Extinguishing Wildfire

Alpha Kedrick

Another month, another Council meeting. I groaned internally. When I first accepted this post, I thought I could do some good with it, but the longer I worked with the Council, the less confident I felt in my choices. I had received significant push back on the one initiative I presented, so I didn’t feeling like the Council really wanted to improve the lives of shifters.

The meeting this time would be held virtually, so I could at least be rid of them after a couple of hours. I took a deep breath as I connected to the meeting. We were still missing a few people, so I waited quietly for us to start.

It didn’t take long for everyone to show up, and Alpha Dawson started us off. “We have several things on the agenda today, so I’ll just jump right into things. First, we’d like to discuss Alpha Tate.

Rainier immediately perked up at the sound of our friend’s name.

“He has joined us for nearly a year as a trainee, but this is now the second meeting he is noticeably absent from. Is there anything we should be aware of about him? It’s unprecedented for a council member’s place to be revoked. The rest of us council members would like to know if there is something we should know about Alpha Tate or if this is truly just about Alpha Keenan not retiring. Maybe you can shed some light on this Keenan?”

Alpha Keenan shifted forward in his seat and cleared his throat before speaking. “Certainly, I can shed some light on the matter. Alpha Tate is simply not here because I have decided to postpone my retirement.

While Tate has shown some rebellious behavior in going against our vote to stay away from Wildfire, he is still the bears' next choice for the Council. Regarding my retirement, it is postponed indefinitely. I don’t want to say too much, but my son is simply not ready to step up as Alpha. He has yet to find a mate, and he has quite recently made some poor decisions for our pack that I would rather not go into as it is a personal matter.”

The other Council members nodded at Alpha Keenan’s words, but Rainer growled in my head. ‘I don’t trust him.’

‘I’m right there with you. He let Tate nearly complete his trainee year before going back on his retirement. There’s gotta be more to this story. Keenan raised his heir, he should have already known the type of Alpha his son is.’

“Alpha Tate has been working with us for nearly a year now, when can we expect him back? I feel it would be in our best interest to continue having him at our meetings until the time comes for him to take over. It feels wrong to suddenly take away something he’s been working on for so long.”

Even through the screen, it was evident that Alpha Keenan bristled at Alpha Dawson’s words. “The bears have discussed this at length, and we feel it best to have Alpha Tate wait to return. He can restart his trainee status once one of us chooses to retire.”

“With all due respect, this is a Council matter, not just a bear matter. We should put it to a vote.”

“I second the motion.” Luna Beatrix spoke up.

“Good, all those in favor of continuing to have Alpha Tate join us say aye.” All of the foxes and wolves voted in favor of Tate, but none of the bears did. “It looks like the majority rules in favor of Alpha Tate. I have to say, though, that it seems odd that you all say you have nothing against Alpha Tate but have chosen to vote against his participation in the council.”

“In our opinion, this is a bear matter. We have no ulterior motive, but too many people on the Council is not what was originally intended.”

“Right...well, I’ll inform Alpha Tate of our decision, but for now, let’s continue to the next item on our agenda.”

The rest of the meeting passed without incident, but Rainer and I couldn’t stop thinking about how the bears seemed to be hiding something.

‘I need to call Tate.’

‘Good idea, maybe he’ll know what’s up with them.’

I dialed Tate’s number, and he answered almost immediately. “Kedrick, how’s it going man?” I sighed more loudly than intended, “I don’t like the sound of that sigh, why do I have the feeling this call won’t be pleasant?”

“I think we left the pleasant conversations behind a couple dozen calls or so.” I chuckled.

“You’re not wrong, but it’d be nice to just shoot the shit every once in a while like we used to.”

“Yeah, it would be, but unfortunately this is another business call.”

“Is it time to move forward with the plan?”

“Not quite, but I did have a few questions about how things have been going with the other bear clans.”

“Well, I can’t say much as I haven’t really been in contact with the others recently. Is there a reason you're asking?”

“We had a Council meeting today, and some of the other Alphas wanted to know why you were no longer joining us. The bears denied any ill will towards you and said you would return once one of them was ready to retire. However, we decided to put it to a vote, and all the wolves and foxes agreed to keep you in, but the bears all voted against it.”

“All three of them? I’d expect that from Keenan but not the others.”

I could hear the confusion and hurt in his voice.

“I thought that was odd as well, but they stated it was a bear matter.”

