"Beta, beta, beta, beta..."
I repeated the word like a mantra, hoping someone's face would go with the word, but it didn't happen.
After I hit somewhere around the ten minute mark, the word seemed to lose meaning and I could no longer form it correctly.
"ba-data-beda-ba-"
"Uh...Rhani? Are you okay?" I jumped, cutting off my latest attempt. I spun around in the swivel chair I was seated in. I was in my office, at my desk staring at a list of names of pack members. I had thought that maybe if I stared at them long enough that one would pop out and scream 'Beta!'
So far it wasn't working. Sam was staring at me like I had three heads. I smiled sheepishly.
"I was trying to say 'beta'." He blinked slowly at me, still standing in the doorway.
"And you found you could no longer say 'beta'?" I started cracking up at his face.
"Well I had been saying it for like ten minutes! You try!" And he did.
"Be-ba-bay-bada-beda...Ugh!" We were both sitting now. I was sitting behind my desk, my papers now shoved to the side while he sat across from me.
When we had settled down, he pulled the papers from the side of my desk, examining them before handing them back to me.
Our pack was somewhat smaller now than it had been before. I knew it was partly my fault it had went from our numbers being near one hundred to being a little over fifty, but I felt it was only fair that people were allowed to leave the pack if they wanted. My father had, like most alphas, disallowed anybody from leaving the pack, making our numbers larger. Why would you want them in the pack if they didn't want to be there anyway?
I thought that they should be allowed the freedom to make their own choices about where they live, meaning that people were allowed to leave the pack if the so chose, but even if the numbers were down, the ones that chose to stay were clearly completely loyal.
"The pack's gotten smaller." I nodded at his statement.
"I allow them to leave if they wish." He didn't seem shocked. He knew me too well to be surprised.
"So do you have any idea who the beta is going to be?" I sighed, brushing hair from my face and resting my head on my hand.
"No. I don't even know how to decide. This is the kind of thing Duncan would be good at." He shrugged.
"Well how about this. Instead of just staring and looking for qualities of a beta, you start at the top and think about the person. If they have something that would be bad for a beta, cross them off." I nodded while sitting up straighter, more excited now that I had a place to start. It made a lot more sense than just looking and hoping by some miracle that I would find the perfect person.
"Okay, first person, Angela Abu." I didn't even have to think for a reason.
"She's too young. Only fourteen, cross her off." He did as I said and moved on.
"Darrel Bur?"
"Hmm...he doesn't work very well with others...kind of a loner." He nodded. We moved down the list and found something wrong with everyone up to number 32.
"Sarah Kilmen?" I thought for a minute.
"She's not very threatening..." He shrugged.
"Neither are you if you're not armed." I smiled a little too sweetly for it not to be sarcastic.
"Honey, I'm always armed." I pulled my knife out of the waistband of my jeans and stuck it in the wooden desk. It stuck there, the handle pointing at the ceiling,
YOU ARE READING
One for All and All for One
Werewolf"You wrong one of us, and you wrong all of us. We're not just a pack, we're family. And we stand by one another." Rhani isn't your typical werewolf. She's the last all white werewolf left in the world and she suffers for it. Since she first shifted...
