“You’re right!” I yelled, and Rab froze.
An eerie calm washed over the space as a chilly wind rose into the air, whipping my hair around my face.
“When Arrow and Astra told me they needed my help, I panicked. I don’t know your ways, I only just learned who my real father was, and my life has been hard enough. I was selfish. I wanted to get married and live an easy life and not have to worry about other people’s problems.” My lower lip quivered with the truth and it felt dirty in my mouth. I wanted to spit it out.
Boos came from the trees, but they were soft, accepting and admonishing at the same time.
I lowered my head, thinking of Astra and Arrow’s heartfelt pleas.
Our people are dying.
The land is dying
Our magic is dying.
Come home.
I’d just … ignored him. My throat constricted with emotion and I cleared it, steadying myself. “I’ve come home,” I declared, the goosebumps on my arms standing up as the wind rushed past me faster. “I’ve come home to save our peopleandour land, if you will forgive me and give me a chance. Let me prove I’m worthy to hold the title of alpha.”
Rab spun as the people in the trees started to beat on the trunks with their fists, cheering as they screamed into the night like madmen and women. It was savage and beautiful, and my wolf tipped her head back and howled at the moon right along with them. This felt right, this was where I belonged, where I was needed, but as soon as I thought it, Sawyer’s pained wail sifted across my memory and I swallowed hard.
I needed to be alpha. I couldn’t let these people down, my people. I needed to do both. Be both a Paladin and a city wolf.
“Send the warriors I need by first light and Iwillstay. I will stay here as long as needed and do whatever is required of me to save this land and these people.” I gestured to the trees and the howls and cheers got louder in agreement. More of them must have come, because it sounded like a chorus of thousands all echoing into the treetops.
Rab watched me with two thin, blue slitted eyes, cold and calculating. “I’ll think about it,” he said.
His nonchalant reply angered me. I’d fucking apologized, laid myself bare. I was willing to do anything. Using my vampire speed, I zoomed across the clearing and got into his face. “Now it’s your pride and selfishness that’s showing!” I screamed in his face, and the voices cut off.
He huffed through his nose, trying to control his wolf, but his eyes went yellow anyway.
“Don’t make me draw a line in the sand,” I whispered.
I would, I would ask for volunteers, those with me to go to Wolf City, and I would go against him even though he was clearly in charge. He opened his mouth to speak when a small, delicate hand brushed his shoulder.
We both turned, blinking out of our rage-fest to see Astra looking up at Rab with an angelic smile. Her mousy brown hair was tucked behind her ears, and she wore a patient and understanding look that neither of us deserved.
“God wants this. She’s blessed. She will bring a thousand years of prosperity to our people. I’ve seen it.” She raised her wrist and held the scarred bite mark in his face.
‘Pack.’My wolf echoed her gesture and I had to blink back tears at the risk she was taking for me. Making up some prophecy or whatever she was doing to get him to agree.
The trees shook, people whooped, drums even started to beat deeper off into the trees, and Rab gave a resigned nod to Astra. Reaching out, he brushed his thumb across her forehead in a delicate, loving gesture. “Our priestess has spoken!” he bellowed, spinning in a circle.
Priestess? I looked at Astra more closely. Was he talking about her? She was in her mid-teens, meek, shy, wearing no headdress or fancy regalia.
She simply gave me a small smile.
“Because I trust the mouthpiece of God, I will allow thiscity alphato prove herself to us.” His voice projected into the trees, which shook like a troop of monkeys were rattling their branches.
“And the help? For … the city wolves?” I asked.
He sneered at me. “What does God say of that?” he asked Astra.
She looked at her feet, quiet.
‘Please. We need help or thousands will die,’I begged her.
‘God does not condone war,’she said to me.
