by Lauren Dane
“Hey, you know, the other day you started to tell me about what brought about Tomas’s stepping aside and somehow we got interrupted,” Kari said.
“Ah yes. Well, Tomas has siblings. A sister who lives in Northern California, and a brother who was his Second, as Sean is Andreas’s. Balmont and his Mate, Angeline, were Michael’s parents, by the way.”
“Oh! You know, I’ve always meant to ask about his parents and his connection to Andreas. I knew he was a cousin but not much more than that.”
“For a long time, it’s been an unspoken truth that Balmont was weak, petty, prone to fits of rage and incoherence. He resented Tomas. Tomas was the oldest. Strongest. A perpetual favorite everywhere he goes.”
Kari made a vow to herself before the twins were born that she’d do everything in her power to be sure both were loved and valued. In a world of wolves, where physical strength was prized—along with a penis instead of a vagina—it was all too easy to focus on the oldest male child at the expense of the others. And that wasn’t even taking into account the whole issue of the way those born as wolves were treated in Pack hierarchy compared to those, like her, who’d been changed.
Ryan continued, “Michael is an only child. Angeline’s pregnancy was exceptionally difficult, especially for a werewolf. He was very early and had to be kept in a special neonatal unit for nearly four months. He’s still very small to this day.”
Kari laughed. “Well, I suppose compared to all of you giants, sure. But he’s still what, five ten or so?”
Ryan shrugged, grinning. “Well, okay, compared to the rest of us he’s small. You’re tiny. However, you more than make up for it with your attitude.”
She chuckled at that. “Good save.”
“Anyway, Balmont wanted to be more than Second. He and Tomas were not very close. Back to that whole resentment and jealousy thing. They’d always been very competitive but the fact that Jade bore not just one but three strong males secured Tomas’s place as Alpha. After Michael’s birth, Angeline had many more health problems and Jade was...well, she’s Jade. She exudes strength and good health. She and Tomas were strong Alphas and their sons grew bigger and more competent each year while Michael, who was a good son, was overshadowed by his cousins.
“As Andreas approached his late teens, it was clear that he was going to be the next Alpha. At least to most of the Clan. Balmont did have his supporters, about a third of the Pack, but overall, it was easy for everyone to accept the obvious.
“Andreas went to college at Harvard. Then to graduate school at Yale. He came back here and not only competently ran the construction company that Tomas had started but started two more companies by the time he was thirty. Andreas was a bit of a free spirit in his early twenties but as he approached his thirties he began to take his future seriously. He became not only integral in the life and governance of the Pack, but he became someone whom the Pack began to look to when they had problems.
“When Andreas turned thirty-two, Tomas went to Balmont and told him that he wanted to make Andreas his Second. Ready him for taking over as Alpha. Incensed, Balmont took it to the Pack for a vote. This is an unusual thing. A Clan isn’t a democracy, it’s ruled by the Alpha. In very rare situations, the Pack can be polled, and Balmont decided to make an end run around Tomas.
“Tomas, seeing his brother’s distress, backed off and made Andreas his Lieutenant instead. Andreas saw his father’s actions as necessary for the time being but so began an intense rivalry between Balmont and Andreas that got worse and worse as each year passed.
“During this time, Balmont urged Tomas to make Michael higher in the Pack. As you know, the family of the Alpha is generally the Clan leadership and occupies the top spots in the Pack. However, everyone else has to challenge and fight their way to the top.”
“So you fought your way up?” Kari asked Ryan.
“Yes, I did. I challenged the older Pack members to move up from the bottom and by the time I was thirty I was one of the Enforcers. Skye, Laurent and Phillip, as well. Balmont’s strongest supporter, Andrew, was a Lieutenant just below Andreas, and he challenged Skye. Thought he’d take him out and relegate a strong supporter of Andreas to the bottom of the Pack. What happened instead was a bloody challenge that ended in Andrew’s death. It was supposed to just be a blooding but Andrew wouldn’t stop. Skye got first blood, it should have ended, but Andrew came back at him time and again. Finally Skye had to kill him. It was the beginning of a slide into a final face-off.
