I glanced at Gigi, who folded her hands on her lap and smiled beautifully. “Speaking on behalf of Hunter Sabre, I do.”
I knew Gigi well enough to know her calm fa?ade usually was good for me, but I didn’t see any way she could possibly spin this to get me off.
There are over a dozen witnesses. What can she do?
Gigi sat straight and perfect in her chair as she flipped through the official testimony. “All parties can agree that Hunter Fletching verbally attacked the Northern Lakes Pack, and spoke in a provoking manner?”
“The testimony says as much,” Arbiter Tanaka said. “But that does not excuse Hunter Sabre’s response.”
“But it does.” Gigi dropped the packet of papers, her shark smile in place. “Due to Hunter Fletching’s conduct, I request a total exemption for Hunter Phillipa, using the citation of Hunter Code Section F, subsection 4a, in which it states it is allowed for hunters to defend their family’s honor and reputation from other hunters, including cases of minor physical assault, without consequence as long as both hunters acknowledge the provocation.”
I barely kept a straight face as I listened to Gigi’s gutsy defense. I have no idea where she’s going with this…
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.
“What are you saying?” Amos squinted at Gigi.
She didn’t acknowledge him, and kept her face pointed to Arbiter Tanaka.
Greyson was as still as a statue, but I thought a tiny bit of his stiffness was gone.
“Get on with your point, Hunter Quillon,” Arbiter Tanaka ordered.
Gigi flicked her eyes at Amos, every sign of the kind and bubbly person she usually was snuffed out as she looked at him with an expression a lot closer to a wolf’s. “Hunter Fletching verbally attacked the Northern Lakes Pack in front of Hunter Sabre—who was adopted into the Pack as a child. They’re her family. She was raised by two members of the Pack, but continues to live among the Pack, trains with them, and is employed by them. It was her right to defend them from Hunter Fletching’s insults.”
Chapter 13
Pip
Amos rocketed out of his chair. “That’s insane,” he said. “There’s no way a bunch of wolves could be family to a hunter!”
Arbiter Tanaka leaned back in his chair and flicked a finger at Amos, silencing him.
Gigi’s smile grew as she closed in on her argument. “Hunter Sabre has no living hunter relatives, and is the last of her father’s and her mother’s lines. After the tragedy of her parents’ deaths, she was an orphan. None of the hunter families took her in, but the wolves did, and they continue to care for her.” Gigi motioned to Greyson—a convenient prop for her case.
No wonder she looked gleeful when she saw him.
“You can also witness this connection in the verbiage of the testimonies.” Gigi danced her fingers across her paper packet. “The Northern Lakes Pack refers to Hunter Sabre as ‘our hunter’。 The werewolves believe she is a part of their Pack—why else would Alpha Greyson be here?”
That was stretching things a little.
The wolves thought I was important. And I wasn’t an idiot—they did a lot for me. But I was a hunter. While they might call me Pack, they didn’t treat me like a wolf.
I’m not going to volunteer that little factoid, though.
“The Northern Lakes Pack are all Hunter Sabre has in terms of family,” Gigi said. “And to hunters—like werewolves—family matters. It is natural she’d seek to defend them from Hunter Fletching’s vile accusations, and according to the law, in attacking him she meted out hunter justice on a fight between two hunters.”
Woah. Maybe she really did apprentice with a fae—because that was some stunning word manipulation.
Amos stood up and ripped his hat off. “This is ridiculous! Arbiter Tanaka, you can’t possibly believe her! Hunter Sabre can’t consider a Pack of werewolves family—she’s a hunter!”
Arbiter Tanaka carefully placed his glasses back on, tapping his frames so the lenses grew slightly tinted—alchemist work, likely. “It seems not everyone shares your views, Hunter Fletching. Given the support the Pack gives her, and her status as adoptee, I agree with Hunter Quillon’s defense. According to the Hunter Code, Hunter Sabre has done nothing wrong. This incident is dismissed from Curia Cloisters attention as it was handled according to hunter law.”
“But—that!” Amos growled and briefly crushed his hat in his hands.
He turned, and I thought he’d bring his anger out on me—surprisingly, it was Greyson he turned to. “One day Sabre will leave your Pack, and then it’ll be open season on you lot!”