Chapter 44
Chapter 44
“The problem here is that to get to him, we would need to go through these other two packs that are in between him and us. The river packs.”
“Then do it,” I say.
Garret shakes his head as he
explains. “It’s not that simple. First of all, these two packs
are in very close proximity, only divided by a river. The moment one is having
trouble, the others will come to help. We would need to
take both of them at the
same time. Not to mention
what comes after. All other
packs will turn their eyes on us.”
I am annoyed. “They can try. Don’t we have a bigger army? And we have Alpha Oliver and his pack—the Crescent Moon Pack–backing us. So
what is the problem? And I don’t understand why you
haven’t done this already.
You have been at war with
Ezra’s pack for so long.”
“We don’t have The Crescent
Moon Pack’s full support just
yet and there are rules that
need to be followed. We’ve
been poking here and there
because we need to be
careful. We are not mindless
idiots. The plan was to slowly
instill fear-”
I cut Garret off. “You’ve been
instilling fear for years and that’s it,” I say cutting him off. “That is all you have
done.”
“Because actively going after every pack will cause them to band together against us. Over the course of five years, we’ve taken over three packs.
It has been done slowly and
with lies and deceit.”
Colt speaks. “Mh, I heard that one of these packs
attacked you in the middle of the night, so you retaliated.”
“Exactly…that was a lie. We
said that we defended
ourselves…” He air quotes. “…and retaliated over this attack.” He air quotes again. “Just like Colt here. They
were close to our pack but
not close enough that an
attack on them would be
permitted, yet we did it
anyway and lied. Said that he
was in our pack’s borders. Of course, his pack didn’t
believe it but all the other
packs did. Deceit and lies.”
“Then lie again,” I say.
“The lies have to be
believable, Cass. I get that
you are upset and want
results now but we are good
at what we do. These kinds
of things take time-
Π
“Not this time,” Warrick says surprising everyone. “Let’s
wipe these two packs out.”
“But…” Garrets tries to
complain but Warrick is not
having it.
“We have cause for it. Alpha
Ezra has actively declared
war on us. These packs are
the casualties of war.”
Warrick says.
“Yes! Let’s do it.” I say with
conviction.
“Cass…” Colt whispers and looks at me with worry.
Warrick gives me a pointed
look. “You do understand
that we are the bad guys, right?”
“But we aren’t. We are
getting rid of a tyrant.” I
reply to him.
“No. We are taking over
other packs. It is what we have been doing for years and we’ve always been seen as the bad guys. The villains.”
“Then fine. We are the bad
guys. I won’t argue it if it gets me what I want.” I say.
“Cass…please think about
what you are saying,” Colt
says.
“Do you want your brother
dead or not?”
“Yes but…if we do this…we
are killing many innocent
people to get what we want. This shouldn’t be a good thing to you and it is nothing to cheer about.” He says.
“I want him dead… Colt. I
want him dead no matter the
cost.”
Colt shakes his head in
disappointment.
Warrick smiles. “Spoken like
a true villain.‘
”
He almost seems proud but I just roll my eyes.
“Unfortunately we still have
to wait until he makes a
move first,” Garret says and
Warrick nods agreeing.
“Why?!”
“Because we need to know
what he is up to. We could be walking into a damn trap for all we know. Maybe they want us to rush in and try to
take them down.”
“He’s right. We still have to be careful here.” Warrick says agreeing. “And you need to train that power of yours more. We are going to need
it.”
I don’t like it. I hate that we
can’t just go now.
“Cass, they are right,” Colt whispers behind me. “There is nothing more I want to do than go to my brother right now and kill him myself but
that is reckless. Slow and
steady wins the war.”
“It’s race.” I correct him.
“I know. It’s a play of words to make a point.”
I sigh.
Deep inside I know they are right. They all have years of experience and I don’t. But it is so hard to just sit back and
wait.
The meeting continues for hours. It is exhausting but not once do I get distracted. I pay close attention to every single word that is said.
After having a meal and refueling, we continue the meeting until late afternoon when finally we are done for
the day with the meeting. Colt and I spend some time together before I have to
train with my father.
We sit in front of the lake
that is inside the pack’s
territory. I haven’t been here
until now. It seems that
many kids spend their day here. We watch them play in
the distance.
“Am I being too much, Colt?”
“Mh? What do you mean?”
“Pushing to kill Ezra. Being
reckless.”
He takes a deep breath. “You are trying to rush things but
I think that with what he has
done, he deserves what is
coming for him. However…I
don’t like…Cass…this is
war…many are going to die. Don’t let this anger take over
you. Don’t let it change you.”
“I am not…” I mutter and bury my face in his chest. “I can’t believe she is gone. She
didn’t deserve that. She was
good. She was the best thing in that pack.”
Colt holds me and rubs my back, trying to comfort me.
“She deserved happiness and
to have a chance with her
baby. That was all she wanted. She finally was
going to get it but it was all taken away from her. This
wasn’t fair.”
“I know. I am sorry that… that it was my flesh and
blood who did this.”
I shake my head. “Your
father didn’t deserve this
either.”
He nods. “He wasn’t perfect but…yeah, he didn’t deserve to go like that.”
I hug him. “I hope the rest of your family is okay.”
“Me too.” He whispers.
“Hey…do you really think
that…I…we…are the villains.
Are we doing all this wrong?”
“I honestly don’t know, Cass. We are doing what we think
is right.”
