Page 79 of Alpha Reid

Chase shoots daggers at her through his eyes in response.

I catch Serena subtly rolling her eyes in response to Fallon’s dig, turning to Chase and offering him a smile. “How’s it going?”

He shoves his hands in his hoodie pocket, shrugging. “All good. Ready to get this over with.”

I clap Chase on the shoulder. “You and me both,” I sigh, looking across the room to where Theo’s dad, Alpha Anders, is standing and chatting with Jax’s old man, Alpha Damian, and Chase’s father, Alpha Vaughn. I’m sure Chase is referring to the shadow pack conflict in general, but right now, I’d settle with getting this meeting over with. Council meetings are always a little painful.

“Finally,” Brock mumbles, and in my peripheral vision I see Theo and Brooke descending the stairs, ready to join the meeting. Again, it’s ironic how Brock’s suddenly harping on tardiness when he used to be the last one to show up at these things. Anders also looks Theo’s way, and upon realizing that everyone else is present, he calls the meeting to order and directs us all to take seats in the large gathering room of the packhouse.

As far as the six-pack council goes, there’s no hierarchy- each pack has equal representation and we make decisions by putting things to a majority vote. Therefore, when it comes to our council meetings, we rotate the location between the six packhouses and wherever the meeting is hosted, the alpha of that pack takes charge of running the meeting. Since this meeting is in Summervale, Alpha Anders is technically running the show this morning- though given the context of this meeting, I’m sure us squad leaders will have a lot more to say. Once we’re all settled in and ready to begin, Anders quickly hands the meeting over to Gray, the unofficial head of the security squad.

Gray gets to his feet, moving to the front of the room to address everyone. “Well, we all know why we’re here,” he begins with a heavy sigh, his voice a bit strained like his throat is tight. “We’ve been over our battle plans countless times, so there’s no need to go over every detail again. The most important thing is that we’re on schedule and it’s time for the final phase. It’s time to go to war.”

The room is eerily silent- so quiet that I swear you could hear a fucking pin drop, which is no easy feat with over twenty people present. We’re all tense, ready for this thing to be over but not necessarily ready for it to begin. When it comes to war, can you ever really be ready? You can plan for every scenario, but war is essentially unpredictable. The outcome is uncertain, which has everybody on edge.

“All alphas will be on the front lines, all betas will be commanding the civilian forces in their respective towns,” Gray continues. “Does anyone have specific questions about the plan? This is our last opportunity to switch things up or make changes.”

Anders speaks up first. “Damian, Vaughn, and myself have each pulled a few of our strongest pack warriors to join us on the front lines,” he says, then looks over to Brock. “It’s my understanding that Rowe has done the same.”

Brock nods at the mention of his dad, who recently retired from his position as Riverton’s Alpha and installed Brock as his successor. “He has.”

“You’ll just have to let us know where you want us when it comes to positioning,” Anders continues. “Our groups are smaller than the teams you’ve formed, but we can fill in any gaps along the perimeter.”

Gray presses his lips into a tight line, and I swear you can see his wheels turning. When it comes to battle strategy, the guy has a knack for it- he’s always two steps ahead. “That’ll work out well, there are a couple of spots I can already think of,” he says. “If you guys don’t mind being adaptable, we can hammer that out when we’re getting into position tomorrow morning.”

“Works for me,” Damian sighs, threading his fingers together behind his head and leaning back on the couch. Always so laid back, even in the face of battle. It’s no wonder where Jax gets it.

“Same here,” Vaughn nods. He glances toward Chase, who is seated on the other side of Serena. “Though I would like to be positioned near my boy.”

Things have been a little tense with Vaughn throughout battle planning- he didn’t want his son to fight at all, but Chase refused to sit on the sidelines. To calm his concerns, Vaughn was promised that the reserve squad and the high school recruits would be second line, so they’d have less of a chance of seeing combat. But of course, Chase insisted on being at the front with us other alphas- and why shouldn’t he be? He may be young, but the kid’s massive and he has some serious fighting skills. Vaughn finally came around to the idea, but it comes as no surprise that he’s now making a last-ditch effort to look out for his son.

Chase cringes like he’s embarrassed by his dad’s request and yanks the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head, slumping backwards on the couch. “I’m not a fuckin’ child,” he mutters under his breath.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look out for you,” Vaughn fires back.

“I’ve got a position in mind that will work,” Gray interjects with a nod toward Vaughn.

He nods back appreciatively while Chase folds his arms and continues to sulk.

Someday he’ll appreciate his old man looking out for him, but today’s not that day. Admittedly, I didn’t appreciate my father’s watchful eye when I was that age, either.

“So is there anything left to do? Any loose ends?” Anders questions.

Gray gives a shake of his head. “I think we’ve got everything covered. Just need to make the call.”

Serena stiffens beside me as several pairs of eyes go to her. Her role in all of this is to make a call to her shadow pack contact, still playing the part of the spy for them, to report that she’ll have access to plant the virus and shut down the security system overnight. They’ll expect a call from her to tell them that it’s done, and when she makes that call, she’ll say that only the eastern border was affected, thereby forcing them to attack from that side. They’ll think they have the element of surprise on their side with the security system down, but we’ll be waiting for them.

“IT has isolated the security system on the eastern border and placed it on its own server, so we’ll actually go through with planting the virus there, just in case they have a way to track it,” Brooke supplies, sitting up straighter and adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

“I’ll make the call today,” Serena pipes up, looking around at the others. I reach over for her hand, sliding mine underneath and threading my fingers through hers. She turns to me with a small smile. “Probably later this afternoon. Don’t want to give them too much time to prepare.”

“That works,” Gray murmurs. He sweeps his gaze around the room. “So, we all good?”

Several others in the room nod and murmur in assent, and I find myself nodding along.

This whole ordeal has me feeling fucking numb. I’m not the only one who isn’t myself- the other guys have distant looks on their faces, casting faraway stares. Even Theo and Jax, who are usually quick with a joke to lighten the mood, seem like they’re a million miles away this morning. There’s a heavy feeling throughout the entire room as we all contemplate what’s to come.

Everyone sticks around for an unusually long time after the council meeting, just making casual conversation and shooting the shit with one another. I think we all realize that this could be the last time we’re all together like this- and that’s a pretty fucking surreal thought. In order for there to be a six-pack council, there has to be a six-pack… so we’d better win this thing tomorrow.

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