Duncan slowly nodded. “I’d like you to become my second, Badger.”
Fortunately, Badger was between sips. “What?Me? Why?”
“Because I trust you. You’re a Prime. People like you.”
“Not everyone,” he snarked.
“Well, those people fear you and that’s just as good, if not better. Right? Please?”
“What about Anderson? Isn’t yer current second gonna be fashed to be thrown over?”
“This isn’t for public consumption yet but he wants to move back to the UK.”
Badger’s jaw dropped open. “What thebloodyhell for? Feckin’ idjit!”
“His mate’s homesick for her family. One of her older brothers nearly died in the war and they’re struggling.”
“Oh. Well then, I guess that’s a perfectly valid reason.”
“Her father’s offered him a job in Glasgow. He told me he’d stay on if I couldn’t find a replacement but I’d consider it a personal favor if you’d take it.”
Badger settled back in his chair. “Charlie and I, I always imagined one day if he started his own pack that I’d help him.”
“Well, you still can. You know me, I don’t like the old ways. They don’t belong in the modern age. Fight to the death for control?Why? Just go start a new pack. Or work your way up the chain of command. Like a business.That’swhat I want the Targhee Pack to continue to be—a familybusinessthat can survive the test of time and stay profitable so it supports the future ages. Our pups and their pups. The elderly. Take in strays who’ll bend a knee and show their throat and work to better our pack. We’ll take care of those who help take care of the pack. Protect them. Help them prosper with us. No one needs to starve or be in danger.
“This is a big damned country. There’s no reason people like Charlie who deserve to have their own pack can’t have the chance to run a… A branch office. Sure, think of it as an expanded pack. If that area gets large enough, it can become its own entity if it’s self-sufficient enough and they want to do that. Otherwise, it remains part of the larger pack, under its protection and guidance.”
“And financial support,” Badger noted. “Incentive to stay in line?”
“Exactly. They don’t like the way the pack does things? Then they can leave, but the pack’s assets don’t leave with them. They’ll receive a one-time payment, seed money to help them out, but if they don’t want to work with the pack then that’s all they’ll get. This isn’t an island with limited territory and resources. This is a relatively new country we can spread out in without having pissing contests about whose land is whose. Everyone will prosper if we just work together. And we can protect each other, stay outside of the humans’ notice.”
Badger considered it. “That’s a novel approach. And so far, it’s kept our bellies full, I’ll admit. Never hear anyone bitchin’ about serious issues. Everyone’s happy with ye. Especially the elders who came over from the old country.”
“Do you think Charlie will go for it? Like you said, he doesn’t have a mate yet. Maybe he’ll meet someone while he’s out and about. It’s not like he’s banished—far from it. He’ll still return for Musters and special meetings. Still check in. You can travel back and forth to visit with him and help him out. Hell, spend winters with him, if you’d like. This is me showing my faith in him, that Itrusthim to act in my stead for the pack. A very public show of faith and trust.”
“He’s also the strongest Prime Alpha we have, excludin’ the two of us,” Badger noted. “The only other Prime Alpha, besides us, that I know of, currently in our pack.”
Duncan slowly nodded. “There is that.”
“What are ye plannin’ on tellin’ him?”
“Exactly what I’ve told you,” he said. “I refuse to pit people against each other. That’s nonsense. Charlie’s still young. Younger than both of us. Not even half my age.”
“He made me promise to keep livin’,” Badger quietly said. “After I lost Tahlia. Told me he’d need me one day.”
“And nothing I’m asking of you breaks that promise. If you don’t want to be Pack Alpha, become my second and then become his one day. Continuity of power. I’m not ready to step aside yet but if we make it clear to him and to everyone else now that he’s already my chosen successor—”
“It’ll help discourage outsiders who come sniffin’ around thinkin’ they can institute a hostile takeover. Because he’ll already have loyalty amongst the pack.”
They’d already killed four such men over the years who’d refused to take a knee to Duncan and demanded he yield to them.
They’d sent their heads back to their families and former packs, with stern warnings not to fuck with the Targhee Pack. That you come in friendship or don’t come at all.
It’d been over fifteen years since the last one tried. Their pack was even larger now, with more shifters joining them and taking knees every year at their annual Muster as weak packs fell financially, or dissolved due to violence or even natural disasters.
Duncan nodded. “Exactly. Aren’t you tired of the rogues who are left causing trouble and killing people for bullshit reasons? Like that crazy corgi asshole, Faegan Lewis.”
Badger sighed. “Yeah. Ye can say that. Been there. Don’t recommend it.” He touched the scar on his face.
