Page 35 of What's Rogue Got To Do With It

“You seem perfect to us,” Larkin said.

Larkin was looking at it through a different lens than I was. I understood instantly what the old man was talking about. It wasn’t about whether or not he was the leader we needed, it was about him being the leader others would perceive as being weak.

Now that attention had been brought to the pack and it had grown, people were going to look at this land and his position and see it as an opportunity to come in, challenge him, and take over. The histories of our people were filled with that.

I always thought it was a thing of the past. But the more Auden spoke, the more I realized he didn’t. He never said if he heard rumblings or if it was just a gut reaction, but he was firm in his belief that I needed to take over the pack and become the Alpha.

I had the pedigree from my family lineage. And while my mate looked far more Alpha and his beast possessed a lot of strength, he was an Omega and that wasn’t going to help us, not in the eyes of others.

“I won’t fight you. I won’t. You’ve already done so much for us. If I need to fight for a pack to protect you, I’ll do that, but I won’t be the one to end your life. Not for a title. Not after all you’ve done.”

And then Auden did something I never in a million years would have expected him to do. He laughed… laughed so hard he started to choke. Then he laughed until he snorted and eventually until he fell off his seat.

The old man was losing it.

“What’s going on here?” Larkin asked, and I didn’t have a clue.

If he thought this was the normal pack protocol I could explain away, my mate had a lot to learn about pack structures. Becauseneverhad I ever heard of an Alpha who laughed at someone worried about it and trying to avoid a challenge.

Finally, he set himself right again, his eyes tearing from all the laughter.

“I don’t see what’s funny.” I said, my eyes darting back and forth between my mate and our Alpha.

“It’s notreallyfunny. But it just reminds me of how I… let’s just say anticipating the look on your face when you realize what I really asked you.”

I still had no clue what was going on. So I stared at him, waiting for him to clarify. He eventually shrugged and shook his head, the silliness he’d shown gone.

“Who is the Alpha of this pack? Let’s start there.”

“You’re Alpha, Auden.” Larkin answered for us.

“Exactly. And who decides how we do things in this pack?”

“We do?” Larkin asked.

Auden shook his head. “Nope. Me.Iam the Alpha. AndIhave decided that blood challenges are what get most packs into trouble. If someone from the outside comes in and blood challenges us, we have to go by shifter law. But within the pack, we don’t need to allow them at all.”

“So you’re saying… I just become Alpha?” That didn’t sound right.

“No. There needs to be a challenge—that we can’t change. Stand up.”

I did.

“Okay. We’re going to decide this the only way we can: Rock, Paper, Scissors. Do you know the game?”

Just when I thought he was being serious and rational… There was no way he was serious, except when I nodded, he said,“Perfect. House rules which apply only for today: the challenger can only use paper.”

If I was playing Rock, Paper, Scissors anywhere else, I rarely used paper. There was always something that just felt soweakabout it. But then he called, “The challenge has been set. Rock, Paper, Scissors… now!” And my choice was to obey or not.

And as I threw paper, just like he commanded. He threw rock and went, “Oh no, I lost! You’re Alpha.”

This could not be my life… but also it very much was. Before I could say a word, he got on his knees, bore his neck, and swore his allegiance to me as Alpha. He then called my mate over to do the same.

We went from having dinner, to listening to what I thought were the ramblings of an old man, to me being Alpha of our pack of three, in a few minutes' time.

I wouldn’t have believed the ceremony worked, if I didn’t sense the Alpha bond already forming and my beast commanded that we shift together.

“And now we shift.” Became my very first act as Alpha.

---