No Mercy

Chapter 5

"How can we best protect the pack?" I make eye contact with every person sitting at the table as I speak. "Torrence Pack obviously doesn't care about the word of the Council. So what can we do?"

Everyone looks exhausted, some of their heads are resting in their hands while others are leaning their heads against the high-backed chairs. I'm positive no one slept well after the battle last night. I barely sleep at all, walking up every half hour to take continuous walks around the perimeter to ensure no one tried to attack again.

"Reverse sleeping pattern?" one of the leads voices immediately. "That worked back at the Empire for a couple months in 1931 when we thought a pack was close to finding our location."

That won't work. Najee rebukes.

"That'll only help us be prepared for the attacks." Deniel replies shaking his head. "It won't stop them from attacking completely."

"What if we just move back to the Empire?" Alma, the new Lead of Unit 14, offers her opinion next. "They won't be able to find us there. No one will."

That's shows weakness. Najee disagrees.

"That will give the other packs the impression that we are unable to defend ourselves. They'll probably try to track down the location of the Empire and that will make us vulnerable to even more attacks." A different Lead disagrees, running his hand through his hair.

"Then let's just move the civilians to the Empire." someone suggests. "A lot of the worry in the battle comes from us ensuring that the civilians are safe. If they aren't here, then we won't have to worry about them."

But who will protect them? Najee asks.

"But we can't send all of the civilians back to the Empire by themselves." One lead states. "Even though none of the other pack know where the Empire is we would still need to send some of the warriors to protect them just in case. And then everyone left here would be at a disadvantage because our numbers would be smaller."

"We could just have all of the civilians live in The Caverns." A deep voice pitches in. "They are fully furnished with enough rooms for everyone if some people agree to double up. That way they'll be safe and still close to us so none of the other packs will be tempted to attack."

That's not plausible. Najee sighs, struggling to think of an idea we haven't already considered.

"The other packs are probably already tempted to attack!" Deniel taps his knuckles on the table angrily. "They have probably already heard about the attack and if we don't do something soon who's to say that the other packs won't attack us as well!"

Murmurs echo around the table as that idea takes root in the Leads' heads. Apparently very few of them have already considered this thought.

"But since we're in The Alliance we don't need to worry about any other packs that are in it as well, right?" A feathery voice asks. "So that basically takes care of all the packs west of Colorado. We would only need to worry about central and eastern packs. And since none of the packs outside The Alliance typically communicate with independent packs, we should be fine, right?"

Silas answers her as I lean forward in my chair, looking around the table once more. I press my fingers flat onto the surface as I continue to listen to all of their suggestions. Najee and I spent all of last night thinking of what to do. We've already considered everything they've mentioned. And although it was made reluctantly, we've already made our decision. But they need to go through the process of eliminating all other options. They need to realize for themselves that it's the only choice as well.