Chapter 5

The cardinal conference, the mother of all gatherings amongst the twelve wolf tribes, held annually at the goddess’s crescent, also known as the great wolf’s headquarters. Every year, all pack members would gather there for the grand event which involved performing an ultimate sacrifice to honor and worship the wolf gods, this was a very crucial sacrifice that no tribe dares miss out on, everyone can’t attend of course, but the law states that every single tribe must be represented on the sacrifice ground, and even though the Lotus pack members do not really have the chance to attend, there must be a representative from the pack there to join in the ritual. The Beta of the Lotus pack, Beta Valledor, is usually the one to perform this honor, and has been doing it for a few years now…. But amongst all the warnings and proceedings of the great sacrifice of the cardinal conference, only one wolf tribe dares to flout the rule of representation, and that tribe is none other than the great silver pack. The greatest of all tribes, some even say that they are greater than the gods themselves since they do not deem themselves low enough to mix with the other eleven tribes to perform the sacrifice at the conference, they do not attend, neither do they send representatives, but no one dares to challenge them about this, reason for this being the great alpha of the silver pack, alpha Damian, who is strong, ruthless and feared by all the other packs. Before the rogues attacked, the silver pack was a normal tribe, no different from the other packs, and they suffered greatly but after alpha Damian took over, the pack started having countless victories against the enemy, they are prosperous now and no one dares to stand against them.

Now back to the cardinal conference, this year’s conference was to be graced with an opening event, an alpha marriage between the princess of the Lotus pack and the alpha of the night shadow pack, and then the next day, the annual sacrifice will be offered to the wolf gods at the ritual ground. This year all pack leaders had been gathered for the great event, the wedding and then the sacrifice.

Everyone knows that the lotus pack will not be able to singlehandedly survive another war, that’s why they need to join forces with a mightier pack in order to keep possession of their territory, a marriage between the Lotus princess and one of the mightiest pack leaders would have lent the needed support, but now the marriage will no longer happen because it has been called off by the Lotus princess.

“We have arrived, ma’am….” Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the driver, it then occurred to her that she’d been buried so deep into thinking she didn’t realize that the suited driver had been calling her since.

“Oh… um… sorry, don’t wait for me, I’ll come home myself,” she let out a smile, and then came out of the vehicle, looking up at the tall skyscraper in the estate of the goddess’s crescent, she walked into the building after the car drove off.

As soon as those wandering around in the reception realized that the Lotus princess had come, little murmurs and whispers were heard and the wolves began exchanging conversations around themselves, conversations that Miranda could make out very well because of her enhanced senses given the alpha bloodline she’s connected to, she could visibly hear two omega’s gossiping about her in the background.

“Psst… hey, isn’t that the lotus princess? What’s she doing here?”

“Didn’t you hear? Tomorrow marks the beginning of this year’s cardinal conference, and it’s her wedding to the night shadow pack’s alpha that will grace the opening.”

“The night shadow pack…. You mean alpha Walden??? Wow… it must have taken a lot for him to agree to marry someone lowly like the lotus princess…. But wait… I thought he’d already chosen his beta’s daughter as his mate?”

“I don’t know, he does value her more than the princess… but maybe he simply wishes to help the Lotus princess, that pack has nothing left apart from their few elite troops. They’ve been reduced to the lowest, I even heard that the packmates have lost their privileges to attend the cardinal conference for a couple of years now, only one member of their pack is allowed to be given a reservation because of the law of representation.”

“That explains why no one sees them around here; no one would even want to be associated with a Lotus, not with all the bad luck they’ve been getting!”

Miranda was getting uncomfortable with the gossips surrounding her, she felt the need to close her ear, to shield off any other sound coming into her ears. In order to distract herself, she went to the front desk to ask about the whereabouts of the Beta.

“Excuse me?”

“Yes?” The lady politely spoke as she got off the phone.

“I’m looking for Beta Valledor, he’s the representative from the Lotus pack for the conference this year.”

“Oh! Um… yes, I think he mentioned that he was expecting someone, let me place a call to his room.”

After she collected his hotel number from his phone book, she began dialing his number but he didn’t pick. After a few unsuccessful attempts…

“I’m sorry ma’am, I guess he isn’t in his room, please wait while I confirm from my other colleagues about his whereabouts.”

“Thank you,” Miranda nodded, going to sit down in the reception, the only downside of waiting there was that her ears picked the gossips from the two omegas again.

“I tell you… but I honestly feel so bad for them, the princess is getting married and her people aren’t able to witness the occasion.”

“The cardinal conference committee CAN be discriminatory, speaking of privileges, we should also speak of the pack that does not care to always abuse them, the silver pack. They deem themselves so high and mighty, refusing to pay their respects to their creators by attending the conference… every year, they refuse to come, neither do they send any representatives. And that alpha of theirs doesn’t even care if he’s abusing the traditions.”

“Shhh… be careful what you say about him in public, alpha Damian is very feared and ruthless, he kills mercilessly; you can never know if he has spies lurking around here.”  

“My mouth cannot help but speak the truth, I can assure you that the silver pack is inviting the wrath of the gods by ignoring these customs every year, one day, they’ll get what they’re asking for.”