Page 122 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

“Well, that’s a relief to hear,” Ross said.

“The Kings have enjoyed dominance of this area for decades, and we have an uneasy peace with neighboring packs for at least as long. The only physical conflicts we’ve had have been with the Wargs.

If there is a negative response to a merger, we won’t have to deal with any unknown threats. ”

“That’s good to know,” I said. We’d have to monitor the response that the Camas Pack and other packs in the area had to the merger, though I imagined the Camas would remain peaceful. We just need to make sure we find Troy in time, I thought. He’s still the big question mark in this situation.

“As for resources and housing,” Tavi said, “we would need to consider moving families into Warg territory and having Warg families move into King territory. Once the pack has recovered from Troy’s attack, I imagine we’ll be able to take a better look at what space is available for new families to move in. ”

The meeting ended shortly after that. It took everything in me not to smile too hard as Tavi and I said our goodbyes.

It was such a relief to know that although the majority of the council wasn’t completely on board with our plans, they wouldn’t stand in our way.

In the wake of such good news, the sickness that had left me bathroom-bound for so long that morning was a distant memory

“This is fantastic,” Tavi said as we walked to the cabin she shared with Violet. “If the council won’t be standing in our way, it’s more likely that the Kings will fall in line. That’s a great sign that things are finally coming together.”

“I agree. Everything is still up in the air until Night wins the challenge, but we both know his chances of winning are very good.” I grinned at her. “I can’t wait until he gets back to tell him the good news.” That, and the baby…

“Yeah, he’ll be excited.” She returned my smile.

“So, we didn’t get the chance to talk before we went in,” I said. “How are you today, Tavi? Are you holding up okay?”

“I have good days and bad days,” she said. “Today started out as a terrible day.”

“Really?” I glanced at her as we walked.

It wasn’t easy to tell which days were bad and which were good.

Before we were kidnapped, a day when she didn’t wear eyeliner or had bags under her eyes told me she was having a bad time.

Now she looked tired and vaguely sad most of the time.

Maybe there were other subtleties that I could watch out for.

She nodded. “Last night was a bad one for nightmares. I think I had maybe two hours of sleep.”

“Oh, I see.” I touched her forearm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry it was so rough on you.”

“Well, considering everything we’ve been through, a few sleepless nights is inevitable, right?”

“That’s true, but it’s still a bitch to deal with.”

She snorted. “You’re telling me.”

We walked in silence for a bit before Tavi spoke again. “So, do you ever get those? Nightmares about Troy?”

“Yeah, way more often than I’d like,” I replied.

Lately, I’d been dreaming about my baby, but I knew the nightmares about Troy would come back in full force.

“I’ve had bad dreams about Troy most of my life, but after he kidnapped us, they’ve gotten worse and more graphic.

” I pushed my hair behind my ears as I quietly added, “They’re worse when Night’s not here. ”

“I can imagine. I almost wish I had someone like…” Tavi trailed off, her cheeks turning pink. “Never mind. I think I’ll ask Violet if she has any advice on what to do about nightmares.”

“That’s a good idea.”

It sounded like Tavi was about to say that she wished she had someone around who could make her nightmares easier to deal with.

I would have liked to tease her about Dom, who obviously still very much wanted to be with her.

But it was too soon to joke with her like that.

She had only recently started warming up to him again.

But maybe it would be okay to bring him up? No harm in trying.

“Have you thought about talking to Dom?”

“D-Dom?” Her head popped up, the pink in her cheeks turning bright red. “Why would I talk to him?”

“I don’t know. Just to talk. He might have some advice about nightmares, too.”

Her blush deepened. “No, I haven’t really considered talking to him about this. I don’t know if I’d want to get into personal stuff, but I think I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t exactly hate the idea of spending a little time with him.”

I smiled and bumped her shoulder with mine. “You’ve missed him.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I have.” She looked down and purposefully stepped on the leaves in our path. “It took me a long time to be near him without wanting to hide, but I miss his silly, goofy smile and stupid jokes.”

