CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Keri
We stood by the gate, waiting for Richard to arrive. It was hard not to try and prepare for the battle we were about to potentially face. I had no idea how many of my pack members were going to defect and that left me with very little to work with.
If my father were still here, no one would dare betray him, and if he found out someone had betrayed him, the punishment would be death. There would be no mercy.
I wasn’t my father and now I was determined to handle problems in my pack differently. I could read the open thoughts of some of my pack members but I couldn’t bank on the fact that they might be hiding their true thoughts from me. I eyed out the members who were blocking their thoughts. I could order them to follow me but that would only last for as long as they chose to be in my pack.
“I’m going to prepare the medical supplies,” Curtis said to me.
I nodded to him and he hurried off in the direction of the medical center.
I always knew when I’d asked Curtis to be my beta that he wouldn’t always be able to put all of his attention on being my second-in-command. One of his priorities was also the medical center and tending to the wounded. I couldn’t appoint someone else as my beta until I could find someone else I trusted, so, for the moment, I would have to just deal with it.
The medical center needed to be ready if a fight went down today. I really hoped that enough of my people would put their trust in me to avoid going up against Richard. A good alpha would go to war to protect their pack members, but an even better alpha would do whatever it took to avoid a situation where pack members would get hurt. There had to be a way of getting out of this without shedding blood.
“You nervous?” Kyle asked, and I noticed he was standing beside me.
“I’d be lying if I said no,” I replied honestly.
“It’ll be okay,” he assured me softly. I didn’t believe him. We had no way of knowing how it was going to go down.
“I didn’t want you caught up in all of this,” I said, needing him to know that I hadn’t expected him to stay. He wasn’t a pack member so he had no loyalty to us.
“There is no way I was ever going to leave you to face this without me,” he replied softly, giving me a side-glance.
“Thanks,” I replied softly, not meeting his gaze. I could be hard and I wasn’t the easiest person to befriend, but he had broken through the wall I’d built up around me. I considered him my friend and, even though I was scared for his safety, I was glad he was here with me.
I noticed a few pack members, most of them female, walk over to me. I watched as they all looked with determination as they stood behind me and I felt a little hope rise up inside of me.
They were already making their decision.
Maybe there was still hope that I would keep the majority of my pack’s vote and Richard wouldn’t be able to take control of my pack.
Kyle gave me an encouraging smile but even though I now had some that had cast their vote in my favor, there were still too many members undecided standing in a crowd waiting for Richard to arrive. The sounds of wolves running close by brought my full attention away from my pack to the gates that were our only barrier to Richard and his small army of rogues.
I felt the nervous knot in the pit of my stomach as I turned to face my pack.
“Richard is here,” I informed them. “Open the gates.”
The faint noises on the other side of the gate faded into a deathly silence as the only sound came from the steel of the gates swinging open. It was crazy opening our only line of defense, but I knew it was useless since traitors were ready to stab us in the back anyway.
Richard stood arrogantly with his army of rogues in their wolf form. A quick sweep of my gaze on the scene in front of me told me there were more than thirty.
This wasn’t looking good but I suppressed my fear.
“You going to surrender?” Richard taunted with a smile, and I wanted to smack it off his face.
I’d always disliked him and at times I’d hated him as much as I had my father.
“No,” I replied calmly, refusing to show him that he was getting to me.
Richard laughed and shook his head at me. He thought he had the upper hand because he didn’t know that I knew about the traitors and I was about to enlighten him to that fact.
“I know you have spies on the inside,” I stated to him and I saw a moment of surprise before he disguised it with a triumphant smile. It was hard to keep my cool when it looked like, despite his shock, that he still thought he was going to take over my pack.
“I’ve spoken to my pack.” I emphasized the word ‘my’ to let him know that I still considered myself in charge of it. “I’ve told them that they can choose to leave my pack and join your army without consequence.”
He was surprised by that little piece of information. He, like my father, would have punished them with death.
“You’re too weak,” Richard said with disdain like I was something he needed to scrape off the bottom of his shoe. “You should never have taken charge of this pack.”
