Yes, obviously. But I’m here. I’ve been chosen. Ihaveto do this.
My heart beats against my ribs like a fist as I enter the Strategos anteroom.
As promised, Egith has gathered the other nineteen Strategos Rawbonds, and they’re packed onto the couches and the floor. The room is quiet and everyone stares at me when I enter—some with clear irritation, still mad at me for my disappearing act.
Tomison raises his eyebrows and Izabel mouths, “Are you okay?”
Am I ever? I shut the door behind me and turn to face them all.
My only frame of reference for how Alphas are meant to carry themselves are Stark and Siegrid, and… well, they just do a lot of glaring, don’t they?
I settle for what I hope is an authoritative stare, making eye contact with them all as I look around the room. Then I hold my head high and speak as plainly as I can.
“I have an announcement. The direwolves have decided on a new leader. They’ve chosen Anassa. I will serve as your Alpha.”
There’s one moment of crystalized, surprised silence before everything erupts into noise. Voices overlap, emotions crashingthrough our pack unity like rapids crashing over jagged rock. I can only catch fragments through the tumult.
“ARawbond?!” Pietr shouts.
Nevah starts to laugh hysterically, doubling over so that her dark curls almost hit the floor.
Kristof looks around confused. “But Egith?—”
“She’s not even from a Bonded family,” Allegra whispers loudly, dumbfounded.
Anassa’s booming voice slams through the pack connection like a crack of thunder, our minds torn in two just the way lightning cleaves through the sky.
“SILENCE.”
I know everyone’s heard her. This must be a new alpha power. Typically, the pack unity bond works so that we can sense emotions and touches of thought from everyone else, particularly when we’re using our group powers, but we cannot normally hear what each other’s wolves are saying.
Anassa’s ability to speak into everyone’s mind at once leaves no more room for argument.
The room instantly quiets again. Instinct has me reaching for her, looking for guidance. But she need not reach back. Her power speaks for itself, vibrating inside my skull. It gives me strength, knowing I’m bound to someone like her.
I draw myself up to my full height, Anassa’s authority crackling in my blood. I imagine it as a haze around me, light as silvery bright as her fur emanating from me like armor. I choose to be utterly, wholly honest.
“I hear your confusion and your doubt. I understand it because I felt the same. I don’t understand why I’ve been chosen. Only the wolves truly know,” I say. The Rawbonds stir, and there’s a shiver of understanding over the pack unity. “Even if you feel uncertain, they have made their decision. We must follow it. One of the very first lessons I learned here, with you,was that we have to trust the wisdom of the direwolves. You do not question it.”
There’s another stir. A few nods. A small blooming feeling, like the opening of their minds.
“I am your Alpha,” I say, projecting loudly into the room now. “You will treat me as such. Yes, like you, I am still a Rawbond. I will stay here with you to complete my training, and Beta Egith has agreed to lead Strategos at the front until I do.”
Allegra pipes up, flipping her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder. “We might not question the direwolves and their choices, but how can we trust you when you’re in a relationship with the crown prince? How can we trust that you’ll do what’s right for the Bonded and not just what’s right for the Crown?”
Of course, that’s the first question. I open my mouth to respond, but another voice stops me. A shiver of awareness streaks down my spine at the rich sound of it, coming from behind me.
“What’s right for the Crown is always what’s right for the Bonded.”
My eyes find Stark’s. He fills the doorway into our anteroom, leaning against the frame with his tattooed arms strategically displayed across his chest. I sense every eye in the room snap to him, drawn to his presence. Responding with respect and interest, clouding over my pack’s unity.
Irritation flickers through me.
Of course he’d believe that what’s right for the Crown is right for the Bonded. He’s the king’s perfect honed weapon. As the ultimate insider, destined to lead the Bonded himself one day, he can’t see how horrible the king and the nobles treat the Bonded.
Or maybe hechoosesnot to see it.
“The Alpha’s time is too valuable to waste on pointless questions,” he says.
