“Just take in a deep breath. You’ve got this,” I looked over at Jon, “You know your case forwards and backwards, and you want this. You can do this.”
I gave him a nod before walking across the border where I knew there would be warriors waiting to attack anyone who stepped foot across the border. On cue, five large wolves circled me, but didn’t attack. Sam shifted, “Pluto. How can we help you?”
“What’s with the change in attitude? I thought you guys attacked first and asked questions later.”
Sam gave me a smirk, “There’s been a change in the way we have been asked to conduct ourselves when it comes to breches on the border.” My brow furrowed, not truly believing what he was telling me, “Besides should you and Seb accept one another, you’ll be our princess, so we have direct orders to not attack you specifically.”
“So if Jon steps across, will you guys attack him?” I asked dubiously.
“It depends on your business in our territory.”
“We have a meeting with the King and Queen.”
“You’re the mystery meeting?” He asked with a slight shocked look on his face. “Even Seb didn’t know who his parents were meeting with.”
“I know. When I set up the meeting, I specifically requested privacy, especially from the Prince.”
He tilted his head, “Why?”
“I don’t want him to influence anything,” I said with a shrug.
He nodded, “I’m happy to escort you guys to your meeting.”
Our trip to the heart of the territory, where the pack house was, was quick. As we trotted through the forest and the training fields, we received a lot of curious looks and a couple of growls. Instead of responding, I kept my head high and ignored them. To my surprise, Sam growled at them when it happened, effectively quieting them all. “Okay. I’m warming a bit to Sam,” Jon linked me.
I snorted, “Me too. I’m a little impressed the Prince has started changing the way they do things on the border.”
“Yeah he’s gone up by half a point in my book.”
Manon growled in my head, but I didn’t let it escape because he was right. Since finding out we were mates, he hadn’t made that much effort. He didn’t deserve to be very high on anyone’s list. When we made it to the pack house, Jon and I shifted and dressed before being escorted by Sam to the conference room. I turned to Sam, “We have a little bit before the meeting starts, do you mind pointing me to a restroom?”
He pointed me down a long hallway with several doors. As I was coming out, I heard something that piqued my interest. The sound of my mate’s voice and a high pitched giggle. I walked a little further down the hallway, until it turned to the right. Midway down the hallway, I found my mate, with his arm slung around the shoulders of a very beautiful woman, whispering in her ear. I stiffened, frozen where I stood. I shook my head slightly before turning and quickly walking back to the conference room. Manon let out a pained whine in my head.
“Are you okay? You look a little pale,” Jon linked me once I made it back to the conference room.
“I’m fine.”
“It’s okay if you’re nervous.”
“Yeah, that’s not it. We’ll talk about it later,” I linked before blocking the connection as the King, Thomas Reid, and Queen, Alisa Reid, walked into the room. Jon and I stood and bowed as they stood in front of us. “Your Majesties.”
They gave slight bows of acknowledgement, “Welcome Miss Webb and Mr. Parker. To what do we owe the pleasure?” Alisa asked.
“Thank you both for agreeing to speak with us. I know it’s a bit unprecedented, rogues asking for a meeting with the royal family, but we’re living in unprecedented times.”
“So we hear. Our son says you’ve been able to organize the rogues?” Thomas stated as an almost question.
I nodded, “Not all of them, but there have been a lot of wolves displaced due to Nightshade’s conquests, wolves that want and deserve a pack. They just needed an alpha to bring them together.”
“And that’s why you’re here today. To establish yourselves as a pack,” Alisa stated.
“We are. Yes.” Jon handed them each folder, “There is precedent in place for creating a new pack. Of course no one has done it with rogues, but the structure is still there.”
They flipped through the folders, “Where would you establish your pack?”
I gave them copies of the treaty with the sections highlighted we were using to justify taking No Man’s Land for ourselves, “No Man’s Land. We can renegotiate the treaty with the rogues that wouldn’t be joining the pack as they’re established in the territory with homes and all.”
“Hmm,” they looked at one another. “And you would be the beta, Mr. Parker?”
Jon nodded, “My mate and I helped Pluto continue her training when she and her brother got to No Man’s Land, and we train the rogues we have mind link with and other rogues that maybe aren’t too sure about being a part of our group but would still like to learn how to fight. We are in No Man’s Land after all,” he said with a shrug, “My son will take over the position once my mate and I are ready to retire.”
“And you deserted your pack because you didn’t like what your alpha was doing?” Thomas asked bluntly.
“I chose to leave my pack with my mate and young son when I saw what Alpha Barrett was willing to do to grab power. I wasn’t going to be a part of something I found immoral, and I certainly wasn’t going to raise my son in it,” he said with his chin slightly raised defiantly.
Thomas turned to me, “Do you really want a mated pair that already left their pack as your beta pair?”
My brow furrowed, “Why wouldn’t I? They’ve more than proven themselves to me. You have no idea what we’ve been through these last five years. I appreciate your advice, but with regard to my beta pair, it’s not needed.”
