Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“Yes, Shane, it does. More specifically, the interview of the would-be bomber.”
“Were there any more bombs? Did you get out of him if there were more than the forty-five or not?” This was a slightly angry and slightly panicked question from Shawn. He wanted to make sure that the kids would be safe when they went back to school.
“He claimed that there were more, but that was a lie.” Vincent told him in a tone filled with confidence. “He wanted us to be scared at the idea that there were more bombs that would go off after a certain amount of time. That was a lie though, he couldn’t get past me with those poor attempts at intimidation.” The last part was spoken just a little smugly. I thought that he might have deserved it.
“So, Riviana was able to make him talk?” Gloriana looked at her niece with love and admiration in her eyes.
“No.” I said almost immediately. “He refused to speak to Riviana. However, she was able to tell him things that were all pretty much confirmed to be true. He is the type of man that thinks a woman is beneath him, so I needed to speak to him once Riviana left the room for a break.”
“Really?”
“Holy shit!”
“Damn!”
“Wow.” There were a lot of exclamations at my revelation, but I didn’t pay them any mind. They had heard me, they were just verbalizing their shock about it all.
“Anyway, after she left the room, I was able to get the man to talk a little. That is until he remembered that none of us in the room were human. That was when he clammed up and refused to talk at all.”
“Do you want me to take a crack at him?” Juniper asked with an evil smile on her face. She had helped us with some of the Jaegan, so we knew that she was able to make people talk.
“No, I don’t think it will work this time.” I shook my head in defeat. “He hates it when a woman is in a position of power or authority. He would likely refuse you. And, as you know, we are trying not to give humans a reason to fear us. Forcing a mental change on him would only make us look like controlling monsters in their eyes. No, we can’t make him talk to you, but that doesn’t mean that we have nothing at all.”
There was silence for a few moments. They were all processing the words that I had just said. They were all a little on edge because of the events of the day, but they were also pissed that there was someone that was hitting us so close to home. We needed to do what we could to protect the city and the people here, human and nonhuman alike.
“Alright, so the man refused to speak to my Garin铆on [1], that is not pleasant, but we cannot do anything about it now. What was it that you managed to learn from him, Joaquin?” Valerian narrowed his eyes and looked at me seriously. “You had to have learned something, or we wouldn’t be here.”
“You are correct. There is a lot that we know about this man, even if he didn’t confirm it all. We know that his name is Gerald Ramie. He is a student at the university, but he almost didn’t come back for this semester. Classes had already started before he came back from wherever he was. And initially, he had planned to stay on campus for the holiday, which means that he changed his plans last minute. Like, the day of the reveal.”
“That makes sense. If he recognized Reagan and Rika from the news, then he would act hostilely. He would likely not want to return to the school because he was one of the extremists. And because most of his buddies were arrested, he would be too afraid to return without them at his back.” Samuel was speaking analytically as he proceeded to tell us what he had been thinking.
“I agree.” Wesley spoke next. “If he was a lower ranking member of that group, the PAWs, then he would have panicked and not known what to do. Given that he appears to have had some sort of assistance with today’s attempted bombing though, I am going to guess that he is no longer scared and alone.”
“You would be correct in that assumption.” My Little Bunny nodded at her dad and crossed her arms on my lap. I could still feel the anger radiating off of her. She was pissed as well, for the same reasons that I was.
“Yes, he has another group now. He has been taken in by the DOE. I do not know if the DOE was an entity that worked in the shadows before the reveal, or if they were born of the unification of multiple extremist groups that wanted to form a more functioning army to fight us.” I added to what my Little Bunny had just told them.
“Army?” Valerian narrowed his eyes even more, he almost looked as if he was squinting at this point, but I knew that it was all born of his anger and curiosity.
“Yes. I think that they are trying to build an army to come after us. We already know that they consider us to be their enemies, that was known before today. However, we found out that the leader of the DOE is called 鈥楥olonel’ by the lower ranks. That was how Gerald referred to him anyway. And I have a feeling that Gerald idolizes this man. Most likely, today’s attempted bombing was his attempt to impress the man and gain attention from him.”
“That’s one hell of a way to get someone’s attention.” Shawn shook his head. “Is he mentally unstable?”
“I believe so, yes.” I nodded as I thought back on the conversation that I had with the man, as well as remembering the things that we had learned about him prior to the interview. “Even his professors advised that he seek mental help, so we’re not the only ones that think he is mentally unbalanced.”
“He’s a fucking nutcase, that was evident when he tried to bomb the school. We don’t need to debate that fact.” Trevor crossed his arms and glared at nothing in particular. “In fact, that dumbass is in federal custody now, so there is no reason to be talking about him now at all. What we need to focus on is the rest of his buddies, and how we’re going to stop them.”
“You are absolutely right, Trevor.” My Little Bunny looked at him thoughtfully as she slowly slid herself out of my arms and off of my lap. “In fact, there is something that Joaquin and I want to tell you guys. Something that I think will be just as important as talking about the DOE.”
I knew what she was getting at. Only about half of the people in this room knew about this, about what my Little Bunny and I had experienced recently. And the ones that did know had been just as shocked by the events as we had been. I agreed with her though, they needed to know that there was something major coming, even if we didn’t know what it was yet.
Part of me wanted to tell them on behalf of my Little Bunny. And the other part of me just wanted to watch her and all the glory that was her in charge. I didn’t know why people like Gerald Ramie and his ilk didn’t want to see women in power. They had no idea how much of a turn on it was to see a woman that knew what she wanted and how to get it. Or a woman that knew what needed to be done, and was willing to make it happen at any cost. They were seriously missing out, and they would never understand just what this was like. That was fine with me though, those of us that knew how to treat a woman understood it, and that was all that mattered.
****
Riviana
****
I felt Joaquin’s eyes boring into my back as I slid off of his lap. I knew that he still needed me, just as much as I needed him. However, I knew that I needed to be on my own as I told the others about this next part. There were some things in life that we needed to do by ourselves. If only to protect the other party.
In truth, I was just worried that bringing up that night was just going to make Joaquin remember what had happened prior to the meeting. And if I was sitting on his lap, that memory might be a little too intense. I chose to slide off of his lap so that there was no issue with him and his physical state while I spoke to the others. That would be a little more than awkward.
I took a few steps away from him as I looked at all the others. These people that were family to me either by blood, marriage, or the love that we shared for each other. I loved them all, and they loved me as well. I wanted to protect them as well as all the other people in my kingdom.
No, that wasn’t it. That wasn’t all that I wanted to protect. I wanted to make sure that there was no one in this world that was going to get hurt because of the reveal. No innocent person should be harmed just because a selective group of people couldn’t move past their hate or their nearsighted and misguided fundamentals. In other words, I wanted to protect the world, almost as if it were actually my responsibility.
“Riviana, what is it?” Dad called out to me with worry in his voice. He could tell that I was going to be talking about something serious if I had chosen to leave Joaquin’s warm embrace.
“Well Dad, there is something that happened the night of my birthday that I need to tell you all about.”
…..
“Are you sure that you want to talk about that?” Shane joked, but he only issued a short fake laugh as he knew that this wasn’t the time for things like that.