Chapter 19 #2
“You mean besides the fact that you are incapable of lying?” he asked, straightening from the bag he’d brought to hold his things with a mild look of surprise.
“I also believe you genuinely want to get better. If that isn’t sufficient motivation to do the work,” he glanced around my cell, “I can see about bringing you some reading material when I return.”
I didn’t bother asking how he planned to get data files into The Pit of Doom undetected.
Given the amount of physical paper he’d brought, I felt secure in assuming any books he supplied would equally be made of paper.
He bid me goodbye with yet another reminder to do my homework before raising the wall and exiting.
I stared at the opaque wall long after he left, unsure what to make of him and the unusual situation I now found myself in.
Against my better judgement, I liked him. More terrifying though, I was hopeful.
Elijah
There’d been times over the years when running with the pack had been awkward, especially after my father died.
None of those times compared to the tension that crackled in the air as I joined the pack for the first time in months for a run beneath the full moon.
The air held the electric charge of an impending lightning storm with the same promise of destruction on a massive scale.
I tried to ignore the increasing itch between my shoulders as more and more eyes turned my way. I offered a smile when I could, but mostly I worked on making sure I didn’t look like I wanted to be anywhere other than here.
Most of my packmates were still milling around and socializing before we all went our separate ways to shift, then reconvened to run as a unit.
The sudden feeling of less friendly eyes on me had me subtly searching the faces of those nearby.
I should have known the hostile looks would belong to Conrad and his loyalists.
The fact that the Klamath Alpha even had a distinguishing segment of the pack that could be called “loyalists” should have been cause for concern. The entire pack should have been loyal.
Eric was right. Things had gotten bad in my absence. Almost like the bond I shared with Josh, I could sense the fractures spreading through the pack, could almost pluck the fraying strings.
“You can feel it, can’t you?” Eric asked beside me. I’d sensed his approach, but knew better than to lose sight of Conrad.
“I’m more worried that you can,” I said quietly. With as unstable things had become in my absence, the last thing I wanted to do was inspire an insurrection.
Eric huffed, but kept his gaze equally trained on Conrad and his ring of cohorts. “Yeah, well, I’m not the only one.”
I snapped my head around to look at him. “Who?”
“Not many.” Eric rolled his shoulders, his obvious discomfort increasing by the second. “I doubt most even realize what they’re feeling. Except for…” He trailed off, dropping his gaze to the forest floor.
“For who?” I prompted, though I feared I already knew the answer.
He darted a look at me out of the corner of his eye and said under his breath, “Tommy and Kale.”
“Moons of Jupiter. Fuck,” I hissed. Being right wasn’t always a good thing.
I’d accepted years ago my precarious position within the pack as a potential rival to Conrad.
If he discovered that two members in the pack were no longer part of the pack, it wouldn’t matter that I wasn’t the one who held their allegiance.
He’d make all of us suffer. More than likely he’d either exile or execute all of us, myself and Eric included, even though Eric had always toed the line.
My best friend glanced around and stepped closer, lowering his voice to barely audible even for a lycanthrope. “They’re not doing too good, Red. They need him. Not the way you do, but that doesn’t make their connection any less significant.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
Eric glanced around again, drawing my attention to the rest of the pack dispersing for their respective changes. He angled his head in a direction no one else seemed to be going, and we fell into step. “I know the nuances of being connected to an Alpha don’t mean much to you.”
“Eric,” I growled in warning.
He stopped and fully faced me. “No, Red. It’s bad enough that I’ve had to deal with your stubborn tail for all of these years while you bury your head in the sand, but I won’t let Tommy and Kale suffer for your obstinance.
” He stepped close enough that I could feel the heat of anger emanating from his face.
“You’re a Goddess-blessed Alpha, fucking use it for once.
I won’t ask you to challenge—I already know you won’t—but you can help them. ”
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I took a step back to escape his intensity. “Absorb their loyalty from Josh? No offense, but I don’t see that happening.”
