That wasn’t exactly true, but it was true enough.“I think she’ll do great,” Harmon told him.
“Even if she doesn’t, it’s not our problem.Hopefully, the first thing she’ll do is choose a good second-in-command who can take her place if something goes wrong.I don’t think we’ll ever come back here, though.Whatever happens next is entirely the dragons’ problem.”
As long as they didn’t do something stupid like attack the pack again, Harmon agreed.It was time for the clan to find a new way to live.Now that Martin was gone, they could turn things around.Hopefully, with Eva in charge, they’d be able to do so, and even if some clan members resisted, Harmon was sure Eva would be able to deal with it.
And if she couldn’t, well, that was why leaders had a second-in-command.
* * * *
UNFORTUNATELY, WHAThappened nextwastheir problem because it happened right in front of them.Considering the way Jacob had been behaving, they should have known he’d have something to say about Merrick’s declaration.Rex wasn’t surprised when he spoke up.He just wished he’d thought of telling him to keep his mouth shut before he did.
“You can’t do that,” Jacob said loudly enough that most of the people in the room heard him.
Merrick slowly turned to look at him.If Rex were in Jacob’s shoes, he’d be running for the door.Merrick liked him and had never done anything to him, but he was still scary as fuck.
“I’m sorry?”Merrick asked.
Jacob had gotten to his feet and moved forward, but he faltered.It looked like he’d expected Merrick to be afraid of him or something, which was ridiculous.Merrick could wipe the floor with Jacob, and he wouldn’t even break a sweat.
“You choose her,” Jacob tried.“But no one here has agreed that she should be our next leader.You said that you wouldn’t do that and that you were here to make sure that the person we chose would be a leader who wouldn’t guide us back into war, but that’s not what you’re doing.”
“Are you telling me that you don’t think that Eva will be a good leader?”
“I never said that.We just never agreed that she would be our leader,” Jacob said, gesturing at the room and the dragons sitting around them.
“I think she’d be a great leader,” the woman from earlier said.
Jacob glared at her, but Rex almost laughed in his face.As much as Jacob seemed to believe that he was important to the clan, it didn’t look like the clan felt the same way.They weren’t angry at him, but they were visibly annoyed.People had started whispering as they stared at Jacob, and if the way Jacob was squirming was any indication, it made him uncomfortable.
Good.
“Of course, we can’t force you to accept Eva as your clan leader,” Harmon said, interrupting Merrick’s glaring.
It was probably a good thing.As far as Rex knew, Merrick had never killed anyone with his mind, but Rex wouldn’t put it past him to succeed with how hard he was trying.
“Isn’t that what you’re doing?”Jacob asked, turning his attention to Harmon.
“If it felt like it was, we apologize,” Harmon told him.“We do believe that Eva would be a good clan leader considering what we know of her, but if you had someone else in mind, please, tell us.I’m also not sure how your clan usually does this.Is there a vote?”
“Martin wouldn’t have allowed that,” Eva said.
She glanced around the room like Jacob had done earlier, but the people watching her didn’t start whispering.Instead, they nodded and smiled at her.Rex was pretty sure that the clan had chosen their next leader.They just needed Jacob to accept that.
Eva turned her attention back to Harmon.“We didn’t have a choice when Martin became leader.Before then, well, a lot of us are too young to remember.”
“So how do you want to do this?A vote?Since most of the clan is here, everyone who agrees with this can raise their hands, and we can count how many supporters you have.”Harmon glanced at Jacob, who was still staring.“We can do the same for you, of course.”
“We need to talk about this more,” Jacob tried, but Harmon was already turning toward the dragons.
They were watching, and the tension in the room was high.Hopefully, Jacob wasn’t about to make a mess.Everyone knew how this would end, including him.He wasn’t going to be happy about it, but maybe losing the leader position would be enough to shut him up.
“Anyone in favor of Jacob becoming your clan leader, please raise a hand,” Harmon said.
To Rex’s surprise, some hands did raise.An older couple didn’t hesitate to put their hands up, and the woman elbowed a younger man sitting next to her.The man looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here, but he eventually raised his hand, too.He looked a lot like Jacob, down to the grumpy expression on his face.If Rex had to guess, they were related, maybe brothers.
A few more people also raised their hands.When Rex glanced at Jacob, he wasn’t surprised to see the man’s cheeks were red.Even though he’d gotten a few votes, it wasn’t enough for him to become clan leader.
The same might happen with Eva.They didn’t know what the clan would decide, but Rex prayed he’d be able to get out of here soon, hopefully at the end of the day.He wasn’t spending one more night here unless he absolutely had to.One had been more than enough.
