Page 47 of Pack Rage (The Splintered Bond #4)

Chapter 46

Future Plans

FLOR

I f someone had told me I could live the rest of my life in that guest bedroom with my mates, I would’ve jumped on the chance faster than a duck on a June bug. All that was waiting outside that door was a shit ton of work, a buttload of butthurt shifters from all over the world, and a field piled high and wide with the dead who needed to be sent on to the moon.

I sat at a table in what Finn had called a “conservatory” but was really a fancy glassed-in porch, and ate my third sandwich of the afternoon. This one was a ham and pickle thing on some kind of bread I’d never tried. Not bad.

Of course, I’d eaten frogs and even rats before. Thinking of those days in the woods, I flicked my ear tag and listened to the others around me make the endless to-do list for the combined pack leaders.I’d never been gladder not to be an Alpha, relieved that my part of being in charge had ended with the fighting. But I admired my Alphas as they spoke.

Brand, Finn, Luke, and Glen had all gotten dressed in clean sweats. They sat with me, across from Sergeant and Margarette, the late afternoon sun warming our faces through the wall of glass windows. Finn had found me some clothes that fit somehow, even though it seemed like everyone in his pack was six feet tall. The red wool sweater and black trousers felt expensive, and had fancy French tags, but the new tactical belt that held my steak knife and sword at my waist was the best part of the outfit. The sun would go down soon, and we knew we had to figure some shit out before the moon rose again.

Sergeant was talking with Finn. “The other packs, the smaller ones and the foreign visitors, are demanding to be let go, and take their dead with them. For now, we’ve barricaded the gates?—”

“Why?” I butted in. Didn’t we want everyone to go home? “Why not let the door hit ‘em on the way out?”

Luke explained. “We don’t know which ones were colluding with Aidan, and which ones he was going to force into his new ‘alliance.’ If we let them go, they could come back to challenge us, even bring an army over to try to attack our Council’s member packs before we’ve recovered from this fight.”

Margarette scoffed. “Take their dead. Idiots. The funeral pyres are already being built. They’ll be given to the moon where they fell, not hauled in car trunks and body bags across the country.”

Sergeant nodded. “I tried to talk to their Alphas, but…” He wore dark shadows under his eyes, and his tattoos stood out on his arms and neck, some of them red and raw, like he’d been scratching at them. I wasn’t sure he’d slept at all since the battle.

Glen broke in. “But they see you as a rogue Alpha, and your pack?—”

“It’s not an official pack. No Council has named it. They won’t listen to me, and some of the smaller pack Alphas said outright that when both Bradley and Aidan died, their own allegiance to the North American Council died as well.”

I tapped my chin while they kept arguing, trying to figure out how they were going to sort out the good from the bad, and how to put a new Council Head in place, or even if they should.

Finn flat-out refused to put himself forward. “My pack won’t even come to the Mansion to help the wounded. I felt dozens of them leaving today, probably defecting to a pack overseas.”

Brand growled. “You’re their Alpha. You can command them to stay.”

“I don’t want them,” Finn stated baldly. “I’m letting them go. I don’t want shifters who learned the lessons my parents taught about what it means to be pack. I don’t want to force shifters who were traumatized and abused by their pack Enforcers and Alpha to stay when they finally have the chance to be free.” He finished in awhisper, “I don’t want to be Alpha.” My heart ached for him, but I understood.

Glen felt the same way, I could tell. He reached out and patted Finn’s shoulder, but didn’t say it out loud. His eyes went to his mom on his right.

Margarette shifted in her chair restlessly, staring at the food on her plate like it repulsed her, and she might jump away from the table and run screaming into the woods. Or grab a knife and run down to the lower levels to kill every one of the remaining Eastern Enforcers.

At some point in the night, she’d shaved her hair off entirely, and changed into a plain black shirt and pants. A maid’s uniform, it looked like. Somehow, she looked even more badass than usual, though it was impossible to meet her eyes without wanting to cry myself.

“They’ll become rogues. Shifters need an Alpha,” Margarette reminded Finn.

