Page 6 of Arranged Wolf's Nanny
Carter fidgeted in his seat, baring his teeth. “I never said they were an actual threat—”
“Which is it, Raph?” Rick interrupted, ignoring Carter entirely. He was done with the squealing small-fry. If the Alpha of the Black Claws wanted to go head-to-head, then he’d be only too happy to put the rabid dog back in his palace. “Either we’re scared of the humans, so we don’t join the armed forces in an official capacity, or we’re scared of the humans, so we automatically acquiesce to their demands for us to join?”
Raph’s fingernails dug into the wood, leaving great gouge marks where he was physically restraining himself from shifting and launching himself at Rick. “You’re twisting my words.”
“I’m revealing yourfear,” Rick said.
Carter had to physically grab Raph’s arms to restrain him.
Rick tutted, turning his head, making sure to capture the gaze of each and every alpha assembled before him. “Gentlemen. In an increasingly globalized world, it would be incredibly short-sighted to cut off routes to power for the sake of appearances. This argument has already been decided. Our forefathers accepted a branch of power at the White House. The expansionto the military is nothing more than a formalization of the reality we already live in.”
There were a few nods of agreement, but Rick wasn’t content with mere acceptance.
He wanted towin.
“Think of it this way,” he said. “Our military might far outweighs that of the humans. We have the opportunity here to shape the way global conflict plays out. To pursue our own goals. What are the humans going to do? Try and stop us? They’ve already failed to do that. And it’ll be so much harder for them to try and kick us out when they threw a welcome banquet for us in the first place.”
The murmurs turned to growls, claws drumming against the table in a steady, violent rhythm. Rick’s gaze swept the room, every alpha meeting his eyes, some defiant, most eager, none willing to break the spell he’d woven.
“And just think,” Rick said softly, “how quickly we could put them down if we were already organized into a single fighting force. The humans don’t stand a chance against us.”
That was all it took. The room erupted in savage laughter and low battle cries.
He didn’t miss the small frown tugging at the corner of Felix’s lips.
He hadn’t liked that.
Rick didn’t care. They needed to tailor their argument to win over the other shifters, those on the fence. He would always go for the winning strategy, personal politics be damned. What did the method matter when the outcome remained the same?
“As always, Rick,” John said amid the roar of the alphas, “you put your arguments so elegantly. I fail to see how anyone could outwit you.”
Rick grinned at John’s tight expression, ready to rub salt on the wound, but something stopped him. Perhaps it was the gleam in John’s eye, Felix’s darkening mood, but something told Rick to accept his win with grace.
Someone called the meeting to a finish, and Rick ran a hand through his hair.
It was about time for a drink.
***
“It’s a bad idea to rile up the Black Claws like that,” Felix murmured as the two leaned against the polished wood of the Round Robin Bar, sipping whisky.
Rick huffed. “I wasn’t riling them up. I was responding to their arguments.”
“You were riling them up,” Felix repeated with a stern look. “All that business about them fearing the humans? How do you think they’re going to prove they’renotscared of the humans? Because I guarantee it will involve brutality of some sort or another.”
“Are you forgetting the new Accord legislation?” Rick asked. “If they harm humans beyond the protection and defense of their pack, they’re breaking the law.Yourlaw, if I remember the proceedings correctly.”
“You’d incite a war?”
Rick’s brow quirked. For all his power, all his influence, Felix would always do all he could to avoid direct combat. It wasn’t to do with weakness; far from it. It was that he was all tooaware of his own strength and bore it like a responsibility rather than an asset.
Rick had no such foibles.
“It’s going to happen sooner or later. And the more groundwork I can lay now to diminish their power, to undermine their reputation, the easier it will be when things finally do come to a head.”
Felix’s lips thinned. “War isn’t inevitable.”
“War was inevitable the moment you took your father’s head. The moment I usurped my father’s seat and instead of taking power for myself, bent the knee toyou.”
