Ezra didn't know what he had expected to feel when the Judge had finally made his appearance, but the soul-deep dread hadn't even made it on the list. Maybe a little apprehension, some inkling of fear of discovery, but dread?
No.
He had no idea where it really came from, but he had a solid suspicion. Too much had happened in the last weeks, with Josiah, with Maude, then Mary, and now Travis was here and he had talked privately with Chris. Nothing out of the ordinary, sure. The team leader would be the one to go over files concerning the men that would have their hearing with the judge, as well as those already imprisoned and most likely awaiting transport out of the Territory.
Still.
Instinct told him to be wary.
He stood in his room, eyes roaming over his belongings, his mind cataloguing them, deciding what to take, what to leave, how many bags were safe to carry.
Ezra clenched his hands into fists and pushed that thought aside.
He wasn't leaving. He wouldn't run. He would fight to stay here, even a Section Judge.
And he would lose.
He would always lose.
The door opened and closed behind him. The footfall had been barely audible, the man in black moving with a grace and silence inbred into his ancestry.
"Don't," Chris murmured as he wrapped strong arms around him from behind, aligning their bodies.
"Not running," Ezra managed. Not running out on you. Never would. Can't.
"I know. In your head maybe. You're drawing up the quickest route, how much to pack, when to leave."
He froze.
::I know you, Ez. I also know it's only in your head. Panic::
::I do not panic!:: he stated angrily, affronted.
Ezra turned in the loose embrace, glaring into the suntanned features. Features he was intimately familiar with and who reflected a broad, open and teasing smile.
"Good," Chris replied and pressed a little kiss to his lips. A warm gentle hand was stroking his back in comforting circles. "Then again, I love myself a good chase, too."
"I'm not going to run like a rabbit! I just…" Ezra deflated. "Maybe I had a notion of… anxiety."
"Panic," Larabee corrected him.
Ezra snarled silently.
Chris loosened the embrace some more and looked into the burning eyes, meeting the fire with a calm not many believed the Fenris possessed.
"Travis knows nothing from any of us. What happened with Josiah didn't make it into any official report. That's pack business. As to us: the same. Don't care if he approves or not."
Ezra blew out a breath and wearily dropped his forehead to rest against Chris' chest. Strong fingers rested over the nape of his neck, playing with the auburn hair there.
::Sorry:: the crossbreed said after a while.
::No apologies needed:: Larabee rested his chin on the bowed head.
::Travis knows, right?::
::Probably:: Chris answered calmly. ::He didn't say it outright. Never does. Hinted::
Ezra sighed, sounding almost defeated.
"What else?" he finally asked as he raised his head, meeting the hazel eyes.
Chris tilted his head.
"Oh, quit playing," was the mutter. "I know something happened, outside of going over a million reports and answering a million more questions. Spill."
Larabee chuckled and pulled his mate over to the bed.
"That bad?" Ezra quipped half-heartedly.
"No. It's a matter that was already handled and won't impact on us in any way. Travis actually did us a favor."
Ezra swallowed. Favors meant being indebted. He already owed the Section Judge more than he could ever repay, because the forced service as a law man in Four Corners had turned Ezra's life around, had pushed him into something he would have fought tooth and claw otherwise. He had found something very permanent, something he had never known he needed.
"He doesn't expect a return, Ez," Chris added, apparently reading his mind again. "He did it in his capacity as a Section Judge, protecting his men."
"Against what?" he asked, mouth dry, the panic about to rise again.
And then Chris told him.
Something inside Ezra twisted sharply, the pit of dread growing with each word, each sentence, and by the end of it, his hands were clenched into the mattress.
"How dare she," he whispered harshly.
"It won't be a problem, Ezra."
"She… she went to a Section Judge! She went to a Board member!"
"Using her husband. Who won't be her husband much longer." There was a tone of vicious satisfaction in Chris' voice. "Maude made a grave mistake and she will pay."
"She… she went to a Judge…," Ezra stammered. "She… she played on getting me arrested! Jailed!"
