“But I’m determined to be the alpha that you need me to be.” I had their undivided attention. “But, having said that, I’ll not continue to run the pack the way my father did.”
A few eyebrows rose with interest at that piece of information.
“I’ve begun to put into place the changes. Firstly, all children will start integrating into the nearby public schools.” A few of my pack members looked at each other and nodded their heads. They seemed to approve. “There’ll be more changes to come. I need you to know that I want to give you more freedom than my father ever did. You’re not just a soldier expected to fight, you are part of a pack, a family who will protect and care for each other.”
Some of them looked surprised. Maybe they’d expected me to run the pack the same way my father had. I didn’t have the stomach for that. I didn’t want to inflict pain and fear. I’d seen the way Blake and Cade had run their packs and I wanted to my pack members to look at me with the same respect and not the fear.
“Richard is on his way here,” I revealed. It was time to lay it all out. It was going to be the only way to save my pack. I would tell them the truth, and the fate of our pack was in their hands, not mine.
I saw a few surprised and alarmed looks but a few looked at me with no emotion. Those were the pack members that made me nervous.
“He wants this pack,” I stated, telling them exactly what Richard was after.
“You know him and you know how he will run this pack,” I told them. “I know there are people here that want him to be the alpha.”
There was a hushed silence as some pack members looked around at the others.
“When he gets here, you will have to make the choice of who you’ll stand with,” I instructed. I kept my voice firm and calm, keeping hidden the nervous mess I was inside. This could backfire on me so badly.
My life depended on the choices they were going to make.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Keri
We stood by the gate, waiting for Richard to arrive. It was hard not to try and prepare for the battle we were about to potentially face. I had no idea how many of my pack members were going to defect and that left me with very little to work with.
If my father were still here, no one would dare betray him, and if he found out someone had betrayed him, the punishment would be death. There would be no mercy.
I wasn’t my father and now I was determined to handle problems in my pack differently. I could read the open thoughts of some of my pack members but I couldn’t bank on the fact that they might be hiding their true thoughts from me. I eyed out the members who were blocking their thoughts. I could order them to follow me but that would only last for as long as they chose to be in my pack.
“I’m going to prepare the medical supplies,” Curtis said to me.
I nodded to him and he hurried off in the direction of the medical center.
I always knew when I’d asked Curtis to be my beta that he wouldn’t always be able to put all of his attention on being my second-in-command. One of his priorities was also the medical center and tending to the wounded. I couldn’t appoint someone else as my beta until I could find someone else I trusted, so, for the moment, I would have to just deal with it.
The medical center needed to be ready if a fight went down today. I really hoped that enough of my people would put their trust in me to avoid going up against Richard. A good alpha would go to war to protect their pack members, but an even better alpha would do whatever it took to avoid a situation where pack members would get hurt. There had to be a way of getting out of this without shedding blood.
“You nervous?” Kyle asked, and I noticed he was standing beside me.
“I’d be lying if I said no,” I replied honestly.
“It’ll be okay,” he assured me softly. I didn’t believe him. We had no way of knowing how it was going to go down.
“I didn’t want you caught up in all of this,” I said, needing him to know that I hadn’t expected him to stay. He wasn’t a pack member so he had no loyalty to us.
“There is no way I was ever going to leave you to face this without me,” he replied softly, giving me a side-glance.
“Thanks,” I replied softly, not meeting his gaze. I could be hard and I wasn’t the easiest person to befriend, but he had broken through the wall I’d built up around me. I considered him my friend and, even though I was scared for his safety, I was glad he was here with me.
I noticed a few pack members, most of them female, walk over to me. I watched as they all looked with determination as they stood behind me and I felt a little hope rise up inside of me.
They were already making their decision.
Maybe there was still hope that I would keep the majority of my pack’s vote and Richard wouldn’t be able to take control of my pack.
Kyle gave me an encouraging smile but even though I now had some that had cast their vote in my favor, there were still too many members undecided standing in a crowd waiting for Richard to arrive. The sounds of wolves running close by brought my full attention away from my pack to the gates that were our only barrier to Richard and his small army of rogues.
