Olivia looked away. “I—I knew defiance to be futile, so I chose to survive to fight another day,” she said. But it was too late. A murmur went through the Pack. They’d all seen her acknowledge Chloe as Dominant.
“You chose yourself over your Pack,” Chloe said hoarsely. “And so did Nathan, though he at least had the decency to step down afterward. Neither one of you are my Alphas.” The accusation hurt. She’d always admired Judy’s parents and enjoyed going over to their house for supper, but Olivia wasn’t the leader she’d respected.
Olivia shrank. Nathan put his arm around her, but she pushed him away. Ran into the house. Nathan nodded once to Chloe, then followed.
Judy bit her lip, but stayed. Her gaze darted around. “So what does this mean? Is Chloe our new Alpha?”
“She’s my Alpha,” Marcus said, but some of the other Pack members stirred uneasily.
Weariness rolled over Chloe in a wave. “It means our Pack doesn’t have an Alpha right now. I suggest we meet again tomorrow and decide then. Everyone is tired now, and some of us need time to heal.” She wanted to check Marcus for wounds, and Kyle’s face was puffy as if he’d been bitten.
Her dad stepped forward. “I don’t need time. Chloe is young for the job, but she proved today that she is an Alpha. She could have run away and left this problem for the adults. Instead she stayed and risked her own life to save us. That’s what Alphas do, and I’m proud to call her both my daughter and my Alpha.”
Chloe blinked back tears, overwhelmed. Her father’s faith and pride in her meant a lot, even though he was wrong. She was far too young to be Alpha even if she had the right instincts, which she doubted.
Kyle stepped forward next. “Chloe’s an Alpha. Us teens have followed her lead for years. Chloe, show them that the Bite Olivia gave you healed up,” he urged.
“I already did.” She moved her hand protectively to her shoulder.
“Not everyone was close enough to see,” her father said. “Please, Chloe.”
Grimacing, Chloe pulled the collar of her T-shirt aside, displaying the smooth skin. A collective Ah went through the gathering. The sound made her nervous.
“Chloe has my support, too,” her mother said.
Chloe stared. What were her parents thinking? She couldn’t be Alpha. She’d made so many mistakes and had barely avoided being exiled as a Dud!
“Well, I sure don’t want the job,” Brian’s mom, Kristen, said, prompting laughs.
Her aunt Laurie stepped forward. Relief whispered through Chloe. Aunt Laurie was the most logical choice to replace Olivia as Alpha.
“I bear some of the guilt for this mess,” her aunt said heavily. “I’ve been using the twins as an excuse to shirk my duty to the Pack. I should have stepped forward as Beta when Karen Jennings died. Chloe, I would be honoured to be your Beta.”
Chloe’s mouth fell open in shock.
“You’re all insane!” Judy burst out. She said exactly what Chloe was thinking. “I know Chloe better than the rest of you, and I’m telling you, she won’t be a good Alpha! When she was a Dud, she kept breaking the rules, going her own way. She never knew her place. Packmates lean on each other, but she thinks she’s better than the rest of us.”
Chloe winced, but Judy had only spoken the truth. Chloe wasn’t fit to be an Alpha.
But, to Chloe’s surprise, the adults laughed.
Judy flushed angrily.
“Judy,” Aunt Laurie said gently, “what do you think being an Alpha means? The Alpha needs a high opinion of herself in order to lead. Of course, Chloe had trouble being at the bottom of the Pack hierarchy when all her instincts were urging her to dominate.”
Chloe’s breath caught in her chest. Was that true? Was that why she’d had such a hard time?
“Let me ask you this,” her aunt continued. “When Chloe did finally get the ability to Change, how did she treat you? Did she snub you and bully you, the way you did her?”
Judy’s mouth crimped, but she said nothing, looking down at her feet.
“No, she didn’t,” Kyle answered for her. “Chloe would’ve been perfectly justified in taking petty revenge on us all—ordering us to do push-ups and fetch and carry for her—but she didn’t. She asked our help with Marcus instead.”