"Won't happen."
"But now they know…"
"Travis always knew. His buddy couldn't care less. This is a Territory, Ezra."
The knot refused to unwind. His mind was stumbling over what he had heard, thoughts chasing each other until all he could hear was white noise. His head hurt, his eyes hurt, all of him was just one thick ball of emotional pain. Sending sensationalist articles to the local paper was one thing. Maude couldn't be sure Mary would print them, let alone that Chris Larabee didn't pull rank and stopped the paper.
But a Judge…
A Board member, too! She had gone to the highest Territory authority and told them… that her son was a crossbreed… a swindler, a con man, a criminal…
Chris suddenly pushed him onto his back on the mattress and settled over Ezra's hips in a smooth, practiced-looking move. Yellow eyes met green ones, boring down right into his very soul, chasing away the noise and the pain. It was like a switch had been flipped and the powerful sensation of his alpha with him, his mate, eased the panic. It turned into little more than a flutter of anxiety as muscles relaxed and Ezra exhaled sharply.
"She is not your family," Chris said, voice dark and rough, repeating the words from not so long ago. "She is nothing. She won't bother you or us again. Your criminal record is sealed. Your pardon is there for everyone to read. The past is the past. For all of us. You are Larabee pack, Ezra Standish. That's what counts. Nothing else. I won't let you torment yourself over a woman who holds no power in your life. Not anymore."
Ezra reached up and pulled the other man close with a hand around his neck. The kiss was reassuring, warm and deep.
"I'm still getting used to this," he murmured. "To have a Judge defend me… that's new."
"Travis is quite invested in this. In us."
"He is?"
It got him a terrifying smile, one that should have shaken him to the core but didn't. "He has friends in high places, too," Chris added almost conversationally. "A member of the Board of Legal and Regulatory Compliance isn't to be trifled with. Maude picked the wrong battle this time. She might be a player in a city, but not in a Territory."
Ezra just looked into those yellow eyes, studying the golden flecks reflected in there, and he finally nodded.
Chris had them scoot up further onto the mattress, nuzzling against Ezra's neck and throat, delivering tiny little bites.
"We're good, Ezra."
"I'm trying to believe it."
Chris nipped a little harder, the reddish mark barely visible. "We are."
They lay together, Ezra with his eyes closed, just feeling the powerful wolf next to him, hands brushing over his body, calm and sure. He felt tired and wide awake in one. Tired of the games played, the manipulation and the betrayal. When Maude had left he had wanted to believe this was it, but part of him had been apprehensive, waiting for that moment when she ruined this life for him.
Well, that moment had come.
And gone.
Hopefully it had been the final attempt to have Ezra come running back, crawling back…
He drew in a deep breath and released it slowly, like a breathing exercise, feeling the blood rush through his ears.
Chris was a silent, steady presence next to him.
He finally drew him close again and Ezra just let himself fall into the well of strength that was his alpha, his mate. He felt stronger himself, so much more than two years ago, and he knew he was drawing from the pack, from Chris, from his own sense of belonging.
They stayed like this for a long, long time. It was a kind of peaceful comfort, surrounding both men. Just them, no world outside their own.
xXxXxX
Larabee had to leave when it was time for the first hearing. Ezra hesitated only for a moment, then dressed appropriately and accompanied his alpha. The pack would function as security throughout all appointed times and dates, and Chris had the first one scheduled tonight.
xXxXxX
Nothing happened throughout the three hours and five hearings.
Thankfully.
Chris decided to have a pack meeting the next morning over breakfast, bring everyone up to speed concerning Maude soon-to-be-Standish-again.
xXxXxX
The reaction of the pack varied from outraged to disbelieving. Ezra was silent throughout, just nodding a few times, mostly sipping coffee and apparently trying to read his future in the dark liquid as he stared into it.
"Hell, Ezra," Buck said quietly when they through. "This really sucks. Hope that's the last we hear now, with the Judge on the case. They can get her with this, put her behind bars for good. Sorry, pard."
