I felt the nervous knot in the pit of my stomach as I turned to face my pack.
“Richard is here,” I informed them. “Open the gates.”
The faint noises on the other side of the gate faded into a deathly silence as the only sound came from the steel of the gates swinging open. It was crazy opening our only line of defense, but I knew it was useless since traitors were ready to stab us in the back anyway.
Richard stood arrogantly with his army of rogues in their wolf form. A quick sweep of my gaze on the scene in front of me told me there were more than thirty.
This wasn’t looking good but I suppressed my fear.
“You going to surrender?” Richard taunted with a smile, and I wanted to smack it off his face.
I’d always disliked him and at times I’d hated him as much as I had my father.
“No,” I replied calmly, refusing to show him that he was getting to me.
Richard laughed and shook his head at me. He thought he had the upper hand because he didn’t know that I knew about the traitors and I was about to enlighten him to that fact.
“I know you have spies on the inside,” I stated to him and I saw a moment of surprise before he disguised it with a triumphant smile. It was hard to keep my cool when it looked like, despite his shock, that he still thought he was going to take over my pack.
“I’ve spoken tomypack.” I emphasized the word ‘my’ to let him know that I still considered myself in charge of it. “I’ve told them that they can choose to leave my pack and join your army without consequence.”
He was surprised by that little piece of information. He, like my father, would have punished them with death.
“You’re too weak,” Richard said with disdain like I was something he needed to scrape off the bottom of his shoe. “You should never have taken charge of this pack.”
His words didn’t hurt me. I stood firm with my hands on my hips and I felt the supporting presence of Kyle as he stood beside me, glaring at Richard.
“And why are you here?” Richard spat at Kyle.
“I’m here to watch her teach you a lesson,” Kyle shot back. I felt a little smile tug at my lips at his words.
I turned back to face my pack.
“I cannot lead you if you can’t trust me as your alpha. So anyone who stands before me who doesn’t think I can do the job and lead this pack needs to make their decision now.”
I scanned the crowed, trying to meet their gaze without showing the fear that was growing inside of me. This had the potential to go so wrong that we wouldn’t leave with our lives, but if I somehow managed to pull this off I would know who truly believed in me.
Kyle reached for my one hand and squeezed it gently, giving me the support I so badly needed at that moment.
Blake. I’d tried not to think about him so I could concentrate, but I missed him. As much as I wanted him with me, I was glad he wasn’t anywhere nearby.
The first pack member took a step forward. His name was Thomas and he was about my age. He looked to me and then his gaze moved past me to rest on Richard.
He was one of the members who’d been shielding his thoughts and I expected him to join Richard, but he shocked me when he walked over to me and joined the members already standing behind me.
One down, so many still to go, I thought to myself as my eyes went to the next werewolf that stepped forward. His name was Cody and he was much older than I was.
One second felt like one minute as I watched while he shot me a glare as he walked past me through the gate to Richard. Richard’s evil smile widened and I felt the little hope that I’d held begin to wane.
I masked my features as I turned to watch the next pack member make their choice. I’d been through a lot of tough situations but watching each and every pack member I had make their decision was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.
One by one a member of my pack made their choice. Every time one of them chose to stand behind me, I felt my heart lift a little higher.
I knew to have a good chance at avoiding bloodshed today I needed to get the majority vote because Richard already had an army of over thirty rogues. But there was still no guarantee that even if I had more that Richard still wouldn’t attack anyway. I had a nervous feeling that irrespective of how the vote went, there was going to be a fight.
Whatever decision I made, I would have to live with the consequences of it. Every member who was now standing behind me was my responsibility and if any of them lost their life today I would have to live with the guilt.
Richard’s smile began to wane slightly as more members gave their loyalty to me.
