The Witch and The Wolf

Katherine stood at the wooden podium in the middle of the room with her hands bound together with a witch's chain. She stood there deep in thought with her eyes cast down on the surface of the podium in front of her while Marianne introduced herself. How could she have been so wrong about the man she saved, this whole time she thought it was some lowly human that she would never be seeing again and yet here he was as an advisor to the wolf high councilor.

From the corner of her eye Katherine watched as a gentleman with long golden brown hair from the same table as the man who poisoned her stood from his seat to address the room. He smoothed the front of his deep green blazer that had a golden wolf emblem pinned to the lapel.

"Thank you all for attending this private trial on such short notice at the request of Nikolai Morozov. For those of you who do not know me," The man motioned toward Katherine and then toward Mabel and Adelaide who sat above them in the wooden seats, "My name is Sebastian De Santis. My son, Massimiliano, and I will be the ones gathering the evidence for both parties."

The young man next to Sebastian awkwardly stood from his chair making a loud scraping noise against the stone floor. He smoothed the front of his forest green suit and cleared his throat.

"Its actually, uh, just Max," He corrected to room with a half smile and sat back down.

If Katherine had rolled her eyes any harder they would have fallen out of her head. 'Just Max' was lucky she hadn't thrown him under to the Council yet for poisoning her, she was biding her time for the right moment. She wanted to hear it from him first, why he poisoned her just to go back and save her life.

The man and woman at the table to Katherine's right stood from their place and introduced themselves as Alyssum and Indigo, two fairies who had been recently elevated to High Councilor and Advisor status. As they sat back in their seats, Katherine couldn't help but admire the woman's dress that was made entirely of soft pink flower pedals and the mans suit that was covered in vibrant green moss.

"One would think a murderer would pay better attention to their own trial," A gruff voice rang out, Katherine turned her head back in front of her at the vampire with the silver slicked back hair, "I would introduce my advisor Ivan but unfortunately he was blown to pieces. Right, Miss Deighton?"

Katherine swallowed hard, she didn't know how to respond. On one hand she had accidentally blown up the vampire named Ivan, but on the other hand he had already been dead and she was only trying to save Dorian from being in the place she currently was. Katherine's chest tightened and her breathing became shallow, the fuzziness in her brain returned and she fought to keep her eyes open.

"Did the vamp— Ivan, have approved paperwork?" Katherine managed to ask squinting her eyes in concentration. As far as she knew the only creatures for miles around Seabright and the surrounding forest were her and the Youngbloods, so what was a High Councilor's advisor doing there?

The only sound in the room was Marianne shuffling her papers around until she found the one she was looking for, her heels clicked against the stone floor as she made her way around the table to where Katherine stood.

"I have here, Katherine's approved documentation for her residency in the human realm," Marianne declared holding the paper in the air for everyone to see, "As of an hour ago, Katherine is the only approved creature within a two hundred mile radius of the human town of Seabright."

"Nikolai, do you have an approved pass for Ivan?" Max's deep voice rang out for everyone to turn their heads toward him. He stood from his chair and sauntered over to the podium where Katherine stood. She turned her head right as his grey eyes gave her a small wink, turning his attention to the man with the silver hair.

Katherine internally gagged at the gesture while Marianne's eyes darted between her and Max. She desperately wished Marianne hadn't noticed the interaction and wouldn't pester her about it later.

"Sebastian control your brood, he is not supposed to be arguing on behalf of the accused," Nikolai reminded the room.

"I'm afraid if you cannot provide the High Council with an approved pass we might be so inclined to question Ivan's intentions in the human realm," Sebastian replied to the Vampire.

"This little witch murdered a High Councilor's advisor in cold blood, yet you sit there acting as if she is the victim," Nikolai slammed his hand down on the table, cracking the wood. Katherine jumped at the sudden noise and let a small squeak escape from her mouth in surprise.

With the High Councilors distracted by Nikolai's outburst, Katherine felt a sharp kick on the side of her foot causing her knee to buckle and her body to fall sideways into in Max's open arms.

"This poor child can barely stand!" Max shouted to the room, " She is shaking like a little leaf in the wind!"

Katherine's eyes were as wide as saucers and she internally screamed, she would have rather him let her fall to the floor instead of being held against his chest in front of her whole family. Her face was beet red as she tried to casually wiggle out of his arm that held her to him but his whole arm seemed to be stronger than her entire body.

"What an absolutely ridiculous charade this is," Nikolai spat as he used his hands to motion toward Katherine and Max.

"What is ridiculous is that an unapproved, unaccompanied Vampire was able to get into the human realm undetected," Alyssum lectured as she narrowed her eyes at Nikolai, her sheer wings glistened and flicked as she stood from her seat, "I would like to suggest that we postpone Miss Deighton's hearing for next week until we know more about the situation with Ivan."

