Page 5 of Pack Rage
Sergeant shrugged. “He wouldn’t need to. As Acting Council Head, Aidan can break a tie. And Luke is only Acting Alpha of Southern.”
“Shit. We don’t even know where Callaway is,” Glen murmured. “If they have him, Aidan will find some way to use him.”
“If they do have him, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they planned all along,” Sergeant said. “There is no other Heir to Southern, so far as they know. If they…” He hesitated, his eyes falling on the mate mark on my neck. “If they remove Luke from the equation and put Callaway back in, then Aidan will have all the votes he’ll ever need.”
“But Callaway lost to Luke.”
“They’ll find some way to stage another fight. Make sure Luke’s too weak to win, juice the old Alpha up somehow. There are plenty of ways to cheat the moon. I would know.” His tone was filled with shame, but I didn’t have time to think about what he’d done at Northern, under Bradley Hillier’s command. How he’d cheated so many of the unranked there, mostly females.
I cradled my head in my hands, my mind whirring, trying to see the way through this mess. “Can this situation get any more fucked?”
“I’m afraid so,” Sergeant said, speaking so softly it was hard to hear him, even from this close. “Bradley’s still Northern’s Alpha, but the moon’s full in four days.”
I blinked up at him, unsure why that mattered, but Glen gasped. “No.”
Brand cursed. “Yes. Bradley’s being held for the crime of killing his own Enforcers without cause. If he’s found guilty and executed on the full moon, and no one’s there to stop him, Aidan could take over Northern. The moon and the power of Bradley’s death would be enough…”
He didn’t have to go on.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
Chapter 3
Running out of Time
FLOR
My bond with Glen buzzed like a plucked guitar string as Brand’s meaning sunk in. Glen ran a hand through his mussed blond hair, pushing the loose strands away from his face. “Killing an Alpha outside of a challenge would be against Council law. Pack law. Aidan is bound by that, by his own oath.”
“That Alpha has never been bound by a law he couldn’t find a loophole in,” Sergeant replied calmly. “He could have Bradley executed by order of the emergency Council tomorrow night, or have him killed beforehand in the lower levels by one of his minions. But I think he’ll wait. If Bradley dies on the full moon, with no Heir in attendance, there’s a strong chance Aidan could receive the Alpha power over Northern. It’s not how the Council normally does things, but it’s legal, as you know.” He nodded when Brand sat up in his chair.
Shit.“Brand was Samuel’s Heir. That was different.”
“Shifters without an Alpha will turn rogue,” Sergeant said, playing devil’s advocate. “I’m sure he would claim he was doing it for the good of the pack.”
“He’s right,” Brand whispered. “In the absence of an Heir, the power can be given to another Alpha. Glen was still the official Heir when the Hilliers were taken, but he was declared rogue. As good as dead, according to pack law.”
“What about Patrick?” I asked. Glen’s brother was ready and waiting to be named the Northern Heir. He was young, but would make a fantastic Alpha someday.
“Declaring a new Heir has to be done before the full Council. The last one to do that was Callaway, with Luke,” Sergeant replied. Luke had been adopted into the pack when he was a child, when Bradley was the Council Alpha. Back when no one knew Callaway had a mate who could even bear him an Heir.
“Fuck a damned duck.”
Sergeant’s lips twitched. “Exactly. We have to assume the worst. Not only that Aidan might take Bradley’s Alpha role after the meeting, but that he in fact is planning to. That he may even use Margarette’s safety to force Bradley to step neatly into his trap.”
I didn’t know how to react. I wanted to scream, rage, shout every cuss word I’d ever learned, and cry all at the same time. Brand’s hand closed around my wrist, and I realized at some point, I’d taken my steak knife out of my belt and was gripping it, ready to use.
Glen let out a shaky breath, and I grabbed his hand. Both of us were shaking as Brand spoke. “We’ll assume Aidan has held onto Callaway as insurance, as Sergeant suggested. That if Luke refuses to go along with Aidan, he’ll be killed and the Alpha power will remain with Callaway. Aidan might even find some way to force Luke back into the role of Heir and use Callaway’s Alpha power over the remaining Southern shifters to assign his own handpicked leader. The older McDonnell males were all cut from the same cloth. They wrote many of our laws, and Aidan will have every loophole and technicality ready to use.”
We all went quiet. It was becoming clearer by the second to me that the Council needed to be destroyed entirely. And maybe not rebuilt.
“Can we just… act like the Council doesn’t exist? That we’re just fighting Finnick’s asshole parents and their pack? There’s more of us than them, right? Mountain and Northern won’t go along with them. Even Southern—what’s left of us—won’t support Aidan.” Saying Finnick’s name aloud made the claiming mark he’d left on my neck ache slightly, but I ignored it.
I zoned out of the conversation for a moment, thinking of my Eastern mate. Wondering what had made our bond feel so painful, and now fragile, almost as if it was fading. I pressed my hand to his mark and sent a thought to him, or tried to.We need you. I need you. Hold on.
I might have been imagining it, but I thought I felt something bounce back, like an echo.Yes.He would help us from the inside, if he could. At least I hoped so.
Brand murmured, “Hope is good. Finnick is as well. Don’t doubt him.”
