Page 97 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha

brYN

Mom, Violet, and I had completed most of the preparations for the Alpha ceremony by the time noon rolled around, so I had some time to mentally prepare for my meeting with the council and Elders.

The Kings’ council was made up of the highest-ranking families of the pack, which meant that all of them had a vested interest in staying on top of the food chain.

I knew already that none of them would care very much about what a former human had to say about the pack that they had spent a significant portion of their lives forming.

Still, the meeting was necessary because I would soon be their Alpha.

At the meeting, Night and I were going to broach the subject of having the Wargs take control of the reconstruction and land redevelopment projects going on around the compound.

I knew it wouldn’t go over well, but it was something that the Kings needed.

They were so unprepared for tackling such a huge project, and they would benefit from the Wargs’ knowledge and experience.

It would also be a great opportunity for us to gauge the temperature of the room on the subject of the packs merging down the line.

Tavi offered to be there, too, knowing that she would soon be my beta, but our talk had clearly taken a lot out of her. I told her to spend the day resting so she could be prepared for the official announcement by tonight. She, however, protested that idea.

“I should be there, even if I say nothing,” she said. “I want to show everyone in the room that I’ve got your back.”

And so, we would present a united front—Tavi, Night, Violet, and myself.

The usual meeting building had been destroyed in one of Troy’s tirades, so I decided to hold the meeting in the Alpha’s cabin because it was the only private location on the Kings’ compound that had plenty of room for everyone.

Tavi helped me set up the meeting room before everyone arrived. It was about the size of a large bedroom, with a long oval-shaped mahogany table standing on top of a red Persian rug. The square window opened to the forest, and we drew the curtains shut.

Night arrived shortly after we finished prepping. He seemed surprised to see his sister there.

“Tavi,” he said.

“Hi, Night.” She smiled a little.

He looked at her with a concerned frown. “We haven’t had the chance to talk,” he said. “Are you sure that you’re okay being here for this?”

It was a big question, but he couldn’t know how big. She wasn’t just attending this meeting for her health; she was also acting unofficially as my beta. I watched her to gauge her reaction, and was relieved to see that her nod seemed confident.

“I’m more than sure,” she said. “Listen, it’s almost time for the meeting to start, and I want to make sure those council people don’t have to wait.”

She left Night and I alone, and when he looked at me, I tried to smile. “It’s a lot for her to take on, I know, but she seems excited about it.”

He drew closer to me and pulled me against his chest. “I’ll have to trust that she knows what she’s doing.”

I leaned into him, drawing strength from his closeness.

His presence immediately set the worst of my nerves at ease.

I wanted him with me to show a united front to the attendants and to rely on his experience as an Alpha to back up the points I wanted to make.

He stood beside me and immediately slipped his hand into mine.

He smelled like sweat and sunshine, two scents that stirred desire in my core even though I was nervous about the meeting.

He, no doubt sensing my feelings, glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and smirked.

I would have smacked his arm, but people started funneling in.

Quietly, the Elders and council members of the Kings and the Wargs filed in and took their seats.

Night and I stood at the front of the dining hall, and every gaze turned toward us.

My pulse spiked and I squeezed his hand. He leaned down to whisper in my ear.

“Be strong, love,” he told me. “You don’t have to have all of the answers to their questions; you just need to be as confident as you can about what you do know.”

I nodded.

“Don’t forget, the council is here to help advise the Alpha in matters of the pack. Be respectful, but don’t let them steamroll you.”

Again, I nodded. I expected them to try and take advantage of the fact that I was just a temporary Alpha, but Night was right—I couldn’t let them do it.

Up until this meeting, I had tried my hardest to stay under their radar because most of my bullies were within these elite families.

I recognized each face. Even still, if I gave them an inch, they would know how to manipulate me, and I didn’t want to make this process any more miserable than it needed to be.

Their names were Colby, Ross, Dana, Edward, and Grant, and after the Alpha, beta, and the Elders, they had the most power and sway in the pack.

I took a deep breath and put on a smile. “Thank you, everyone, for being here,” I said. “It means the world to me that you’re all willing to listen to what I have to say.”

The Kings gave nods. It wasn’t a verbal response, but any acknowledgement was better than none.

I let go of Night’s hand and stepped forward, letting the large bell sleeves of my dress fall over my fingers.

Not wanting to waste time, I got right into the matter at hand.

“I have been thinking about this since the day after I won the challenge ceremony. Troy Redwolf destroyed so many important buildings and homes around the compound, but progress on reconstruction has been not only slow but inefficient. I learned that many who had knowledge of carpentry and land development were killed or horribly injured during Troy’s reign.

And it is for that reason that I propose that the Wargs should head the reconstruction effort. ”

The moment the words left my mouth, there was an uproar. The Kings threw question after question and comment after comment my way. It was noisy, and a bit chaotic, and it made me want to get the hell out of the building that somehow felt much smaller than it did when the meeting began.

After a few moments of letting them speak, I raised one of my hands the way I’d seen Night do during arguments between Wargs. To my surprise, the gesture actually worked; the council fell quiet and their full attention was on me.

“I know this comes as a surprise to you,” I said, “and that this isn’t the first solution you would have chosen. But we can all see how slowly progress is going.”

“I find it hard to believe that the Wargs will want to help us,” Ross said. His salt-and-pepper hair fell down his back and his long bangs covered the scar on the side of his face.