“So Skye became Andreas’s right-hand man. Balmont could see that the tide was turning. He demanded again that Michael be made a higher rank but Tomas refused, saying that Michael had to fight his way up like everyone else. Even if Tomas had been inclined to favoritism, Michael simply wasn’t strong enough to hold a high position in the Pack. The Inner Circle has to be the strongest or an Alpha can’t hold the leadership. We may have human skins, Kari, but we’re still predators. Any sign of weakness will be acted on.”
Kari nodded. She understood that more and more each day.
“As time passed, Andreas’s friends filled the spots of the Inner Circle and by the time Andreas had turned thirty-three we held the entire Inner Circle with the exception of Second, which Balmont still held.
“Andreas had been looking for a Mate. Generally, males don’t take on the Alpha position at such a young age unless they’re mated or some major event happens, like the old Alpha is sick or needs to be challenged for some reason. Anyway, Andreas courted women and wolves alike but no one stayed around for very long. Angeline was threatened by this, she wanted her son as Second when Andreas took over. She pressed Balmont into action and Balmont tried to negotiate with Tomas for Michael to be Second when Andreas took over. He promised to step down without any fuss if Tomas agreed.
“By this time Sean had returned from medical school and had worked his way up, as well, and Tomas had Second in mind for him. Devon was always content as a lower Lieutenant and so he didn’t really pose much of a threat.
“The tension had gotten pretty bad. Several of Balmont’s closest friends were now relegated to the bottom of the Pack hierarchy. This is common, of course. As we get older, younger wolves take the spots that strength can hold. But they weren’t happy. Balmont had convinced them that if he or Michael were Alpha, they could have their old spots back.
“So at the last Gathering of the year, Balmont challenged Andreas. Now this was eight, nearly nine years ago. If you think Andreas is strong now, imagine what he was like then. Balmont was thirty years older than him and had gotten soft. It was unbelievable to everyone but Balmont and his people. Andreas tried to avoid it, he even transformed back to human to try to reason with his uncle but Balmont attacked him. Andreas had no choice then and, obviously, he defeated Balmont. Balmont surrendered as Andreas stood on Balmont’s chest, his neck in Andreas’s teeth.
“Andreas became Second and Balmont seemed to be resigned to his falling fortunes. But he wasn’t, in truth. He was plotting and Phillip and Laurent got wind of his plan to try to kill Andreas and Tomas, and we called a Gathering and confronted them.”
“Yes, Ryan, and why don’t you tell her how they killed my parents then? Your precious Tomas and Andreas murdered my parents to keep their power.”
They spun around to face Michael, fury written all over his face. She wanted to be shocked, but really she was embarrassed because the truth had been there all along. She’d just chosen not to see it. All the behavior she’d considered chagrin or guilt had been something else entirely.
Revenge.
Ryan shrugged, shifting just slightly to keep himself between Michael and Kari. “Yes, after Balmont and Angeline confessed and the plot was fully disclosed, they had to submit to the justice of the Pack. To plot to assassinate your king and future king is a death penalty offense. Something they knew, Michael.”
“Fuck you, Ryan,” Michael said, his jaw clenching. He brought a hand up and the gun flashed in the moonlight. “Fuck all of you,” Michael snarle
d and shot him.
Kari’s eyes widened as she watched Ryan sink to the ground. “Silver,” he said simply and Michael shot him twice more.
“Michael! Stop,” Kari cried out, trying to bend over to help Ryan. But Michael moved to her then, grabbing her, putting the gun to her temple.
She tried to struggle but he dug the gun into her skin. “Don’t. Walk with me, bitch, or I’ll do you right here.” He walked her quickly away from the lodge as her mind spun, trying to figure a way out of this mess, hoping Ryan was still alive, counting on the fact that the others had heard her and were on their way. Kari wouldn’t give up. Her children needed a mother and she wasn’t going to let a coward like Michael take her out without a fight.
“What are you doing, Michael?”
“What I’ve been trying to do for a year,” he answered calmly.
