Page 95 of Claimed By My Exiled Alphas
“I’m going with you,” Jace said as I pulled on my jacket. “All three of us are.”
“You don’t have to,” I started, but Hollis cut me off.
“Pack stands together,” he said firmly. “Especially for something this important. You’re not doing this alone.”
Through the bonds I felt their certainty, their unified determination to support me regardless of how the council responded. The knowledge settled something in my chest that had been tight with anxiety all day.
“Thank you,” I said quietly. “All of you.”
Talia wrapped her arms around me from behind, and I felt her fierce protectiveness through the bond. “If anyone gives you trouble, they’ll have to go through me first.”
“Terrifying omega,” Jace teased, but I could feel his approval through our connection.
We drove to town hall together, the four of us in my Explorer. Through the bonds I could sense their varying emotional states. Jace’s straightforward confidence. Hollis’s contemplative calm. Talia’s nervous determination. And my own carefully controlled anxiety underneath years of practiced composure.
The parking lot was already full when we arrived. Town council meetings in Hollow Haven always drew decent crowds, but tonight seemed particularly well-attended. After Wes’s revelation at the last meeting and Willa’s public defense of me, word had clearly spread that I might finally speak for myself.
We walked in together, our pack unity obvious in how we moved as a coordinated unit. Talia walked between Jace and me, with Hollis slightly ahead. Protective formation, though I doubted any of us had consciously planned it that way.
The meeting room was packed. Every seat filled, people standing along the walls. I recognized most of the faces from around town. Others were clearly here out of curiosity, wanting to hear directly from the Black family heir who’d betrayed his own blood.
The whispers started the moment we entered. Not hostile, but curious. Assessing. Through the bonds I felt Talia’s spike of anxiety, but she held her head high, her bite marks clearly visible above her scarf.
Mayor Patricia Davidson called the meeting to order, working through routine business with practiced efficiency. But I could feel the tension in the room, everyone waiting for the main event. Councilman Roberts sat to the mayor’s left, looking uncomfortable. Gerald Whitmore was on her right, his expression carefully neutral.
The council had been implicated in accepting bribes and incentives to push my family’s development through. That revelation had caused its own firestorm at the last meeting. But tonight wasn’t about them. It was about me finally owning my part in this story.
“Before we move to new business,” Mayor Davidson said, her tone carefully professional, “Cassian Black has requested time to address the council and the community. Given the significance of what was revealed at our last meeting, I believe we owe him the opportunity to speak in his own words.”
Her reluctance was obvious. At the last meeting, she’d tried to prevent me from speaking, probably worried about what I might say or how the crowd would react. But Willa’s passionate defense and the community’s clear interest had forced her hand.
I stood, and immediately felt three hands touch me briefly. Talia’s on my back. Jace’s on my shoulder. Hollis’s squeezing my arm. Physical reminders that I wasn’t alone, that pack stood together.
I walked to the front of the room, turning to face a sea of faces that ranged from curious to sympathetic to cautiously supportive. The hostility I’d feared wasn’t there. Instead, I saw people who’d already heard the truth from Wes and were now waiting to hear my version of it.
I spotted Wes in the third row, sitting with his packmates Rhett and Elias, and their omega Willa. Wes gave me an encouraging nod. This was his territory, conservation and environmental protection, and he’d been the one fighting to save the watershed before I’d ever arrived. He’d been the one I’d trusted with the evidence, the one who’d taken my documentation and used it to stop my family’s development.
“Thank you, Mayor Davidson,” I said, keeping my voice level and professional. “I appreciate the opportunity to address the community directly.”
Throughout the room I saw faces I’d come to recognize over the past months, people who’d treated me with suspicion that was slowly shifting to something more complex.
“Eighteen months ago, I came to Hollow Haven as a representative of my family’s development company,” I began. “Most of you know this story by now, thanks to Wes Thatcher’s presentation at the last council meeting. But I want to tell you myself, in my own words, what happened and why.”
The room was absolutely silent. Through the bonds I felt Talia’s fierce pride, Jace’s protective energy, Hollis’s quiet encouragement.
“My role was to conduct final site surveys, manage community relations, and prepare the groundwork for what would have been a massive resort and residential developmentproject. I came here believing in my family’s vision, believing the economic benefits would outweigh any environmental concerns.” I paused. “I was wrong.”
I looked directly at Wes. “There was already someone here fighting to protect this watershed. Wes Thatcher had been documenting the ecological importance of this valley, making the case for why it needed protection rather than development. I was supposed to neutralize his arguments, discredit his data, make the project seem inevitable.”
“Instead, you gave me the ammunition I needed to stop it,” Wes said quietly.
“Instead, I actually read your research,” I corrected. “Actually looked at what we’d be destroying. The environmental impact studies my family had commissioned showed exactly what Wes had been saying. The development would have contaminated the watershed that serves three towns. Would have destroyed critical wildlife corridors. Would have fundamentally altered an ecosystem that took thousands of years to establish. Eventually, the entire town’s water supply would have all but dried up as it was diverted to the new development instead.”
Councilman Roberts shifted uncomfortably. He’d been one of the ones who’d accepted incentives from my family to support the project.
“My father knew all of this,” I continued. “The internal documents showed that mitigation was either impossible or prohibitively expensive. But he made the decision to proceed anyway, burying the unfavorable studies and presenting edited versions that downplayed the risks. And some members of this council accepted incentives to help push it through despite knowing the potential consequences.”
The whispers grew louder. Roberts looked like he wanted to disappear. Even Mayor Davidson appeared uncomfortable, though she’d been one of the few who hadn’t taken monetarybribes there were definitely other incentives which had swayed her vote.