They both looked at me, shocked by my candor. Alisa gave me a small but approving smile, “In the interest of full disclosure, we have begun an investigation into Nightshade and their violation of the laws on conquering and lying to us about the validity of his take over of Dawn Crescent. With you alive, not only did Barrett lie to us about your death, he has no real claim on Dawn Crescent or its territory. The trial will take place once the investigation is complete.”
“Why now? Why wasn’t there an investigation when it happened to confirm his claims?” I asked, barely containing my anger.
“Our son, Sebastian, pushed for the investigation after finding out you were still alive. There would’ve been some punishment regardless, however, Seb fought for a full investigation. As for confirmation of his claims, Barrett and his beta gave us what we believed was enough evidence at the time. We are in the process of changing those procedures now to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Thomas stated.
“So what instead of giving you their word, conquerors will present the alpha family’s heads?” I demanded, my fury building.
“Pluto-“ Jon started.
I turned to him, “No,” I turned back to the King and Queen, “My parents were slaughtered in front of me and my little brother. I was seventeen. He was five. He still has nightmares. It’s been five years, and in those five years, he has woken me up nearly every night because of his nightmares.” I took a deep breath to steady my emotions, “while I appreciate the effort to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again, it doesn’t stop it from happening. We’re living in the 21st century. Why are we still allowing packs to slaughter each other over some land?”
“It’s-“ Thomas started.
“Forgive me for interrupting, but if you’re about to say ‘it’s the way it’s always been done’ or some version of that, I’m going to have to cut you off because that is not a valid reason to continue the barbaric practice.”
Alisa gave me a sly smile and a wink before putting a hand on her mate’s arm, “We need to look over all of the documents you’ve presented today as well as talk it over with our advisors, betas, and top warriors. We will let you know our decision in the coming days, possibly weeks. We will also be contacting you to question you in our investigation, and will likely call on you to testify in the trial,” she looked through the papers in front of her, “We’ll contact you on the number you provided when we’ve made our decision.”
They shook our hands, “It was nice to put a face to the name. When Seb and Sam told us about you, we were equal parts surprised and impressed with your ability to organize a group of wolves that are notoriously impossible to organize.”
“It was nice to meet you both as well. Thank you both for allowing us to come here and make a case. We really appreciate your time,” I said.
“Of course,” Alisa said as Sam walked back into the room, “Sam will escort you guys back to the border.”
We nearly made it out of the house before the Prince spotted us. He was with the beautiful brunette haired woman from earlier. She was holding onto his arm as they walked. He immediately tried to extricate himself from her grip, only confirming my assumption that they were more than friends. “Pluto. What are you doing here?”
“I had a meeting with your parents,” I said vaguely.
The girl let out an annoyed sound over being ignored as the Prince’s brow furrowed. “About Nightshade?”
I looked at him, to the girl he was with, and back at him exasperated, “No, about how big of a jackass their son is.”
“Excuse you. Rogue bitch that’s your Prince,” the girl said.
She attempted to slap me across the face, but I easily caught her wrist before her slap landed. I took a step forward so that we were eye to eye, “I’m a rogue, bitch, I don’t have a Prince.” Manon let out a wave of oppressive dominance, causing the girl to shrink away from me.
I walked out of the house without waiting for anyone to recover or for a response from the Prince. Once outside, I shifted and waited for Jon and Sam to catch up with me. “What the hell was that?” Jon mind linked me as soon as he was outside and shifted.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go home,” I linked back. I ran as fast as I could, without losing Jon and Sam, back to No Man’s Land.
I shifted once we made it back to the border. “Thanks Sam. Have a n-”
Sam was suddenly hit with two rogues. I recognized them both as two of the biggest troublemakers in the territory. Since Jon and I started running things like a pack, these two have pushed back heartily against the idea. I quickly shifted back and pulled Logan off of Sam first. I bit Logan hard enough he let out a loud whine, causing Megan to stop her attack. She started to do the same to Sam, but I let out a loud, feral growl and bit into Logan a little harder, causing him to let out a yelp in pain. She let out a howl, signaling several more rogues which were hiding in the underbrush.
“Fuck,” I linked Jon.
“Yep. I’ve already linked everyone, but it’ll take them a little while to get here,” Jon linked back, interrupting the request I was about to make.
I dropped Logan and moved so that Jon and I were in front of an injured Sam. I dropped my head low, letting out a low, powerful growl. Megan launched herself at me, but I hit her with my body, laying her out on her side. Instead of continuing my attack on her, I took several steps back to protect Sam. Megan stood and shook off, but didn’t attack. Instead she waited for her rogues to surround us. Altogether there were eight to our three. If my rogues and Sam’s warriors could get here, we would win handedly, but while we waited, we would have to defend ourselves against eight wolves.
Author: Kailan Counahan 