Chapter 4

NEOR

KAVALIAN FEDERATION IMPERIUM HEADQUARTERS

They had accomplished so much and he knew more was coming.

Keleru'Puat looked around the large table at the gathered Pride Leaders and could not help but smile to himself. Two hundred and fifty-six High Coven worlds they had conquered in twenty-five years. The Kavalian Empire was once more reborn and it would continue to grow. Combined with the six hundred and fourteen planets of their original empire that they had reestablished control over, and the hundred and thirteen Zaleisian planets they now controlled, the Kavalian Empire was even more powerful than it ever was in the past. They had fleets of powerful warships and millions of ground troops, not to mention that they were in the process of completing major trade agreements with other empires that would make them extremely wealthy. The Prides were growing in population, the Kavalian females becoming fertile and ready to have children without the threat of starvation or death which had limited their growth over the last centuries. In just the last twenty years alone, nearly four million new children had been birthed, and since it took only three years for those children to obtain adulthood in the eyes of their people, four million more soldiers and leaders to command their biogenic army.

They had swept aside the High Coven defenses in the first five years, capturing more planets than they had ever imagined. They fortified their gains in the five year lull that followed as they produced more of their biogenic clones to replace those lost in battle and those that were being destroyed before they became unstable. Then once more they attacked in force, capturing dozens more planets before they were forced by High Coven tactics to stay their invasion. Now, for the last ten years they had built and prepared for the next attack that would end the High Coven completely. Their Biogenic cloning process had been refined, and now each clone could last for ten years before its mind began to break down and it needed to be eliminated. During that time, the Prides would continue to grow and finally, they would no longer need the clones to fight their wars for them. The Kavalian people would once more be feared among the stars.

Keleru let his eyes fall upon Pusintin who was engaged in an animated conversation with two of the older Pride Leaders as well as Cukoum, the Pride Leader who had adopted the huge Lycavorian as his son over three thousand years ago. Pusintin still bore the hideous scars of the battle with his younger brother that day twenty-five years ago on Earth, in the city where he had been born. Hundreds if not thousands had watched that savage fight, even Keleru as he stood trapped between two burly Lycavorian Spartans, their weapons jammed into his sides. He had been utterly amazed at the size of the two wolves for while he had seen Pusintin in wolf form before he never imagined there could be another equal in size and strength. As they fought, Keleru came to understand what the others who witnessed the barbaric nature of that battle understood. Their battle had not been over property or wealth or even females.

Their titanic battle that day had been two brothers fighting over blood, honor and above all else betrayal.

Pusintin had once been King of the Union city of Sparta until an attack by High Coven forces against him and his royal guard brought the Kavalian detachment on Earth to the rescue. They had saved the huge man's life that day, the year 458 B.C. as the humans and others referred to it, Cukoum adopting the not yet fifty year old Lycavorian into his family to replace the six sons he had lost in battle with the High Coven. That day had ended one life for the Lycavorian known as Pleistarchus, and thus began the new life he now had as Pusintin of the Kavalian people. He was a large man, six feet three inches tall and two hundred and forty-five pounds of muscle and dominating power. His muscular definition and strength rivaled and even surpassed that of even the finest Kavalian warriors, and over the years this had earned Pusintin the respect of many of the Pride Leaders and younger warriors. He was fearless, and while he did not often shift into his wolf form now, he was not afraid to battle in his human form to fight any Kavalian warrior who challenged him in the first ten years after he had arrived. This earned him the respect and honor that he had only embraced and made powerful. He had fought beside his new people in their war against the Lycavorian Union, earning many accolades at his wild and sometimes utterly insane actions. He fought like a man possessed and had killed many of his own species. It was a losing war however, the Union far too powerful and large. He had acquitted himself even more in the war against the High Coven, fighting without fear even the Immortal warriors the Coven commanded. Again it had been in a losing cause as the Coven had resorted to weapons of mass destruction targeted against their civilian population to finally turn the tide of the war.

