by Dana Archer
Asa Yuran, the host for the gathering that used to occur in person, pauses midsentence. The corner of his mouth rises ever so slightly, displaying the tip of a fang, and he glances to the side, likely at where his computer is positioned, before facing the camera. The clicking of a keyboard confirms my guess. “It’s good of you to join us, alpha of the Alexander pride. I wasn’t sure you’d be able to attend today.”
Brow cocked, I meet Asa’s gaze as I would if we’d been face-to-face. “I registered for today’s call. Do you doubt the word of an Alexander?”
Still smirking, Asa glances down, a conflicting response that will no doubt be scrutinized by every other alpha on this call. Although cocky, Asa can’t—or won’t—hold my gaze. The question is: why?
Asa’s expression transforms into one of controlled anger, possibly at his own slip. Tight lines furrow his brow and narrow his eyes. “You are late.”
“I am.” No denying it. Cleaning and staging my office took longer than I anticipated.
“Such an act is disrespectful to every other alpha who had the decency to show up on time.”
Caution settles over me. With dozens of powerful males watching my every move, I’ve never been more aware of my own body. Or my words. The wrong one could start a war. “An alpha’s first duty is to his familial unit. His second is to the community within his lands. His third is to those groups and individuals who are under his protection. His fourth is to the shifter world and all those linked to it. And finally, his last is to the humans. You, alpha of the Yuran pride, rank just above the humans.”
Asa’s image shrinks and slides to the corner as another alpha joins in on the conversation, but not before Asa’s curled upper lip gives away his reaction to my response.
Julius Lynch III, alpha of the most powerful single shifter jaguar family, takes center stage. Wrinkles and gray hair draw attention to his aging status, but the curve to his mouth and the glint in his eyes reflect his inner strength. Then again, any single shifter who’d jump into a conversation between Royals must have the balls to justify the interruption.
“Well said, Kade Alexander. Such commitment is important to all members of our world. Family first, the weak under our protection next, then friends. And if those priorities are always adhered to, then strangers—both among our society and the human one—will naturally be safeguarded from our presence and influence. It’s unfortunate not all shifters feel the same way, however. For some, profit or their own egotistical desires come first.” Julius steeples gnarled fingers. “Don’t you agree, Asa Yuran? Some individuals think selling drugs or resorting to dark magic to boost their importance is acceptable.”
The direct verbal attack paints rage over Asa’s features. His ire grows more prominent as Asa’s image splits the screen with that of Julius, who hasn’t relinquished his spot as the main speaker. Of course, neither have I. Julius’s screen would show me and Asa, while Asa’s display would be split between me and Julius.
“Do not mince words, single, or try to act subtle. Say what you mean. And if blame for your youngest son’s suicide falls at my feet, be prepared for the consequences of such an accusation.”
If we’d been in the same room, the tension would be palpable. Blood would be spilled next. What came after such a fight would depend on who had the most supporters. Considering only the last few speakers out of the dozens of alphas participating in this call are visible on the bottom of the screen, I can’t guess at who’d win this match. I missed roll call.
“Single is a derogatory term. Surely you didn’t mean such disrespect, but in the heat of the moment, it can be perceived as such. I wouldn’t want anyone assuming the Yuran alpha would intentionally insult another alpha.” My reprimand is as sharp as Asa’s threat to the Lynch alpha, a family group that now falls under my protection. I have no choice but to speak. Julius’s eldest son Colin’s association with the Shifter Affairs division where I work demands I stick up for a coworker I respect. Besides, once Colin takes over as leader of his family, he’ll be joining in on these calls. The other alphas listening should know upfront with whom my alliance lies.
Asa’s small nod is his only acknowledgment to my chastisement, though I can’t imagine the feline Royal is okay with the dressing-down in front of his peers. “Well, Julius of the Lynch family? Do you blame me for my late nephew’s actions? Or do you hold Cedric responsible, as Kade’s cousin did when Uriel Alexander justly ended Cedric’s life?”