“Yes,” Edward agreed. His bald head shone in the light of the room. “Having more Wargs on our soil will lead to infighting, and whatever progress you claim will happen will be overshadowed by those fights.”

“I can’t say that there won’t be some fighting,” I said, “but I will tell you that many of the Wargs have already volunteered to share their expertise. Troy carelessly sabotaged his own pack’s workforce, and those who remain need leadership and training if we want to repair the Kings’ lands quickly. ”

Night cleared his throat before chiming in. “I would just like to reiterate that we Wargs are more than open to assisting in this process.”

“Why?” Colby asked. His gray moustache completely covered his upper lip. “We have been enemies for hundreds of years. What benefit do you have in this?”

“The bad blood between us goes back far longer than living memory,” Night said, “but us Wargs are tired of the conflicts—from petty skirmishes to cruelly targeted destruction—that our ‘war’ has become. The Redwolfs were the biggest supporters and perpetrators of those conflicts. Now that they’re no longer in power, we’re eager to get off on the right foot. ”

Tavi, who sat on the other side of me, tapped my foot.

I glanced at her and saw her eyes dart to Grant.

He had a weathered face, tanned from hours spent in the sun, and the frown on his mouth told me that he was deep in thought.

He had always struck me as a particularly gruff and unfriendly man when I’d seen him walking around the compound in my youth.

He had always seemed so old, but had insisted on patrolling the grounds anyway up until a few years ago when an old hip injury prevented him from walking.

I gathered some courage and addressed Grant directly. “Grant,” I said, “you seem like you might have something to say?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “To be honest, this idea has some appeal. It’s true that Troy’s paranoia led him to kill many of our best people.

I’m not happy about inviting our enemy onto our territory, but it would give us immediate access to wolves with knowledge and experience in areas where we are lacking. Perhaps we could use each other.”

I didn’t like the term “use” in this context, but it was an unexpected vote in our favor. I started to reply, but a voice cut over me.

“I don’t mean to outright disagree with you, Grant,” said Dana, the only female member of the council, “but I, for one, am not at all keen on the idea of giving access of my land to those wolves.”

Dana had always been close to the Redwolfs, and she was the one I’d expected to be the most resistant to the idea. She let her dark gaze drift lazily from me, to Night, to the other Wargs gathered in the room, making sure that we all knew the jab was intentional and that she didn’t care.

“We have lived in this territory for centuries, and the only time the Wargs have stepped foot on our soil it has been at risk of death to our own. How do we know you all aren’t just taking advantage of our time of need?

Perhaps you’re using this as an opportunity to worm your way past our defenses. ”

“We aren’t interested in kicking you when you’re down,” Night said. “If we wanted to do that, it would be done.”

“So you claim. But perhaps your forces aren’t strong enough to take down our forces, even in our weakened state.”

I glanced at Night, but he wasn’t letting the hostility in her comment get to him, so I took his cue and kept my face blank, too.

“I assure you,” he said, “that is not something you need to worry about.”

She looked like she had more to say, but I figured now was a good time to intervene.

“We aren’t interested in starting an endless back and forth,” I said.

“Our goal for this meeting was to bring the idea to everyone, to get you thinking about it and more comfortable with it. Night and I are aware that what we’re proposing won’t be easy to swallow, or free from hiccups.

I am aware that I will only be an interim Alpha, but I didn’t want to exert my authority over the Kings without giving you the opportunity to work with me.

This could be the start to a good working relationship between the packs, one that puts future generations at less risk. ”

With that, I ended the meeting. The Kings exited quickly, and the Wargs more slowly.

Violet winked at me on her way out. She and the other Wargs present had not spoken up, but they hadn’t needed to.

Having them there along with the Kings showed that there was a desire to foster goodwill between the packs, and I felt confident that their presence had helped.

When everyone funneled out and Night and I were the only ones remaining, I let out a long breath.

“That could have gone better,” I said, running my hands through my hair.

“You think so? I thought it could’ve gone way worse.” He sat on the table and gestured for me to come closer. “I can handle older women making snide comments like that as long as the other Kings were listening.”

I moved into the circle of his arms, and he kissed my cheek. “I guess you’re right,” I said.

He kissed my other cheek. “You did a great job back there, especially with that last speech. You should be happy with the progress we’ve made today.

Every step we take toward bettering relations between the packs is a worthwhile one.

It’s like…” He racked his brain for an analogy.

“It’s like when you get a seed to sprout.

You plant it in the ground and do what you can to water it and care for it, but you can’t force it to grow.

We just have to wait and see and hope for the best.”

I smiled. I didn’t know Night was partial to gardening metaphors.

“I know we’ve got a long road ahead of us, but I was hoping there would be more of a desire on the Kings’ side to end the war.

Even if they weren’t excited about merging, I thought they would be happy to hear that we wanted to put an end to the bloodshed. ”

“There are a lot of old feelings mixed into this, Bryn,” he reminded me. “And there will be opposition to our packs growing closer, not just because war is all they’ve known, but also because there are some who benefitted from the conflicts between our packs.”

I nuzzled into his neck and kissed him there, tasting the salt on his skin. “That’s true, but I feel like there has to be something more that I can do to encourage them to see our side of things. Grant seemed a little open to the idea. I just wish I knew how to get everyone else on board.”

“Sometimes you can’t win over everyone. Sometimes the best way to convince them that it’s a good idea is to show them.” He lowered his head and brushed our noses together. “I believe in you,” he said, kissing me firmly.