The Dark Ages of Wolves

Alphas

Hunter:

Jade gives me a gentle kiss on the nose. Our first kiss and I have to be in this form. Oh, it's torture. She leaves me outside. I still have to make sure everyone's returned home. I turn from the manor when this howling lifts into the air. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. I feel my heart start to race a bit. Wolves are mourning, just west of here. My ears twitch, catching the different voices and cries, calling out their agony and misery. Luke, the Schaedler alpha, is dead. Another wolf pauses beside me, Eric. He sits there silent, mourning, and probably frustrated. He's lost his cousin, but at the same time, he knows he's to take Luke's place as alpha. I finally return once their mourning calls have ended. The Brooks have left, probably bitter and enraged with what's happened. Reasoning with them won't be easier nor fun; all of this is going to be quite the challenge. I shift back and find some clothes to throw on.

"Hunter!" I hear my father calling.

"Coming, father!" I call back.

"What's going on?" I demand to know. Another wolf rush by.

"Tell me, what's going on?" I finally snap. No one's telling me anything.

"They're out there squabbling now," Vincent scoffs at me, "the Brook's are pressing on our territory," he complains, "all because you rejected the Brooks," he blames me.

"This is not my fault. You can't honestly think this was my fault when I had no part in your agreement with the Brooks," I scoff back at him, "You made all the decisions without asking if anyone might have a problem with it!" I fire back, "This feuding among the three packs has gone too far. Can't you see that everyone's hurting?"

"Hunter stand down," Vincent orders, ignoring any attempt to reach anything human within him.

"Make me, Vincent," I challenge. My wolf, this is my wolf talking. Is this more my wolf, or is this me? Frustration scorches my chest, burning across my body.

"Stand down, or prepare to be put in your place," Vincent warns me.

"I'm standing up to put you in your place," I fire back, and he raises his eyebrows, something behind me has caught his attention.

"Stand down, or you'll have another funeral to attend," Vincent threatens me, raising his eyebrows again. I finally risk looking back, and I see Jade at the other end of the hallway. My precious Jade. I can't let her die because of me. Her death will not be on my hands.

"I've done everything I could," Vincent tries to reason, rambling about all he's done. He forgets to mention everything he hasn't done that he could have. Vincent could have protected the Schaedler pack. We could have made other arrangements for an alliance with the Brooks. I hold my tongue. I don't move or say anything because if I do, Jade will be in trouble. He might be an old gruff brute, too irritated to be bothered with much, but I won't test him. Not with her so close and our disagreement so tense.

"There's going to be a meeting, even while the fight goes on, and you are to attend it. You will go, reclaim your love for Lilly. Make things right," my father tells me. I will make things right, alright. When I arrive, Uncle Richard, my father's brother, is sitting among the council. How did he weasel his way into the board? Whether or not the Schaedler's would come was unknown because with their alpha deceased. I take a seat, and after so, the doors open to the room. Since he's out settling the territory squabbles, that leaves me to take his place. The elders watch me take my father's seat.

"Afternoon," Ester Schaedler greets us, her soft blue eyes flickering to me. Finally, there's Eric. He walks with a new air of respect but also animosity. People notice the new alpha, and they show how they feel. The way some of them perk up, smiling, and their eyes look up to him dramatically differs from the narrow side-eyes, the way they whisper to one another, and the slight wrinkling of their noses like they caught a bad smell. Is that how they look at me? The Brooks is next after him, carrying a foul air of scornful glares and stares.

"Good afternoon," Eric greets the table.

"What is to report from the Brook's?" asks Henry Lakefall.

"The barbarians have begun encroaching on our perimeter, but they will not see their way through," Charles informs us, "We Brooks are strong, stronger than them. Your enemy's defeat will be our greatest trophy," he snickers, chin high, and chest puffed out.

"I hope your victory is successful without a massacre of your people," Eric hopes. As scornful as it comes across, I know if it comes from his family's history having been slaughtered years before.

"I'd be interested in a pack merge," Charles offers, looking to Lilly.

"I'm interested in a compromise. Perhaps a treaty?" I offer it back.

"It would be more reliable to have a concrete alliance, one that's not as easy to break like the pairing of two mates," Charles states.

"You don't trust us," I point out.

"You're weak alphas," Charles mocks us and leap to my feet.

"Keep your head," Eric orders, "If it's a pack merge you want, the Schaedler's are strong and worthy," he offers. Lilly, who's been staring at the floor this whole time, finally looks up.

"Please, your pack is nothing, and neither are you. You have no right to even hold a seat at this table, even in such an unworthy pack!" Mary Brook complains. Lilly's hand curls up in a fist and strikes the table. The elders gawk at her, gasping and whisper about her unexpected temper.

"Enough. Your fool headed ego makes me sick," Lilly speaks up, voicing that sharp-witted tongue of hers at last.

"Stand down, remember your place," Charles warns her, his words all too familiar.

"Your vanity is distasteful. You shame our pack with you-," Lilly sneers when Mary slaps her across the face. A giggle escapes Suzah. She slaps her hand over her mouth, but it's already out there. Her whole face smiles, jeering at her sister's embarrassment. Eric shifts in his seat, uneasy. The whole table is awkward and on edge.

"I think this meeting is over," Charles decides.

"I think we should talk this through," I point out, but Eric hushes me with a single gesture.

"I expect a meeting with you some time, Sir Brooks," Eric declares. Charles eyes him before he rises from his seat.

"You'll get once chance, a meeting, and nothing more," Charles agrees before leads his family to storm out of the meeting hall. He's made an impression it would seem. I take a deep breath and sigh. What am I to do? My family, my pack, everything is in chaos.