For a long moment, Julius doesn’t speak. He doesn’t blink. Doesn’t even appear to breathe. Finally, he lowers his hands. “Cedric called forth a demon to do his bidding. Dark magic, our kind calls such a thing, but we do nothing to curtail such powerful shaman shifters. We speak privately about the danger they pose and about how we hope they know better than to allow themselves to be possessed by the very demons they summon, but that’s as far as it goes. Our society does nothing to check their power. Had Cedric been human, he would’ve been killed before he ever got the chance to even look upon my son!”
“But he did look upon your son, and Cedric did play a role in his death.” Asa’s tone turns pacifying. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing to be done about it now. It’s in the past, and I’m grateful he paid for such a wrongdoing with his life. It saved me from having to take his head myself.”
“Are you telling me you didn’t know what your nephew was doing?” Julius leans forward. “Or did you turn a blind eye to the fact he was practicing dark magic and calling demons from Hell?”
“My young nephew wanted to follow the old ways where shamanism was accepted by both shifters and humans, but Cedric was not as strong as he wished. Death was the best outcome for him. He would never have been able to control what he called forth. He would’ve been tricked into making a deal with it.”
“You did not answer my question! Did you know what he was doing or—”
“Enough.” My single word echoes in my otherwise empty office, but my tone has the desired effect. Julius sits back. Asa keeps his mouth shut. Nobody else jumps in with a comment that’ll send this confrontation past the point of no return. Unfortunately, it lays the next move on me.
“An alpha can’t be held responsible for the acts of his shifter group unless he has a direct hand in those acts. Unless you or anyone else will be accusing Asa Yuran of conspiring to commit world domination or whatever it was Cedric had planned, this topic should be shelved.”
“Wisely spoken as a true Alexander.” A shifter male I’ve never met joins the conversation, splitting the screen into thirds for a brief moment before vacating the speaker role, leaving Asa’s and Julius’s images bisecting the screen.
“Yes, wise words. Too bad not all Alexanders reflect your pride’s values.”
At Asa’s comment, Julius’s image shrinks, dropping into the row of images across the bottom of my screen and leaving me to face off with the male whose youngest nephew, Vince, played a role in my beloved human losing her baby and the death of her human fiancé—a role I still know nothing about except Zoe holds Vince Catania Yuran responsible.
With my focus locked on the camera, I dip my chin. “Just as it’s a shame not all Yurans uphold your pride’s values.”
“I don’t know if I’d agree with you. The first Yuran demanded his offspring uphold the customs and beliefs he held. I’d argue every Yuran member, living or dead, has done that. We adhere to the old ways and the principle of the strong survives, even at the expense of the weak. Some of the tactics my pride mates have employed, however, I do question.”
Asa tilts his head. “Your pride, on the other hand, is held to a much stricter guideline. Loyalty and honor are everything, if I remember correctly. Rumor has it your own flesh and blood soiled the first Alexander’s virtues not long ago. Betraying another Alexander, an act the first Alexander would never have stood for. If such a thing was proved true, it’d be a terrible blow to your standing in our world that you allowed such an act to go unpunished.”
A harsh inhale fl
ares my nostrils, a reaction I’m sure every male watching this video feed would pick up on as easily as when Asa dropped his gaze earlier while speaking to me. “Be prepared for the consequences of your accusations, alpha of the Yuran pride. I am well within my right to seek retribution for slander. Only your pride’s blood on my hands would appease me.”
“No accusations. I’m merely sharing with you the rumors surrounding your pride.” Asa links his fingers on his desk. “As a courtesy, you understand. It’s always best to know what people are saying about you behind your back.”
“Then you should know people are questioning whether you’ll still be alpha this time next month, Asa Yuran.” I drop my elbows to the desk and lean forward. “They say your pride mates no longer fear you, and they never respected you. They think you’re all talk and not the big bad shaman you claim, and that it’s just a matter of time until one of your pride members calls you on it and demands you step aside or forces you to concede through a death match.”
