Page 198 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

My baby sent a tirade of kicks to my ribs.

“Night!” I pushed down the ladder and all but tumbled down.

He had been about to leave, but he whipped around at the sound of it hitting the floor.

He caught me, then pulled me tightly against him.

The blanket I’d pulled against me fell around us as I sagged against him, sobbing as I pressed myself deeply into his warmth. My love, my mate. He was safe.

“I was so worried,” he murmured into my hair. “It took so long to find you.”

“I’m so glad you did,” I cried. “I’m so, so, so glad you did.”

I could have held him for the rest of my life, could have spent years just listening to the thunderous beating of his heart and inhaling the cedar and fresh earth scent of him.

But time didn’t permit that. I picked up the blanket and wrapped it around me like a toga before Night and I went downstairs.

He was naked, but thanks to the people who used the cabin, he, Dom, Lance, and the other wolves they’d brought with them were able to find clothes.

I hugged and kissed my brothers, and we all shared the relief that we were safe and sound. But where was Vince?

“Did you see Vince on your way over?” I asked them.

“Oh,” Lance was slow to answer. He and Dom looked at each other, then looked sorrowfully at me. “Bryn…”

I felt the cold truth in their silence, but I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t. “There were ferals who followed us,” I told them. “He said he’d hold them back, but he wasn’t going to let them kill him.”

Dom looked down, his fingers curling into fists.

Receiving nothing from them, I turned to the other wolves, but they couldn’t meet my eyes. “Someone had to have seen him, right?”

“Bryn,” Lance said finally, “Vince fended off the ferals, but they hurt him badly. He…he didn’t survive. I am so sorry.”

“No.” I shook my head, uncomprehending. “No.” He’d told me that he would survive so I could tell him off for risking his life. How could he be dead?

I stepped back and ran into Night’s chest. He took my shoulders and spun me to face him. “It’s true.” The pain in his eyes was more than enough proof. “He lived just long enough to tell us what direction you’d headed in. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to find you.”

I shook my head again even as the chilling truth pumped through me.

“But it was my fault they caught up to us. I tripped, and they caught us, and he wouldn’t let me help him.

” The last sentence was muffled when Night held me close.

I was weeping now. The last image I had of Vince was seared into my memory, as were those last words.

It was the first and last time he’d ever promised me anything, and the first and last time he’d broken his word.

An hour later, when my tears finally subsided, Night tried to pull me to the stairs. “You need some time alone,” he said.

I shook my head and squeezed his hand. “I want to stay with our pack.” I needed the presence of the others. Vince wasn’t the only wolf we’d lost in the attack, and I’d shed tears for them, too. Their families would be devastated to learn that their loved ones hadn’t survived.

Our first attempt to find the path that led to Troy had ended in too much death, and guilt settled heavily on my shoulders. The most we could do to give them peace was to kill Troy.

Night and I returned to where everyone else was: the fireplace.

It was roaring brightly. The sky had turned dark, so the fire was especially bright in the cabin.

The last time I’d seen a fire roaring like this had been through Samuel’s eyes.

It was a relief to see a warm, comforting fire instead of the awful flames of ritual.

Kai, one of Night’s closest and most trusted men, cleared his throat.

“I’d like to tell a little story,” he said.

“I don’t normally speak up. Actually, this is me stepping in for Vince.

He always had a knack for storytelling. But in his stead—” his voice broke.

He swallowed hard and abandoned what he'd been about to say. “I’m a poor replacement for him, but I’d like to share a story. ”

He didn’t have to ask permission, but given the deep grief that filled the room like a miasma, he likely didn’t want to overstep or make it worse.

“We’re listening, Kai,” Night reassured him. “Speak as freely as you want.”

He nodded his thanks to Night. “Hundreds of years ago, there was a battle a lot like ours. It didn’t involve bullshit portals or kidnapping pups; it was over territory.

There were three packs involved. Their names were lost to time, but my mother liked to call one Toolie, one Gethan, and the last Erna. ”

We all gathered around to sit or stand and listen to what Kai had to say. There were over twenty of us crowded in the small living room. We were huddled close, not because of the cold but because we needed to be near each other.

