Alphas daughter

Chapter 11

The entire square was alive with curious chatter as every member of the pack arrived for the meeting. There was still ten minutes until it started but nobody was willing to dare being late and incurring my fathers wrath.

He stood, tall and confident, on the stage off to the left along with a few of his closest colleagues including Beta Jackson. I was close enough to make out their quiet chatter but it was too difficult to decipher with all the bustle from the crowd.

I stood to the left of the stage on a small patch of grass shaded by a large oak tree. Beside me, Zach stood with his back to me, brooding silently and ignoring all my attempts at conversation.

Eventually, I sighed. "I'm sorry ok?" I muttered, avoiding his piercing gaze as he whirled around to face me. It was rare for anyone to get an apology out of me unless they were my father. "When you are kept in the dark about everything, you can't help but put the pieces together and come up with your own explanation."

He raised an eyebrow an inch. "Is that it?" He asked in a monotonous voice that gave no indication as to how he was feeling.

I scoffed, "that's the best you're going to get."

Slowly, his lips curved up into a half smile and he nodded his head which I took as forgiveness. I smiled back just as Ryder and Caroline and Alexia emerged from the sea of people, soon followed by the others.

Once the clock struck the hour, the seven of us sat ourselves on the grass off to the side, watching as hundreds of wolves descended into utter silence under the authoritative stature of my father.

After a moment of examining the crowds, he cleared his throat. The simple sound boomed through the valley, bouncing of the mountains and raining down on the people below him. My dad held a powerful air of authority and every pair of eyes flickered to him in an instant.

It was like someone had flicked a switch and frozen time with everyones eyes locked on the stage, their bodies remaining stiff and not a single sound heard for miles.

"I am well aware that word spreads quickly through the pack, so the chances are, the majority of you are aware of the incident that occurred last night." His voice was deep, cold and aggressive. He sent a quick glance to me as he knew I was the one that had spread the word really, causing me to bite my lip.

I scanned the crowd for Mrs Edwards and the cub and found them at the front of the crowds on the opposite side of the stage. Mrs Edwards looked older than she usually did, with a pale face and dark eyes that were stained with dried tears. Her cub was a little boy, only a toddler that stood to the side of her. He appeared to be unaffected, however upon closer look I noticed that his small frame was shaking and he was clutching her hand tightly.

"I am well aware that the attacker may not have been from this pack, however, there is a large possibility that this was an inside job. If you are responsible, this is your chance to own up honourably. If nobody comes forward by the end of the day, interrogations and searches will begin and I will not stop until I am certain it wasn't anyone from this pack," my dad explained.

My gaze flickered between my friends, knowing each one of them would be interrogated along with every other person in the crowd.

Then my dad said his famous line, which we all knew was a lie. "I will go a lot easier on the attacker if they own up, than if I find them through searches and questioning." I couldn't help but scoff at the words that left his mouth.

"If anyone knows anything about the incident, please come forward. You are all free to go," he finished and immediately, the silence lifted. Families began evacuating the square and heading back to their homes. Hustling and murmuring now filled the valley as pack members voiced their theories or concerns. I watched as my dad and Beta Jackson whispered to each other but I still couldn't hear over the bustling of people.

I scrambled up off the ground as my dad made his way off the stage towards me. "Honey, I have to tend to a few things so why dont you head home and order some pizzas." He kissed my cheek and with that he was gone, off into the crowd of people scattering back through the village.

I turned to my friends and grinned. "Pizza at mine?" I asked and they all nodded before the seven of us made our way to my home.

We all made ourselves comfortable, spreading around my room with five pizza boxes and two large platters of fries lay in the middle on my floor.

"Want some Hawaiian, El?" Ryder offered, sticking a piece of ham and pineapple pizza right under my nose. I turned my nose up and grabbed my fifth slice of the meaty pizza I was devouring.

"I will stick with my meat feast thanks," I mumbled around the bite that was lodged in my mouth.

"Suit yourself," Ryder shrugged, batting Carolines hand away and shoving as much of the slice as he could into his mouth.

I scrunched up my face in disgust and turned away. "So Ella," Alexia called, "has your dad said anymore about his thoughts on the attack?" She threw down the last crust of the plain cheese pizza and wiped her hands on a napkin, looking at me expectantly.

"No. I don't think he believed it was someone from the pack, but he has to consider the possibility," I replied, shovelling fries into my mouth and shrugging.

"Do you think it was an inside job?" Caroline asked, she placed down her empty glass and folded her arms.

"Nope. I think it was another pack or another wolf but I don't know why." I glanced to see Zach staring at me. "What do you think?" I nodded my head towards him and received a shrug in response.

"No clue. I don't know your pack," he grunted absentmindedly.

"I didn't think we had many enemies," Ryder added, "so I didn't think any outsiders would want to attack."

"Maybe it wasn't deliberate?" Jordan suggested.

"I never thought of that." I considered it for a second. "The Edwards cub is tiny, maybe a pack member mistook it for a rabbit?"

"And then just left it to die?" Blake challenged.

"Yeah, surely they would bring it in and own up if it was an accident," Alexia chimed. She had a point.

"Well maybe it was a member of another pack that mistook it for something else," Zach muttered. "I mean, would you take a good as dead cub to another alpha and tell them you thought it was dinner?" He added once we all looked to him.

"Not if it was Alpha Reed." Ryder laughed.

"Then what were they doing on our territory?" I asked Zach and he shrugged.

"Will your dad interrogate you, El?" Blake asked.

"Doubt it," I replied. He never suspected me for anything that occurred in the pack. I knew him well enough to know not to dare hurt someone in our pack because daughter or not it would be the last thing I did.

"It had to have been an outsider," Caroline stated. "Nobody in this pack would dare to get on Alpha Reeds bad side. He would rip them to shreds in a matter of seconds," she continued, clearly reading my mind.

"True. Then who would dare?" I asked and everyone went silent. Who on this Earth would dare to anger my dad? One of the most powerful Alphas alive. Whoever it was, they were brave.

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Who do you think would anger Alpha Reed?

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