“I don’t either,” he admitted. “I’m hoping that proximity to an Alpha they actually respect and who shares a bond with their Alpha can help soothe their anxiety. Tommy, especially.”
“I doubt it’s as bad as all that,” I countered. Eric had always had a penchant for being dramatic. Surely that was the case now as well.
“Except it is,” he snapped, drawing me up short in my slow retreat to find a place to change. “I’ve seen Conrad watching him. It could be the moon sickness thing, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to it. He either already knows they’re no longer beholden to his hold or he suspects.”
I searched his face. “You want me to act as a buffer.” He shrugged, not disputing it. “You realize that could be equally damning? Being attached to me is arguably worse than not being attached to Conrad.”
“Maybe. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re the only one here who can even partially mitigate the acute anxiety that comes with not having an Alpha.” Something in his tone made me do a double-take.
“Eric.”
“What?” he asked, his gaze trained on the direction we’d come from.
“Eric,” I said again, more forcefully. When he continued refusing to meet my gaze, I moved to stand in front of him and demanded, “Look at me.”
He flinched at the order we both knew he couldn’t ignore.
“What do you want from me, Red?” he asked, sounding and looking more downtrodden than I’d ever seen him.
It wasn’t right. Eric was endless energy and attitude.
He occasionally got too serious, but his stubborn optimism usually prevailed.
He’d never learned the word “quit”, and now he looked like he was already halfway there.
“Why didn’t you tell me this was causing you pain? That I was causing you to hurt?”
“You mean asking and then demanding for years that you take your place as head of the pack wasn’t clue enough?
” His tone may have been flippant, but his smile lacked conviction.
Finally, he shrugged and dropped his head again.
“What good would it have done? I learned how to cope, and at least I still had you around. Anyway, I should change.” He paused before disappearing into the trees.
“Just don’t be surprised when they find you. ”
I watched my best friend vanish in a green haze.
This was why I didn’t challenge for the mantle.
Having the Alpha gene didn’t automatically mean you’d be any good at the role.
I obviously wasn’t. I'd hoped that refusing to develop any Alpha abilities would have helped curb potential issues. But despite my determination, issues had sprouted like weeds anyway. How could I have gone years without picking up on Eric’s hurt?
Not only was he my best friend, whom I’d known my whole life, he was also the sole member of my pack.
My worries about Eric, the pack, Josh, and everything else tumbled through my mind as I dropped to the ground and initiated the shift.
It was almost funny how exposed I felt without Josh keeping watch nearby, despite the fact that I’d never changed with anyone before him.
I fought not to let the observation send me into a spiral of heartache, softly caressing the spider silk thin bond within.
I was working on building up the courage to join the rest of the pack when a dark gray wolf crashed through the foliage to skid to a halt in front of me, while a slightly lighter gray wolf barrelled through the greenery to join him.
Before I could even recognize them as Tommy and Kale, a sense of familiarity resonated from them.
Eric’s words were loud in my ears as I pushed on the part of myself I tried so hard to pretend didn’t exist. I sent a soft pulse of Alpha Influence at them.
They shared a confused look and padded back a few paces, shaking their heads as if trying to throw it off.
Curious, I reached for the bond I shared with Josh. This time, the recognition was instant.
Rather than the resistance I’d met with my less than elegant Alpha Influence, I felt…
an echo. An echo of Josh. The brothers shared a more excited look and danced in place, their tongues happily lolling out of their muzzles.
I could have cried with relief. It should have been because I knew how to care for and protect them.
Selfishly, it was because it meant I had another piece of Josh with me.
Not far behind them, I caught Eric’s eye as he rejoined our weird group of outsiders.
He looked between the brothers and me, his haughty expression all but screaming, “I told you so.” It was a cruel twist of fate, or genetics, or the goddess herself that had given me the Alpha gene when it should have gone to Eric.
He would have made a fantastic leader. Even though the Alpha gene wasn’t a requirement to be Alpha, I knew he’d never take the title.
Not while there was still a chance I might.