Winter Wolf

Chapter 22

Tristan stood staring out the window. He glanced up at the half moon.

... what was that?

Two years of feeling very little, and suddenly so much, all at once.

"Are you listening?" Nathan asked. Tristan glanced back at him. He couldn't hide the distraction.

He hadn't felt her so vividly since those early months...

"Yes." Tristan said, but his wolf was deeply bothered.

"Then what do you want to do about it?" Nathan asked. He looked stressed. Stressed and older.

Tristan had a feeling they all did. He dragged a hand down his mouth and over his short beard as he looked back to his desk that still didn't feel like it belonged to him.

Everything in this office still felt like his father's. Even almost a year in. Maybe he should have listened to his mother and just gutted it all...

"Up our patrols, tell them not the engage... but hunt that area down so there's nothing there for them to steal." Tristan said. Nathan seemed pleased, but still tense.

Cecil was having his hunters encroach on their land. Brazenly. They did not have a close border, not at all. Tristan knew he was doing it to provoke him into retaliating so he'd have an excuse to do something against them.

But it wasn't just him.

Eyolf and Moro had been demanding more and more of them. Unfairly at that, knowing they didn't have the numbers to fight back.

Before he managed to take the title from his father... Ivan had been giving in to every demand. He acted like he just didn't care.

Almost everything they had gained in their wars was gone now. Mostly land and a decent amount of the human money they accumulated. He knew Arthur, Cecil and Byron were loving the fact they'd been knocked down from their standing, because they had held it for so long.

It was difficult to control that anger. Adjusting to the fact that they weren't the strongest any longer. The Alpha wolf in him was prideful. He had to learn to take everything in stride.

It was probably the hardest thing. Taking over at a time where he had to learn to bend. To swallow his pride and figure out other solutions than the muscle they'd used in the past. Figure out how to adjust their tactics and prioritize what was truly important, what they could lose and what they couldn't to keep the peace.

At least the treaty was still holding. Barely. Tristan didn't fear being retaliated against, not yet. But it seemed they were headed for a dissolution regardless.

He glanced to the massive pile of work his mother had entrusted him before she left to visit Adalwolf. All the reports he had to read through and the decisions he had to make. She finally felt comfortable enough to spend some time away.

Almost a year now, he'd taken over from his father. Ivan hadn't been in agreement initially, but eventually... he realized he could no longer do it. Tristan had a feeling his father just no longer wanted to.

The changeover was tumultuous, just as Tristan thought it would be. Some of their own left for other packs, unwilling to stay with an Alpha so young. The only positive was that most that left had gone to Cana or Adalwolf, so at least it strengthened allies.

Tristan didn't blame them that they couldn't put trust in him, even with his bloodline. The amount of self doubt he had was probably easily felt.

And not everyone was able to declare loyalty either. Many remained loyal to his father... despite the fact that he now spent his days drunk in a house far out on the outskirts of the territory.