23 weeks

We showed up this morning at the Supernatural Council Center. Councilman Elijah steps down to the center and says, "We have had enough delays with the decision on whether Jocelyn Sommers is officially an alpha. The previous werewolf council argued she was not. The courts have declared her as the alpha of the three packs. Plus, I have determined the three different Crimson Packs will be merged as one." He says as he looks around the council. He then looks at Jocelyn. "However, before we can ask questions, we still have some in-house issues to deal with, and it has to be done before we can proceed with Jocelyn's case." 

He looks at Jocelyn, "but before we get into that I want to wish Jocelyn a happy birthday."

Jocelyn looks startled, "with all that been going on I did not even realize it was my birthday. Thank you."

He smiled at her as others called out, "happy birthday."

He held up his hand and it quieted down. He looked at Jocelyn and Cynthia. "I asked you to be here early to witness the swearing-in of new members in person. While the rest of the supernatural world will watch on their televisions or smart devices."

He then turned toward the werewolf stage, "Will newly elected councilwoman, Tianna, please step down to the floor." She squeezes her spark's hand and flies down to stand by Elijah. "We had a grievance against Tianna being on the Werewolf Council since she is a fairy." We hear Goliath growl. Elijah looks at him and says, "Calm down. We are not kicking her off the council. What we are doing is transferring Tianna from the Werewolf Council to the opening in the fairy council. When we requested an emergency meeting last night of fairy leaders, it was done as a Zoom meeting. We had 100% of our leaders in attendance. The fairy leaders voted on this matter. The fairy leaders unanimously voted for her to fulfill this spot. Tianna, please fly up to the Fairy Council representative empty chair." She then flew to that stage.

Elijah added once Tianna was in place, "We then looked at the votes, and the wolf with the next amount of votes cast was Alpha Jonas from the Oblivion Pack. Guards, please escort Alpha Jonas in here." We hear a door open and see a tall blond hair alpha come down the steps. "He was notified this morning and agreed to join the Werewolf Council. Please go step into the empty chair on their stage."  We watched him walk over and take the chair Luna Tianna had been in. However, he does slide the chair over a bit, which causes Goliath to laugh.

Sarah, a witch, stands up, "since everyone is filling their empty spot, we would like to have Mathis step in as our 5th councilman. He could not be here in person today. He can, however, be here through Zoom Chat. His grandmother is ill, and his family is with her." She then hits a couple of buttons, and the screen pops up with a man in his mid-40s on it.

"Hello, I am Mathis Stonewater, and I am sorry I cannot be there in person.

Elijah replies, "We are sorry to hear about your grandmother." Mathis nods his head in acknowledgment. Elijah looks around, "does anyone object to Mathis being on the council?" No one objects.

Elijah then flies up to his seat. He pushes a couple of buttons. You see an oath pop up. "With getting so many new members. It is time for everyone to stand up and reconfirm or take the oath of office for the first time.  Please raise your hand over your heart and turn toward the council flag."

He looked at Jocelyn and Cynthia, "You two, please just stand quietly in respect." He looks at the pledge. "Where it says the name- say yours. Where it says to name witnesses, please state Jocelyn Sommers and Cynthia Cian. Then call out your god or goddess you follow."  Everyone stands and looks toward the supernatural flag." [It was a dark blue flag with a white diamond. This stood for day and night, where justice could be served for the supernatural in the world's four corners. Then they had eight symbols of the eight central supernatural and a black infinity circle with purple flashes of colors to represent the countless others.] "Place their hands on their heart and recites the below-mentioned pledge." Cynthia and Jocelyn listen with humble expression on their faces.

I, [name], solemnly swear as a member of the Supernatural Council
in the presents of witnesses
[witness' words]
to always listen fairly and judge in good conscious base on facts and not a personal opinion when it comes to passing laws and helping others in the Supernatural World.

I swear this in the name of
[List the God or Goddess you follow]
and the beings I represent on this council.

