and she curled up in his lap and shivered for a while before she fell asleep. The sleep wasn't very good but with Geoff holding her, she was able to avoid the worst of the nightmares that she was expecting. It might be that her mind knew that right now that was a bad idea since going into the official dinner looking like hell would not be a good idea.

Eventually Gettie knocked on the door. "Lord, Lady, dinner is going to be starting soon and we need to be there before it starts." She and Allie had been standing guard at the door since they had gone inside and Jake had quietly let them know that it was time.

"Give us a minute or two for Mari to wake up and thanks." He stroked her cheek. "Hey love, time to wake up, I figure you don't want to go but it is time for the dinner." Geoff had felt the memories that were trying to cause nightmares and ruthlessly crushed them for the moment. Tonight she could scream her brains out and tomorrow he was going to try and get her to go and see Uncle since he knew that he could help her deal with them. She had buried them but still needed to deal with them.

She yawned and sat up and stretched. "There is no way in hell I am going to give that bitch and bastard the satisfaction. Give me a moment." She stood up. "Get in here you two and make sure I am looking totally in control so if they show up I can stick it to them." That was definitely a growl.

The two girls hurried in and Allie had a small bag and gave her a grin. "Sounds like an idea. So you were the reason Johnson was running screaming through the halls? Damn good job. He was a total dick and it was funny to see." She had to deal with him and his opinion on all females before and had almost died laughing when he ran screaming past.

Mari snarled slightly. "Yah, I showed him what it felt like to be raped..." Both girls paled and Gettie shook for a moment before Mari touched her cheek. "It was years ago and I know it won't happen again in my pack or here. I was challenged and called weak by him and showed him that I was stronger than he was since I am still here."

Allie finished the touch ups and smiled. "Just as beautiful as this morning." She urged Mari up and over to Geoff. The two girls followed after them a step behind and arrived at the entrance to the grand dining room just after his parents. What was left of the council fell in behind them. From the looks of it there were one or two more casualties.

"Shall we?" Alysson asked and the doors opened and they walked in. At the main table was the four of them. At the table behind them were the remaining elders and just to keep it from looking too bad the four chairs immediately behind the main table were unoccupied and the others were filled in. *It seems that two more elders were not able to come this evening. In this case I think it was just they were to upset and not that they were beaten by you and don't you dare feel bad Mari. Sometimes we get shielded from the real world by our status and occasionally we need to be reminded.*

*I don't feel bad, nor am I sorry that they had to deal with my memories but I had to show all of them since if I had only shown him he could later call me up and say it was some trick. They needed to see what he was seeing as well.* She was feeling much better though she was sure she was going to have nightmares later.