"You have nothing to apologize for."
"Still feeling like it."
Vin was a silent, supportive presence next to him, blue eyes offering what he always did: time alone to just share silence or talk. Ezra knew he would probably take him up on that.
Unless he had security detail duty for a hearing, that was.
xXxXxX
If Chris spent every night in his room throughout the Judge's stay, Ezra never commented on it. He was actually enjoying coming together at night, sharing bed space, body heat and a few times a lot more than that. Outside it had started to snow, the streets blanketed in white, sound muffled, the world becoming frozen and calmer. Sometimes he just watched it at night, Chris next to him, both men ensconced in comfortable silence.
Chris was a steady, reassuring rock in an emotionally stormy sea, the calmness in a category five, and if he was a little more alpha than usual, no one dared to point it out.
Aside from maybe Ezra Standish himself.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Travis stayed for a week, doing his job.
There was a minor shouting match throughout one hearing, which was quickly handled by Nathan and Josiah, who escorted the enraged parties into separate rooms.
The more serious incident was when their only severe case was put on trial. It wasn't just a hearing since the man accused of theft, robbery, kidnapping and murder was a wanted criminal already. Oleg Stark had spent the last week in the high security prison cell, going from absolutely silent and uncooperative to screaming like a lunatic and threatening whoever carried in the food or checked on him throughout the days and nights.
Stark had robbed a coach, had killed the driver, had then abducted a child, killing a ranch hand they had met on the way, stolen a horse, and then barricaded himself in an abandoned cabin. Buck and Vin had shot him, though it had been just a flesh wound, and freed the child. Stark had been treated and locked up since.
The man was wanted in three other Territories, two of which fell into Section Judge Travis' jurisdiction, and he had a warrant out from Denver, as well as Phoenix.
"Well-travelled," as Josiah had remarked.
So Travis would handle the Territory matter, acting on behalf of Portland Territory, then Stark would be handed over to the Marshalls. Portland had been arguing that the man be given into their jurisdiction, but to no avail.
Travis made it a rather quick trial, especially with the looming evidence and the witness accounts.
That was when Stark lost it. Handcuffed as he was he suddenly turned from calm and disinterested into a raging berserker. He was a mountain of a man, even taller than Buck, built like a brick wall, and with the behavior of a bulldozer.
Chris had been the one on duty, together with JD, and he had kept a close eye on the murderer, puzzling over the man's demeanor. He had been switching from one mood to the next, sometimes grinning like a mad man, sometimes not even showing a single emotion.
"Like a sociopath," Ezra had remarked once. "Absolutely detached. Disassociated from what he has done."
And he would switch moods at the drop of a hat.
Like now.
With a roar he turned over the table, the clattering sound loud in the otherwise rather quiet room. People gave exclamations of surprise, jumping from their chairs.
There was suddenly a knife in the man's hand and Chris smelled blood as the knife found a target. Him. Stark was lunging for where Travis sat, who had been quickly pushed back by JD, and he grabbed the man before he could reach the Judge.
The knife bit into his thigh, the pain sharp and brief. Chris snarled, then was backhanded by hands that were as big as a shovel before Stark pushed him off, trying for the judge again.
Chris would have nothing of it.
He was stronger than his slender build would suggest and he was a lot more resilient than Oleg Stark might think.
And he went for the legs.
Chris' boot connected with the man's left knee, hard enough to draw an audible crack, and Stark yelled in pain, crashing. Chris followed with another kick to the small of his back, the howl more than telling.
JD was there, stomping on Stark' handcuffed wrists, drawing another yell, but the man was still raging on, trying to buck off Chris, who was kneeling on his back to keep him on the wooden floor.
Still, it was all over in minutes.
Especially when Chris slugged the man with the handle of his gun and Stark fell unconscious.
Sitting back, breathing hard, one hand clutching his cut thigh, the alpha let out a curse. His head throbbed from the blow.
"Where the hell did he get that knife from?" Chris snarled, eyes furious, looking at JD.
