4

Leah's POV

“You have shown us no proof of your claims. If there were border breaches we, as the Elders and Concordat’s first line of defense, would have been notified by the patrols’ warriors and the Alphas who are supposedly running with them now. And while I'm sure everyone here has been entertained by your theatrics, none of us will be indulging your girlish need to be the center of attention any longer.” he says while looking at the other Elders. Most of them maintain a composed face, while a few openly sneer at me as though Victor caught me in some lie.

This time I did roll my eyes at him. "Ok, he wants to start a pissing match." I say to Nyx. Not unexpected, just a waste of time, but I have to convince a majority of these guys to follow my lead or people might, no, they will die. I steady my heart and take a breath, slowly releasing it before I speak.

“Actually, I have all the information you want, and you wouldn’t have access to any mind-link conversions right now anyway." I shrug my shoulders. "Everyone in this room is currently being blocked. You heard the privacy doors engage and have no way of deactivating them. That access has been automated through our system. Our security group completely took over the organizing of the border patrol for the whole Concordat about a month ago, all routes and information from patrols runs through us.” I stop to let that sink in, staring him directly in the eyes. He wasn’t wrong, I do appreciate a dramatic effect if I can get one. Victor doesn’t show any emotion on his face as I speak, but Elder Seamus and Elder Erik, his little cronies, both look like I slapped them. I had to hold back a chuckle. I just stand there letting the silence become uncomfortable for a moment.

“All of the patrol communication goes through the war room so, again, you would be out of the loop. None of you are warriors or even our second line of defense, so there is no reason to loop you in. The pitiful excuse for border motion detectors the Elders haphazardly threw in 5 years ago,” I flip my wrist like I was shooing a fly away as I said this, “has been removed, had a full upgrade and also feeds straight to the war room, where we have been compiling data and building more efficient strategies for patrols, attacks, evacuation, rescue and how to get our packs their resources under any of those circumstances, based on our observations over the last 5 years. Your equipment has not been recieving data for a while now, but you would have known that if they were actually set up properly or were even monitored at all.” Using my index finger to point around the room. “This room is sealed, you can’t link anyone outside these walls, nor can you leave until I tell you to. That is why you have heard no chatter from anyone the entire time we have been here.” My heart is pounding in my chest, as I stand to my full height. There is no turning back now, they are about to find out what we have been up to, right under their noses. “Now, if you are done asking stupid questions and trying, unsuccessfully, to gain control of this meeting, I will introduce you to the war room.” I steal a look in my father’s direction, he is all but laughing now. Along with Alpha Andrew and Alpha Drake. It gives me confidence though, knowing I have support from a majority of the Alphas now. They are at least listening, even if they don't fully understand the depth of our control yet.

Elder Victor gets up and walks silently toward the door at the back to the hall with Seamus and Erik close behind. I don’t move. He’s still trying to show a semblance of control and superiority. He reaches for the handle and it doesn't budge, even with his heightened alpha wolf strength. “Try the other ones.” He points Seamus and Erik to doors on either side of the room. They don’t move either. I had this whole room reinforced to withstand Alpha males and their control tantrums. And I can see Elder Victor's realization that I am a true opponent quickly cross his features, before he puts his mask of superiority back on.

“I already told you, this room is sealed. You will leave when I say and not before.” I say deadpan, crossing my arms over my chest, taking a defensive stance.

Although my heart is racing I will not cowar under his gaze. We are now locked in a staring contest. His eyes telling me he will kill me the next chance he gets, I have crossed him too many times now. I refuse to show him fear though, that is how he gained the amount of power he has.

“Well, my dear,” He starts in the same sickly sweet tone he uses on children. “It’s going to be awfully hard to see your little playroom, if we can’t leave, now isn’t it?” His smirk tells me he thinks he has an upper hand again. The muscles behind my eyes are going to be sore later from fighting the urge to roll them every two seconds at this idiot.

"I didn't say we can't leave, just that no one is leaving until I say so. You should really work on your ability to pay attention to the little details." That's why he's locked in this room in the first place. His ego is his biggest downfall.

Playroom, Ha! That overgrown dog. Nyx snorts. I’m gonna lock him in the little playrooms' cells! She says.

