Always And Forever | ENG

Chapter Eleven: Dean's Growing Opposition

Back at the pack house, the mood was somber. The scouts had returned empty-handed, but the unease in their eyes said it all. We were being hunted, and we had no idea who or what the enemy truly was. Whatever had attacked us the night before was more than just a rogue creature. The figure, the growling beast, the strange feeling in the air-it was all part of something bigger, something that none of us could yet understand.

Ace and I were sitting with my father and the council when the door to the main room suddenly burst open. My brother, Dean, stood in the doorway, his broad shoulders tense and his fists clenched at his sides. The room seemed to freeze as soon as he stepped in. Every pair of eyes turned toward him, and for the first time in days, a cold shiver ran down my spine. This wasn't just anger. There was something deeper in his eyes-a sense of betrayal, of hurt. A rage that went beyond frustration. It was a fire that threatened to consume everything between us.

"Finley," Dean spat, his voice low and menacing, "what the hell are you doing? Leading us into danger like this?"

The words stung harder than they should have, but I refused to flinch. I stood up, meeting his gaze head-on, trying to summon every ounce of confidence I had left. "I'm doing what needs to be done, Dean. The pack is at risk, and we need to be prepared. You know this."

"Prepared?" Dean's voice rose, the rawness of his fury cracking through the veneer of control he was struggling to maintain. "You're sending us out there to die! You don't even know what you're up against!"

I felt my own frustration bubbling over. Every word from him felt like a challenge, like a judgment of everything I had tried to do. "I'm doing what you wouldn't," I shot back, my voice rising with my anger. "This pack needs leadership, Dean. You're not here to help-you're the one who's been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for me to fail so you can take the reins."

The room went silent, every eye in the room flickering between us. The tension between Dean and me had always been there, but it had never felt so... exposed. Dean had always been the natural leader. The one everyone had followed without question. And now, there I was, standing in his place. Trying to fill shoes that didn't fit, trying to become something I wasn't sure I could be.

"You think I've been sitting on the sidelines?" Dean's voice trembled with barely contained fury, his face reddening with the force of his anger. "I've been here, training. Preparing for this moment. You-you've always run from responsibility, Finley. Now you're throwing us into the fire and expecting us to follow?"

His words were like knives. The accusation that I had run from responsibility stung more than anything else he had said. I could feel the truth of it, how much I had avoided the heavy weight of leading, how much I had tried to keep my distance from the role that was now mine.

"I'm trying to protect the pack," I said, my voice quieter, but still edged with frustration. "We don't have time for petty disagreements, Dean. There are bigger things at play here. The pack is at risk, and I'm trying to ensure that we don't lose everything."

Dean's face contorted with disbelief. "And you think you're the one who's going to fix it?" His voice was sharp, cutting through the air like a blade. "I'm not following you, Finley. You're going to get us all killed. You don't know what you're doing."

The venom in his words cut deeper than I cared to admit. I could feel the weight of the pack's eyes on me, their doubts heavy in the air. I wasn't just fighting to protect them from outside threats anymore. I was fighting to prove that I could lead them at all.

"I'm not asking you to follow me blindly, Dean," I said, my voice quieter now, but still firm. "But I'm asking you to trust me. The pack needs us to stand together. And if you're not with me, then you're against us."

The room was dead silent as the weight of my words hung in the air. The eyes of the pack members-some full of doubt, some hesitant, and others already resolute-shifted between us. They were waiting for Dean to speak, to either join us or challenge me openly.

But he didn't. He stood there, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths, his eyes filled with a mix of pain and fury.

"I'm not following you," Dean spat, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. "Not like this. I won't let you destroy everything Father built just because you think you're ready."

I could feel the anger rising in my own chest, hot and painful, but I held it back. This wasn't just about me. It wasn't even just about him. It was about the pack, about everything we stood to lose.

With a final, venomous glare, Dean turned sharply on his heel and stormed out of the room, the door slamming behind him with a deafening bang.

The room fell into a heavy, uncomfortable silence. The murmurs started slowly-soft at first, then growing louder as pack members exchanged looks. Some of them were nodding as if agreeing with Dean's words. Others, those who had supported me from the beginning, remained quiet, waiting for my next move.

My father stood, his face pale with concern but also with a hard resolve. His usual calm demeanor was now laced with a quiet tension. He knew what was at stake. He had lived through these moments before-he had built this pack with his own blood and sweat, and now it was being tested by the division between his children.

"He'll come around," my father said quietly, but I could hear the uncertainty in his voice. "He has to."

But the words felt hollow. I could see the doubt in his eyes, the concern for what Dean's rebellion would mean for us all. Dean's opposition was more than just anger-it was a growing rift that threatened to tear us apart. The pack had always been united under Father's leadership, and now we were on the verge of something much worse than a mere disagreement. Dean didn't just doubt me. He didn't trust me. And I wasn't sure how to fix it.

The pack's future wasn't just about fending off outside threats. It was about healing the divide that was growing between me and Dean. The more I tried to prove myself, the more he pushed back. And with every push, I could feel the pack slipping further away from me, torn between loyalty to the old way of leadership and the new, untested Alpha standing before them.

"I have to be the Alpha," I whispered to myself, though the words felt foreign, like I wasn't sure I deserved them. I had no choice. The pack needed me, but at what cost?

And what if being the Alpha meant losing everything I held dear?