Page 150 of Claimed By the Rival Alpha
I turned to face him, meeting his gaze head-on. I noticed the other three men who were sitting and drinking were focused on the two of us. Their eyes ping-ponged between us as we spoke.
“Is that the hill you want to die on?” I asked him. “When you know the circumstances of the challenge your shitty Alpha made to me?”
“D-doesn’t change the fact that you lost that fight,” he shot back.
I narrowed my eyes. I could give him credit for stepping up to an Alpha and challenging me like this, but I knew that most of his bravado came from a desire to look tough in front of the others.
“Maybe you doubt that I can defend myself,” I replied. “Maybe you’d like to see what an Alpha can do at his full strength.”
He inched a step back, but tried to play it off. “You…you’re not worth the effort. Do what you want, Shepherd, see if I care.” He returned to his lawn chair but kept his gaze on me. That was enough of a victory for me. He knew which of us would win.
I crouched next to the man with the saw. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Steven,” he replied.
“Nice to meet you, Steven. I’ve got some men coming this way. Where can we help the most?”
“I think we mainly need guidance,” he said. “We were apprentices to our pack’s carpenters, but many of them were ki—” He cut himself off, glancing at the group of elites and then back to me. “We lost them before they could finish teaching us, so we feel a little out of our depth here.”
I couldn’t believe how badly Troy had fucked his own pack. Then again, he was so unstable, so hell-bent on ruling through fear, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
“I can help with that. Where are the plans for the cabin?”
“Aiden’s got it.”
Aiden, like Steven, was wiry and compact. His body was built for construction work like this. He showed me the diagram for the cabin, but the specs were only half-finished.
“The acting Alpha let us know that we needed to take the construction more seriously. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to complete this,” he said, shame causing his cheeks to burn red. He glanced at the wolves who were sitting as he said, “We were told we needed to start working now.”
“I know about the construction project, but only an idiot would force you all to start work when the blueprint isn’t finished.” I knew those “idiots” could hear me. They’d stopped drinking and were focused on us entirely. “Let’s finish this first. Is this cabin for a family or maybe storage?”
While Aiden explained the cabin’s purpose—it was indeed for a family—I took over the planning. Just as I finished explaining to the group of six which aspects of their blueprint were solid and which needed to be reworked, my team arrived.
I explained the situation to them, and they immediately set about helping the six men with their respective tasks. Every single one of them had helped build a cabin or two, and they were each knowledgeable about the process. The four men who were drinking and doing nothing eventually got up and walked away.
We didn’t need them. With the extra hands, we were able to get the skeleton of the cabin built. Steven, Aiden, and the other men had already buried the support posts in the earth at the proper distance from one another.
I noticed that a group of six had approached us—a mother, father, and their four children. The youngest pup was only a few months old and was still cradled in the arms of the mother. Now that Steven, Aiden, and the other four had a much better idea of what they were doing, I decided it was alright to walk up to them.
The father stepped forward in front of his family. It didn’t offend me that he wanted to protect them from me. Given the fact that there were rumors about the Wargs being borderline feral, and that this man’s most recent encounter with an Alpha had been with the murderous, insane Troy, it made sense that he would be cautious around me as Alpha of the Wargs.
This was an opportunity to show the Kings that their misconceptions about us were just that—misconceptions. Rumors. So, to show that I respected his caution, I stopped a few paces away. I only needed to be close enough for him to hear me without shouting.
“Are you the family who will live in this cabin?” I asked.
“That’s right,” he said. His shoulders relaxed somewhat, but he kept his family behind him. “We came by earlier to see the progress, but they weren’t this far along with the work.”
I nodded.
“Am I to thank you for their quick progress?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t say that. Steven and the others are doing the bulk of the work. My team just got them on the right track.”
His eyebrows raised. “I wouldn’t have expected an Alpha to be humble.”
I hadn’t been expecting the man to say that. It made me chuckle. “I’m not being humble. I’m being honest.” I glanced back at the group of Kings and Wargs. One of them had said something funny enough to make the group chuckle. It made me think that maybe there was something more here. At least now maybe some of the Kings could imagine a future where they and the Wargs could live together properly.
“It’s them who deserve your thanks,” I said, returning my attention to the family.