Pusintin's hate for both the Union and the Coven ran deep, but it did not deter the man from fighting with his brains first. He was a masterful leader of men, and a superior tactician, and it was primarily his tactics that had brought them to this point against the High Coven. Keleru knew however, Pusintin held a festering hate for his brother, the Union King, and for his very own mother who he regarded as having abandoned him. His brother held the position that Pusintin felt he should have had, not to mention nearly killing him in their battle. His brother also had something that belonged to Pusintin, and though Keleru did not know what that was, he knew that fact would always be a thorn in his side and it was something Pusintin had sworn to get back one day, no matter the cost.

Pusintin and Keleru's daughter Jalersi now had four children of their own to raise and to one day command among their people. Keleru had thought Pusintin would return from Sparta with far too much hatred to be useful, and as he had done so many times in the past, Pusintin surprised him with the laconic dismissal of what had happened. Perhaps he had truly put it behind him, for his actions over the last years had not been of a man with hatred in his heart. He was methodic and ruthless with the High Coven, but with others he was calm and controlled and with Keleru's daughter Jalersi; she he treated as if she was a goddess. Their children were healthy and strong, and while they were stern and often times harsh parents in the Kavalian manner, his three sons and one daughter were proud and so far had acquitted themselves with honor in battle. It had taken them seven years as opposed to the normal three to reach adulthood because of their Lycavorian blood, but that was only an additional four years of education that they had to apply to their lives it seemed. Jalersi insisted they be well schooled, and had spent seven years seeing to that herself.

Keleru trusted Pusintin to such an extent that he had allowed him to break in his youngest daughter, and even now after twenty-five years, Jalersi and Keleru's own mate Gessia had yet to choose a male for Athani to be mated too. They were both leaning towards the lesser of so many evils as they called it and they knew they could not prolong the mating forever. Life for females in the Kavalian Empire was very harsh, often times extremely brutal. Kavalian males were not known for their gentle practices when mating, and it was the reason the hundreds of Lycavorian females captured during their war had been kept alive. They were the only race outside of the High Coven vampires that could heal the wounds inflicted by a Kavalian male in 'rut'. Athani was still part of their lives, and he knew Pusintin took her often, using only her ass and mouth as Jalersi had told him. His youngest daughter did not like the arrangement and often voiced her discontent to him, but it was the only way to keep her beautiful features unaltered until Gessia and Jalersi found a mate who would not scar her beauty. His two daughters had been altered using biogenics when they were very young. The process removed the fine coat of hair from their bodies that all Kavalians had, and it caused their tails to shrink and fade away. His two daughters looked no different than a Lycavorian female until someone got close enough to them to smell them. That and the fact that Athani had allowed her tail to grow back to its full two meter length, which she could use now as a third arm of sorts. This had been a large point of contention with Keleru and his mate, but Jalersi settled it when she said the continued treatments needed to keep their tails from re-growing made Athani sick as they did with dozens of the thousands that had taken the treatments. As with her ... in those cases the females were allowed to re-grow their tails. Most of the Kavalian females chosen for the treatments were like Jalersi and Athani, daughters of high ranking Pride Leaders who were very careful who was chosen for their daughters. While it was true the senior female in the Pride was the one who chose the prospective mates for their daughters or sisters, Keleru and many other Pride Leaders had begun making their voices heard even only a little. He was trying to change the violent ways of his people concerning their females, and while he was having some luck, Kavalian females were still very much inferior in their society.

Pusintin however, he treated Jalersi almost as an equal in all that they did, and Keleru knew Pusintin was at least semi devoted to Jalersi. Mated Kavalian males, especially strong and respected males, could be encouraged by other females to take them as their mates as well, and while several Kavalian females had approached Pusintin about this, he had rebuffed nearly all of them without question. It was not something Jalersi knew of and that is the way Pusintin wanted to keep it.

"Prefect... ?" The voice broke into Keleru's thoughts and he looked up.

"What?"