“His shifters have one. What they need is a kick in the ass,” Glen suggested, placing a few blueberries on his mom’s plate. They were her favorite, and she eventually picked one up and ate it. But only one.

I knew Finn’s runaway shifters might be some of the worst pack members, but I kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t like they could hide from the boogeyman, and if any of them had hurt the maids here, or Finn’s sister, I’d let Grigor take a field trip to hunt them down.

Grigor wasn’t in the porch with us—he was off looking for magic stuff in the Mansion and on the grounds. If Elina had made one evil magic wand, she’d probably made a dozen, according to him. He needed to make sure her influence was completely gone from the earth as well.

But he spoke into my mind. Time to speak up, my queen. Step up into your rightful place. He sent an image of me wearing some fancy crown and holding a scepter, on a throne I was almost certain was made of the bones of my enemies.

I rolled my eyes mentally.I was no ruler. I was a reject . His laughter when I reminded him of that went on for far longer than it should’ve.

Finally, I got tired of listening to the others farting around. I stood abruptly, and the room went silent.“So, we need a Council Head, right? For tonight. We need to meet before or after the funerals, right?” Everyone stared, but I went on when they all took deep breaths to argue. “I mean, the Council meeting never was adjourned, or whatever. So who’s the leader now?”

For some reason, that shut them up. But why the fuck were they all blinking at me?

I tried to keep my patience. “You could vote, I suppose. Heck, all the Alphas could. The smaller packs, and the four main Alphas. Luke, Glen, Finnick, and Brand. Choose one of y’all to be the leader.” I waved at Finn and Glen, who were both already shaking their heads.

“I’m not planning to stay Alpha here,” Finn said quietly. “I won’t leave just yet, but… there are too many bad memories. Too many years of pain. I’ll need to find someone else to take my place.” The others didn’t seem at all surprised, and I didn’t ask what he planned to do, or who he might be able to sucker into stepping in here. If it was up to me, I’d bulldoze the whole place, and rebuild somewhere else.

“Maybe when it’s safe, you could bring Tana to Mountain?” I suggested. “I’d love to meet her.”

“She’d love you.” Finn’s smile was a flicker, there and gone in a blink.

“I’m turning Northern over to Patrick,” Glen announced softly. Margarette flinched, but he went on. “It’ll take some time to get him up to speed, but I want to move to Mountain, spend every night in Flor’s arms, and get fat off Ida’s cooking.”

Brand grumbled about having no peace, and tossed his napkin at Glen’s head, but he winked at me.

“Okay, not you two. So, Luke or Brand.”

“Nope,” Luke said. “I don’t even think Southern should remain a recognized pack. I think Tenebris and Southern should be folded into one, and Sergeant should lead.” Everyone turned to him in shock, but he was already nodding to Sergeant, who didn’t seem surprised. When had they talked about this?

“That’s kinda drastic. Sergeant, would you lead a combined pack?” His chin dipped once. Curiosity itched at me. “What would you do, Luke?”

“Be with you,” he replied instantly. “Stay at your side, wherever you are.”

“Gonna need to build a bigger bed,” Brand muttered.

I blushed. “Yeah, but like… for real. What do you want to do? At my side.” Glen laughed and started to say something rude, but Margarette pulled herself out of her stupor for long enough to snap him with her cloth napkin.

Luke grinned. “I was in charge of Southern’s investments, and Sergeant has no desire to take over that. I could still take care of the accounts, as a friend of the pack. But I’ve heard you talking about the library at Mountain, Flor. I want to see it, and I’d love to read all the pack laws I never had a chance to. Callaway brought me over here as a child, and made sure I never knew what rights and responsibilities I had as an Enforcer, or even as an Heir.”

He fiddled with his own napkin, looking down. “I’d want to study the old ways in depth. I think I’d like to learn all I can, then teach the younger members of any of the packs, or ones like me who should know better, but were kept from the truth. We’re going to need to unravel the mess Aidan and Callaway made.”