“They each had a claim to the territory because they were brothers,” Kai said.

“Their father hadn’t divvied the land before his death, and that left things in chaos.

Each had strong packs on the territory that they’d righteously earned through battles, but they were running out of space.

Each pack grew as more wolves joined or were born under their rule.

It was dire that they had the large space their father should have left to a successor.

“These brothers had grown up as close as siblings could be, and yet now that they each had packs to think about, they had to put their love for each other aside in favor of bettering the lives of their pack, even though that meant death. One of the pack mothers heard about the impending war. It concerned land she cared about and had helped cultivate with her sisters, so she had some say in what ought to be done with it.” Kai cleared his throat.

“To determine which pack was most deserving, she took the time to secretly observe each of them. But things weren’t as simple as weighing the value of one pack against another.

The Toolie Pack had many artisans and musicians.

They created beauty that made their territory more lovely, and their creations stirred even her heart.

The Gethan Pack was more intellectual. They cared deeply about preserving the history and integrity of shifter kind.

To her surprise, the Gethan wolves knew stories that many other packs had forgotten.

The Erna Pack was made up of cultivators and gardeners.

They were passionate about growing plants that fed nutrients back into the soil rather than stripping it.

“Each pack was just as deserving as the other, and the pack mother couldn’t come to a decision.

Each pack carried themselves with honor, and she knew that each would respect the land their father had left behind.

It would have been a tremendous loss if any of them were lost to the battle.

She thought about this deeply for weeks, and by the time she came up with a solution, the war was starting.

The three packs had gathered their toughest warriors and met each other in the spot where their territories overlapped. ”

Now Kai took a breath and rubbed a hand over his face as if trying to remember the rest of the story.

“They rushed at each other, but at the moment they would have clashed, she ran in the middle to stop them. Each alpha recognized her, but they were shocked when she revealed her identity. To their astonishment, she pointed out the strengths of each pack as well as their weaknesses. While they excelled in some areas, they failed in ways the other packs didn’t.

She then pointed out that there was more than enough room on the territory for all three of them, but dividing the land was wrong.

What they needed to do was honor themselves and their father’s memory by sharing it.

“And so, in the end, thanks to the wisdom of the pack mother, they were able to realize that they weren’t meant to fight over the territory.

They were always meant to share it, to be one big family.

And at that moment, they decided to be one pack.

The strongest sort of pack was one that embodied the values of those packs ToGethEr. ”

Several moments of silence followed Kai’s story.

I thought deeply about the story he’d told until the final sentence hit me.

I burst out laughing. Night looked at me with surprise, but then he understood, too.

As we laughed together, other wolves joined in, including Kai.

The light-hearted stinger at the end would have been amusing at best if we were sitting around a bonfire on a normal night, but this was not a normal night.

We were all tense to the point that a slight push could send us over the edge.

But the story had helped bring us back and give us hope.

“That was wonderful, Kai,” I told him. “Your mother told you that story?”

He nodded.

Frankie patted Kai on the back of his shoulder. “I never would’ve guessed you had it in you, Kai.”

He chuckled even as he rubbed the spot she’d hit him. “Yeah, well, my heart just about dropped when I was done, and you all were so quiet.”

“It just took a minute to sink in,” I said, reaching over to pat his leg. “That was beautifully told, Kai. Thank you.”

He blushed as he rubbed the back of his head. “I’m glad to hear everyone enjoyed it.”

Kai’s story had helped many of us relax, and I saw that most of our people looked less devastated. Even those who had been sobbing only minutes ago had hopeful smiles as they looked at each other. The story had been the perfect thing to boost morale.

Yet, I felt like an additional weight had settled on my shoulders.

The story reminded me of the dream my mother had given me.

She’d warned me about the battle that was soon to come, but I still wasn’t sure what my role was.

In Kai’s story, the pack mother had been able to use her wits to help negotiate an end to the war.

But there was no one around who could talk Troy out of what he was doing. He was too far gone.

Like the pack mother, I wanted an end to the suffering. But I had the chilling certainty that peace wouldn’t be as bloodless.