Page 156 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

It took me about an hour and a half to complete the five pages, and when it was done, I dropped my pen and sat back in my chair, my hand cramping like it had when I was still in school.

Now that it was done, I just needed to drop the drawings off at the elders’ cabin, and then I could do some work here in the office while they analyzed them.

I hoped I’d done a good enough job recreating what I’d seen.

I gathered the papers, keeping them in order as I put them in a canvas tote I’d found in one of the alpha cabin’s many rooms. As I pulled the strap onto my shoulder, there was a knock at the door.

Weird. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come by. I opened the door and found a middle-aged male wolf standing on my porch.

“Yes?” I asked. My suspicions had been raised, but I tried to keep that off my face. “Did you need something from me?”

“The council gave me the task of coming to get you, Alpha Hunter,” he said. “They request your presence.”

I raised a brow. “Did they say why?”

He shook his head. “They didn’t give me that information, Alpha.”

“Okay. Did they say why you’re to escort me?”

He shook his head again. “That’s just what they’ve asked me to do.”

“Fine. I was heading out, anyway.”

I was confused, but I tried to keep my expression impassive as I followed behind him. What on earth could the council want? And why did I need to be led there like a child who didn’t know her way? It seemed pretty disrespectful to me, and that put me on edge.

He left me at the door leading into the building, and I went in alone.

It occurred to me that I should have asked Tavi to come with me, but I was so taken aback by my “escort” that I hadn’t even thought to reach out to her.

Now that I was here, it was too late. Maybe they wanted to get me alone.

Just what the hell do they want from me?

I stormed up to them, not bothering to hide my annoyance. “What is going on?” I demanded. “Why did you go to all the trouble of bringing me here like this?”

“Apologies, Alpha Hunter,” Ross said. “This isn’t exactly orthodox, but we voted on how we wanted to do this, and three of our council decided an escort was necessary.”

I looked at each of them in turn. Ross obviously hadn’t been one of the three to support the summons strategy, and the way Colby shifted uncomfortably in his seat told me that he hadn’t voted for it either. That meant Grant, Dana, and Edward had been in favor of the theatrics.

The latter two I understood—they seemed to live to belittle me—but I would have thought Grant was above this sort of pettiness.

Plus, he’d seemed supportive of me—or at least of Night—until now.

But when I looked at him, his dark brown eyes stared back at me without a hint of regret.

It reminded me of what Night had said about his council turning against the original plan to merge the packs.

Was my council about to do something similar?

And when had I lost Grant’s support? Had I pissed him off in some way?

“The reason we’ve called you here today,” Grant began, “is that this arrangement is no longer working for the pack.”

“Meaning?”

“We have decided to move the alpha challenge up by five days.”

I couldn’t have hidden my surprise even if I’d tried. The challenge was supposed to be in ten days. “Why the sudden change?”

“We’ve noticed that you haven’t been as attentive an alpha as you ought to be,” Dana said. She was practically purring as she watched me seethe. “Your mate is the one handling the rebuilding, reading through confidential paperwork, and putting effort into working with the people. Not you.”

“I’ve been a little under the weather lately, but I’ve never shirked my duties,” I retorted. “I was at every meeting with Night, and there was nothing he brought up that we hadn’t already discussed. I was present for every step we took and every decision we made.”

“That all might be true,” Ross started speaking before Dana could make some hateful comment. “And if we’re being honest, you haven’t done a poor job.”

“Then why?”

“Because we know you’re pregnant.”

I froze. “You…what?”

“We know,” he said again. “You were spotted heading into the infirmary, and someone caught you throwing up in the woods. Your mother was seen collecting herbs used for easing nausea, and someone overheard that you were getting an ultrasound at the infirmary. Did you really think you could keep this from us for so long?”

I couldn’t refute the evidence. I cursed myself for not being more careful.

“Yes, I am pregnant,” I admitted. “And yes, I did keep it from you, but I can still do this job just as well as before. And moving the challenge up by five days isn’t a big change. What does it matter if I’m alpha now or even a couple of weeks from now?”

“Your duty as an alpha is to keep your pack safe,” Grant said, his voice firm. “But you are operating under conditions that would make your job more difficult, and you kept it from us. Lying by omission is not something we want from our alpha. You should have known better.”

My temper spiked, and my wolf started to growl.

“Maybe you don’t remember how distrusting you all have been of me,” I snapped back.

“How could I tell you something so personal when the five of you haven’t been forthcoming about anything?

