Page 189 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
Wayne’s cabin was farther inside the compound, a few yards from the library, where I was repairing one of the reading benches. In Wayne’s sixty years of life, he’d had six pups. Because of that, he lived in one of the larger cabins that were impossible to miss.
I walked up to the door and knocked before stepping inside. They were expecting me, so there was no need to wait for an invitation.
I found the council members sitting at the varnished wood table in Wayne’s living room. They stood as I entered. Jasmine Howler, the second-oldest in her early fifties, had her lips pressed into a slight, thin smile. Her chocolate-brown hair was threaded with gray, and she kept it shorn to her chin. Her chin had a scar from her old battles with the Kings. She was amongthe first women to sign up to be more than just a mother and caretaker of the pack.
Wayne grinned at me with his arms crossed. He had a full salt-and-pepper beard, silver hair, and a round stomach. But his grandfatherly looks didn’t match the sharp look in his eyes. Not unlike Dom, who could smile in the face of his enemy, Wayne could switch his friendly grin to a glare when someone said something he didn’t like or spoke out of turn.
The rest of those on the council were in their mid-to-late forties. Ida Kells kept her blond hair in two braids down her back, and her arms were covered in tattoos. Most of the rest of her body was also inked. Besides serving on the council, she passed down the art of stick-and-poke tattooing in the pack.
Graham Hanks was bald, and his limbs were corded with muscle. He had been Gregor’s beta before Gregor abandoned the Wargs for the Kings. Graham had almost become alpha in Gregor’s absence, but because he was so ashamed of not preventing Gregor’s betrayal, he’d refused to take up the mantle. Instead, he had served as a fighter until a couple of years ago when his bad knees forced him to retire. Even with shot knees, he was one of the strongest members of the pack.
Finally, there was Ellen Grousby. She served in the infirmary in addition to being on the council. She and Dr. Stan were second cousins, and they had learned about medicine around the same time.
The five of them had such rich, honorable backgrounds serving the Wargs. Though I was their alpha, it was hard not to feel a little starstruck around them. Normally, I’d ask to hear a story or seek advice from them. Given the circumstances of this meeting, however, sharing a beer and a steak with them was out of thequestion. The tension in that room was even more intense than the tension outside. I felt a twinge of regret for not having Dom along with me. At least then, I wouldn’t have to stand before these titans while delivering my progress report.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” I said.
“It’s good to see you alive and well, Alpha Night,” Ellen said. “We heard about your awful injury, as well as young Evan’s betrayal.”
I nodded in acknowledgment of her well wishes. “It’ll take more than that to keep me down, Ellen. As for the betrayal…it was an unfortunate blow, but nothing we couldn’t overcome.”
“Very true.” She nodded. “We’re glad you’ve recovered and seemed to have worked the pack into a fervor to repair the compound.”
“I’m only doing what I should’ve done a while ago.” I had to be humble, but to be honest? I was living off the high of getting so many pack members happily buzzing with activity.
“Alright, now that the formalities are out of the way…” Wayne and the others took their seats while I continued to stand. “Let’s talk.”
I took a short, quiet breath, then launched into the story about the ferals’ attack, Evan’s betrayal, and Troy’s escape. Dom had likely already mentioned some of this to them, so I stuck to the facts and answered whatever questions they had.
When I finished, Graham leaned back in his seat. “We’ve heard whispers about the feral attack. We’ve already started to gather wolves to shore up our borders.”
“I heard as much from Dom,” I said.
“Then he’s also told you that he briefed us about Troy.” Wayne’s dark eyes narrowed. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the Kings would be so shoddy about their prisons, but this is very, very far from good news.”
As a pup, I would have shuddered under Wayne’s harsh glare, but as an adult, I could meet his gaze without flinching. I understood his anger—after all, I was still pissed Troy’s escape had happened under my watch. I wished just as much as Wayne did that I could find Troy and put an end to him with my own hands.
“We need to send out our own wolves to hunt him down. It’s the only way to ensure we stop him before he does anything worse,” Jasmine said.
I nodded. “That has already been handled. Bryn sent wolves to search for him.”
At the mention of Bryn’s name, the council members shared a look that made my hackles bristle. It wasn’t outwardly disrespectful, but it was far too close to that for comfort.
“We expected as much,” Jasmine said. “She couldn’t exactly do nothing after Troy’s escape. But from what we’ve heard of your Bryn, she seems a soft-hearted sort.”
“Did she send out a party to arrest him or kill him?” Wayne asked.
“Arrest him,” I answered.
At Wayne’s sigh, annoyance flared in my chest, and my wolf began to growl. Wayne’s children and I had grown up together. Frankie was his youngest, and she was two years younger than me. Wayne’s position on the council and my closeness in age tohis kids made him think he could speak to me like he spoke to them.
I leveled my gaze at him. As alpha, I was irked by Wayne’s attitude toward Bryn. But because he was on the council, he had more leeway than others in the pack. His authority wasn’t something I could easily usurp, but I didn’t want to do that, anyway. After all, he was an asset on the council as he had the most experience and was among the oldest pack members. Given all the struggles that we Wargs had endured through the years, it took a tough-as-nails person to have survived as long as he had.
“Mymate,” I said, reminding Wayne and the others whom they were talking about, “is not the kind of alpha who believes in unnecessary violence. The Kings are her pack to rule, and it is my opinion that we should respect her decision.” Even if I didn’t agree with Bryn’s decision, I intended to support her no matter what.
Unfortunately, the council didn’t seem moved by my words.
“That may be true in an ideal world,” Jasmine said. “But you are the alpha of the Wargs. Your duty is, first and foremost, to your people. You need to make sure Troy is dead and buried.”