"Pian and Qurot have arrived." Keleru's senior aide Cuatan spoke in a soft whisper as he motioned down the large table and he saw the two most junior Pride Leaders greeting others as they took their places at the table.

The dark gold colored fur of Pian and the darker brown of Qurot were unmistakable. They were the youngest Pride Leaders, the most head strong and the most outspoken. While Keleru knew that many of the older Pride Leaders saw themselves in these two men and their adherence to the old ways, more still saw the need to bring their people forward from a past culture that almost was their undoing. Neither of them cared for Pusintin or the respect he garnered from almost all the older Pride Leaders, mainly because Pian had wanted Jalersi for himself, while Qurot was pestering his mate for Athani's hand.

Keleru sat up straighter in his chair. "I'm happy to see our two youngest Pride Leaders decided to grace this War Council in a timely fashion." He spoke in a stern voice.

Pian looked at Keleru as he sat in his chair. "Apologies Prefect." He spoke with a gruff but respectful voice.

"I was insuring my ships were ready for battle Prefect." Qurot spoke almost offhandedly. He was the more disrespectful of the two, thinking his many victories over the High Coven gave him some sort of status others did not have. He and Pian had led their forces brilliantly so far during the war, never once having lost a battle, but they took risks that were not needed and they all knew Qurot cared not for the lives he expended if it gained him recognition. Qurot was a hardliner Keleru knew, and there would not be much more he or his mate and Jalersi would be able to do if he kept voicing his desire for Athani's hand as his mate. Qurot commanded quite a bit of loyalty and soon the calls would start coming from the older Pride Leaders for Keleru to allow this and seal Qurot's rise in power and influence. Keleru did not want to see that happen, for he knew without a doubt that Athani would end up scarred for life, and while his youngest daughter was not weak, she did not have Jalersi's inner strength.

"This is a War Council Qurot!" Keleru spoke sternly. "Not a battle preparation meeting. Insure you are not late again Qurot! You as well Pian. I grow tired of having to wait for the two of you to show the proper respect to this council." Pian opened his mouth to speak but Keleru waved him silent. "Heed my words! That is all I will say on it for now!"

One of the senior Pride Leaders, a man with dark brown fur and gray hair just filtering throughout leaned forward at the table. "This is unusual isn't it Prefect?" He asked. "We were not scheduled to meet for another six months."

Keleru nodded to the man. "You are right Liatthi. However, information we have obtained recently dictated a need for this War Council to at least meet and discuss what to do." Keleru looked at Pusintin. "You may begin Pusintin."

Pusintin let his eyes linger on Pian for a moment Keleru saw, perhaps in a show of male dominance and the fact that he was Jalersi's mate, the position Pian had so coveted. It caused Keleru to smile ever so slightly as Pusintin hauled his large frame out of the chair and moved to the star chart. Though not visible from under his uniform, Keleru had seen the wounds when Pusintin went shirtless. The deep puncture marks where his brother's viciously sharp dual fangs had sunk into his flesh at the back of his neck and almost crushed his spinal cord, and the jagged tears on his legs from Leonidas's claws. Jalersi had been beside herself for days when they had returned, hovering over his bed every waking moment while he regained enough strength to shift back to his wolf form and heal the more severe wounds. They did not have the benefit of Hadarian Healers within their ranks, and their medical treatments suffered in some ways in terms of technology and what they were able to do.

Pusintin picked up the data pad and looked at the men gathered. He belonged here he knew. He would never forget the injuries his younger brother gave to him, nor the words spoken to him by Martin and his mother. That hate would always simmer beneath his skin, but he had gotten past that quickly for he had now what he had never had before. Acceptance. He hated his brother and mother with every fiber of his existence and given an opportunity he would easily disembowel both of them without question. Her betrayal by leaving him on Earth to escape with Martin had hurt him deeply and it was a wound he would never forgive. Pusintin was also no fool, and aside from the one incident when one of Qurot's senior Pride officers went rogue and attacked the Lycavorian Union planet, he had not even gone close to that border. He would bide his time patiently.