“I love you too damn much,” I said, wiping my eyes. I turned to Brand before I got any more emotional. “So, looks like you’re it, Bearman. You’re the strongest Alpha left in this Mansion, at least—” I shut up when the slight scent of a lie filled my nostrils.

My own lie. A chill ran up my spine. “What? Wait, who’s a stronger Alpha than you?”

Brand’s mouth twitched. “I’m pretty sure it’s you, wildflower.”

“ Fuck no.” I shoved away from the table, silverware flying, my empty coffee cup tipping over. “That’s impossible.” Nobody argued, but they all stared with varying degrees of patience or pity, or so it seemed. “Okay, sure, I had powerful relatives. And I know I got a level up, or whatever, when we all bonded. But that’s not my power, that’s yours—it was you guys. I’m just the?—”

The guys all spoke at once. “The center.” “The throne.” “The focus.” “The heart.”

The queen, Grigor whispered.

I swallowed, my heart pounding somewhere close to my throat. “The fuck.”

“Why are you so shocked?” Brand asked. “Your Del taught you all about strength. You know it’s more than a powerful body, or wolf. Strength comes from within.”

“Not that much strength. Not Head Alpha power!”

“You’re an Alpha Mother,” Sergeant said. “What did you think that meant?”

Was I hyperventilating? I felt my mates send soothing waves of comfort through our bonds, and suddenly, I could breathe again. “I really didn’t know what it meant. I thought it was ceremonial, or something.”

Sergeant took a deep breath. “I was a member of the Moonblessed Warriors. One of the youngest, but I had the same training. One of the first lessons we were taught was about balance—that the moon gave us witchcraft and wolfcraft, Alphas and Alpha Mothers. But the truth is that all of it comes from one source, and it’s only our understanding of the moon’s power that makes it seem like there is a distinction.” He took his own empty coffee mug and a juice glass from the center of the table. Lifting a pitcher of water, he poured half of the water into one, and the rest into the other. “Is one of these coffee, and the other juice, just because of the shape of the containers?”

What was he saying? My mouth was suddenly bone dry, but I sure as fuck wasn’t going to drink either one of those containers of water.

I looked around the table at every one of my mates, and Margarette, and even Sergeant. They were all smiling now. “No. Not just no, hell no.” I put a hand over my heart, wondering if a shifter my age could die of a heart attack. “Not in a million years.”

Grigor! Get me out of here. I needed him; I didn’t think my legs were gonna work. The fucker just laughed in my thoughts, though I felt him grow nearer.

“Don’t fret, wildflower,” Brand murmured, stepping closer. “You don’t have to lead the Council. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. You owe them nothing. The women and girls at Eastern, the rest of Southern, the Tenebris boys—they’ll be fine. Surely they’ll trust decisions made for them by strange males.”

He grinned as I bared my teeth at him. “And Grigor thinks you’re the role model? That was low.”

Margarette shook her head. “You all have to stand together. The Alphas won’t listen to a woman as young as you are, no matter how worthy or strong. How old are you, Flor?”

“Twenty,” Luke answered for me. “She turned twenty on July thirtieth.”

“Ah, wildflower. I missed your birthday?”

“We all did.” Finn stood and walked to my side, dropping to one knee. “I’ll make it up to you next month, if you’ll let me. I’ll take you out, and show you the best part of living this close to a city.”

I swallowed. “Take me out? Like, a date?”

“Dinner at my favorite rooftop restaurant, maybe the ballet, or the symphony. Dancing, if you like.”

I wasn’t sure why I was blushing. “A date. I’ve never been on a date before.” In the background, the other guys were groaning and cursing softly, but Finn’s green eyes had my complete attention.

“I’ll be honored to be your first.”

“I can’t wait,” I whispered, leaning forward to kiss him.

“Enough romancing the girl,” Sergeant snapped. “It’s time.”

Brand murmured into my ear as we walked down the hallway, his hand on my arm all that kept me from running away, “Remember, wildflower. I love you above all else. Everything is your choice.”

Pretty words, but I knew that sometimes the world made the choices for you.