His words didn’t hurt me. I stood firm with my hands on my hips and I felt the supporting presence of Kyle as he stood beside me, glaring at Richard.
“And why are you here?” Richard spat at Kyle.
“I’m here to watch her teach you a lesson,” Kyle shot back. I felt a little smile tug at my lips at his words.
I turned back to face my pack.
“I cannot lead you if you can’t trust me as your alpha. So anyone who stands before me who doesn’t think I can do the job and lead this pack needs to make their decision now.”
I scanned the crowed, trying to meet their gaze without showing the fear that was growing inside of me. This had the potential to go so wrong that we wouldn’t leave with our lives, but if I somehow managed to pull this off I would know who truly believed in me.
Kyle reached for my one hand and squeezed it gently, giving me the support I so badly needed at that moment.
Blake. I’d tried not to think about him so I could concentrate, but I missed him. As much as I wanted him with me, I was glad he wasn’t anywhere nearby.
The first pack member took a step forward. His name was Thomas and he was about my age. He looked to me and then his gaze moved past me to rest on Richard.
He was one of the members who’d been shielding his thoughts and I expected him to join Richard, but he shocked me when he walked over to me and joined the members already standing behind me.
One down, so many still to go, I thought to myself as my eyes went to the next werewolf that stepped forward. His name was Cody and he was much older than I was.
One second felt like one minute as I watched while he shot me a glare as he walked past me through the gate to Richard. Richard’s evil smile widened and I felt the little hope that I’d held begin to wane.
I masked my features as I turned to watch the next pack member make their choice. I’d been through a lot of tough situations but watching each and every pack member I had make their decision was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.
One by one a member of my pack made their choice. Every time one of them chose to stand behind me, I felt my heart lift a little higher.
I knew to have a good chance at avoiding bloodshed today I needed to get the majority vote because Richard already had an army of over thirty rogues. But there was still no guarantee that even if I had more that Richard still wouldn’t attack anyway. I had a nervous feeling that irrespective of how the vote went, there was going to be a fight.
Whatever decision I made, I would have to live with the consequences of it. Every member who was now standing behind me was my responsibility and if any of them lost their life today I would have to live with the guilt.
Richard’s smile began to wane slightly as more members gave their loyalty to me.
Finally as the last member of my pack picked me, I turned to face Richard. I had the majority. Only a few members of my pack had joined Richard and he was seriously outnumbered.
I didn’t know how many of them had been contemplating on joining Richard and had changed their minds. All that mattered was who they were backing as their leader right now. If he tried to attack, we would be able to wipe him out.
“They’ve made their choice,” I said to Richard.
He glared at me as his eyes settled on me.
“I’ll never stop,” he warned me. “I’ll find a way to take the alpha title from you.”
It wasn’t an empty threat. He would keep at it until he got what he wanted. Richard was determined and he was very much like the monster that had fathered me. I turned to face my pack. Every life that looked to me was my responsibility and I didn’t want to let them down.
Restrain him, I instructed two of the guys. They walked up behind Kyle and grabbed his arms.
“What the fuck?” Kyle exclaimed as he tried to pull free.
No one is to interfere. It will be a fight to the death, I instructed the members of my pack. It wasn’t an order they could disobey.
It was the only way to stop Richard. I had to fight him and defeat him, because if I didn’t, he would find a way to take my pack from me anyway. Some would say it was a stupid decision but to me I was protecting my people and I had to believe I could take him. The previous two times, he’d had the upper hand, but this time would be different. I could shift.
“What are you doing?” Kyle asked angrily, still trying to break free.
I turned to face Richard, ignoring Kyle’s struggles to get free from my guards.
“It ends here and now,” I told him.
He smiled. It was a bone chilling evil—one that made the fear rise up inside of me.
“It’ll be a fight between you and me. No one else is allowed to interfere,” I said, laying out the rules. “The winner takes the pack.”
“Are you fucking crazy?!” Kyle shouted beside me. I tried not to flinch under his verbal attack.
A murmur of unrest settled over my pack and they weren’t happy with my decision to fight Richard, either. But they had to obey my orders, so irrespective of how they felt, they would have to watch without interfering.