Not yet, settle down. He hasn’t made that necessary. I reply regretfully

You’re no fun. She pouts

Don't worry, the second he gives me a reason, he's getting locked up. He just has to do something in front of the rest of these guys so I have witnesses and he can't deny his actions.

Fine! But try to get him to do something stupid quickly, I'm itching for a fight right now.

I look over at Danielle, signalling her to open the hidden door that will take us to the tunnel leading to the war room. We don’t want the Elders knowing it’s actually built into the girls' dorms. Even my dad doesn’t know. We have taken great pains to keep the location hidden. Including multiple entrances each person is assigned to use. I hate keeping secrets, but the less people know about the whole deal, the less likely it is going to get back to the Elders and Alphas we don’t trust. I also love the look of disbelief on the Elders faces, seeing a door in the assembly hall, of their home, none of them knew about. With all of their speeches about being superior in every way, we were working right under their noses. I take every opportunity to remind them they are not as perfect as they want us to believe.

The Elders are not all-knowing, or the most clever, or even the strongest among us. They are supposed to help the pack by bringing insight and life experience to the conversation. That has not been the case for as long as I can remember and we have lost so many people, including my mother, due to their arrogance and ignorance. Our active Alphas are no better, letting traditions and what they are told has always been done guide their decisions because it was just easier than fighting with the old men and working toward doing things better.

Come on, you can write about how stupid your predecesors are in your diary later. Nyx snaps me out of my thoughts. I chuckle at her while I turn toward Elyse and Ellinore handing out bracelets to everyone.

“What are these for?” Elder Seamus asks in his nasally voice, scrunching up his face. Holding the bracelet out in front of him like Elyse just handed him a dirty tissue. He really is a very dainty man.

“We decided since we were going to be working together, that everyone should have a friendship bracelet.” Ellinore says mockingly, sounding like a cheerleader jumping up and down clapping her hands. It took Seamus a second to catch on to her sarcasm. Once it dawned on him, he glared at her.

I couldn't help but laugh. I was actually really impressed. Ellinore remained silent the whole time Elder Victor was arguing with me. I cannot imagine how hard that was for her. Her and Flare know how important this next step is though, they won’t jeopardize our chances after the years of work we have put in.

I step up to Seamus before he says something that earns him a throat punch from Ellinore. She only has so much patience and I'm pretty sure she used most of it keeping her mouth shut up to this point.

“These have a sensor in them that will allow you access to the war room.” I state simply, pointing to the metal disk in the center of the leather strap before placing it on his wrist.

“Why are they different colors?” Erik asks me noticing my black strap and looking disgusted, like he's not happy with the red color we picked out for them.

I’m glad we discussed our excuse for the different strap colors before coming in today, because what I didn't tell the Elders and Alphas is I have put silver inside the lining of the leather bracelets we gave to them. Yes, even my own Elder and father who have been nothing but supportive of me. But, if it comes to a fight, I want them to be able to stay amongst the Elders and Alphas to protect the packs, and they can only do that if I treat them the same as the others. They can't appear to look like they supported me behind the other's backs, if something does go wrong today.

They won't be able to feel the silver since it's not touching their skin directly, but it will weaken their connection with their wolf. The leather lacing also has wolfsbane woven into it, further weakening the connection without causing any noticeable harm. These took a lot of trial and error; much to Nyx's annoyance, I tested them on myself first and then my friends.

To the Alphas and Elders I said “They are colored by rank, and we have a limited number of them. It allows us to keep track of who is coming and going from the war room.” I look at Victor as I say it, the threat of being watched and tracked, was heavily implied, knowing he was probably already forming a plan of how to use all of my technology to his own advantage. I also failed to tell them that their bracelets had temporary access. I put as many fail safes into these as I could. I knew they were going to need to see the war room to believe the situation, but we also had to contain them somehow.

Once everyone has a bracelet I motion to the door. “Please follow Ellinore gentlemen.”

We all go through the wall panel door single file, Ellinore leading the way, Elyse falling somewhere in the middle of the group and I bring up the rear. Making sure our secret door is latched.

The best part is this door really isn't, or shouldn't be a secret. At least not from the people who live here. The door we passed through was an old servants entrance though, so I'm sure the hoity Elders paid no attention to it since it was beneath their station.

I'm so glad Ellinore, Elyse and I have always been curious kids.