Tate was silent on the other end for a while. “I don’t trust Keenan, never have, but I didn’t think the others would side with him against me. I have a guy I can have look into what might be going on with the other clans.” He sighed heavily, clearly upset by the information I provided.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want you to be blindsided by anything.”

“Thanks, man,” He paused as he sighed again. “Any more word on the extinguishing plan?”

“Yeah, actually, Frost Fang is going to start sending warriors west to Riversong. We also have our first couple of cat families coming this week.”

“That’s good, just say the word, and I’ll start sending my guys your way. We don’t have a lot of manpower to share, but we want to contribute what we can.”

“Hey, we’re happy with any extra help. Wildfire is huge, but with all of us working together, they don’t stand a chance.” I kept repeating that sentiment over and over to myself. Together we can do this. Sometimes, I struggle with believing those words. Wildfire has been such a force for so long, but I know I have to stay positive for my pack and all of the other packs working with us.

“Olivia will be back on Wednesday, so I’ll have more information for you then.” With that, we ended the call with a promise to stay in touch.

I rubbed at my temples to try to relieve some of the stress. This Council job was not at all what I expected. I wanted to make a real difference among shifters, but the work the Council did settling mild disputes and making sure territories didn’t overlap was not going to accomplish real change. I wanted a world where shifters would work together for the good of all, but some of the other Alphas seemed to just be on the Council for the prestige.

“Hey,” Ellis popped her head into my office. “It didn’t go well?” The mate bond allowed her to feel my stress as I had forgotten to put up my walls. Ellis and I shared everything, so I rarely blocked my emotions, but with so much going on lately, I didn’t want her to take on anything extra from me.

“No, for some reason, the bears seem to be shutting Tate out.” She sat on my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck, “It doesn’t make sense, but I talked to Tate, and he’s going to look into it.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. You already have Olivia looking into Alpha Keenan, so maybe they’ll find something there?”

“Yeah, hopefully, Keenan did say his son had made some poor decisions that had negatively affected his pack. He was reluctant to say exactly what, but maybe Olivia’s people can uncover what that is.”

“I’ll be so glad once this is all over. Once we get Marek off his throne and the boys back at Cobalt Falls, I was thinking it’d be nice to have another baby.” She looked at me with hopeful eyes as she drew circles on my chest.

“I could go for another kid, and I’m sure Oren would like a sibling.” I smiled wistfully.

“Speaking of Oren, he’s really taken to Nora.”

“Really? Is he with her right now?”

“Yes, he wants to spend all of his free time with her. By the way, she was too scared to join the training groups, so I hope you don’t mind that I offered to help her one-on-one until she gets more comfortable with her skills.”

“No, I think that’s a good idea, she’s been secluded most of her life. We need to ease her in, and I won’t be sending her back to Wildfire for the fight, so she won’t need extensive training right now.”

“Great,” Ellis smiled. “She’s opened up a lot since she first arrived, and I think being around Oren helps her too. It’s less pressure than being with all of us grown ups, but I was thinking maybe we could get Aaliyah to host a slumber party for them all...the Cobalt Falls and Wildfire girls. I’d do it myself, but I’m pretty sure they don’t want to hang out with someone my age.”

“Hey, we’re not that old.” I squeezed her hip, making her giggle.

“No, but 19 is a lot closer to 17 and 21 than 29. So…can you ask Aaliyah if she’ll host?” She gave me her best puppy dog eyes, “Tell her I can plan everything..the food and the decor. She’d just need to show up and invite the others.”

“Fine, I’ll ask. I’m sure she’ll say yes. She’s always liked girly shit like that.”

“Thank you!” She bent down and kissed me, showing me just how thankful she really was. I moved her, so she was straddling me. With everything going on, it had been a while since we’d had some fun in my office. I heard a knock at the door, but I ignored it. Whoever it was would get the hint and go away.

Or maybe not...another knock sounded out, this time louder, “Mommy, are you in there!?” We pulled apart with a sigh.

“He’ll stay out there until we open the door.”

“I know, let’s go.” I opened the door, “Oren what’s up Bud?”

“It’s lunchtime, are you and Mommy coming to eat with me?”

“Yeah, Bud, let’s go.” I ruffled his hair and gave my mate a defeated look.

‘We’ll finish this later.’

‘I’ll hold you to that.’ She gave me a sexy smile, and with that, we headed down to eat lunch as a family. These moments of peace between the chaos were really everything.