You didn’t tell us about the ledgers—we had to come to you about it.

That should have been something we discussed together, but you left it for us to find on our own. ”

Grant sputtered at my accusation, but he couldn’t argue. Edward, however, seemed more than willing to slide into the conversation while Grant recovered.

“Mothers must be protected so they can focus on bringing new life into the world, not dealing with paperwork or trying to facilitate a merger between two packs. The stress could injure you or the child you are carrying.”

I stared at him while he spoke, blood simmering in my veins.

“Don’t pretend to care about me or my child, Edward.

I know what you and Dana think of me. It’s really not smart that you two were so open about that.

Don’t forget, once this is over, I’ll be den mother, and I’ll still have just as much influence over my pack as I have now. ”

“Is that a threat?” Dana demanded.

“I, as an alpha, would never threaten my council. But when I am den mother, I won’t have the same constraints I have now.

You can be assured that I will have my eye on the two of you.

” I glared at them, letting that sink in.

For the first time, I had the satisfaction of seeing them waffle under my threats.

The council would be up for reelection in less than a year.

Given all the goodwill I’d fostered within the pack, I could make things difficult for them.

Colby cleared his throat, drawing my attention.

“Please don’t take this personally, Alpha Hunter,” he said.

“We felt it would be better to have a permanent alpha in place before you are forced to make major decisions for the pack. This is the perfect opportunity to pick our next leader rather than wait even a few days more.”

“Think of it this way,” Ross added. “If merging the Wargs and the Kings is what’s best for the pack, that process can begin much sooner.”

It was clear that Ross and Colby also favored shortening my term, but at least they came from a well-meaning place.

That clarified my confusion about where they stood, but this situation still bothered the hell out of me.

They had decided unanimously that I couldn’t be alpha anymore because I hadn’t told them I was pregnant. It wasn’t fair.

It was almost equally annoying that I could see things from their point of view. For them, it was possible that Night might not win, so there was no point in letting me carry out my plans when the next alpha could undo all my hard work. I could see their logic, even if I didn’t agree with it.

Their minds were made up, and I had no real power to go against them.

It occurred to me, too, that this was how Night had been forced to kowtow to his council’s demands.

I thought I’d understood what he meant about making hard decisions, but now that I was sitting in the hot seat, I understood the tough position he was in a hell of a lot better. This really, really sucked.

But I still had my voice. “I want to make it clear that I think your reasons for voting me out early lack any validity considering the already short length of my term and the climate I was brought into. But you all have made a decision and voted unanimously on it. I have no choice but to accept what you have decided.”

Colby cleared his throat again. “Your words have been…um, noted, Alpha Hunter.”

“Good.”

Grant, recovered from his earlier incredulity, resumed control of the meeting.

“I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that we have worked through the details of the challenge ceremony.

On the day of the challenge, we will nominate a wolf we believe will be the best alpha for our pack.

Any other wolf who wants to try for the position will nominate themselves.

They will have to fight one on one in the order they step forward until only one remains. Our nominee will fight first.”

I worked through that mentally. “So, if there are twenty challengers, then in theory, your challenger will have to fight twenty battles? If your nominee fails, the person who beat them might have to fight eighteen other wolves?”

“Exactly.” Edward smirked, speaking for the first time since the meeting began. “Does that not seem fair to you, Alpha Hunter? The man who will be this pack’s alpha must be strong enough to go multiple rounds without falling.”

I frowned at him. I had complete faith in Night’s ability to win, but fighting a dozen strong wolves one after the other wouldn’t be easy for anyone. There was a good chance he’d end up seriously hurt. Worry wound tightly in my stomach.

“Who are you nominating?” I asked.

“Xavier has proven himself to be our strongest prospect,” Ross said. “Given his history as a fighter, it will be interesting to see how he performs.”

I filed that name away to tell Night. “Will I still serve as interim alpha until the challenge?”

“Yes. Once the challenge is over, you can move to your den mother position if you’re up to it.”

“I understand,” I forced myself to say. “Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

Silence answered me, so I gave them a single nod of farewell and turned to leave. I still wanted to tell them off, but I needed to let that go.

The middle-aged wolf who had escorted me here was waiting for me when I left the building, but I snuck past him. Allowing a King to follow me around was a recipe for disaster. If I came across him again, I’d go off on him, and I wouldn’t care who was around to see me do it.

When I successfully avoided him, I walked with purpose. Now that the time until the alpha challenge had been sliced in half, it was much more important to update Night as soon as I could.