Chapter Twelve #3
“You are a wise man, Arkhon,” I said. “I do need to speak personally to each of the alphas who followed Davis out of this gathering, presuming they have returned.”
“They have, Anax,” Hollis said without waiting to be recognized. I chose to let it go.
“I’ll start with them,” I said. “If each of you is willing, we can divide the list of alphas of the Pacific and Southeast regions so you’ll know who to speak to.
Once you’ve talked to everyone on your list, if you believe any of them would be a suitable Arkhon, bring me their name.
If you don’t believe anyone you speak to is suited for the rank, let me know that.
Once I have all of the names, I’ll speak to them and make the final decision. Is that agreeable to all of you?”
“Yes, Anax,” ten voices replied.
We got to work on the list. It was fairly easy to divide the regions into smaller geographic areas, and each of the arkhons was assigned to speak to the alphas of one of those areas.
We omitted the names of the alphas who had gone with Davis.
None of them, as far as I was concerned, was a contender to become Arkhon of the Pacific Region.
Once all of that was done, I instructed the arkhons to eat while they spoke to the alphas on their list and dismissed them to get started. I didn’t know whether everything would be settled before we went to bed, but I was damn well going to try.
In the dining room, I got more food together, along with a couple of bottles of water, and found Kyle talking to Suzannah in the front room. “Am I interrupting something?”
“Just chatting about wedding stuff.” Kyle grinned and patted the cushion beside him. “Have a seat. Take a break.”
“If only.” I motioned toward my office. “I have to deal with the alphas who left with Davis. I’d like you with me. You notice things I don’t, and I have to make sure it’s feasible and safe to allow them to keep their rank.”
“Yeah.” Looking surprised, Kyle stood. “To be continued, Suz.”
“No worries.” Suzannah tilted her head. “Tobias, you’re all right?”
I shrugged. “I need to rest. I will rest once the new arkhons are in place and I make sure I don’t have any alphas conspiring to silver me to death or something.”
Kyle shivered. “Don’t even joke about that.”
We went into my office, where I began summoning the alphas who had followed Davis.
One at a time, they came in and answered the few questions I put to them.
Every one of them gave Kyle a look that might have been hatred or might have just been irritation that he was involved.
I ignored the looks. I wasn’t assessing whether they were homophobic, though maybe I should have been.
I just wanted to know if they could stay in their ranks.
As speculated, one of them said he had followed Davis solely because he believed he had no choice, and two others said Davis had commanded them under threat to follow him.
They didn’t say what the threat was, and I chose not to ask; with Davis gone, it no longer seemed relevant.
Two voiced opposition to me as Anax but also pledged that they had no intention of challenging me.
The sixth, the Alpha of Salton Pack, stonewalled me with a belligerence that made me wonder how he treated his pack members.
I stripped him of rank and called his Beta to appoint one of the pack members at the gathering as a proxy to supervise his companions and the former Alpha until I could send them home.
I told the Beta I would formally instate him via video call as Alpha once the arkhons were in place, and that it would then be his choice whether to allow his former Alpha to remain with the pack.
Once that was settled, I leaned back and motioned for Kyle to come closer. “Shit. I hate dealing with things like this.”
He bent and kissed my forehead. “You don’t have to deal with everything tonight.”
“I kind of do. I can’t leave two regions without arkhons.” I sighed. “It’s going to be a late night. It’s probably better if you aren’t in here for the arkhon portion of the program. I trust you and value your insight, but…”
“But I’m your mate, and to some of these chowdernuggets, that means I’m not anything.” He quirked his lips. “I get it. I don’t really have a place in all this. The Anax’s mate doesn’t have a title or a rank, and when it comes to important shit, I have to step back and let you handle it.”
“That sounds pretty crappy.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes it feels crappy. But I signed up for it, and I don’t regret it. Usually.” He touched his lips to mine. “I’ll probably be hanging around with the Boston wolves and Ren. If I can get Ren away from Xavier. There’s something brewing between the two of them.”
“More power to them if there is.” I didn’t even have enough mental bandwidth to be happy for them. “I’ll come find you when I have a moment. The arkhons will have to be instated in front of everyone, so if the process is done tonight, we’ll be meeting before bed.”
“Great. A late meeting filled with exhausted werewolves. That’ll be fun.” He rolled his eyes. “See you soon. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Only five names from Pacific Region and four from Southeast were passed along to me as possibilities to take the rank of Arkhon.
I sent each of the arkhons who’d recommended those people to summon them to my office, and I asked each Arkhon to sit in on the interview of their recommendation so I would have second opinions.
When I narrowed down my choices to one for each region, I called their pack members in to get their honest opinions of their alphas.
Ultimately, I chose Roy Ebenezer as Arkhon of the Southeast Region and Chris Jennings, Alpha of Job Peak Pack in Nevada, as Arkhon of the Pacific Region.
By the time that was concluded, it was nearly eight at night.
Even though I knew some of my guests likely wanted to get to their rooms, I called the entire gathering to the auditorium.
Speaking quickly so I wouldn’t have to contend with a bunch of restless werewolves, I instated Roy and Chris.
Then I placed a video call to Solomon McMaster, the new Alpha of Salton Pack, and formally instated him.
And then, thank gods, I was finished for the night.
Instating the alphas who would replace Roy and Chris could wait until morning.
Trailed by Laurits, who had come on duty with the other night guards somewhere along the line, Kyle and I went up to our room.
We undressed and lay down, and as soon as my head was on Kyle’s chest and his arms were around me, I fell asleep.