Her Daughter

HD ~ Chapter Twenty-Eight

This is one of the last chapters before the epilogue. I don't like having fifty or sixty parts to a book or a work on here unless it's a collection of poetry because I feel like a story never ends and that bores me.

Anyway, I have somewhat of an idea of what to do after this is over. I have a few options ahead of me and I will reveal them in an author's note after the epilogue if any of you actually care where I am taking my talents (or lack thereof...)

For now, let's find our amazing Felicity.

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Felicity

I felt like I was in a press conference minus the podium. I sat at the head of a big conference table in a room I had never seen before during the entire month and a half I was here. Declan sat at the other end and my grandmother sat to my right. The other chairs around the table were occupied by about a dozen or so alphas and betas from various packs across the country. Out of all of them, I'd only ever met one and he was my uncle.

Alpha Jared Connolly from the GrayCloud pack was a man I'd only met three occasions and might have only had one actual conversation when I was twelve. He was mated to my mother's youngest sister, Natalie. From what I knew of him, Jared was one of the younger alphas and he was resembled a fox more than a wolf. He was quiet, but incredibly smart and quick-minded.

The rest of the faces were unfamiliar to me, including the woman who looked to be in her early forties. I knew there were a few other female alphas around, but I'd never met one and I didn't pay attention enough to the politics of our world to know her name. She'd come in a bit later than the other alphas who'd introduced themselves to me prior to us all taking our seats.

There were even more people out outside this conference room. A lot of the alphas or betas had come with one or two other wolves from their packs, which we expected. Wolves that were in a position of power rarely traveled alone. Zach was entertaining them and feeding them in living room.

Declan had also set up a laptop that was dialed into a skype session so alphas that couldn't make the trip were able to listen in. They would be able to see and hear me on their own monitors at home, but I couldn't see them. If they needed to ask questions, they would do so by instant messaging Declan who had the laptop sitting in front of him.

I had the speech I'd written early this morning laid out in front of me. Despite that, I was nervous. My heart was in my throat and I'd already thrown up twice before coming downstairs. I didn't know if it was some type of morning sickness or the nerves, but it hadn't made me feel any better.

At the moment, all eyes were on me as Declan had just given me the go ahead to begin. I cleared my throat and glanced down at my speech before looking back at the alphas.

Who was I kidding? I wasn't any type of diplomat. How could I speak about peace and equality when I hadn't really experienced what that was like? I've always been the underdog. I've always been the girl that had been overlooked. Now they were finally seeing me so why would I try to be something I'm not.

With a deep breath, I shook my head, flipped over the pages I'd written on, and gave a short humorless laugh. I could see many of the alphas and betas look confused.

"I was born an alpha, but I'm not a leader," I started out, looking at the men and woman before me. "My name is Felicity Anderson and I'm Clarity Ordain's daughter, but that doesn't make me special. It's true that my mate, Cole Morrison, is a white wolf, but I'm just an ordinary girl that knows some pretty powerful people."

I paused and ran a hand through my hair. "I had this whole speech worked out about the balance of power and peace and equality, but now that I think about it..." I trailed off. "It's kind of just bullshit."