Asa matches my position. “And you should know the same is being said about you, Kade of the Alexander pride. People are talking about how your members are disobeying your orders, betraying one another, and even going so far as cutting their ties to your pride’s spirit to escape you. The word is you’re weak, but none of your pride mates will step up because they all know they’re even weaker.”
“I did not rearrange my schedule for this call to listen to Royals play some kind of posturing game.” Julius Lynch once more jumps into the conversation. “We’re supposed to be talking about the upcoming birth of the prophesized ones and the predictions surrounding them.”
Mira’s unborn triplets.
Every protective instinct I possess flares. My tiger’s claws slip free. Orange and black fur spreads up my fingers and over my hands. Deadly fangs descend. I don’t try to hide the sign of my primal side, but I halt the changes before my weretiger form emerges and rips my shirt. “What about them?”
“They will be in danger from the Purists among our ranks.” Asa clicks on something, and a list of names scrolls over the screen—all the alphas participating in this call. “Some are among us right now. They’re calling for their deaths upon delivery. Others—”
I stand, knocking the chair over. “Harm them, and there will be war among our kind.”
Another audible click and the list of names disappears. With his hands linked over his stomach, Asa nods. “I said the same thing just before you were able to join us. Although I do not identify as a Purist, I do follow the old ways. Everyone here knows this. My intent was in that hearing my views about the prophesized ones, it might calm the building fury among those who see Mira Conway Alexander’s unborn babies as an aberration and you as a traitor for allowing a lesser pride mate to enter into such an abhorrent relationship with a human.”
“Forget your intent. Let my words serve as a warning to those listening, and may the cowards among us spread my threat among their like-minded brethren.”
“And to those who view you as powerful, it will be a strong deterrent.”
The flip side to Asa’s statement isn’t one I can ignore: those who no longer view me as a worthy alpha won’t be swayed by anything I say. They’ll come after Mira, Josh, their babies…because I wasn’t powerful enough to protect them.
On an exhale, I rein in my primitive drives. The claws, fangs, and fur recede, leaving the man in charge. I flex my fingers, cracking my knuckles. “And those who don’t heed my words will regret their foolishness.”
“As you have spoken, let it be remembered.” Asa rubs his hands together. “Which brings me to the second point of this meeting.”
“And that is?”
“The other prophecy surrounding the birth of the prophesized ones.”
“There is no other prophecy.”
“That you know of.”
“That anyone knows of.”
“Because I haven’t shared it doesn’t make it not true.”
Something about Asa’s tone stops me from continuing this verbal back-and-forth. “What are you talking about?”
The smug lift to Asa’s lip reveals a feline fang, which explains the primitive slur to his voice. “The goddesses appeared before me and several members of my pride and offered a reward for the successful conception of the prophesized ones.”
“Successful conception? Only one male had any part in their conception, and he wasn’t a Yuran. They were conceived by—”
“A human who is alive today because of my pride’s intervention. Josh Conway should be dead. He’s not.” Asa’s lip quivers. “Because of me.”
“Explain yourself.”
“The goddesses predicted the growing boldness in our world, both among shifters and those who wished they’d been chosen to fight for the heavens, and they offered a solution…to me. The time is finally upon us for me to be in a position to share it. Or at least part of it.”
The convoluted answer doesn’t answer anything. The growing silence drops the responsibility to unravel Asa’s cryptic comment at my feet. “And are you going to tell us their solution to our species’ growing boldness? Or what their reward is you think you’ve earned?”
A dip of Asa’s chin answers me.
“Care to share those things with us?”
“Today? Partially.” Asa’s smile widens. “In ages past, shifters—Royals and singles alike—feared the wrath of the heavens. However, many of our kind no longer fear our goddesses or the gods. It’s not entirely our younger generation’s fault. The elders of our kind have failed to instill that fear in them, and in many cases, they completely failed to even teach them about our origins.”
“And what? Do you propose we reeducate them? Maybe produce our own TED talk on the subject?” Julius cuts in, his mocking smirk in full force.
