49: Council's conflict

ALEXANDER

I expected it, every single word that made its way out of her mouth. This was her way of telling me it was no longer a suggestion.

It was a forced decision. The Pack's decision. My mother was going to hide her wants under the guise of what the pack wanted and that disgusted me. I let her talk, waiting silently and choosing my words carefully.

“It's known from time immemorial that the Alpha of our pack, in order to be fully considered as one, has to have a competent Luna by his side. It had been so since our forefathers, so why change now? It has been years of persuading the Alpha to do the needful, but the words of the Council and the entire pack had fallen on his deaf ears!”

Only her. Only she could speak to me this way. I scanned the room to see heads nodding in agreement with everything she said.

What to do hadn't occurred to me yet. Mother wasn't quite done. I could see in her eyes what this discussion meant to her but I wouldn't be disrespected, not like this.

“Without