Ashley smirked. “I doubt four-to-one odds against them sounds very appealing.”

Gunnar nodded absently, studying the distant pack. “Even with fair odds it wouldn’t come to that. But it will make more sense if we circle back to that question in a moment.” I found myself listening intently as he took on a lecturing tone. “There is one absolute – the Alpha is the law. Period. Every wolf agrees on this. It’s simply in our genes. If a wolf decides to not be part of a pack, he’s essentially choosing to be an Alpha… his own Alpha.” He waited to make sure we were all on the same page before continuing. “If a wolf disagrees strongly enough with the Alpha’s methods – if he’s corrupt, not taking care of the pack, or not keeping them safe – they can challenge him. The winner becomes the new Alpha, and his word is now law.”

Paradise and Lost nodded slowly. Their eyes were haunted with the memories of their own experience. They had been abducted and turned by werewolf rapists. All because the Kansas City pack had fled when a demon came to town, so there had been no one to stop the sons of bitches. Until Callie and Roland came along, killed them, and freed Paradise and Lost.

The two fledgling shifters had a lot to learn about how wolves interacted – and a lot of prejudices to overcome, thanks to their past. It was why they had been spending some time with Gunnar’s pack lately, trying to learn from a good example. And how to defend themselves, of course, but they seemed to have a knack for that.

Paradise spoke up. “What if they had sufficient numbers and chose a new Alpha right now?”

Gunnar shrugged. “There is a two-week period where they may not attack.”

The two girls frowned in unison. “Why the hell would anyone agree to that?”

Ashley leaned forward. “Without this law, an entire pack could challenge Gunnar’s right to rule, one by one, with the real Alpha sitting back and tossing his lower-level wolves at Gunnar until he was too exhausted to continue. Only then would the Alpha step in to finish it. That is why there is a two-week rest between duels.” Her eyes grew distant, but she didn’t continue.

“That!” I pointed, leaning forward. “What was that look on your face?”

Gunnar waved a hand. “A third party only has to wait one week to submit a challenge.”

I frowned. “That seems like a big loophole…”

Gunnar shook his head. “Not really. Two packs are unlikely to work together. Why would they?” He saw the look on my face and sighed. “Let’s pretend Zeus had an Alpha friend and they wanted to team up to take me out. What’s their purpose?”

“Kill you, obviously. And take your pack.”

Gunnar nodded. “Let’s say they succeed. Who gets my pack? You think after two dominant Alphas just invaded me they’re suddenly going to decide to share? Split my pack down the middle? To both be Alphas? Can you imagine the chaos?” he asked, waving a hand at the five hundred wolves around us. “The confusion as this family goes to Zeus, that family goes to the other… No. They would turn on each other within hours just to stop the infighting. The winner would end up trying to take all three packs.” He let that sink in. “So, why bother teaming up in the first place? Much easier to pick off the smaller pack, acclimate, and then challenge the next pack if you think you can handle it. But pretty soon, your pack will be too big to efficiently manage, and will likely split off. Full circle.”

I found myself nodding, taking it all in. I laced my hands through my hair. “Where did you learn all this? You two don’t have prior experience with packs…”

Ashley answered. “It kind of just came to me over in Fae. Like an instinct…”

Ashley had gained something in Fae, for sure. And not just strength. She had been like a general. I had always attributed it to her experience as interim CEO of my old company, Temple Industries – applying her corporate management skills to the pack. Because many corporate bosses studied The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which pretty much applied to the werewolf thing.

And a lot of other things in life, if you thought about it.

“But we didn’t really put it all together until after my last trip to Fae. We were trying to figure out some internal matters and got to talking with these two clowns,” Ashley said, smiling at the two wolves who had sat silent during the conversation. “Meet Drake and Cowan,” she said.

Drake was the scrawny guy with the wild mop of hair. His eyes glinted with mischief as he smiled at us, dipping his chin. “Pleasure.” His eyes might have lingered on Paradise when he said it, but it was hard to be sure. I found myself smiling as if I had found a new drinking buddy.

Cowan, on the other hand, had a face like a block of stone, as if he took everything seriously at all times. His skin was almost charcoal dark and his eyes were chocolate brown. He was the kind of guy you wanted with you in a dark alley. The way he looked at Gunnar and Ashley, was nothing short of devotion. “Greetings. I’m the balance to his chaos,” he said, jerking a thumb at Drake. He said this without humor, just a statement of fact.

Drake chuckled and gave us an easy shrug. “Truth. Like peanut butter and jelly.”

I wasn’t sure if that made any sense, but I think I knew what he meant. They were pals.

