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20

MACK

Istand in an unfamiliar dining room, in front of a room full of strangers.

Years ago, when I was still a boy and alone in the world, I’d have given anything to have my pack around me again.

But now?

Now I wish I was anywhere but here.

As Aerin drove my car away, I told Franklin I wanted to have a meeting with every member of the Raleighs present. That meeting would take place in the dining room, and it would take place now.

“You forced me into this role.” I look at them, one by one. “This is not what I want. But I’ve agreed to it, and I will do the best job I can because when I give my word, I mean it.”

I told Aerin before that I wanted to keep my pain when she offered to heal me. I said it reminded me of something I didn’t want to forget, but I was wrong.

Thisis what happens when you grapple onto the past and refuse to let it go. When you let it consume you and take over your future, you try to force something into being that should not be.

Like the Raleigh Pack.

Not all the faces that stand in front of me are familiar. Some are. There are some new faces and I wonder if maybe they were drifters.

I didn’t just want to speak to them all. I wanted an opportunity to see exactly how many Raleighs there are left, and it’s significantly more than I anticipated.

“Your mission to kidnap omegas stops now,” I continue. “Having omegas doesn’t make you stronger. It makes you the target of every pack you stole them from, and it’s a surefire way to initiate a Raleigh slaughter.”

A man standing near the front scowls at me. “But we?—”

“I wasn’t finished,” I interrupt him.

The shifter with white blond hair and dark browns flattens his lips.

He doesn’t like me. That’s okay. I don’t like him either.

“Our priority, like any new growing, unstable pack, is to focus on stability and security,” I continue as I sweep my gaze around the room.

It’s mostly a male dominated space. The few women are in the back, not a surprise given even when my dad ruled this pack, it was one of the most traditional. The men led. Only men were enforcers, and the women were relegated to maternal and caregiving roles. Like most packs in the country.

“But we’re not a new growing pack,” Franklin denies, frowning. “Everyone knows who we are.”

“That was the old Raleighs, when my dad led it.”

Expressions darken in the room, and it’s clear no one is remotely close to forgiving my dad for having walked out on us.

I wonder how they would feel to know he was back in Karson, a more mellow man than the one they would have recognized. And a man now content to stand on the sidelines and have Ivy, a woman, lead the Lonergan Pack.

“How are you organizing patrols?” I ask.

When no one immediately responds, it’s clear not everyone trusts me and that despite them wanting me to lead, I’m not one of them.

“If you want someone else to be Alpha, just say the word and I’ll walk right out of here,” I say.

“We’ve been doing patrols every hour. A pair walking the perimeter east to west, and another pair in the other direction,” Franklin says.

“The entire perimeter?” I ask, stuffing my hands into my pockets and relaxing my pose to show how little I care about this information. It’s important, and one of the reasons I walked back here in the first place, but I don’t want them to know how closely I’m listening.

“Yes, why?” another man asks, eyeing me suspiciously.

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