Sacrifice

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

 

                As soon as they returned home, Sophia called for a pack meeting. She really wanted to hold Gabriel and make sure he was doing okay. The meeting with his father had stressed him out, and she could see that he had some injuries from the fight. They seemed minor, so she couldn’t justify spending time on him when she had much larger problems to deal with.

                But it still hurt to know she couldn’t take the time to check on her mate.

                Because of the recent revelation of how she had become the alpha, Sophia hadn’t expected many to show up. She thought most of the pack would be in the same boat as Jason, wanting to keep their distance. To her surprise, a large number showed up. Too many to comfortably fit in her office.

                “All right,” Sophia said. “Let’s make this quick so you can all get out of here. If you haven’t heard, we got into a fight with the lions today. And it won’t be the last. So we need to get ready, because this isn’t going to be easy.

                “So what I need, obviously, is people who want to volunteer to fight the lions. But more importantly, is I need everyone who knows anyone else to call them. Whether they’re other wolves or some other kind of shifter, or even humans who know about us. We need anyone we can get. Especially if you know other shifters. If anyone knows… I don’t know. A god damn bear or something. We need that. Spread the word among the pack and start calling in favors.”

                There were more details that Sophia wanted to go into, but with so many people packed into the room, she decided that she would have to do things a little bit differently. She didn’t need everyone there for the next part anyway.

                “If you can’t or don’t want to be directly involved in the fight, then you can go now. But I need you to get the word out to the rest of the pack. Or if you have friends in other packs, see if they’re interested too. I’ll be contacting the other alphas too. And remember, this isn’t just my problem or the pack’s problem. These lions are after all wolves.”

                Sophia fell silent for a few moments while several of the wolves gathered trickled out. She was a little surprised that very few left, mostly those that were older or those with poor fighting abilities. While that was good news in the long run, it didn’t give the group that much room. But as the small group was leaving, she noticed Jason standing in the back of the room. She was glad to see him, even if he still wasn’t speaking to her.

                “Okay, so I take it all of you are volunteering to fight. If any of you have something else in mind, come talk to me and we’ll see what we can do with you. You’ll all be working with Lukas and getting you ready for this.”

                “We’ll also be working with Gabriel,” Lukas said to the group. “We’ve got a lion of our own and he’ll help train you for this.”

                “There’s a lion here?” someone asked. Immediately, almost every head turned towards Gabriel, who had been standing behind Sophia. He was the only stranger in the room, which made it obvious that he was the lion.

                “Yes, there’s a lion,” Sophia said. “He also happens to be my mate. So I don’t want to hear any shit about him. Got it? Now, is everyone here actually eligible to fight?”

                Sophia looked over the group, seeing who she could pick out of the crowd. A few people immediately came to mind, but she wasn’t sure that they were really there because they wanted to fight. “Talon, Melanie, Cory, Emma. I need to talk to you alone. And you too Jason. And Blake. Meet me outside.”