That folly had cost them twenty-five thousand of the best trained troops they had and two hundred and sixteen ships. Though it was never proven and could not be blamed on him, many of the older Pride Leaders believed Qurot had issued the orders to attack the planet himself in the hopes of taking some Lycavorian females as hostages and slaves. Within two days of taking the planet the Union descended upon the Kavalian forces with brutal and savage efficiency. Qurot's officer had not expected the Union to respond so quickly. Only five thousand of their Lycavorian Spartans had landed, led by Pusintin's brother, the black Spartan Daniel Simpson and the elf General Vengal. His brother had landed with a hundred of their Mjolnir's Hand, the dragon riding Spartans as they were called, while Admiral Riall had jumped directly into the planetary system with an entire fleet group. The surprise had been complete and within a week his brother had annihilated the Kavalian forces to the last man. If not for some very fast back channel talks by Keleru and others, speaking through their Zaleisian counterparts, the Union would have entered the war then, perhaps not on the side of the High Coven, but most certainly against the Kavalian forces. That would have been a battle they could not have won. No military in history, any history, had ever won victory fighting a war on two different fronts.

Pusintin let his eyes linger on Qurot for a long moment before he began speaking. "We have received some disturbing reports from our agents within the High Coven military." He spoke adjusting the controls on the star chart to bring up several images of what appeared to be a deserted installation. "This is the facility outside their capital on Usu Ozeib 7 where they have been training with the beasts they discovered in The Wilds." Pusintin watched as many of the Pride Leaders came forward in their chairs.

"It ... it is abandoned." One Pride Leader spoke.

Pusintin nodded. "Not completely, there are still High Coven personnel working here, but the dragons are gone."

"Gone where?" Another barked.

Pusintin adjusted the controls again and the image changed to that of three High Coven BLOOD REVERENCE-Class Dreadnoughts and a host of smaller warships. "This image was captured from one of our remote spy drones in The Wilds. We've identified one of the ships as the INQUISTOR, the blood sucker Moran's personal command ship."

"Are they massing for an attack somewhere?" Another asked.

Pusintin shook his head. "They only have forty-three of the beasts, but as we all know, even one of these creatures can turn the tide of the battle. Any battle. We have not been able to reverse engineer the inbred fear our people have of this creature out of our clones. And numbers do not matter as the events on Norala Nine proved." Pusintin spoke looking directly at Qurot. "Five thousand Spartans and one hundred of these beasts wiped out twenty-five thousand of our finest warriors in only ten days time."

Qurot's muzzle twitched and he growled out in a low voice. "You are the overall Military Commander of our forces." He spat. "Have you lost three dozen of our enemy's warships now? To include their Supreme Commander and the beasts that we so fear?"

"QUROT!" Keleru bellowed from his chair. "You will show Pusintin the respect he has earned or I will whip you into submission myself! It is by his tactics and leadership that we have come this far! That our commanders, yourself included, have been so successful! Do not tempt fate pup, for you are still two thousand years shy of Pusintin's age and experience! Is that clear?"

Qurot turned to look at Keleru and quickly let his angry eyes drop as he saw and felt the majority of Pride Leaders nodding in agreement with Keleru's words. He had no desire to anger Keleru'Puat for not only was he the Kavalian Prefect, he had many of the oldest Pride Leaders firmly behind him. And he still wanted his daughter for a mate. "I beg forgiveness Prefect!" He spoke quickly.

Pusintin smiled at this action. "No ... I have not lost these ships." He continued turning back to the star chart. "I know exactly where they are." He adjusted the screen and an enormous picture of known space came into being. All of them could see the many different sections that represented not only the High Coven and Lycavorian Union, but now the Kavalian Empire and the nearly two dozen other alliances and federations of different planets. He adjusted the screen once more to focus on a sector of space within The Wilds and he brought his finger up to point at one. "They are right here." He spoke calmly. "Sector twenty-nine of The Wilds, and just over two days from the Lycavorian Union border."