“And that’s what good Alphas do,” Kristen said. “They protect the weak.”
“She could have run away,” Marcus said, standing by her shoulder. “Kyle and I would have happily gone with her. She stayed to fight instead. Because she couldn’t abandon you—her Pack.”
Chloe elbowed him in the ribs. “Shut up!” She didn’t want to be Alpha. Did she?
Judy didn’t give up yet. She jabbed a finger at the Quesnel werewolves, who’d been hovering on the fringes. “And what are they doing here? She brought the Quesnel Alpha onto our land! She let him see our weakness!”
Nausea hit, and Chloe tasted bile in the back of her throat. She’d done a lot more than that. Forget being Alpha: they could banish her for this. “Judy’s right. A true leader would have been strong enough to avoid doing what I did.” Tersely, she explained about the deal with Quesnel for one third of the Preserve.
“You had no right to do that!” Rick yelled.
“She had no choice!” Kyle yelled back. “Would you rather we lost it all to the logging company? At least this way we have something.”
“As it happens,” Lady Sasquatch said, “the Quesnel Alpha failed to fulfill his half of the bargain—”
“What?” Quinn, the Quesnel Beta, snarled in outrage. “Our Alpha died for you!”
“The contract reads, ‘in return for ridding the Pine Hollow Pack of Baba Yaga,” Lady Sasquatch quoted from memory. “Thomas Fedorchuk signed this agreement, but he did not kill the witch.” She turned yellow eyes on Quinn. “And neither did you. You stood by and watched.”
Quinn glared at her. “So we lose our Alpha and get nothing?”
“Thomas was a good man,” Chloe said, tactfully leaving aside for now Thomas’s plan to take over Pine Hollow Pack. “He knew the risks going in and thought the prize was worth it. He gambled, and he lost.”
Quinn bared his teeth. “He beat your Alpha. That made him the Alpha of your Pack. I was his Beta, that makes me your new Alpha.”
Rick growled. “You’ll have to fight me for that.”
The two men began to shuck their clothes, things getting out of hand fast. “Wait!” Chloe moved between them. “Mom, what does Pack Law say? Does Thomas’s win over Coach give his Beta a claim on our Pack?”
The men paused.
“It’s an unusual situation,” her mom said. “I don’t know if anything like this has ever happened before. If Quinn had killed Thomas or even killed Conrad single-handedly, then yes, he would have a claim. As it is, both Betas’ claims are equal.”
“So we fight.” Rick seemed happy about the prospect.
Chloe turned to Quinn. “If you Challenge and lose, then Rick will be Alpha of Quesnel Pack as well as Pine Hollow. Are you sure you want to risk that?”
“Quinn,” one of the other Quesnel werewolves said softly, “John’s already texted the news of Thomas’s death to the Pack. Colin and Ranger and maybe Kevin will all want to Challenge you. You need to stay rested and in top form.”
Quinn growled and pulled his shirt back on. “Very well. No Challenge today. But this isn’t over. You’ll be hearing from our lawyer!”
She breathed a sigh of relief as the Quesnel werewolves left, burdened with the body of their dead Alpha.
She turned to face her Pack. “So now you know. I made the deal with Quesnel to save us, and it may still cost us down the road. I’d do the same again.” She trailed off. Instead of looking angry, everyone was exchanging smiles. Smirks, even. She put her hands on her hips. “What?”
Dean snorted a laugh. “You just did it again. You got between two Dominant werewolves who were about to fight and persuaded them to stand down. You did it without even thinking about it, on instinct. Face it.” He pegg
ed her shoulder. “You’re an Alpha to the bone.”
Chloe opened her mouth to deny it, then stopped. Because she had acted on instinct. And she’d done it before, getting between Dean and feral Marcus, between Coach and Marcus, even putting herself in the way of a bullet.
Alphas protect.
She’d thought she couldn’t be an Alpha because she’d been last to Change. But maybe being an Alpha wasn’t about being first. Maybe it was about putting others first.
