20. Chapter 20
twenty
Cyrus didn’t bother going back to his bedroom.
He didn’t want to wake Gabe, and he was feeling rather withdrawn back into himself again.
So he sat on one of the couches in the entertainment room and drifted back off to sleep now and again.
It wasn’t until he started to hear more and more people gathering that he was jolted awake.
His eyes shifted over, and he saw that he was one of the only people in the entertainment room.
The TV wasn’t on. No one was in there reading or playing any games.
He groaned as he pushed up from the couch and then stretched his arms above his head.
As he was making his way out of the room into the hallway, he saw Gabe.
“Hey, saw you…fell back asleep in the living room, you okay?” Gabe asked him.
Cyrus nodded. “Yeah, just got some lunch, and then…didn’t want to bother you,” he mumbled.
Gabe eyed him for a moment. “Okay, I’ve been up an hour or so. People are showing up for the meeting, going downstairs,” he told him.
“I noticed.” Cyrus sighed. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m going to get some coffee.”
He headed for the kitchen. There were a few people in there, making food, and the coffee pot had maybe two mugs of coffee left in it, so Cyrus jumped quickly at the chance to take most of it before he ended up having to wait for more to be brewed.
He darted out of the kitchen immediately and sipped at the lukewarm coffee. Better than no coffee.
Cyrus looked toward the door to the basement. He was used to the twice-a-year meetings and everything, but this had been thrown together quicker than any of their other meetings. It wasn’t ideal in any way, shape, or form, but it was what had to be done.
The basement of the pack house took up almost the same space as the entire first floor, with some washers and dryers in one corner and the rest of mostly free space and futons that could be folded out when there were more people than there were bedrooms in the house.
It was usually pretty empty save for meetings and an influx of members needing somewhere other than their own houses to stay.
Parties took place in the backyard or the main room.
The basement was prone to flooding, so high up foldable metal-framed beds and washers, dryers on pallets, was about the only thing they could keep down there without costing them money.
Cyrus leaned against one of the walls and watched as more and more people started to walk in and head to the basement. The front yard and driveway were probably packed with cars. They told people to carpool if possible with any others they knew nearby, but still.
Cyrus looked over as Gabe leaned against the wall beside him.
“You ready?” Cyrus asked quietly.
Gabe sighed. “As I’ll ever be, I guess,” he mumbled. “Rehash what I said to the others, tell them my plan. Deal with backlash.”
Gabe’s eyes met Cyrus, brow furrowed.
Cyrus licked his teeth.
“You’re still going to do it?” he asked.
Gabe tilted his head to the side. “Yes.” He looked at the floor for a moment. “I’m sorry.”
Cyrus shook his head. “You’re doing what you think is best,” he replied. His mouth was then filled with coffee as he knew he’d not be able to keep his mouth shut if it was empty. He swallowed and leaned his head back, closing his eyes.
They stood like that for another twenty minutes as they determined that anyone coming was already there. They were only missing four people, not counting those already with Lotuslacker the last they saw.
Gabe headed down into the basement first, and Cyrus hesitated behind, but after a moment or two of the group being hushed, Cyrus finally slowly made his way down. The creaking stairs drawing a little bit of attention.
The basement was lined with tables and chairs, cheap but doable. There were far more people than the basement was likely even supposed to contain, but it wasn’t nearly as crowded as one might expect.
Cyrus didn’t sit. He stood leaning against one of the square poles, arms folded, eyes on Gabe and some of the people around. As Gabe introduced himself, Cyrus just kept himself in the background.
“As you were all told in the memo for this meeting, there’s a conflict with another pack,” Gabe explained. “The Alpha of the Lotuslacker pack Jasmine, has decided that she is not happy with what she has. She wants to combine our districts and take over as Alpha.”
Gabe paused and waited for some reaction. No one spoke, only made sounds of disapproval and shifted in the seats. Some looked at Gabe with curiosity, others with annoyance, and some with pride.
“We can’t let this happen without a fight,” Gabe said. Followed by agreement, but the room was tense, and anxiety was practically climbing up the wall.
Cyrus’s jaw tightened.
“We’re willing to fight with you, right?” Nate asked as he stood up and looked around at everyone. A good deal responded in kind.
Cyrus’s heart clenched in his chest.
“Why is Jasmine doing this all of a sudden?” a voice asked from the back.
