To Be Found ♧ Legacies

36 | following the wolf law

Within 30 minutes almost every member of the pack had entered the gym. Celia even saw Jed standing in the corner with Robert. He appeared to be avoiding eye contact with her, not that she's surprised. Maybe later he'd apologize. He was prideful and it was the most she could hope for. As if on purpose, Raf headed the last group of wolves in. Celia wasn't sure if she should be excited or terrified of what she was about to do. In all honesty, she was feeling a spiral of emotions that's she couldn't comprehend.

As the last of the group settled down, Celia stood, facing the crowd and drawing all their attention. The room fell into silence when she began to speak.

"I bet you're all wondering why I gathered us all here today." She announced. Her eyes scanned the crowd, stopping on familiar faces. Kenzie, Robert, Jed. For the briefest second, they even held eye contact, but not for the better. When Jed met her gaze it was with a challenging stare, something that made her shift back onto her heels before she tore her eyes away. She guessed that apology was going to take longer than she thought. Her eyes continued to search the crowd for one more person. The person she was about to talk to. Raf.

She found him back by the entrance to the gym, leaning against the side of the bleachers.

"I have a message for our alpha." She declared, holding his gaze even after his head tilted to the side and his frown deepened. A smug smile fell on her face as she shifted her eyes back to the crowd. "You all know how a few weeks ago we had the first challenge in school history. But do you know why this happened?" Most of the crowd shook their heads no, which was just what she was expecting. "Because Rafael wanted the seat on the honor council. He wanted to help Landon. Not us. Not the pack. An outsider. He didn't care about us." She turned to look back at Raf, who she noticed stepped forward. His jaw was hardest with an uneasy caution. "And at first I hated him for that. But like a mold, he grew on me. He grew on all of us. I never knew how to feel about you Raf, but I knew to an extent that I respected you. You were loyal, but you're loyal to the wrong thing. You fight for what you believe in, even when I disagree. And you stuck to trying to make the pack work when I thought you'd bail two days in. I respect that. But I don't agree with it."

Celia stepped back, pulling back her hair. "By law, an alpha must face a challenger."

Raf came forward, grabbing her arm. "What the hell are you doing, Celia?"

Celia pulled it away. "Isn't it obvious? I'm challenging you."

Before he had time to react, she swung back and landed a punch square on his jaw. He stumbled backward, and as he gathered himself Celia lunged forward, hoping to tackle him to the ground. Unfortunately for her, he regained his footing just in time to catch her and throw her to the side.

"You don't have to do this, Celia. I've learned. I've changed."

"Have you?" She asked, rolling to her feet. "Because I still look at you and see the same scared, indecisive boy who walked in here all those weeks ago."

Carrying with her momentum, Celia jumped up, kicking in his direction. Raf barely moved out of the way.

"I don't want to fight you."

"I'm not giving you a choice."

Celia rushed forward with a series of jabs. She landed two, one on his cheek and one in his rib cage. Again, Raf stumbled backward, when he looked up his eyes were glowing. Now we're talking, Celia thought. She was getting through to him.

She rushed him again, but this time he didn't even bother blocking. She landed all of her punches, and he collapsed to the ground.

"Fight back Raf!" She screamed standing over him. "Fight back!"

"Not against you, C," he groaned.

She threw her hands up. She wanted to scream and cry in frustration. This wasn't supposed to be how it went! He was supposed to fight back! To prove himself to be as selfish as she thought he was! Yet there he lay on the ground, defenseless. Now she felt like the bully.

She needed to get this over with.

"Concede, then. Give up your power." She stepped back offering him her hand. This was so much less satisfying than she wanted it to be. In a way, she wanted revenge. Revenge for invading her home. Revenge for changing everything she knew. Revenge for making her so confused about life and her feelings. She hated how uneasy he made her feel, how off her game. She wanted to get back at him. And he wasn't giving it to her.

"I concede," he declared, taking her hand. "Congratulations, Celia. You're the alpha now."

A roar of applause erupted throughout the group as a series of littles rushed down to congratulate her. She wasn't feeling too satisfied though.

She watched Raf turn and leave the gym with what was left of his dignity. She wondered what was going on inside his head. How much did he hate her now?

For a while, wolves continued to come up and congratulate their new alpha, but time and time again it wasn't who she wanted. Where was Jed? Did he slip out without her noticing? Why was their praise and excitement not enough?

Celia excused herself from the crowd and began to wander through the school. Her mind felt like it was going to explode. She thought becoming alpha would bring her a bit of closure—she's been wrongly thinking that about a lot of things lately. Instead, she's never felt more alone.

Unconsciously, she stopped outside Dr. Saltzman's office, plunging her fist into the wall.

Why didn't Jed seem to understand? She was doing what she thought best for the pack. Why couldn't Raf wrap that around his head too? Why didn't he fight back? She wanted to scream in frustration at the two boys. She wanted them to know the confusion they caused her. The anger.

Suddenly, she became eerily calm. An idea began to form in her head. An idea that would extract revenge on Raf and Jed and everyone at the Salvatore school. An idea that would let them know what she was feeling. She just first needed to find the urn.