Ashley rolled her eyes at Drake. “They’ve been with us for about a year, slowly working their way up the ranks, but we hadn’t spent much time around them, personally. They said our plans were solid and we got to talking. They were drifters from a pack on the East Coast and decided they didn’t like some of the decisions being made…”

“What was so disagreeable about the other pack you were in?” Roland asked.

I had almost forgotten he was present.

Drake answered. “They came up with some crazy ideas that only seemed to benefit the few at the top.” Cowan grimaced as Drake continued. “They wanted to establish regional and local Alphas that all bowed to one king.”

I nodded slowly. “Not unlike Corporate America with its District Managers, General Managers, and Store Managers…”

Drake nodded with an angry gleam in his eyes, even after all this time. “Sounds great, but it wasn’t. Like Gunnar just explained. If you had a problem with what your local Alpha was doing, and he wouldn’t listen to reason, what did you do? Challenge him?” Drake shook his head with a humorless smile. “No way. Because your local Alpha was good friends with your district Alpha, and you didn’t want to piss him off. And if you went over your local Alpha’s head, the entire chain would come crashing down on you to set an example. And that’s just one aspect.

“Because we’re talking about territorial killing machines who don’t like submission. But to give him a handful of Alphas to submit to? Each level more important than the previous?” He whistled, shaking his head. “It got out of hand quicker than we ever imagined. No one knew who to turn to, who to trust, and the Alphas just kept getting angrier and angrier. We started seeing the corruption – some of our female wolves called to audiences with the King, and not ever coming back. When we learned that they were being used as leverage to keep our own local Alphas in line, we realized it was too late to stand up. The King was basically taking hostages from all over his kingdom, preventing any of his minions from rising up.”

Cowan cleared his throat. “It was madness… We got out before it imploded, leaving the entire area in chaos, duels from sunrise to sunset, deaths by the hundreds as the local Alphas tried to claim their independence while the district Alphas fought to keep their territories.”

Gunnar nodded grimly before turning to Paradise and Lost. “It’s in our blood to be dominant. That’s how wolves are in the wild. As human as we think we are, we share that wildness. Denying it only results in chaos. We live in balance, or we die.”

Carl and Talon were actually napping, apparently bored to exhaustion with the lecture.

Gunnar spotted them and grunted. “We have a plane to catch,” he said, smiling at his wife. Ashley grinned eagerly. Gunnar spoke again, this time addressing all of us. “Drake and Cowan will be in charge in our absence. We promoted them last night to our seconds in command. Since Ashley is technically my Mate, we decided it didn’t make sense for her to be the liaison between me and the pack.”

Drake noticed my frown and held up his hands in innocence. “I argued with him about it but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I know what you’re thinking, though, and you don’t need to worry. I have zero interests in being an Alpha. I didn’t even want to be second in command.” Cowan looked horrified at the idea, shaking his head adamantly.

“Which is one reason you two will do well,” Ashley said. Then she turned to the rest of us. “Also, they couldn’t challenge us even if they wanted to. They’ve sworn their lives to us. They literally cannot challenge us or do anything to put us in harm’s way. For this oath, they may speak freely to us without fear of consequence. Which will benefit the pack as a whole.”

Gunnar nodded, settling a stern glare on the two wolves. “Keep my pack safe.”

Drake and Cowan nodded. “On our lives, Wulfric.”

I glanced at Tory, who had been strangely silent. She gave me a faint nod. Well, if she approved of these two, and Gunnar and Ashley did, that was about as good as it could get. Not that I had any say in the matter. And they had sworn an oath.

I let out a deep breath, climbing to my feet. Gunnar had asked me to back off and leave the wolves to him. I needed to do so. Otherwise, my interference could cause him even more problems. Like the one he’d had to resolve today. This Alpha, Zeus, had come to town full of piss and vinegar because he assumed the real power behind Gunnar was me, and that he would have an easy victory. My meddling – although with the best intentions – had cost him something.

I couldn’t make that mistake again.

“Let me call the pilot for you two lovebirds,” I said, wrapping an arm around Ashley and Gunnar’s shoulders.

Drake and Cowan began barking orders to the wolves. I didn’t bother waking Talon and Carl, hoping they would wake up in the empty field and have to find their own way home.

A six-foot-tall lizard man and a Thundercat walking the streets of St. Louis, or better yet, calling an Uber. They would have a long walk.

I glanced back to see Callie nudging them with a boot and grunted.

“Spoil sport,” I muttered under my breath.

Gunnar chuckled. “You’ve got it bad, man. So bad…”

Ashley giggled, squeezing my waist.

I sighed, refusing to acknowledge the truth to their statement.