"I second that motion," Sebastian agreed raising his hand, "Furthermore, I would also suggest Miss Deighton have a Guard tethered to her until her next hearing."

Katherine heard her mothers voice for the first time since she was scolded in the car, and everyone in the room turned to look at her. Sophia's arms were crossed against her chest and her back was straightened stiff. She exuded an air of superiority around her, as she commanded attention of the room.

"I do not approve of having a Guard tethered to my daughter, she can handle herself and you all know my Covens stance on outsiders on Coven land," Sophia stated as she gave Max and Katherine, who still stood in the middle of the room against each other, laser eyes.

The anger in Katherine started to rise again clearing the buzzing from her brain. This Nikolai guy obviously blamed her for killing his advisor, and who knows what this terrifying man was capable of! Her mother just wanted to cover the Covens' ass with all their shady dealings with shady people, Katherine actually agreed with Sebastian on needing someone with her at all times.

Katherine was starting to see red, she felt like she wanted to explode but the damn dogs' arm was still around her shoulders. She turned her head to burry her face into his chest and opened her mouth wide biting down on his chest as hard she could. She felt his muscles tense before his arm slid off of her and she quickly backed away from him and into Marianne. Turning her face toward Marianne, her sisters lips had tightened into a straight line and her eye twitched. Katherine would no doubt be getting an earful later but then Marianne did something she would have never expected.

"I know I don't have any authority here, but I agree with Sebastian, Katherine needs a Guard tethered to her as the sole witness in this crime," Marianne addressed the group. Katherines eyes dared to look at her mother, whose mouth slightly parted at Marianne's words. Sophia awkwardly looked around the room at everyone who waited for her response.

"Fine, work it out with my advisor," Sophia said with a tight smile as she stood from the table and snapped her fingers for Adelaide to join the group. With that Sophia ascended the stairs leaving the Council room without so much as a glance behind her.

Adelaide descended the wooden stairs to where the tables were placed and snapped her fingers. A large folder appeared in her hands with a stack of papers inside.

"In accordance with Coven guidelines, whoever is tethered to Katherine must be a High Ranking Guard member and discreet," Adelaide said as she pulled the stack of papers from the folder, "I have a list of all the upper rank Guards who are witches, we just need to decide on one that's available."

Sebastian nodded his head then turned to his son with a coy smile, "What about Guard member 0013?" He asked.

"I don't have any witch Guards that are in the upper one hundred," Adelaide answered as she shuffled through her papers with a scrunched face.

"0013 isn't a witch, but he is a retired Guard member who is excellent at being discreet, you'd hardly know he was there," Sebastian boasted with a small chuckle.

Katherine wanted a Guard tethered to her for protection but she couldn't shake the uneasy she felt. She would have preferred a witch, maybe someone she could eventually become friends with, but then who would want to be friends with someone on trial for murder? Maybe it was better if the person wasn't a witch, she could save herself the embarrassment of airing her dirty laundry to someone who might be important to the coven later on.

"I'll take the Guard you have suggested," Katherine agreed to Sebastian, giving him a quick smile. Her eyes momentarily flicked to Max who was already looking at her with raised brows and wide eyes. He gave his head a small shake, and Katherine tilted her head to the side wondering what his problem was.

"Alyssum do you agree to this?" Sebastian asked.

"I do."

"Nikolai?"

"This is fucking absurd"

"Adelaide, do you agree on your mothers behalf?"

"Well we would prefer a Guard who is a witch," Adelaide replied to Sebastian.

"Does your Coven guidelines explicitly state that a Guard tethered to a witch must be another witch?" Inquired Sebastian, Katherine wondered why he was going to such lengths for this Guard he suggested.

"Well no, it doesn't exactly state the Guard has to be a witch," Adelaide said as she pursed her lips.

"Then do you agree that a Guard in the upper one hundred would be better suited to keep an eye on your little sister than a lower level Guard regardless of what kind of creature?" Sebastian asked putting his arms behind his back a matter of factly.

"Oh… um, I think that would be okay" Adelaide responded with knitted brows.

Sebastian clapped his hands together and made his way to Katherine. She didn't know why this man was being so helpful to her but she was great full to him.

"Miss Deighton meet your Guard for the next two weeks," Sebastian said throwing an arm around Max. Katherine looked back and forth between the two men, she mentally took back all the nice things she thought about Sebastian. She felt duped, what was this old man playing at?

Had Katherine known she would be tethered to the one person in the room she actually wanted to strangle, she would have entertained anything her mother had to say.