Page 282 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

Applause from the Wargs was expected, but I didn’t predict the Kings to also react favorably. Their clapping was more polite, and they glanced at each other as if they were making sure it was okay. Bryn smiled wide. I took my mate’s hand and kissed it.

The celebration moved to the Kings’ mess hall for the feast. Mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, braised, slow-cooked meats, honeyed baked goods…there was something for everyone. I’d never seen so much food in one place, but considering the number of wolves attending the alpha ceremony, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

The elders of both packs sat at one table near us, and they seemed to be in the middle of a deep discussion. My mother, Glenda, and Dr. Stan were also with them, eating and listening.

Dom volunteered to grab us some drinks.

“Tavi, Bryn, over here!” The voice drew our attention. Tavi’s friends Mark, Lora, Preston, and Hallie were all sitting with a few more of Tavi’s friends. “We’ve got so much to talk about!”

Bryn and I looked at Tavi. There was a slight blush on Tavi’s cheeks, but her smile was polite when she shook her head.

“Not tonight,” she told them. “But we’ll all catch up later, okay?”

“Oh, sure.” Hallie’s smile fell. There was a pause, but the group got over their disappointment quickly. One of them must havesaid something funny because it pulled the attention away from us.

“You okay, Tavi?” Bryn asked.

“Yeah.” Tavi rubbed the corded leather bracelet that Bryn had gotten for her, a burgundy version of the coffee-brown one Bryn had given me. “I’m okay. I just feel…different about everything.”

I sensed from that vague response that there was something that she wasn’t saying, but before I could ask, Bryn squeezed my hand—a clear sign for me to shut up.

“I understand.” She smiled at my sister in a way that told me she understood whatever Tavi wasn’t saying. “You don’t have to do everything at once. Let’s just get some food and find somewhere to sit.”

“I second that.” Dom had returned with beers for Tavi, me, and himself, and a soda for Bryn. “Kings really don’t fuck around when it comes to food. Everything looks incredible.”

From the corner of my eye, I caught movement. Vince was getting to his feet. He tapped the side of his beer with a fork to get the room’s attention. He used to be a thinner man, lithe with muscle, but he’d bulked up a bit in the months since I met him. I’d always viewed him as charming but unassuming, but now I saw he had grown into his own. I wasn’t the only one who noticed. There were quite a few appreciative glances from the women around him.

“Now that the guests of honor are here, I would like to make a toast.” Vince raised his beer. “I would just like to point out how much Alpha Night and Bryn have done for all of us. Whether dealing with Kings or Wargs, they have treated all of us with the kind of respect and understanding that leaders should. Theywere attentive and listened to our complaints without pushing back or getting defensive. They embody that coveted policy of open communication, and they strive to go against the older methods of thinking that hold us back.

“This couple has fought tooth and claw for the opportunity to rule us, but never once have they made us feel small or like we don’t belong. I think I speak for many of us when I say that we are looking forward to the future. For the first time in a long time, maybe even decades, we have people leading us who have our best interest at heart.” He looked toward us and gave us a wide, happy grin. “Thank you for all you two have done and will soon do for us.”

After his speech, there was a louder round of applause. Even the Kings, who had been hesitant to clap before, felt more confident this time around. Bryn cuddled close to me, catching the moisture at the corners of her eyes with her sleeves. I clutched her to me. It was the perfect toast to jumpstart the evening.

What made it even better was that Vince had started his speech right when the Wargs Council walked in. Good. I wanted them to see the amount of support we already had behind us.

I got some real joy out of seeing the council members look so annoyed by the crowd’s reaction. As the four of us got in line for the food, the Kings ahead of us started to move out of the way to give us priority. The Wargs who were filling their plates looked at them in confusion. It was almost robotic, the way the Kings parted for us, and we exchanged looks. Bryn was the only one who didn’t look surprised. She had eaten at home or with Glenda throughout her time as alpha, so she had missed this kind of preferential treatment.

“This was what Gregor and Troy preferred,” Bryn muttered.

I shook my head. Before I became alpha of the Wargs, Peter had forced everyone to make way for him. When I’d killed him and taken over, I put a stop to that. Occasionally, I received gifts from my pack—jams or homemade goods—but that was the extent of the special treatment that I’d accept.

This couldn’t be something I allowed to continue. I raised my voice enough to be heard over the chatter, “We appreciate this, but it isn’t necessary,” I said. “Everyone here is hungry. You don’t have to make room for us.”

“But…” Whoever had started to protest quickly fell quiet. Slowly, as if they didn’t believe that I meant what I’d said, the Kings took their original places. We had the attention of the mess hall, but as the wolves ahead of us loaded their plates, the conversation slowly resumed. Mom winked at me from across the room, and I smiled back at her.

“Nicely done,” Bryn said with a grin. “That felt like progress.”

I thought so, too. It was such a small thing, but to me, and probably to the Kings, it was important.

After Dom, Tavi, Bryn, and I loaded up our plates, we started walking to the doors. On the way out, we spotted the table where the councils from both packs sat. On one side were Wayne, Ellen, Graham, Ida, and Jasmine, and on the other side were Colby, Ross, Dana, Edward, and Grant. They were completely silent as they ate.

“Looks like a face-off,” Tavi said, just loud enough for us to hear. “What the hell is up with that?”

“Probably has something to do with our meeting with them,” Dom replied.

“It was a shitshow,” I said. “They asked if I was going to follow through on a hostile takeover. I told them I wasn’t, and I said they should get to know the Kings before they demand that I kill them.”

“Sounds reasonable to me,” Tavi said. “But I bet their response wasn’t.”