Page 76 of Wolves of the Rising Moon

Got it.

“But more than that. We respect our land and the magic that springs from it. Wolf lives are so sacred, we’d never kill or fight for dominance. We’d never intentionally harm another unless they intended harm to us. The Dead One kept you captive for a long time, so long many packs are trapped in old ways. Ways our packs abandoned generations ago. It’s hard to hear, but you’ve stopped growing. And that’s no one’s fault but his. But no pack in Canada that I’m aware of still fights for dominance and no packs make bearing heirs a requirement for being alpha.”

Murmuring, lots of it, and I can’t tell if it’s a good thing or not.

I push on. “It’s presumptuous for sure. Coming to your land and telling you essentially that you're backwards because of the trauma you’ve suffered. It’s an awful thing to do, and honestly, I had second, third, and fourth thoughts about. But you know what finally convinced me this was the right thing to do?”

I pause, scanning the crowd for any kind of positive reinforcement.

I only find confusion, disbelief, and neutral expressions. But it’s Claudia who ends up giving it to me.

Do it. It’s gonna suck, but I’m right here with you.

I take a breath and ask one more thing of her.Can you get their names outta someone’s head?

Done and done.

I find the faces of those seven omegas in the back row. So closed off, so haunted. I wonder how I didn’t notice them before.

I stand taller. For them. Raise my chin higher. For them.

“I was attacked last night in your woods by your wolves. Three of them. Christopher Marx, Wade Dumfry, and Doug Stanz separated me from the rest of you, surrounded me in a field and tried to force themselves on me in wolf form.”

I pause again. This time it’s not for effect but to keep myself from vomiting as the weight of what I’d just said out loud hits me.

I’m alone up here.

No one to touch. No one to help me carry this.

“You can imagine this is extremely difficult for me to talk about,” I say, voice stronger than I feel. “But if that happened to me, the daughter of the last Pack Alpha, mate to the current one, I can only imagine the poor treatment of omegas born here.”

The crowd erupts in chaos. Anger. People shouting, standing, shaking their fists. And I can’t tell if they’re doing itatme because they want me to shut up. Orforme in solidarity.

And I don’t much care. I power through, taking a deep breath deep into my belly to project my voice.

“If there’s any among you who are unhappy with your situation, if you’re being mistreated, I’m personally inviting you to seek asylum on my mountain. We can house as many as the need requires. You don’t have to do anything. Just think the word ‘yes’ and we’ll help you.

“Thank you all for your time.”

I sit back down and no one says a word. Not the crowd. Not Jaxson.

Not even Jonah or Drago or Rafe.

You did excellent, Omega 1. Now we just wait and see if anyone asks.

What? What do you mean? No one’s asked?I thought for certain they’d jump at the chance. Even if it was just a whisper in their minds, I was positive…

I’d opened up a vein and bled for that speech. I thought for sure…

I shake my head loose of those thoughts. I asked them to do the hardest thing they’ll ever have to do. Leave everything they know forever.

It won’t be easy for them, but maybe, just maybe, I got through to one or two.

The silence breaks and again, people are on their feet, shaking their fists at me. This time, I catch a few phrases.

“Who do you think you are?”

“No one here is mistreated.”

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