"The Union border?" Cukoum hissed out. "Have they gone mad? Your brother hates them more than he does our people! Why would they risk entering Union space?"

Pusintin shook his head. "He hates me father." He corrected his adopted father meeting his eyes evenly. Cukoum's light blond fur was thick and very well groomed. He was a respected warrior among their people and that was partly the reason he was allowed to take Pusintin as his son and rear him as he had done. "He does not hate species on a whole as the nearly fifty million bloodsuckers that call the Union home can attest too. Not to mention the pureblood bloodsucker he calls Queen." Pusintin looked at Keleru. "Prefect?"

Keleru nodded. "You may tell them now." He spoke. "And what is about to be spoken does not leave this room for any reason."

Pusintin tapped on the data pad in his hand and in front of every Pride Leader a small screen rose from within the table. "It appears that we had a double agent within the ranks of the bloodsuckers that fight with us." Pusintin spoke. "Their greed knows no bounds as we all know. We discovered this agent three weeks ago and slit his throat, however, not before he was able to send a coded transmission to his contacts within High Coven space regarding the status of our biogenic cloning procedures and timetables. The High Coven is now aware we are fifteen months away from having sufficient cloned troops to begin our conquest once more. After consulting with Prefect Keleru and others within our intelligence section, we have determined that the High Coven is going to ask the Lycavorian Union for their assistance in some way in fighting us."

"Impossible!" A Pride Leader spat. "The Union King would never agree to such a partnership!"

"They butchered his father ... your father ... and held and tortured his mother for over a decade!" Another barked. "He would never help them!"

Pusintin shook his head. "My father sits among us now Pride Leaders." He spoke. "I am a Kavalian ... and..."

The Pride Leader who had spoken raised his hand. "My words were only spoken as reference Pusintin." He spoke. "All of us in this room, we do not doubt your loyalties. We never have. And your true father ... Cukoum ... he has raised you well."

Pusintin nodded. "I thank you for your words Pride Leader Diseno."

"Do we know why they are going there Pusintin?" Another Pride Leader asked. "They are closer now to the Lycavorian border than they have been in twenty-five years, ever since we began our campaign against them."

"We can only guess that they will ask for help, especially now that they have this information from their agent." Pusintin answered. "The bigger concern we have is where have their dragon beasts gone?"

"Prefect ... if by some remote chance they are able to obtain active assistance from the Union... ?" Another Pride Leader exclaimed. "It could be disastrous."

Keleru nodded. "That is why we are arranging for a political delegation to enter Union space and begin talks with them to insure they remain out of our conflict. It is also the reason we have pushed to complete our trade agreements with the other active governments within the last three weeks. We have already been recognized by half of the ruling governments within known space. Only those aligned with the Union have balked at such recognition. We are going to attempt to change that."

The Pride Leaders looked at him. Pian was the first to speak up. "That dog of a Union King has barred us from ever entering Union space! He will..."

"He has barred me from entering Union space. No one else." Pusintin corrected him as he moved back to his chair. "And this was done not for any sort of political reason. It was a purely personal reason on his part."

Pian looked at him. "We do not need their recognition!" He spat. "Once we finished with the High Coven we can take from the Union all that they have by force! We can make them recognize us!"

Keleru shook his head slowly. "While we fight the High Coven?" He asked. "That is not possible. And even when we finally defeat the bloodsuckers, the Union will not be so easy to conquer. We will never make the Union do anything."

"We outnumber them three to one!" Qurot broke in now.

"Numbers mean nothing so long as they have those dragons." Pusintin spoke softly. "We in this room ... and many of our senior officers have learned to deal with the fear these beasts instill in our people naturally. We can still function. However, it is not something we can train the clones to do. It would take too much time and we would need several dozen of these beasts to do it. Talco failed in that mission at the start of our war with the Coven, and in the process gave the Union valuable information in regards to our clones. Information we believe was somehow passed to the High Coven."

The Pride Leaders looked at him surprised. "You know this as fact?" One asked.

