“I’ve noticed,” I said flatly.
Several in the chamber bristled.
Deryn pressed on. “You’ve consolidated two packs under your leadership in the span of months.”
“Not by choice,” I shot back. “By necessity.”
“So you claim,” another alpha said, fingers tapping off the table in irritation. “Yet the fact remains. Two territories now kneel to you.”
I almost said no one would ever kneel to me, but they had. I had made them. I would never require it of them again, but the fact was that theyhad. I stayed silent as the alpha continued.
“That level of influence,” he continued, “is unprecedented. And dangerous.”
“What influence? The same influence every alphapossesses by being…an alpha? Dangerous to who?” I asked. “My pack? They’re safer than they’ve been in years.”
“Says who?” Deryn asked sharply. “You? You think unification of that scale doesn’t destabilize the carefully maintained balance.”
This was their fear. Told to all who could hear, all who listened to the right words. I had power they didn’t control.
“Destabilizes the balance?” I snorted. “I brought balance. Ask the ones behind me. Blueridge and Stonefang both. Askthemif the pack feelsdestabilized.”
Angry rumbles broke out behind me from my pack. Killian’s hand shot out to quiet them.
Deryn stood. “Two packs answering to a single alpha is a rebellion in all but name.”
I let silence stretch. It was heavy and sharp-edged, and I took in every single one of them as they sat behind their curved desk and judged me with their own fear.
“Finally, the accusation.” I looked around at the ones seated. Alphas and their betas who trembled before the Pack Council and did not stand in front of it as equals as they should have. “You’re accusing me of rebellion.”
“No,” Deryn said, eyes glittering as he got to his feet. “Treason.”
Killian swore under his breath. I heard Rowen’s gasp.
I stepped forward, meeting Deryn’s gaze without looking away. “If I were leading a rebellion,” I said quietly, “none of you would be breathing long enough to accuse me of it.”
The room went dead still. Deryn’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t sit down. Didn’t back down.
“You have too much authority,” the older alpha who’d already complained said. “Too many wolves. Too much?—”
“Influence,” another supplied.
“Control,” a third added.
There was the chorus. The voices of those that agreed with him. Unified behind one alpha who stared me down like I was dirt on his shoe.
“We believe,” Deryn said, “that you are positioning yourself as a rival power. Perhaps even an alternative Pack Council.”
I laughed loudly, humorlessly enough to make half of those sitting in the rows shift in their seats uneasily. “If you think I want to run your decrepit little club, you’re more senile than I thought.”
“That arrogance,” one of them hissed, “is exactly the problem.”
“No,” I corrected. “Thatarrogance, as you call it, is an alpha standing in front of you and telling you that this is beneath you.Thispetty jealous frivolity is not what an elected Pack Council should be focusing on.” My gaze traveled over them all. “Your role is to govern shifters, ensure laws are enforced, and keep our presence unknown to humans. Not to concern yourself with an alpha, his mate, or their pack. The Deephorn Pack in northern Canada has twice as many shifters as my pack. It encompasses a quarter of the entire Canadian border, yet not one of you looked northward when their alpha consolidated packs a few years ago.” I turned back to Deryn. “But two packs, Stonefang and Blueridge Hollow, merging has you calling me here and accusing me of treason. Why? Is it fear of the packs I merged? Or the land on which they stand?”
Whispers broke out immediately.
Deryn leaned forward, eyes sharp as a blade. “Fear? Of you?”
“Yes,” I said simply. “Because you know you can’t control me.” I smirked. “And you will never control the Hollow or Stonefang without me.”