“I…don’t think it’s right at all
but…I still want to do this. I
want him dead and I am
willing to do whatever it
takes to make that happen.” I
say.
He looks into the distance
and doesn’t say anything.
am sure he doesn’t know
what to say.
There is silence for a few
minutes. All we hear is the
water, the trees moving with the wind, and children
laughing and playing in the
distance.
“All I know is that I love you and I want to be with you always.” He suddenly says. “I want to make you happy and
right now, you are not happy. It is all because of him. I feel you. I feel the pain that he has caused you. So I want the same as you. I want him gone.”
I close my eyes and hug him. I’d choose this man over my
real mate a thousand times
over. This is what a real mate
is and he is amazing.
“I love you, Colt.”
We hug and spend beautiful
time together just relaxing in
each other’s embrace.
When it is time, we head to my father’s office where he waits for me for training. From now on it is the only
thing I will be focusing on
until I am able to use my
powers right. But when it comes to my father, it is hard to not try to purposely vex
him.
“Okay. First, you need to
learn the difference between
Alpha command and your power, Alpha Ruling. Along
with how to properly use the
Alpha Ruling.”
“Alpha Ruling? Wait, why
didn’t you tell me all of this
before?”
“Because I wanted to see
what you could get by yourself. With Alpha Ruling, you need to use direct eye
contact with your victim’s
eyes.”
“What? I should have been
told this from the
beginning.” I complain.
“Alpha command is different than Alpha Ruling. With
Alpha Command it is your
voice that holds sway. It’s not really commanding them but your voice holds such authority that they will be inclined to do your bidding.
However, someone with a
strong will can resist it. But with Alpha Ruling, you are controlling their minds, you are tapping directly into their brains and there is no
way they can refuse.”
“Does this mean that I can
only control one person at a time?”
“No. You can have multiple
people under your control
but you can only activate it one at a time. Of course, this depends. If you have three people looking straight into
your eyes as you give a command, then you’ll
command them all.
However, it is much more
effective if it is done one by
one.”
“Oh…this suddenly doesn’t seem like such a strong
power anymore.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“Here is an example, every person in this room–except for you–I have used my
power to command them to do my every bidding
without refusing. I activated
this command in them one
by one but because of the
command, they do
everything and anything I tell them and I don’t even
have to activate my power on
them anymore because they already must do everything I
say.”
“Oh…I see…never mind. That
is pretty impressive…and a smart use of your power.”
“I know. Now let’s start.” He
says with impatience.
This man is not humble at
all.
“Okay? Who will I be trying to control this time?” I say. “And like I said before, no
killing.”
“It baffles me how you want to kill Ezra so badly but you have no taste for murder.” He
says.
“It is different! He deserves
it.”
“Right…”
Colt takes a step. “You can
use me.”
“You?!” I squint my eyes at
him.
“Yes.”
I look at Warrick and he
nods, approving.
“You’ve done it before. You
can do it now.” Colt says.
“Fine, but you are not going
to like it.‘
“…Cass…no. Don’t. I am not
slapping you.”
“Slap me.
He sighs. “No.”
“Slap me.”
“Stop. No! Stop.”
I almost want to laugh but I
don’t and even more when I
hear Warrick mutter to one
of his generals. “She’s a bit of
a weirdo sometimes.”
I almost lose my composure holding my laugh in.
“Slap me!”
Colt continues to refuse.
I concentrate and focus on
his eyes.
I spend over twenty times saying it but he does
nothing.
“I don’t get it! I did it before.”
“Ezra cut right through your
sister’s neck and she was
probably still alive, can you imagine how much she
would have screamed?”
Warrick insensitively says
all
of this.
My head slowly turns to
Warrick.
“1
…are…you…SERIOUS
RIGHT NOW!” I scream.
“If you had control of your gift and you were there,
maybe you could have
stopped him.”
“Why the f**k would you say
that!?” I shout.
“To get this.” His hand motions to me. “Now get
back to it!” He snaps at me.
I turn to Colt with so much
anger and look into his eyes.
My fists are clenched and
nails dig into my skin.
my
“SLAP ME!” I scream at Colt.
His hand immediately
makes contact with my
ch*ek.
“UH!” Colt shouts with anger.
“I’m done. I don’t want to do
this anymore!”
I rub my ch*eks and laugh.
The anger I had just a moment ago subsided.
“It’s not funny, Cass. I don’t
want to hurt you. Ask me to do something else!”
“Okay, Punch my father.”
“Don’t you funking dare,
Warrick says and I bust out
laughing.
“You deserve it you prick!
And how fun would it be to
see that…” I mutter.
“You are playing too much. I thought you were going to take this seriously.”
I roll my eyes. “Fine, fine.” I look around. “…punch that
desk,” I tell Colt.
He stares at the desk but
does nothing. Obviously, it
didn’t work.
Why can’t I be consistent
with this?
I take in a deep breath and
concentrate again.
“Punch that desk,” I say and
he immediately does,
leaving a crack in it.
Warrick shakes his head
unapprovingly. “You are all
over the place. One moment
it works, the next one, it
doesn’t.”
I sigh.
“But we do know that when
your emotions run high, they work pretty well.”
I get that he was trying to get me there with what he said
but it was kind of cruel.
“Continue.” He says and I
nod.
I command Colt again and again. Only when I am
getting upset does it
suddenly work. But I know
that I need to learn to use it
not just when I am angry.
Suddenly, my training is interrupted. There is a
commotion outside.