Maybe I am an Alpha.
Something clicked inside her. Some jagged bit of herself that had scraped at her soul since she dropped to the bottom of the Pack hierarchy finally fit. With it came peace and acceptance. This was who she was.
Rick scowled. He appeared to be the sole holdout. “She’s certainly proven that she’s brave, but she is young. For the Pack’s male Alpha we’ll need someone older to counteract her inexperience.” He directed his last remark at Marcus. Obviously, he saw himself as the next Alpha.
Marcus looked to Chloe, clearly asking her if she wanted him to Challenge the older, stronger werewolf.
As much as the idea of them being Alpha couple together appealed to her, Marcus wasn’t ready. Even if he could take out Rick—a big if—he wouldn’t make a good Alpha. At least not yet. He needed recovery time, time to get used to living human again. In fact, she doubted he would ever be completely normal. He would always be wild.
She shook her head at him, and he subsided.
“Are there any other candidates for male Alpha?” Chloe asked.
If there were, Rick subdued them all with his glare.
“Does anyone else wish to add something?” Chloe asked. She looked at Judy, trusting her to speak out if this was a bad idea.
Silence.
“Then I’ll be your new Alpha with Aunt Laurie as my Beta.” Her voice shook with emotion. “I promise to work for the good of the Pack, and to seek advice from older and wiser members when I’m in over my head.” Like, for instance, on how to call off the logging deal, and how to arrange a guardian for Ilona.
Polite applause.
“Before I accept, I do have one condition.” Chloe put on an Alpha face and made her stare direct and challenging. The Pack fell silent, waiting. “Marcus Jennings is hereby a full member of this Pack. I won’t tolerate any talk of him being banished or executed as a feral.” She bared her teeth.
“Yes, Alpha.” The murmur of many voices came back to her.
Another wave of tiredness hit Chloe. She wanted to crash so bad. “Okay, meeting over. The position of male Beta and everything else can wait until tomorrow.”
And they obeyed her. What a weird head-rush.
Her mother insisted on feeding everyone a substantial snack before bed to make up for all the calories burned fighting and Changing. Bizarrely, it was only ten o’clock, but it felt much later.
Her parents trooped off first, tactfully leaving Marcus and Chloe alone in the kitchen. Though with werewolf hearing being what it was, alone did not mean total privacy.
Chloe wanted the full story on what had happened in Baba Yaga’s hut, but that could wait. Right now she craved—no, needed—the reassurance of touch.
For once Marcus was wearing a shirt, but he obligingly pulled it off when she pushed it up. Her hands traced his ribcage, searching for new scars and kissing them. She laid her ear over his chest and listened to his heartbeat, exulting in the warmth of his skin. He was whole and so was she. They’d survived.
The need to celebrate their survival grew inside her. She wrapped her arms around him, enjoying the way the strong muscles in his back flexed as he embraced her in turn. He couldn’t hold her tight enough to suit her. She lifted her head, nuzzling his cheeks, then dived into a more human kiss.
They kissed and kissed and kissed, bodies locked together—until her dad pointedly cleared his throat from down the hall.
Smiling, breathless, they separated and went to their bedrooms. After changing into pajamas, Chloe opened her door in silent invitation. Two minutes later, Marcus trotted inside in wolf form and lay across the foot of her bed.
Chloe drifted off to sleep, knowing he would be there all night and at her side in the day. He belonged to her, and she to him. They were Pack.
The End
Acknowledgements
Feral is an expansion of a short story that I wrote for Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales which was published by EDGE Books and edited by Julie Czerneda and Susan MacGregor. This novel would probably not exist if not for the anthology. In writing the short story, I fell in love with both Chloe and Marcus and wanted to tell more of their story.
Thanks are also due to my long-running Edmonton writers’ group. Aaron Humphrey, J.Y.T. Kennedy and T.K. Boomer all read the novel in its entirety and gave me much-needed feedback.
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