When done, Elijah pushes the button, and the oath disappears. "Everyone, please be seated." Everyone sits down. "Thank you for being our witness. Before everyone leaves today, be sure to sign the oath paperwork. The oath paperwork is sitting on the table before Jocelyn and Cynthia. You two will sign it as witnesses once the last signature is done. Mathis, you were sent an email. Sign the document electronically and return it. The next time you are here in person, you will sign it again."

Mathis replies, "I will be sure to do that."

Elijah kids his head toward Mathis. "Now, on to why we are gathered here today."

He looks at Jocelyn, "Last time we were here, we had to halt our council meeting due to your grievance. These grievances, unfortunately, were found to be true. We had a vote on whether these five members should be made to step down. Two members abstained from voting because they claimed a conflict of interest; we had five votes, no, and 31 votes, yes. We then called for replacements to be put in place and now have had them replaced, plus the two openings we had from members retiring. This morning swore everyone in. I must ask you, Jocelyn, has the council satisfactorily settled your grievance?"

Jocelyn looked at Cynthia, who nodded her head yes. She looked up, and Elijah said, "Yes, you have."

"Are you and your council ready to discuss and follow whatever decision is made here?"

Jocelyn stood up and slowly looked around the council room at all present. "I will go to a certain degree, Councilman Elijah."

"Then I will need to ask what the degree is you mention."

"I came here because of the safety of my pups. That is one area I will not compromise on. If any decision compromises their safety, then I will file grievances and do everything in my power to ensure their safety, even if it would mean taking on this council."

All of a sudden many break out with outrage. "Did you not hear our pledge?" "We promise to help, not harm." "Jocelyn, you sure know how to piss people off." "I thought she would trust us."

Jocelyn shouts, "ENOUGH! Look at it from my viewpoint. I was raped. These pups were conceived through violence, but I still love them. I had my pack shun me and want me to get rid of them first. It took me fighting to get them to start to see my pups as not abominations. Most of you on this council do not know me, and I do not know you. You are right when you say I do not trust what you might do." She then goes into a quiet voice and puts her hand on her stomach. "I honestly do not care about alpha rank for myself. I do not care about the land for myself. If I am given it, then I will do my best for them, but my priority is these pups and seeing they are safe. It is to see justice for them. I do not want those packs to have custody of my pups. I will raise my pups. They will be raised without the influence of the evil that was in those packs. I have learned that not all of their members are evil. I have learned many were abused and scared in that pack. If those packs accept my pups as their alpha, betas, and delta, then all will be well. If they don't, I will be that mama bear who will wipe out whoever tries to harm them." Jocelyn then sits down and has tears running down her face.

The council is quiet after they hear her outburst. Elijah, after a couple of minutes, clears his throat and replies, "I think we can consider her words the opening statements." He looks at Jocelyn, "How are we going to proceed? Everyone before this hearing was given the transcripts from the trial—only the new member called in this morning. I know I have not seen the scripts. We will have all the council spend today reading or reviewing them. You will write down any questions about the trial and their judgment. Then your representative for your area will ask the questions tomorrow morning when we reconvene at 7:30 am. I know most of us were present when their sentences were passed and witnessed the sentencing. We need to know what lead to the sentence. We will determine if the old werewolf council had the right to interfere. Plus, determine if the laws need to be removed and revised to the modern views."

There was a knock on the door, and the Lycan guard walked in carrying a letter. He handed it to Elijah; he opened the letter and read it. "Tomorrow, we have five supernaturals request to be present and defend the law. Jocelyn requests to be struck down." He looked at the Lycan and said, "Tell them they will be allowed in here under the condition they are collared and have a two Lycan guard assigned to each of them. They will be placed behind the glass enclosure used for prisoners. We will not have a repeat of their past behavior. If they turn violent, we will give them one year of jail time, meaning solitary confinement, to keep them safe from other prisoners in the Lycan Jail. Make sure they understand that. Tell them Xavier will be their spokesman." He then looked at Jocelyn, "We have had our five former councilmen who were voted to step down request to be here tomorrow during the question-and-answer time, and by our laws, we have no reason to deny them unless their behavior is violent again."