Page 68 of Pack Rage
Luke blinked. “No, I’m not.” A wave of tension ran through the crowd, as the truth of his statement was felt. “Why am I not the Alpha?”
That was a very good question. I’d never witnessed Alpha power moving from one Alpha to another, but Brand had shared some of his own transition when we waited in the lower levels, and this was nothing like that. Luke was no more powerful now than he had been an hour before. The visiting Alphas in the crowd began to shift restlessly, moving away from my father.
He smiled. “The Council has to give you the power.” Another truth, sort of.
“That makes no sense,” Brand called out. “When an Alpha loses a challenge, the moon gives the winner the power of Alpha, not some committee.” He strode forward, towering over Aidan. “When I fought my father, the power was an avalanche, and instantly moved into me. Why isn’t the power of Southern moving into Luke right now?”
“I’m the Head of this Council. He’ll receive his Alpha power when I give it to him.”
The tension in the gathering became a deeper unease as the heresy of what he said was understood. One or two voices murmured loud enough to hear their dissent.
“Those are not the old ways, or the new.” Brand straightened, staring up at the hidden moon. “Our strength comes from the moon, and returns to Her when we die. Who are we to try to steal Her power? Aidan McDonnell, I challenge you.”
My father’s jaw dropped, but I knew better than to believe the shocked expression. His left fist was clenched in the way it did when he’d made a winning move on the chess board, or clinched a victory in a boardroom.
“You cannot challenge me, Brand Becker. You ask who I am to steal the moon’s power? Look at you, with your eyes shining with strange magic. You’re the one with power you have no right to.” His voice rose over the crowd, and they went quiet again. “Too much power. Six thousand shifters in your pack alone, and yet you’re not satisfied. You come here, unwilling to pledge to the Council, challenging me for the leadership of the entire North American pack. What could your end goal possibly be? To take over this continent? Or would you be content with that? Perhaps you have your eye on a greater prize: another continent, or even the world. Do you see yourself as another Alpha of Alphas, perhaps? I look at those eyes, filled with forbidden magic, and wonder where they came from.”
He held out a hand and pointed at Flor. “But I shouldn’t wonder. You’re bonded with a witch whore, aren’t you? You, and the Hillier boy, and Luke as well, and who knows how many more.” He gasped for effect. “Could the moon have judged Luke as unworthy to receive the Alpha power, because of this unholy connection? Or is it the Moon Goddess’s way of protecting the pack from your influence, from another despot who would rule over us all?”
None of what he said rang as false, but only because he phrased all his accusations as questions. It was a ploy he’d taught me when I was a child, and a way of leading the gullible that was too often successful.
It worked now. The mood of the crowd shifted quickly from awe and unease to anger. Brand’s eyes became, not a miracle, but a threat.
But my father was not done. “Brand Becker, you cannot challenge me. You’ve broken the deepest laws we hold sacred, and I will defend the pack law with my last breath if it means keeping you from tainting our packs with her filth.”
Flor only lifted her chin, standing beside Brand. “Well, this filthy whore knows how to read, and you’re the one breaking laws right now, asshole.”
“Silence!” Aidan commanded. Flor wrinkled her nose and sneezed twice.
Then she wiped her nose and took another step forward. Her hair was pushed back over one ear, revealing the metal ear tag she still wore. “I can’t believe you think that’d work on me. You really are a weak-ass Alpha.”
The crowd roared in disbelief, but an icy cold finger of dread worked its way down my spine. Many of the shifters here would see her ability to talk back to my father not as a sign of her strength, but as evidence of her witchcraft.
Someone would attack, and soon. But who?
My wolf snarled.Niall.
Where was he? I couldn’t find him in the group standing behind us, and I stepped closer to Flor. He wasn’t the most physically imposing shifter in our pack, so he could easily slip in and out of this crowd, but he was clever and twisted, taking more pleasure in torture that anyone I’d ever met, with the possible exception of Torran.
My blood went cold. Niall was evil, but Torran was worse. I hadn’t even thought about where he might be, not for days. He’d vanished from Southern after the fight, but where had he gone? I wasn’t fool enough to think Mother had let him slip her leash. He was more than her primary informant and torturer. He’d been her lover for years, although what he felt for her seemed closer to addiction than affection.
Flor kept going, ignoring the dark looks that were leveled at her from all around. “I’ve read the old law books, at the Mountain pack. All it says is an Alpha challenge has to be offered with witnesses, and take place under a full moon. A fight to the death, and the winner is the one who survives. That’s theold way.” The cloud that had been over the moon moved away, and Flor’s hair lit up like a flame. “The moon’s ancient, Aidan McFuckface. Your new ways are like that cloud, blocking out the light for a flash, then gone. The old ways will still be here when you’re a patch of bloody fur and a few bones.” She arched an eyebrow and nodded to the ground, as if to indicate that moment was about to happen. “How about you man up, or wolf up, and fight.”
“No!” “Becker’s power hungry!” “He’s trying for a coup!” The shouts were planted, voices I knew, but the crowd responded, surging forward, intent on keeping Brand from challenging again.
Brand roared at the noisy crowd in return, and whirled around, trying to keep himself and Flor safe in the center. I glanced at Father. Enforcers were holding Luke’s arms now, and a gun at his temple. The Hilliers…Shit.
That’s where Niall had gone. Bradley and Margarette had guns in their faces as well, both of them snarling but unable to fight. Silver ammunition at this range would mean death, with the moon’s power—their pack’s power—somehow cut off.
“You cowardly piece of shit,” Flor shouted, ignoring the Enforcers who were circling her and Brand, trying to find an angle to attack, though none of them were able to get past Brand’s long reach.
Father sneered at her. “The Alpha challenges are over. It’s time to begin the Council meeting, and the sentences for these traitors.”
“Too chickenshit to fight?” Flor called out again, her voice cracking.
Father laughed. “Who would I fight? You?”
“No,” Bradley Hillier shouted, his voice raw. “You’ll fight me, Aidan. You stole my position. I’m going to make you give it back.”