At that moment I saw Curtis hurry toward me.
You can’t do this, he pleaded with me. He’ll tear you apart!
I can and I will, I stated calmly. I have to do this.
I knew Richard well. I’d known him my whole life and I knew that he would kill every single member of my pack if that’s what it took to get what he wanted. Knowing there was a good chance that I wouldn’t survive this didn’t make me waver as I turned to look at Richard.
“Please don’t do this!” Kyle tried to argue with me, but I ignored him.
“Do something,” Kyle shouted to Curtis. Curtis hung his head.
“There’s nothing I can do.”
I started to walk to Richard and he walked to me. He looked like he’d already won the fight and I felt a nervous knot in my stomach.
This was going to be my chance to show my pack that I could be the leader they needed me to be and to prove to myself that I was capable of being the alpha I’d been born to be. Any doubt I pushed from my mind.
Richard and I stopped in front of each other. My pack made a semi-circle as they watched the fight about to start.
“You won’t leave this fight alive,” he sneered triumphantly at me. I kept my cool, refusing to show him that I was scared he might be right.
“Just because you can shift into your wolf doesn’t mean that you’ll be strong enough to beat me,” he told me, and I was surprised he knew that I’d mated with Blake. Then I remembered the traitors that would have been feeding him information. At least if I survived the fight I wouldn’t have to worry about finding any more traitors in my pack.
“We’ll see,” I threw back at him, standing straight as I pepped myself up inside.
You can do this, I kept repeating over and over again. I’d blocked my thoughts so my pack wouldn’t know what a mess I was on the inside.
He shifted into his wolf. He was big and vicious. His big, sharp teeth gleamed as he snarled at me.
I shifted and, despite the pain, I stood proud in front of my enemy. His amber eyes fixed on me as he growled and showed me his razor-sharp teeth again. I took a fighting stance and fixed my eyes on him.
In a split second he launched himself at me, but I was quick enough to evade him by rolling to the right. I got back on my feet quickly, knowing he wouldn’t give me a lot of time to recover.
He was growling as he started to turn to face me again. My heart was hammering in my chest even though I was trying to stay calm. If I allowed the fear to take over, I would make a mistake and I’d be as good as dead.
Richard’s eyes narrowed and prepared for another attack. If I was ever going to have a chance of winning a fight, I would have to start attacking him, since just dodging him wasn’t going to be enough. A plan began to formulate in my mind. Somewhere in the distance I could hear Kyle shouting at the guards to let him go. He’d been the only one who wouldn’t be forced to obey my command.
Richard jumped for me again but this time I wasn’t quick enough and the full force of his powerful body slammed into me, knocking the air out of my lungs. Pain exploded in my front paw as his powerful teeth closed into my flesh. I didn’t cry out as I gritted my teeth to manage the pain.
I landed on my side just as I kicked him with my back legs, forcing him to let go of my injured paw. The pain throbbed from the bleeding wound as I stood on all fours, but I ignored it. Adrenaline began to flow into me.
He lunged for me again but this time I did move quickly enough and as he passed by I opened my powerful jaws and sank them into the flesh on his side. He howled with pain. I released him as I circled around. He got back onto his paws and faced me again. His blood mingled with my saliva in my mouth.
Blood seeped from my injured paw as we faced each other. This time I lunged first, but Richard was quicker and got out of the way. As I tried to roll back on my feet, he jumped onto me and his teeth dug into my front leg. Pain tore into me as I tried to shake him off, but he refused to let go.
I managed to maneuver above him. Finally he let go and fell back, whimpering at the pain from my new wound. I wanted to get up but the pain was excruciating.
Get up, I commanded myself. I lay on my side, trying to get the strength to get back up to my feet.
Richard lunged for me again as I got to my feet. I had no time to defend myself as his jaws closed around my stomach. Pain like I’d never felt before jolted through me and I whimpered.
I landed with a thud on the ground as Richard released me. I hurt so badly and my vision blurred.
“Get up, get up,” I heard the nervous voice of Kyle. “Come on, you can do it.”