“I think you should tell him that. I think he’d love to hear you say that.”

“Well, we’ve both been busy with pack stuff lately, and I’ve been satisfied with seeing him around the compound.”

“I see.” Maybe it wasn’t too soon for the two of them to have a real conversation. They just needed some excuse to talk.

When we reached the cabin, Violet was having tea with Dr. Damon Stan. The two were giggling together, and Violet had her hand on his knee. They looked up as we neared the table.

“It’s good to see you both together,” she said. “Were you out handling pack business?”

“That’s right,” Tavi said. She smiled at Violet and Dr. Stan before she headed toward the staircase. “I’m going to lie down for a few hours. Bryn, I’ll look through paperwork with you later.”

“Sure. Thanks, Tavi.”

She went upstairs, and I looked from Violet to Dr. Stan and back again.

It was so obvious that we’d walked in on them flirting with each other.

I hadn’t known they were interested in each other, never mind that they were an item.

I’d need to ask Violet more about how their relationship had gotten to this point, but I didn’t want to interrupt them with embarrassing questions now.

Though, if the roles were reversed, Violet would be relentless with her uncomfortable questions.

“You look like you’re doing well, Violet,” I said. “You’ve come really far with your healing.”

She nodded, and her emerald eyes returned to Dr. Stan. “Thanks to Damon’s help, this awful alpha wound rarely bothers me anymore. He has the best salves for me.” She patted his leg.

I pursed my lips to keep from smirking. “I’m glad he’s been helping you so much. Having a doctor on call must be a huge relief.”

Dr. Damon’s face reddened. “A-anyway, did you need to talk to Violet? I don’t mean to keep her from you.”

“No, no, I just wanted to check in and say hello,” I said, still smirking. “I’ll catch up with you both some other time.” I winked at Violet, then headed back to the alpha cabin.

On the walk back, I noticed a small group of women talking and laughing near the tree line.

Tanya and Tara were among them. They were two-thirds of the Terrible T’s, the women who had tormented me almost as horribly as Troy.

Trisha was usually the ringleader, but I hadn’t seen her around the pack lately.

I suspected I knew why. Given her obsession with Troy and her deep hatred of me, she’d probably either abandoned the pack or was in hiding.

The group looked up as I neared, and their conversation slowly faded. I kept my head high. This was my territory, after all, and I had nothing to fear. I knew they would never attempt to attack me while I walked by, especially not if I kept my guard up.

I walked past them with a nod of acknowledgment, the way I’d seen Night do when he interacted with others. I didn’t intend to speak to them but just go about my business and get home as quickly as I could—

“Hey, Bryn—I mean, Alpha Hunter.”

I stopped. I knew it was Tara’s voice. There was a moment of the old fear, of wanting to run away and hide from whatever fresh hell they had to dish out, but I didn’t act on that old urge. Tara had corrected herself and called me Alpha Hunter. The least I could do was see what she wanted.

I turned and met her gaze. “Yes?”

Tara and Tanya shared a brief glance before peeling away from the group to close the space between us.

Tara’s thick, curly, dark auburn hair was cut to her chin; it was the shortest I’d ever seen it.

Alternatively, Tanya’s dirty-blond hair was the longest I’d seen; the straight locks hung down to her shoulders when before she’d usually kept it in a severe bob.

They weren’t wearing the latest in human fashion, and if they wore makeup, it was a very modest amount.

When they were within a yard of me, I raised my hand. To my surprise, they stopped in their tracks.

“That’s close enough,” I said, lowering my arm. “What do you two want?”

“It—um, well…” Tara hesitated and glanced at Tanya.

“We have something we want to say to you,” Tanya finished.

I waited. The last time they’d spoken to me over two weeks ago, they had tried to turn the Kings against me after I’d become alpha. They accused me of being a witch and a fake wolf. But they didn’t look like they wanted to call me out or ruin my reputation. They looked almost…sheepish.