The sheriff shook his head. "I frisked him before we came here. He had nothing on him, I swear, Chris!"
Buck was pushing through the people that were still gathered in the room. "You okay, pard?"
"Fine," Chris growled and got to his feet, suppressing a wince. There was blood all over his black pants. The knife had gone deep, but not too deep to be worrisome. "Judge?"
"I'm okay, Chris. Get that leg looked at," Travis replied evenly, eyes on the unconscious criminal at their feet. He didn't seem all too rattled. Things like that happened throughout hearings and trials sometimes, especially out here..
"Buck, JD, get that scumbag back into his cell!" Larabee ordered. "Then find out where the fuck he got that knife from!" He looked at the gathered onlookers. "Everyone who has no business being here: out!"
There was some scrambling as people obeyed, reacting to the rumble that had accompanied the words. You just didn't disobey the alpha of the Larabee pack when he was issuing orders.
It took a few minutes, then Chris was alone with Travis, though that lasted barely half a minute because Nathan was charging in, medical bag in hand. Larabee rolled his eyes.
"Don't give me that," Jackson huffed. "Sit. Let me look at that leg."
"Yes, sir," Chris muttered, which got him a narrow-eyed look.
Travis stood to the side, silently watching as Nathan cut into the jean leg, then inspected the wound and cleaned it quickly.
"Didn't go deep, but I'll have to apply stitches until healing kicks in. Should be okay by tomorrow, but I don't want it to scar."
Chris scrubbed a hand over his face. "Sure."
"Clinic," Nathan simply ordered.
Travis clapped Chris on the shoulder. "Go. We're done for today anyway. I need a drink, then another, and maybe a good meal afterwards."
So Larabee limped after Nathan, still furious about what had happened and his mind working just as furiously on who might have slipped the knife to their prisoner.
xXxXxX
It took barely ten minutes to treat the leg wound, put in five neat stitches, and apply the bandage, but since his pants were now a total loss, Chris had to wait for someone to get him replacements. He didn't want to parade around half naked. Some of the townspeople might enjoy the sight, but right now he wasn't in the mood. Nor did he want to shift and trot around on four paws.
"How's the head?" Nathan asked, inspecting the bruise on Chris' cheekbone.
"Still attached. I'm okay. No double vision, no dizziness."
Nathan chuckled. "Good. Wolves have hard heads."
It was Ezra who came by with a new pair of pants half an hour into his stay at the clinic. His eyes fell on the bruise and then the bandaged leg, brows rising quizzically.
"I'm fine. Any word on the knife?"
"Not yet. JD is raising hell right now. I think he's channeling you." Ezra twitched a little smile. "I know he searched Stark, made sure he didn't even have a safety pin or a tack on him. Buck thinks someone from the audience worked with the guy, slipped him the knife. He and Josiah are rounding everyone up, talking to the townsfolk who was there. They can tell us who wasn't from around here."
Chris bit back another wince as he shuffled into the jeans. "Travis is rescheduling the trial and it'll be just Stark and us with him. If I have to strip him naked, I will."
Ezra chuckled. "That'll be a sight."
"Take it easy on that leg," Nathan called after his retreating alpha.
Chris just gave him a wave of acknowledgement.
They headed over to the Judge's temporary office. Travis raised his eyebrows when the two regulators entered.
"Shouldn't you be resting that leg?"
"The leg's fine. I want to know how Stark got that knife."
"I think your men are already on it. And I'm just about to head for something to eat after the whole scuffle. Care to join me, gentlemen?"
Chris cast a look at his mate, saw the slightly wary expression in the green eyes. But Ezra didn't protest. He knew the crossbreed wouldn't give the Judge the slightest opening or show weakness by turning down the invitation.
::Ez?::
::Free lunch? Sure:: was the bland reply, without much enthusiasm.
Chris gave him an amused look. Food was generally free. Ezra just smiled humorlessly in return. Travis watched them silently, probably aware of a lot more happening than what he was privy to.
So a late lunch it was.
tbc...