These Are My Terms

*Maddox*

Back at the front, the negotiations for peace are almost completed by the time I arrive. I am furious about the entire situation, but I cannot let that show. People need to think this is what I want even though I would much rather stay out here and continue to chase Alpha Geofrey around and around for a few more weeks (or months or years) than go back home and have a fucking contest to find a wife I don’t want or need.

Commander Vember has done an excellent job of negotiating everything, even though it’s not what I wanted. I can’t be upset at him for doing a thorough job. When I get there, we sit in an office near the outskirts of Alpha Geofrey’s territory in a village we now control, in a building we now occupy, at a desk that someone in Geofrey’s pack will probably never return to.

He goes over all of the terms while the other Alphas, those who have fought against me and lost, sit in a conference room down the hall. The sums of tributes they have agreed to give to the crown