“I propose we give them someone to fear and to follow.” Asa’s breathing deepens, and his voice takes on a fanatic quality. “Someone who’s spoken about in whispers and feared by toddlers and ancients alike. That is what my nephew attempted to do, but he failed because his motivation was too personal, too intent on gaining power where he had none. That is where Cedric failed. He didn’t seek our species’ success, only his own.”
“Cedric should’ve been killed years ago.” Julius once more chimes in. “You should never have allowed him to—”
“I warn you to think very carefully about what you are about to utter, because you must remember we are not humans.” Asa’s chastising tone is the lashing kind meant to beat down his opponent. “We are shifters, and we inherently respect power. It’s instinctual, just as we instinctually protect our own. Had I known Cedric’s plans, I would have taken his head. If you think to call me a liar, I’ll declare your pride an enemy, with or without the support of the other alphas here.”
Asa steeples his hands and presses his straightened pointer fingers against his distended fangs until blood trickles down his hand and his smile turns feral. “But war is what I want to avoid. War between our groups, war between us and the humans…none of it is good, not for the fate of our species or for business.”
“Your business, right? And what business is that again?” The challenge in Julius’s words mimics the anger in his twisted features.
Asa shrugs. “For the Yuran pride, it’s a little of this and a little of that. Nothing illegal, I assure you. We’ve taken an interest in the humans’ world, how they communicate and are influenced. Vince has convinced me it’s imperative we have our hand in social media in the event our secrets become known, so we can control the outcome of such a travesty.”
“Let me guess. Make a few memes or posts go viral and twist the humans’ perspective of shifters.” I’d considered the possibility of harnessing social media myself after watching our human neighbors being influenced by fake news. “Shifter Affairs is studying this as we speak. With the right social media campaign, humans could be convinced to accept shifters.”
“Or fear them. Or not care.” Asa laughs. “Humans are
nothing more than walking prey. They don’t think for themselves. The prove it every day with their foolish and cultish social conditioning. Lambs led to slaughter. That’s all they are. I say we become the shepherds and they our sacrificial gifts.”
“Such a view will destroy us. Humans are intelligent and unpredictable.” Julius again puts himself into the mix between the top alphas in this call. “It’s too dangerous to discount that aspect of their personalities. We’d be foolish to assume we’d know what they’d do, no matter how much we study their social media customs. And in the end, humans outnumber shifters. You’d never be able to control or kill them all, and those who do escape our wrath will be the ones to fear. Revenge is a powerful motivator.”
“For shifters and humans alike,” I add.
“Which is why I brought us together today. The goddesses predicted Mira’s babies will change the world, but who in their right mind would follow these hybrids? Or care about anything they say? Certainly not any shifter group in their right mind. They are as much of an abhorrence as their parents’ bond.”
Asa links his blood-covered hands on the desk in front of him. “Quite frankly, the shifter world will not embrace this new changed world where hybrids and humans and shifters exist in peace. The reality is that, if left to our own devices, there will be war among all the species. Someone needs to force shifters—Royals and singles—to accept the changes the goddesses have foreseen coming to our world. No hybrid, no matter how powerful, is going to be able to accomplish that. In many shifters’ minds, these prophesized babies and the mature adults they’ll grow into will always remain abhorrent.”
“Shifters are not wired to follow only one leader.” Julius shakes his head. “We are family based—pack to pride to clan—and we each hold our goddesses’ and family’s spirit as the ultimate in governance. No hybrid and no powerful leader will change that.”
“You misunderstand me.” Asa’s small laugh and condescending smile narrows Julius’s features. “I never said we need a new leader. The Shifter Council does a fine job leading us and weighing in on legislation governing us. What I said is our species needs someone to fear. Mira’s offspring, no matter what the goddesses predict about them, can’t elicit the type of fear that will keep our species from self-destructing. Only one of us can fill those shoes or stop our own kind from killing off Mira’s offspring and negating the goddesses’ plans for our species.”
