Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 20 - A DROP OF MUTINY

"I can throw raiders at Silver Lake all I want. We kill one Alpha and they just crown another. We need to break that cycle once and for all," Mam told us. "That's the tricky part. See, I could send any old fighter to topple an Alpha. Nia could certainly manage it. And you, Rhys - could you beat an Alpha one-on-one?"

"With my hands tied," Rhys said from the doorway.

"Probably," she agreed. "Problem is, the moment Rhys wins, the pack turns against him. Kills him if they can ... which would be even easier with his hands tied. What I need is someone with an actual claim to the Alpha position. Someone like, say, the last Alpha's son."

I was torn between laughing and growling at her. She wanted Liam to be an Alpha? Bullshit. It would happen over my dead body, and I wanted to make that very clear. In the end, I settled with a derisive snort.

Liam, however, was taking this much more seriously. He was looking at Mam now, and all I could see were the whites of his eyes, which were as wide as they ever got. It wasn't quite fear I could feel rolling across the link, but I reckoned he might be nervous at the very least.

"I'm only a bastard son," he pointed out.

"Your father only ever had bastards," Mam countered, rising to her feet. "The fanatics might despise you for it, but the average pack member couldn't care less whether your parents were mated when they did the deed. As long as they don't find out that you're a rogue, they should tolerate you."

We had to look up at her now. Liam could have stood, too, and used his extra foot of height to make her regret that decision, but he just scratched the back of his neck. "So, what, I'm just supposed to walk into Silver Lake and kill Mason?"

"Not quite, no. Pack law insists that candidates for the Alpha position must come from existing members of the pack. And you would have been struck off the register when you ran away, so..."

"I have to join the pack first?" he demanded.

This was way out of line. To send him back into that house, to live under his brothers' thumbs all over again ... it wasn't right. I wasn't sure how he was finding the courage to even consider the possibility. I leaned into him, hoping the weight of my shoulder against his might remind him that he could just say no.

Mam nodded. "For a month, apparently. Thirty whole days. It's tricky, but it's not impossible. The real test will be joining in the first place, what with their views on outsiders. A lone male looks suspicious. A family would be ideal, but I'm not risking children in a hostile pack, so we'll have to settle for a friendly young couple."

I burst out laughing at that point. Couldn't help it. "Ha, that means some poor female has to pretend to love him for an entire month."

Mum was looking at me with this awful little smirk.

It took an embarrassingly long time for the other shoe to drop. When it finally did, I said a rude word. Then another. Then, when that still didn't quite seem to summarise my feelings on the subject, I said three more. Liam's eyebrows were raised, and he was wearing a long-suffering smile, so I couldn't have hurt his feelings too badly.

"You're the right age, Eva, and you know him," she reasoned. "That's hard to fake. I can't make you do it, obviously, but I think you want to, deep down."

"Do not," I growled. It was only half a lie. There was no way in hell I was letting Liam go into that pack alone. "If this is about that stupid bet-"

She reached over to tousle my hair. "I'm betting against, actually. Put my money down too early and got stuck. And ... well, someone has to bet against, I s'pose."