Gabe took a breath. “She replaced the previous Alpha. It seems she’s had this…plan in store for a while. Your previous Alpha, Liam, was part of it,” he admitted, his brows furrowing.
The crowd grumbled, gasped, swore. Cyrus struggled to keep up with every single reaction in the room. It was quite a bit of people, after all. He recognized many faces, but his gaze kept moving right back to Gabe.
“We have until the next full moon to prepare to face them,” Gabe explained. “Except, I don’t want anyone who doesn’t need to get hurt.”
Cyrus swallowed hard and looked at the ground.
“I know I am new, and some of you are skeptical of me as your Alpha, I don’t hold…any grudges against you for that; but, I know what the right thing to do is.” Gabe took a breath. “I am going to challenge Jasmine. It will be just us, and whoever wins gets all districts. The packs are combined.”
“What?” several people said at the same time. Suddenly a murmuring of not wanting to be part of Lotuslacker crept up along with fear. Mumblings of it being the best choice, it being a stupid choice. Cyrus felt a little dizzy at all the tension in the room.
“I know some of you don’t want to be part of Lotuslacker, but it’s the only fair option.
It’s how we do things, right?” Gabe reminded them.
His gaze met Cyrus, and he was quiet for a moment, “None of you have to remain with this pack. If you’d like to leave, I will make time to give my permission for anyone who wants to leave the pack before the challenge. ”
Cyrus closed his eyes and tilted his head against the beam behind him.
His chest was so tight he felt like he might be sick.
He didn’t want to be there, listening to what Gabe was saying.
He already knew what he was going to say.
Lily knew now too. Whoever might have overheard that conversation knew.
It was all so dizzying. Infuriating. His hands tightened into fists.
He couldn’t bear it.
He knew what he needed to do.
So, while Gabe’s eyes were somewhere else, while Lily was in the bar pouring coffee into a Styrofoam cup and the others had little idea of the fact that they should be focusing on where he was headed, Cyrus slipped back upstairs.
He would only have a few minutes before Lily or Gabe would notice he wasn’t standing where he was, another minute before they’d see he wasn’t in the basement at all, and maybe ten or fifteen minutes before Gabe would be done talking to the group as a whole, and break off into little sections to talk, and go looking for him.
Cyrus grabbed his keys and phone and headed outside.
“Fuck,” he growled. “So many fucking cars.”
He looked around, gauging how he would get out of the mess of cars with his own before he got into it.
After some tricking, backing up, and maneuvering almost into a ditch, Cyrus was headed down the driveway and to the road.
There were some cars parked even on the side of the road.
It was an utter mess, frankly, but there hadn’t been many warnings usually.
There were months of warning, planning, carpooling, and setting things up.
“Doesn’t matter,” Cyrus mumbled. He shook his head. He quickly turned off the location on his phone. He had to avoid the texts and calls for two hours.
Cyrus pulled into the familiar driveway. His gaze shifted along the house. He could tell they were already alert to him being there. It didn’t surprise him, but he hoped they wouldn’t do anything stupid.
He got out and shoved his phone and keys into his pocket.
Gravel crunched underneath his shoes. His pulse was quick in his chest. His shoulders tense.
The door opened a moment later. He saw Oliver standing there, looking as cocky as he had the last time they had been there. It was daunting. He struggled for a moment to make his way to the porch. He took a slow breath and walked up.
“You couldn’t have been expecting me this time,” Cyrus insisted.
Oliver eyed him. “No, but you’re kind of hard to miss.” He smirked.
Cyrus eyed him. “Are you gonna keep flirting with me or let me in?” he asked.
“First, what do you need?” Oliver asked. “You guys were just here. We told you, you have until the full moon.”
Cyrus nodded. “I’m here to talk to Jasmine,” he told him. “I didn’t bring any weapons with me. You can check me.” He held his hands up.
Oliver looked to the side behind him for a moment.
“Fine, come in, anything funny, and your ass is grass,” Oliver told him.
Cyrus watched as Oliver moved to the side and motioned for him to come in.
Cyrus looked around himself, aware of his surroundings, before heading inside.
When he got inside, he noticed there weren’t as many people as he might’ve expected out in the main room.
Jasmine was standing several yards back, looking at Cyrus with a mixed look of curiosity and annoyance.
“Again?” she asked. “Didn’t bring the baby Alpha this time?”