The Broken Crown

Power and Control

Packs used to be treated as a smaller collection of colony-like denominations, serving their King as they paid taxes, created treaties, followed rules, and sent over their Alphas as their representatives to make new laws with with King. That was the way the werewolf world used to work, that is what I studied in school and what my parents taught me. Now, packs serve as great houses, the Alpha seen as the Lord of the house, and no King claiming authority over the houses. Some Alphas were appointed by the people of their pack...their house, while others still were passed down the title through flesh and blood. Eight of the nine houses remaining are those from the Old Kingdom, but one of the nine is from the New Kingdom. Eternal Shadows just appeared one day out of the blue, flying house colors of blue and silver, claiming territory, a title, and respect from others.

"She is still naïve. We cannot let her just run about."

"She is old enough...she can handle these things."

The voices of my parents pulls me away from the warmth of the fireplace and the comfort of the living room. Sitting up on the couch, I slide my feet onto the floor, peering through the doorway to the kitchen to see the shadows of my parents in an intense discussion. They keep reminding one another to keep their voice soft, worried I will hear their conversation. Placing my book down on the couch, I pull the blanket off my lap, edging forward as I wonder if this about my meeting with Alpha Edward from earlier. The Alpha almost threw me from his office the moment Luna Olivia suggested in mockery that I should be placed in the welcoming party to point out who could be an elf. Perhaps my parents are wishing to send me away for when Eternal Shadows visits, worried I may try to cause trouble between our packs when I spot the elves.

"She is a child, Quinn," my dad snaps, calling my mom by her name as his voice is harsh, "she is barely twenty-two and has never known the harsh reality of this world."

"She saw a girl slaughtered in from of her, Terrance, she knows how cruel this world can be."

"She-"

"Terrance, leave it alone."

Their voices die out, leaving me to wonder why they would bring up the Steward's daughter again. Gwenevieve's body was laid to rest in her family's mausoleum two days ago, her father offering a generous reward for the capture of the men who committed the slaughter of his daughter and twelve pack members.

"We only place her in danger if we let her do that," dad adds to the conversation. A chair screeches across the wooden floor, footsteps quick as I watch my father leave the kitchen and head for the front door. We make eye contact as he leaves, the door slamming behind him as I notice my mother standing at the entrance of the living room.

"Everything okay?" I ask, already knowing the answer as I watch my mother walk towards me. As she takes a seat beside me and warms up by the fire, she looks out the window to the thin layer of snow covering the ground, father rushing off to his car.

Taking in a deep breath, my mother leans back in her seat and makes eye contact with me. "The world is cruel to girls, Evelyn. Your father and I have worked hard to protect you. With the New Kingdom holding shaky politics and treaties, attacks are common, betrayal is something to always be on alert about..." she pauses, looking back to the fire as the flames are reflected in her eyes.

I have witnessed rogue attacks before, watching my father rush out to the field to fight them off with other warriors as my mother held me close in the pack house. Our pack has worked hard to be one of the last standing. Some packs that have been unfortunate find their members slaughtered off in medieval ways, their children even butchered, their women raped and slaughtered after, and the men the first to die as the Alpha's body is hung at the entrance to the pack land as a treaty. I was barely old enough to walk when those massacres occurred, my parents having to live through hearing the news of fellow packs suffering such brutal fates. My mother has always told me that the world is cruel to young women, that it is unforgiving.