Page 136 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
I tried to consider other people for the job. I couldn’t have Night or Dom, obviously, and it was too demanding a position to giveto Mom, who also had the pack garden to worry about. Violet wouldn’t be good for similar reasons.
There was the female wolf, Frankie. She seemed strong and intelligent, but I didn’t really know her, and I wouldn’t feel right having one of Night’s group of elites in my circle. As much as I loved Night and trusted him and his people, I needed a beta who would putmefirst as their Alpha. Frankie was loyal to Night first, so I would always be second. Of course choosing someone from another pack would come with its own set of problems too?—
“Alpha Hunter?” Elder Queene asked.
I blinked. I’d let my mind wander off. “I’m sorry, what were you saying, Elder?”
“As I was saying, I’m sure you don’t need a reminder of this, but your position is only temporary because a female cannot be the Alpha of the pack. However, because you won the challenge, you will have the option to stay on as Den Mother if you so choose.”
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked.
“It means essentially that you will have a seat on the council. You will still be involved in the pack and in future decisions.”
“I see.” I tried to contain my excitement, but I was sure they could hear the hard beating of my heart. I had never wanted to be Alpha, but I was willing to do anything I could to help the pack. They might not appreciate me or even like me, but they were still the people I grew up with, and I wanted to make sure the good ones in the pack and the pups had a good life.
“How will the choosing of the new Alpha go?” I asked.
“I am curious about that myself,” Violet said. “I’ve never heard of this situation happening before. I brought all relevant historical texts from our library with me, but none of them mentioned this.”
The Elders raised their eyebrows, obviously impressed with her knowledge.
“I’m not surprised,” Elder Sage said. “This situation is quite rare, but we’ve come up with a solution that we believe will satisfy all parties.” He and Elder Queene looked at Elder Forsythe to explain.
“Each member of the pack council will be allowed to nominate any wolf they want to for the Alpha position.” His voice had a lilting edge to it, like the sound of a deep hum. “Those potential Alphas will challenge each other one-on-one until there is only one wolf left standing. That wolf will have proven to be strong enough to be Alpha.”
“That sounds reasonable enough,” I said, though inside, my thoughts immediately went to Night and how I would again, despite my promise, have to watch him fight for his life in that arena. “When will this challenge take place?” I asked.
“In a month’s time.”
Violet grinned and patted the table. “Well, my goodness, I thought for sure it would take longer than that. You gentlemen work quickly.” She winked.
Her compliment did something funny to the Elders. A faint blush touched the cheeks of the oldest two, while the younger answered her praise with a surprisingly brazen grin. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but Violet had apparently won the heartsof these older gentlemen. This just solidified my decision to have her at my side when I dealt with the Elders.
As much as I wanted to savor the moment, I thought again about Night. I would nominate him, of course, but he could be killed during the challenge. It was true that he would be much stronger this time, but that meant that a lot of pressure would be on Night’s shoulders. If both packs were going to have peace, Night needed to win. The futures of both packs were resting on him alone, and that wasn’t fair to him.
I would of course do what I could for him because he was my mate and this was technically his birthright. But until that time came, I’d have to channel my energy into being the best Alpha the Kings had ever had, even if I would only be in this position for a month.
“I have something else I’d like to talk about,” I said. “I see that there are a lot of buildings that were destroyed during Troy’s rule. I’d like to get started on reconstructing them.”
“We have men working on that now,” Elder Queene said.
“And how are they doing? Do they need assistance?”
“That…I’m not sure about. They haven’t checked in with us since we gave them the project.”
“How long ago did you give them the project? The day after I won the challenge?”
He nodded.
“Who’s in charge of the reconstruction? I’d like to meet with him.”
Elder Queene paused and looked to the other Elders. None of them seemed to have an answer.
“I’m sorry, Alpha Hunter,” said Elder Forsythe. “That, too, is something we just don’t know. We haven’t had to concern ourselves with construction projects before, so we’ve left that to the elites to figure out.”
“I see.” I glanced at Violet, who didn’t seem the least bit surprised to hear that the Elders had dropped the ball on this project. “Well, I’ll figure it out myself then. Could you give me one of their names?”
“Yes. You might want to speak with…Tyrell. He lives on the south side of the compound.”