The dinner was long and boring but thank god the food was good and she was able to talk to both Geoff and his parents about things other than what had happened earlier.

~~~ Several weeks later, Mari was sitting in the small office they had assigned to her so she could work on her studies and training. Oddly enough, she was starting to get some small assignments as well as the occasional clan member coming past for some minor detail that related to the house. Alysson had assigned her to work as a sort of assistant to Sam to learn the day to day running of the clan house since that would be a good way for her to start learning about the clan. Because of that she found that a number of the staff would come to her office with problems or reports that needed review.

One day Gettie came into her office and she was obviously upset since she was crying and as Mari had learned that meant one of two things. She either thought she had messed up really bad or someone had picked on her. "What is it Gettie? What is wrong." Her assistant sat down in the chair at the small desk that was hers.

Gettie had learned that Mari wouldn't take no for an answer when she asked what had upset her so she simply looked down at the floor. "Someone called me stupid and asked why you picked me as your assistant, not that they believed it." She looked up and sniffed. Mari had explained why she wanted her as an assistant when she had originally picked her but it was still hard to accept. She guessed it was sort of like how Mari had felt coming from where she had been to here and she was trying to believe it but it was hard.

Mari's face hardened. "Show me who was picking on you and I will deal with it." *Geoff I am going to rip the tail off someone one of these days. Gettie got picked on again and I am going to go and give them a piece of my mind.* That was almost a snarl.

He couldn't help but grin since he had seen Mari mad before when she had found one of the older cubs picking on a younger one. That had been very interesting to watch. *Go get 'em. She doesn't deserve it and they have to learn to respect her since she is your assistant. I am looking forward to seeing this.* As soon as he was done talking to her he hurried to his parents offices and knocked and hurried in. "Mari is going to deal with some miscreants. I thought you might want to watch."

They both looked up and grinned. "This should be interesting," said Alysson. Mari had slowly been changing over the last several weeks. She still had a huge way to go before she was even somewhat comfortable with her new station in life, but according to Sheliae she was working her tail off trying to learn what she needed to know about the clan and clan law and everything else.

Meanwhile Mari followed Gettie outside and there were a couple of boys at the pool joking around. "He is the one in the blue shorts." She didn't bother pointing him out since there was only one in blue shorts.

Mari stalked up to him and he turned and looked and sneered. "Had to get back up dumb..." That was as far as he got and it was rather obvious that he didn't know who Mari was though that quickly was explained.

She didn't even think when she reached up and grabbed his shirt and jerked his face down to her level. "Do you have any fucking idea of who I am brat?" Mari stood there waiting for an answer and he almost got back handed.

"Yah, some looser for hanging around with her." One or two of the other boys recognized her and started to back away.

"You stay." That was a snarl and a low rumble started in her chest. Her eyes went from the dark purple they usually were to alight lavender. "I happen to Lady Marissa Ryan, mate to Lord Geoffrey Logan. I assume you recognize that name?" Very heavy sarcasm was showing.

He blanched and when her eyes started changing he knew he was in trouble. "Um, um, I am sorry Lady Ryan I didn't recognize you."

"Well brat we are going to have a little talk and you are going to listen and learn or I am going to drag your ass to the training center and I am going to kick your ass around the ring till you can't walk any more. I was trained by Alpha Danilo Legarith and he has two views on fighting. Kill them so you don't have to worry about them coming after you and kill them so you don't have to worry about them coming after you. Do you get the idea?" Definite growl overtones could be heard. "Oh and don't let the fact that I am pregnant make you think I won't."

He nodded jerkily and fear scents could be smelled rolling off him when he nodded. "Yes Lady Ryan. Sorry Lady Ryan."

"I am not the one you need to apologize to. You do realize by disrespecting my assistant, and yes Gettie is my assistant, you are disrespecting me, my mate, and your clan leaders. If you piss me off any further, Alysson is going to have a funny looking fox rug for in front of her fireplace." Mari jerked him even closer. "I learned from Dan that pack takes care of pack and she is part of my pack and I will protect her do you understand me?"

"Yes lady I understand you and I am sorry for what I said. I really am." He looked at Gattie. "I am sorry if I upset you and it will never happen again." Tears were starting to roll down his face.

"Good, now I want you to understand one more thing you are part of my pack as well since you are a clan member. As I protected Gettie, I will protect you if you are hurt or being picked on. Now go and inform everyone within the clan estate proper who is under 18 of whom I am and that Gettie is my assistant. When you are done, you report to my office and I will decide if anything further needs to be done to discipline you." She let go of his shirt and turned and started to walk away.

Mari turned and looked at the others. "Since you didn't stand up for a clan member, all four of you will do as I have instructed. If I find that you shirked in any way, I will drag all of you to the training center. Before you think that you can take a petite girl like me, remember I am a werewolf and I am about three times stronger than any of you and can rip you apart. Now get." That was a command and they ran.

"Come Gettie, we have real work to do." With that she stalked off towards her offices. "Lord of light I want to go kill something small and furry right now."

Inside the three, Geoff and his parents, were all looking a bit startled but were sharing a grin. "Are you sure she is still a submissive son?" Jon asked. He was rather impressed by how she dealt with it even if he had to wince slightly at the comment about a funny looking fox rug.

Geoff had a silly grin on his face. "Um, I think that was her pack protective instinct coming out. I hate to say it, but I think she sees Gettie as a sort of kit and she was very protective of the kits of her pack. I wonder if she would like to go to our rooms for a while." He blushed when his parents snickered at him.