Tanya took a deep breath. “We wanted to apologize to you.”

I just stared at her, but when her words finally clicked, anger surged from deep inside me.

“Really,” I said dryly. “You want to apologize to me after all these years?” I crossed my arms, looking from Tanya to Tara. “What caused the change of heart? Is it because I’m coming into my own as an alpha?”

The Tanya and Tara I knew would have tried to hurt me for talking back, but neither of them even raised a hand against me.

“I…I guess it would be a lie to say that wasn’t part of it,” Tanya admitted. “But that isn’t the main reason we wanted to do this.”

“Then what?” I demanded.

They winced at the sharpness in my tone.

A few moments of silence passed, and one of the women separated from the group to stand beside them.

It was Claire, the young mother I’d spoken to the day before the elders swore me in as alpha.

Mom and I had watched her children, along with many other children.

It was a surprise to see her hanging out with Tara and Tanya when they’d never been close before.

She stood next to them and put her hand on Tara’s shoulder. “Just hear them out, Alpha. Please. They’ve wanted to approach you about this for a while now.”

I raised a brow. I liked Claire because she was always cordial with me, so I had greater faith in her intentions than in Tara’s and Tanya’s.

Still, angry words formed at the tip of my tongue, burning to be unleashed on my former bullies.

It was so, so tempting to say them and continue home, but I held back.

I didn’t want to encourage the kind of environment I’d grown up in, the one that played favorites and mistreated those with no power. If I wanted to improve things for my pack as a whole, I needed to face my former tormentors without biting their heads off—no matter how badly I wanted to.

The angry curl of my lips relaxed into a flat line. I didn’t even pretend to look happy about hearing them out. “Fine. Say what you want to say.”

Tara and Tanya looked up at me, hopefully now.

“We’re not hanging out with Trish anymore,” Tara blurted.

“The truth is after the ferals attacked the compound, Tanya and I realized we regretted how we were living our lives. We were terrible to you, Bryn, and we were awful to so many women who had pups because they couldn’t compete with us for Troy’s attention.

And then we said those awful things about you after you were alpha…

” she trailed off, shame coloring her cheeks.

Tanya added, “During that attack when people were wounded and crying and panicking, we felt like our world was crashing down. But you took control, and because of your leadership and the Wargs you brought with you, you saved a lot of people. We saw how much you cared about this pack, even though it’s full of people who had mistreated you all your life.

There was so much blood and chaos, but it didn’t stop you, Bryn.

And seeing you in that light…it changed everything. ”

I stared at them again, but this time because I was stunned by their words.

Taking my silence as encouragement, Tanya said, “Trish tried to go back to being a bitch after things started to calm down, but we didn’t feel right about that. We stopped going along with her games, and she stopped hanging out with us.”

“We don’t miss her,” Tara said, anger flashing in her dark brown eyes. “We don’t want to be the people we were before.”

Tanya nodded in agreement.

Some of the rigidity left my posture as their words bounced around in my head. Were they being genuine? Or were they trying to ease their guilt?

“Are you asking for forgiveness?” I asked, my voice little more than a whisper.

“We can’t ask you for forgiveness after how we treated you,” Tana said. “We just wanted to tell you that we aren’t the same people anymore, and we support you as our alpha.”

That was another surprise. “You do?”

“More and more people support you every day, Bryn,” Claire said. “A lot of us see how hard you’re working, and we really admire the fact that you haven’t given up on us.”

I gathered myself and focused on the three of them. “I need some time to think about all of this.”

Tara nodded. “Right. Of course you do.”

“Still, I…I appreciate your apology,” I looked from Tanya to Tara. “I’ll let you know how I feel when I’m in a better headspace.”

“There’s no rush, of course.”

“Right.” I felt awkward leaving them like that, but I couldn’t think of a more diplomatic way to peel away from the conversation. So I nodded at them again, turned on my heel, and hurried away.