Pusintin shook his head. "No ... it is only a guess ... but it would explain how the High Coven was able to effectively combat our clone troops once they named Moran as Supreme Commander of their forces. He shares a bed with the bloodsucker witch Yuri, and she would have had access to this information easily. He got it from her and then instituted these changes once he became Supreme Commander."

"What are you proposing Prefect?" Another Pride Leader asked more sedately as he looked at Keleru.

"Nothing what some of you might be thinking?" He said quickly. "We will not make peace with these dogs, nor will we enter into any sort of alliance with them. However, if we open political discussions with them, it will allow us a view into their inner workings, perhaps a trade agreement of some sort. If we do this, we can petition to have an embassy granted to us on both Apo Prime and Earth. Then, with the right people in place, we may be able to draw some excellent information and intelligence."

"They will see through that as what it is." Qurot barked.

Keleru nodded. "Perhaps, but if they refuse our political openness, it will show they are not the open society they claim to be and it will allow us to put pressure on their allies who support them so."

"No Lycavorian will help us if this was done." Diseno spoke now.

"There is greed even among the Lycavorians." Keleru said with a smile. "However, we do have an advantage; a Lycavorian within their ranks who was easy enough to buy. We have been getting information from him and other sources for many years now. That is all I will say."

Pusintin nodded quickly. "It has given us an advantage and a way into their so called inner power circles. However, we can't truly act without establishing some sort of ties with them, even through intermediaries. As the High Coven has learned in the past years, there is no way we will penetrate their Intelligence network now, not with the way it has been reformed and is run by this Armetus person. The risk to attempt this is far too high. We can however, attempt to convince other Lycavorians to gather the information for us. We will need to act quickly if this is indeed where the High Coven is going?"

"What of their beasts my son?" Cukoum asked looking at him from his chair.

"We have our agents pressing as hard as they are able." Pusintin replied. "It's possible they have simply moved them to another facility in secret to continue their training. Our Evolli contacts have passed the information to us about a weapons deal they were recently trying to conduct. It concerned the High Coven purchasing an order of the T19 Dragon Killers that we have been buying up ever since we discovered they have the beasts. Apparently however, they attempted to make the exchange in Union space and were discovered and destroyed by the black Spartan Simpson. The remaining portion of that group was discovered and destroyed by my nephews and nieces on Eleysi Three. The fools attacked a Union mining colony and then tried to assassinate two of the Union Queens who they thought would respond to the distress call from the mining colony. They didn't anticipate that any other Union ships would be in the area to get the transmission. They were wrong. The Coven may have moved their beasts to try and develop tactics against the T19s, which they know we have been purchasing in The Wilds."

"We will not be in a position to begin our final push against the Coven for fifteen months at the earliest." Keleru spoke. "We can use this time to insinuate ourselves into the Union's arena and perhaps make some disrupting waves in the process. This can hardly hurt our position in any way."

"Who do we send on this political venture?" Qurot spoke.

Keleru sat back. "Two of our senior diplomats, my daughters Jalersi and Athani since their features will allow them more freedom than most and half a dozen of our other females that have been transformed, and Pusintin's oldest son Karun." He spoke looking at Qurot. "And you Qurot."

Qurot's eyes grew wide. "Me? For what purpose?"

"To give the Lycavorian intelligence people a gaze at one of our finest warriors of course. To instill fear in them." Keleru spoke with a smile.

"I have no wish to associate myself with those dogs!" Qurot spoke quickly.

"It is not a request Qurot." Keleru snarled at him. "You will accompany the delegation as military officer and liaison and you will maintain your decorum."

"Who will lead this delegation Prefect?"

Keleru met their eyes for a long moment. "My daughter Jalersi will command the delegation."

The uproar was not as vocal as Keleru expected, only a handful of the thirty odd senior Pride Leaders coming to their feet and only Qurot and Pian openly showing their anger. He let them rant for a moment before lifting his hand for silence. It took several moments before they quieted and took their seats once more.