Brent allowed me the use of one of his larger offices. Whatever Marquice had to say, I wanted all of my people to hear it. Dean joined us as well. Brent and his mate — Emily, were there as well.
“I appreciate your help, Alpha Brent. However, this is a Golden Plains matter to be discussed,” Marquice told him.
Before I said it, Brent did. “None of the people here present are members of the Golden Plains pack per your new alpha’s orders.” I appreciated the icy edge to his voice as he spoke.
Marquice looked from the alpha to me. “Nic, this is a pack matter, and I’m under orders to tell you what I have to say, and only you.”
“As the alpha said, I’m not pack. I am a guest here and in no position to ask the alpha
“This is crazy,” Marquice demanded, and to ensure it was very clear, he gave me the look of bewildered horror. “Your father will never agree to this.”“Then that’s his choice, but if he wants my help, he is going to agree to those terms. I will not save his ass, just to have it all fall apart at the next turn. What happened to Father’s dignity?”He scowled at me, but took out his cell and tapped the screen. “Alpha,” Marquice said with a much softer voice when the call connected. “She’s agreed to help, but with conditions. Yes, Sir, I told her the pack was at risk. Yes, she still insisted.” Marquice glared at me for good measure, and I replied with a grin. “The first condition is Brandon may never become alpha, no matter what happens in the future, and second—”
Dean~~~“Antoine Bell is our challenger,” the man, Marquice, said as we sat around a large oval table. The name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place where I’d heard it. “He’s been in the country for ten years, and we’re not sure what exactly brought him to this country. He’s been living down in Louisiana—”Louisiana. It hit me. I knew who Antoine Bell was, and that he was challenging Nic’s father couldn’t be an accident. “Did he come with someone?”Everyone turned to look at me, confused. “What does that matter?” Marquice demanded.“Answer the question,” Nic said, though I could tell she was as co
The next two days, I spent training hard, preparing myself for what was going to be an awesome fight. What wasn’t so awesome was the amount of ‘helpful’ tips everyone thought they were entitled to give. I appreciated most of them, especially those given to me by Wes, Jon, and above all, Dean, but the ones from my old pack members or my father were, honestly, unwelcome. I finished listening to anything my father had to say, just about anything. If it wasn’t for Dean running interference, I’m not sure what might have happened.I couldn’t be more thankful to Dean. He had been just what I needed since I came. Thanks to him, I knew no matter what happened in the challenge fight, Father and my old pack were safe. My instincts told me his intentions were honest. He only wanted to protect his growing family. I don’t think he’d do any kind of ‘cleansing’ w
“Come with me,” Wesley said, eyeing Antoine and Beth with obvious distrust. He tried to herd me away from them.I stepped away from him. We didn’t have time for these stupid games. We should be over that by now. “Tell me whose blood that is now!”Giving me a look that told me he didn’t approve of my reaction, Wes blew out a breath. “Your father’s.”“What happened?” I demanded, and waved for Antoine and Beth to follow. Wes licked his lips, glancing at the others. “Stop being an idiot, Wes. These are the new alphas. They may hear whatever you say.”“I was heading back when I saw it,” he began, grief washing over his face. “I didn’t realize what was happening at first. Your
“Thanks, Dean,” I said as we left the infirmary.He grinned. “You need to stop thanking me for doing normal, decent stuff, Beautiful.”I rolled my eyes and hugged him as a red-faced Marquice marched up to us. “Where have you been? Do you realize what’s going on?”I stiffened, narrowing my eyes at him. “Yes, my father was attacked. I was with him now.”“I’m not talking about that,” he said. “That… that pretender. He’s been taking over, acting like he’s alpha. Do you know he’s been organizing the enforcers to search and track Brandon?”“And? Marquice, did you forget he is the alpha now?”
It’s been five months since Antoine took over the pack back while Harry agreed to let me be the alpha of his better packs project. After a few days of arguing, we settled on the name Genesis pack. It’s not a large pack. We only have thirty members. I, Dean, Harry, Jon, Andy, and a woman named Ambria serve as the ruling council. As Alpha, I deal with the physical threats to the pack from the outside. Harry manages our finances, Jon, and Andy work on our security. Kara deals with intelligence with Ambria, who does public relations.Dean serves as the voice of the pack. If anyone is unhappy with what we’re doing, they can contact him about it, all the while remaining anonymous to the council. This way, they will never have to fear retribution from us. He also helps resolve internal conflicts between members and I’m not being biased when I say he does it well. He’s very good with
When I was ten years old, a drunk driver crashed into my father’s car. They said it was so bad you would have a hard time telling where the drunk’s car ended and my father’s began. Dad died instantly. Thank God, but it devastated Mom. For a long time, I thought I might lose her too.Slowly, Mom got bet
One more year. Just one more year, I told myself as I dressed. It wasn’t even that long; school was only ten months. My stomach tightened at the thought. Ten months was still a hell of a lot of time. With a slow, deep breath, I tried to calm my nerves. The bruises were gone and nothing hurt, but that would change after today. One more year, I repeated. One more year and I would finish high school and leave for California, never to deal with werewolves again.