“So why is that bad?” He laughed.
“The Alpha already has a mate.” The room broke out in murmurs.
“You are saying that a she-wolf somehow is interfering with a goddess blessed mate bond.”
“That’s correct. We knew she was doing something, we just couldn’t put our finger on it. It was so bad that the Alpha attacked his pup and fought with his own wolf.” I leaned over and propped my face up with my hand. “So your father attacksyou, almost kills you. He is acting erratic. The pack is at risk, and you have a suspect, but no answers. What do you do?”
“Talk to her family.”
“They know nothing or have been compelled to not speak. If you are strong enough, you can break the command.”
Rowan shook his head. “Depending on the strength of the command and the rank of the wolf, if you shatter a command, you could shatter their mind as well.” I nodded.
I pointed to Rowan. “He’s right. It’s risky. What’s your next move?”
“I don’t know.” He answered, a little flustered.
“Come on Steve. Your pack is in danger. There are over a hundred or more people counting on you to figure this out and save not only the pack, but your own father. The backbone of any pack is a powerful Alpha. What is your next move?”
“I don’t know.” He looked around for support, but no one was looking at him.
“Say you didn’t figure out your next move, and the next day during the attack you lost all the pups, and a few mates. How would you feel?”
“Bad.”
“Everyone would blame you, Steve. You could have prevented it all. How would you tell their families? Their mates? How would you justify it all?”
Steve looked at Rowan, but the king had a flat look on his face. “I don’t know, okay!” He screamed.
I sat back in my chair. “None of us know, Steve. That’s the truth. But these are the situations that Alpha’s have to face. We weigh our dignity, our morals, our very soul against the odds and we make a choice.” I wiped my face. “I didn’t enjoy scaring the she-wolf. I didn’t enjoy hurting her. But by doing so, I could save my father. And the next day he was on my side when we were attacked. I almost died saving a family. I fought off three wolvesto give two children enough time to run away, knowing I would not make it out of there.”
“That’s your job.” He snorted.
“You are right. It’s my job to protect the weak. To support the pack. To save children, and women, and men like you who sit back and judge me because they don’t have to make the hard decisions. You get to sit here and come to class and decide that I’m a monster because I tortured a woman. When in reality I already weighed the choice. I became a monster, so that four little kids get to wake up and be loved by their parents. I sacrificed my soul to protect my father, my pack, and those kids. And the truth of it, Steve. I would do it again in a heartbeat.” Rowan nodded once.
“We have all made decisions that would ruin ourselves to save others.” Rowan stood and walked around his desk. “Now, let’s talk about python.” He clicked on the screen and started his lecture.
As the lecture ended I shut my computer and packed it away. Everyone else was doing the same. “Amy, can you hang back a minute?” Rowan called and I wanted to groan, but I just nodded and stayed in my seat.
Everyone walked by me, and a few stopped by the side of my desk. “Amy?”
I looked up and met the Gamma from the beginning of the class, Steve. “Yeah?”
“We just wanted to apologize for earlier today.”
I was shocked. “What?”
Steve just laughed. “We aren’t stupid enough to not realize that we spoke without knowing the full story. We judged you without knowing what you had to go through, or the decisions you had to make. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions and calling you those names.”
The other two nodded. “We are sorry, too. We don’t honestly know what goes into running a pack, but we know our Alpha keeps us as safe as possible. And probably had to make some of the same decisions you have had to make, and we wouldn’t want anyone judging him.”
I sat back and stuck out my hand. “I appreciate it.” They shook my hand and left, and I turned to find Rowan watching me with a look I couldn’t place.
He looked at a seat in front of his desk. “Come join me down here so I don’t have to yell.”
“Sure.” I gathered my stuff and walked down the stairs to the front of the room.
“I wanted to apologize for opening my mouth. I shouldn’t have put your business out in the open. I should have realized that most of these wolves are lower or unranked wolves and they wouldn’t understand what it takes to protect a pack.”
