Page 74 of Forced Alpha Bride
“This still isn’t evidence,” I answer firmly. “Where did the attack happen? Was the surrounding area swept? How did our scouts manage to get away and drag the dead bodies back here?”
“Some were injured, not dead, Alpha,” a boy steps forward. I realize it’s Bryce’s son.
He’s in his first year of pack duty. Smart kid, but no experience whatsoever.
“We were ordered to simply bring the message,” he says. “But we heard the fighting. We were scared, sir. None of us can fight that well. By the time we got there, the other wolves were on the run—we never got a good look at them. These men were injured, so we brought them back with us. Couldn’t leave them there. What if the other guys came back?”
“And you found all of them there together?” I ask him. “Even my men?”
“Yes, Alpha,” the boy says. “All of them went down in the same fight, like they were hit as soon as they gathered in one group.”
That isn’t very comforting.
“We must act now!” Regina yells. “Before they get away! If you won’t give the order, then I’ll take my own squad right now!”
The energy in the garden shifts abruptly. Suddenly, the line between my men and the elders’ guards is real enough to feel.
I step back a little, and my men move behind me into a rough formation. Across from me, Regina and Mitchel face us, their guards assembling behind them. The tension in the air is as tight as a bowstring, almost ready to release the arrow.
“Damon,” Winnie mutters.
“I know.”
The situation is about to explode. Gryphon Eyrie will tear itself apart if I let this get out of control. And then I would have failed my brothers, myself, and all the innocents in this pack.
Regina glares at me with her pale, cold eyes, not bothering to conceal her hatred.
She put on a good show, if that’s what it was. Would she really kill her own men, just to take my position and have her way with Valentine Creek?
With a horrible, sinking feeling, I realize that I do believe she’s capable of it, and I can’t allow someone that dangerous to have this much power.
I could order my men to attack right now, and I think we’d win, but there would be heavy losses on both sides. It would change the Eyrie forever if I won my position through civil war. It would always be us against them, and I’d still have no peace.
“Warriors of Gryphon Eyrie,” I say, addressing the men behind Regina, “I appeal to you to look on your fallen brothers and ask yourself, does this honor them? If we fight now and stain this ground with more blood, does it punish their killers and bring their souls justice?”
The men begin to look around, and their ranks shift. A little of the tension goes out of the air.
“I order my warriors to stand down!” I state in a commanding voice. “We will not attack our own! No more blood will be shed this day!”
There is shuffling behind me as my men settle, some of them dropping their weapons. I can feel their anger and their need for action, but they also trust me and will always obey my word.
They didn’t follow me for years and help me ascend to the alpha position, only for it all to fall apart now. When I arrived at the alpha challenge, I was ready to fight for my right to compete—go to war, if necessary—but now it’s different. I am alpha, and every single one of these lives is in my hands.
“Listen to me!” Regina yells. “We have to move on to Valentine Creek now before they can do any more damage! Damon’s lack of action is exactly what led to the carnage you see before you right now! Do you want more bloodshed?”
“That is the question at hand,” I say softly. I step forward, my hands out, palms up. “We have lost so many brothers today. Do we want to lose any more?”
“I agree,” Winnie says, stepping up beside me. “We must honor the dead before all else. Would you leave your fallen pack members here in the yard, without the respect of a proper burial, to rush off to war?”
“They will be here when we get back,” Regina says brutally. “They aren’t going anywhere.”
I see more than a few of her guards shooting shocked looks at her.
That was monstrously insensitive, even for her.
Regina and I glare at each other, and I have to wonder just how much blood is on her hands.
If she is behind this, and she tried to manipulate me into action by capitalizing on my grief… I will have no mercy on her.