“You’re the one who tried to kill me,” she said flatly, not a question.
He laughed, the anger barbed in the sound. “What, you believed my sorry little wolf routine? I knew what I was doing in that alley that night. But you had to fight back so hard it brought Phillip around. Even then you were a pain in my ass.”
“Why? I never did a thing to harm you. I tried to help you.”
“Help me? Please! You and your fucking children have put up yet another roadblock to my taking over this Pack.”
Just then two wolves ran up. Phillip and Skye. They changed back into their human skin and stood there, naked, hands open. Michael bit off a savage curse.
“Michael, why are you doing this, man?” Skye asked, stepping forward.
“Don’t!” He shoved the muzzle of the gun into Kari’s cheek. “I’ll shoot her in the head. It’s silver shot. She’ll die instantly.”
Skye took a step back, hands open. “Okay, Michael. Just calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down! All of this should be mine. I’ve had to sit at the long end of the table and watch others have it for too long. This bitch thinks she can just stroll her human ass in here, pop out a few mongrels and take over? My parents were both natural wolves, why should a mongrel lead this Pack? Tomas and Jade never shared anything with my parents and then they killed them, leaving me alone. Did Andreas even try to make amends for it when Tomas stepped down? No.”
Kari could feel Andreas out there somewhere. His fury roiled in the air, crackling with menace.
“Michael, you can’t win now. Can’t you see that?” Kari asked softly.
“Look, keep your fucking mouth shut or I’ll shut it permanently.”
“What do you plan to do, Michael?” Phillip asked calmly.
“I plan on killing this whore. Sure, I won’t be leading the Clan but she won’t either. In fact, neither will Andreas, because who would support an Alpha who allowed so many murder attempts on his own Mate? Her murder on his own land? If I’m going down, you’re all coming with me.
“Poor little Michael, too weak to hold power. You all looked at me with pity. Andreas thought he was being sooo good to me to allow me to watch over his human whore. Even when I tried to kill her, he didn’t punish me. Weak, pathetic and weak. I walked right into their bedroom and put that water there, hoping to take them both out, but only got her. And again, her stupendous luck saved her. I fucking tried to shoot her and got you instead, Phillip. How’s the shoulder, by the way?” he asked, snorting.
“All the time I danced around in your midst and you never suspected me once. Well, it’s too bad I couldn’t kill those brats of hers but I’ll just have to settle for killing her.”
“Oh man, do you have a case of the feeling sorry for yourself! I may be half wolf but I’m ten times the Alpha you’ll ever be. Why? Because you are weak. So weak you’d target children instead of openly challenging for a seat you know you don’t have the power to take much less hold. Andreas didn’t punish you because he has compassion. He believed your story because he loved you. You’re so pathetic you’d rather bring down an entire Pack instead of just dealing with the reality life has dealt you. That’s not leadership. You aren’t an Alpha, Michael. Suck it up. Life sucks large some days. Be what you can be and stop crying about what you can’t change.” Despite her fear, Kari snarled.
“What do you know about it?” His voice was petulant and Kari felt nothing but disgust.
“Oh, you think this was handed to me? I worked for everything I ever had in my life, which is more than I can say for you. You dare to call anyone else weak? You’re a coward! Here’s a clue, not everyone gets to be Alpha. Only two people do per Pack. The chances of it being you are astronomical.”
He yanked on her hair. “Shut up, you whore! You stole my seat with your mongrels. The only thing that’s kept me going all this time is the knowledge that I kept you terrified and worried for your sniveling brats.”
At that, Kari had had enough. She stomped back, hard, on his instep, elbowing him in the gut. He doubled over, his hands slipping but grabbing a fistful of her hair.
Andreas was a flash of movement. He was on top of Michael and it was only moments before she heard the sickening crack of bones breaking. Skye and Phillip grabbed the gun and stood over Michael but it wasn’t necessary. He wouldn’t be threatening anyone ever again. Andreas stepped back, “Michael Phinney, you’re sentenced to death for treason against a Pack Alpha.”
