(Book 3) – Chapter 30
“Ok, the meetings are all set up and ready to go. The packs that could be here are all gathered along with any of the leaders sitting to the side with each other. Are you sure about everything you have decided?” Alistair questioned me as he handed me the microphone.
I looked around the hallway as I went through my mental list of things to go over in this meeting. One: Thank them for following me. Two: Time to be proactive. Three: Mission Stalk the enemy.
“I am so sure. Let’s do this before my stage fright kicks in and I look stupid.” I walked out of the door and headed to the stage they had set up on the training grounds. It was the biggest area they had and it fit about eighty percent of the packs living on the grounds. The other twenty percent were working and guarding us.
Everyone was silent and I could feel their nervous aura wafting off them. It was so strong I almost choked on it. I think they knew what I was going to ask of them and they knew they would say yet because they agreed with what I had to say. They just didn’t like it and I didn’t either.
I stopped in the middle of the stage and took a deep breath. “First I just want to thank you all for following me and being so loyal.” I eyed the crowd and noticed the tv screens to my left for the first time. They had the other packs on them but were focused on the leaders. “Without any of you none of this would have been possible and you have no idea what that means to me. When I take the throne we will celebrate with all the witches, vampires, and wolves. You all are family so thank you for being there for me.”
I took a minute to get my emotions under control and the silence around me ended abruptly. Everyone was yelling and cheering from the crowd. I searched the crowd to find an answer and it was me they were cheering for. I heard so many ‘love you too’s’ that I couldn’t keep up with finding them all. It made my heart double in size and I knew we were ready for anything.
“And that is why I walk around with such a big head.” I teased them before getting serious. “The second thing I wanted to discuss is ending our reactive stance on the war and becoming proactive. We can no longer wait until they are banging on our doorstep while they continue to kill us, from on us, and who knows what else.”
One of the vampire leaders laughed and disagreed. “proactive? They are already killing more and more each day. Helping you isn’t really helping us right now and you want us to stroll into their lands and just order them to leave us alone. Do you want all of us dead?”
“I am sorry that they are doing all of that and some of it has been spurred on by us forming an alliance to take them out but you have to remember two very important things.” I had to hold my glare in because I understood where he was coming from. “One is that we have been their main source for food, sacrifice, and sadistic pleasures for who knows how many centuries. Two we are sitting here like a fenced in pigs waiting the s*******r. It is time we became harder targets and rounded up the traitors to take out. It is time to make their b***d cover the ground so that we can rise and live.”
I let that sink in for a minute. It took me a bit to realize that was exactly what we were doing and it wasn’t helping us at all. We needed to find out where they were, figure out how to take out any outsiders and reinforcements, and head inside to take them all out. I also realized that the Witch Queen would die by my hands. She killed my mother personally and I meant to repay her for the favor.
“Ryder, one of the witches here has a question.” Luna Bonnie stated from one of the many screens beside me. She looked so tiny.
“Of course.”
Bonnie nodded at a woman who looked to be about my mothers age and she came closer to the screen. “Princess Ryder, I am all for being reactive and taking the fight to them but what of the fighters who are too old, injured, or unable to fight for other reasons? Will we stay here alone and hope they don’t plan to attack us as a counter measure or would we all band together making you go slower than you should?”
“Very good question and it brings it around to my first plan of action so thank you for that.” I smiled at her and took a second to form my plan into easy-to-understand words of inspiration that we seemed to need right now. “I won’t be needed all of us to hand the first few steps so anyone who can’t fight for any reason will stay where they are along with others who can so that everyone is protected. My first step is to put together some groups to sniff our some of the followers so we can follow them back to their bosses and then follow those bosses back to who ever until we find the secret hide out of the King and Queen. Along the way we will also be killing them once we are done so we won’t have anyone snitching to the others of what we are doing. I will be taking volunteers for the groups but I do need them to be mixed between all of us. We all have our strengths and weaknesses but together we over come almost all of them.”
Hands instantly raised from my pack and from the packs on the screen to volunteer. Way more than I thought I was going to get, and my mouth dropped open. I was surprised I had drooled on myself while wrapping my head around it all.
Edgar walked up and put his arm around me. “You know that we will want to be involved in this but we need in a group with all of us including you. We know how much this fight means to you and we need to get back out there. Everyone here will watch after the twins and would die for them.” He wiped a tear from my cheek before kissing my forehead. “They are more loved then even you and that is saying something.”
I elbowed him and told him to hush it. “Now I will get everyone’s names for the list soon. I need you to know the next few parts that are still being put together in my head all depends on what we find out from the followers, and I would love to do meetings about it so we plan it as a group…”
“ROGUES!” I hear yelled but it wasn’t from our pack. I look at the screens and see Rogers pack running out of the room. Everyone is yelling but I can hear Roger yelling out orders to get the women to the shelter and trying to find out where the rogues are exactly. The Luna is trying to calm some of the women as she helps them out of the room. What the heck is happening with the attack?
“Roger? Roger? Luna? Someone?” I could hear yelling and the beginnings of an all-out fight between wolves. I hated that I was so far away that I couldn’t help them with anything. f**k. “Knox, Asher find the closest pack NOW and send them over. Mel find the closest Coven if there is one left.”
“And I will call the vampires.” The vampire leader who had questioned my idea earlier announced before ending his zoom call.
“What do we do? We wouldn’t make it in time!”
Edgar pulls me into his chest and hugs me tight. “This meeting is over. If anyone knows someone from Rogers pack see if you can get ahold of them for any updates. Sandra, send a small group of warriors to help with the aftermath.” The rest of the guys circled me pushing their love their our bond.
Thank goddess he had his s**t together, but I was about to lose mine. I was split between wolfing out and running all the way there to help with whatever I came across or running home to hold my babies until I heard something. I agreed with Edgar about going with the guys to track down the bad guys because he had been eating at me hearing about others dying with me doing nothing. This wasn’t just a war for our justice, it was a war to make them pay for taking my family away from me. It was personal.