Taking Down the Alpha

5 A Little Attempted Treason

A few days later, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there was nothing like a little attempted treason against the alpha to get the blood pumping.

As much as I wanted to immediately set out on my plan, it was important to see if it was feasible. There was no point in any of it if no one would support me. I did a little testing of the waters to see if I could get enough members to stand up and tell our alpha that enough was enough. I went around the pack and talked to all the females who were rumoured to have been used by our leader and invited them to a little gathering in my parents' basement.

While I wasn't technically doing anything wrong, I didn't want to use the common pack areas since it would be way too easy for him to trace my activity. I also didn't invite Alice or her minions because they'd already made their opinion on his behaviour abundantly clear.

I wasn't going to be open about my potential plans. This was just to see which way the wind was blowing, and maybe seek a less extreme solution before I used the nuclear option. If there wasn't enough will to get four hundred and sixteen pack members to support my cause, then maybe there was no hope to improve Huntstone. Sure, I could make all the plans in the world, but I couldn't do it completely alone.

If no one supported me, I wasn't going to sit around and put up with the alpha's sexual harassment indefinitely. If all else failed, I'd cut my losses and transfer packs at some point. It still felt like admitting defeat, but since I was quite competent in administrative matters most packs would happily accept my membership. And if I could find a good alpha, maybe I could get him to bring up Alpha Hudson's less than honourable behaviour at a later point once I was established. Maybe I could even find a spot as a gamma, I could definitely make a luna or a single alpha's life easier if they had me to help organize their pack.

But first, I was going to try to fix my own pack. I'd asked the twenty-seven women I thought were most likely to be sympathetic to my cause to come, and twenty-two showed up, which was a good turnout, because it wasn't like I was anything more than acquaintances with most of them. I'd supplied a lot of food to help lure them—always a winning strategy when it came to werewolves—and everyone mingled happily enough.

I hadn't been sure that I should invite her since she was on good terms with the alpha, but I followed my instinct and invited Denise to come, because I got the impression she still thought for herself. I'd almost given up and started without her because everyone else who had RSVPed were already there. But then she walked down into the room with her head held high even though it was obvious that her presence made a few of the other wolves uncomfortable. I didn't really follow pack gossip, but I suddenly recalled that she had previously slept with one of their mates before she had found him, and apparently that made the whole situation kind of uncomfortable for everyone. I probably should have realized that before, but it was too late now.

"So, what are we here for?" a blond acquaintance of mine asked. "Not that this isn't very nice, but I kind of feel like there's a very specific crowd here."

Apparently my guests hadn't failed to notice the pattern of selection. "I'll just explain to the entire group at once."

I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention, and once all eyes were on me I began to speak. "Since it seems like everyone who will come is probably here by now, I want to start by thanking you for taking time out of your busy day to come here."

There was a vague response from the crowd and I continued. "Our pack has a problem. We have an alpha who isn't a good leader."

Someone at the back instantly objected to that. "The pack is prospering."

It was, but that was largely due to riding on the coattails of his father's management and all the people he had working for him. As his assistant, I did a heck of a lot of his alpha work myself. But I wasn't stupid enough to risk my job complaining to them about that before I had a solid plan in motion. "The prosperity of the pack is the least of our concerns in this matter," I swallowed hard before continuing, "I believe everyone here is aware of the way that our alpha abuses his power over his people to get what he wants. I just recently experienced how he takes advantage of his pack members."