Kari looked around and saw that the rest of the Pack had gathered around. Sean came to her and pulled her into his arms, turning her face away. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?” he murmured into her ear.
“Ryan? Is Ryan all right?” she asked, weeping into his shoulder.
“Elaine and Ellen are with him. He’s lost a lot of blood but they got the bullets out. He’ll need to rest but he’ll live,” Alex said as he jogged up to the scene.
Andreas came to her then, sinking to his knees in front of her and putting his forehead to the ground. “Can you forgive me for letting this get so far? I had no idea he felt so much hatred toward me.”
She pulled him up then and stepped into his embrace. “There’s nothing to forgive, Andreas. You loved him. You didn’t want to think the worst of him. I wouldn’t want you any other way. I had no idea, none of us did. He was a really good actor. Too bad he couldn’t be bothered to put any of that work into making his own life better instead of plotting to take mine.”
She turned to the Pack. “Michael was the culprit all along. I hope that we can all move past this awful tragedy and work to build a better, stronger and more connected Pack.”
Kari looked into their faces and saw what she needed to garner the strength to lead them at Andreas’s side.
Epilogue
Three Years Later
Helene and her brothers, Tomas, Sean and Devon, played in the meadow with their cousins, Marie and Andy—short for little Andreas. The other Pack children ran out to greet them as their parents arrived for the Winter Gathering.
Emma, swollen with her second child, a brother for Jade, stood with Kari and Perri, watching the children play. Kari smiled at the scene and tried not to grimace as her sons crashed into each other and roughhoused in the snow. Helene, Julia, Marie and Mimi snorted and went back to their expansive snow family.
Jack walked in with Alyssa, her son and their daughter. It turned out that Alyssa had been holding back from committing to Jack because she was a werewolf. Small world. She’d joined the Pack three years before and she’d gotten pregnant with Drea soon after. Jack and Alyssa had followed Sean’s example and built a home about a mile from the lodge. Perri and Devon had considered it but they both loved Portland so much that they didn’t want to leave it behind. Andreas, their son, conceived after two years and four rounds of IVF, was a frequent visitor at the lodge, though, and was adored by his cousins. He looked so much like Perri, little elfin face and red hair, that it was startling to see them together.
Kari had gotten pregnant again two years before—another set of twins. Both boys. Afterward she and Andreas decided that four children were quite enough and deci
ded to stop there.
The Pack had gotten past the tragic night when they’d lost Michael. They’d built a family based on love and trust. Each of the members had grown and prospered over the three years that’d passed.
But there was still yearning for a Mate among those who hadn’t found theirs yet. Skye had been seeing a human woman from town and it had seemed serious for a while but he always held a part of himself back, knowing his true other half was out there somewhere. It did give him pause, the idea that his Mate would be as difficult as he was. He hoped Kari’s words were just teasing. Even so, a difficult Mate would be better than none at all. And he liked his women with a little fire.
Phillip wanted that too. Wanted to find the person who would make him whole at last. He dated but never seriously, instead pouring his love into his Pack and the kids. At least he didn’t have to guard anyone twenty-four hours a day and had time for other work and for a social life.
Laurent had begun to be antsy with the yearning. He’d traveled around the country to other Packs and Gatherings, just hoping to find her. The older the children got, the more he wanted a family of his own. He and Andreas would be taking a trip into Seattle the next week and he hoped he could shake his need. Maybe he’d look up an old flame or two while they were in the city—anything to get his mind off the emptiness.
The Gathering had brought them all. They sat at the newly enlarged table in the dining room and toasted to the good fortunes of the Cherchez Clan for another year. New members had come to them over the last years. Luna had found her true Mate and the change in her personality had been striking. Henry had found his true Mate, as well, a man named Ben who’d moved to Seattle a year before. There were three new single females, which made it easier for the unmated males but not so much for the other women. The state of werewolf hierarchy and the status of unmated females led to tension and power plays between them all. Still, things were good, the wolves were happy and thriving.
Kari reached out, taking his hand, drawing it to kiss. “You have that face,” she teased.
