Defying The Alpha, Falling For His Stepfather

Chapter Three: A Mating Alliance

Aiden

Traditionally, a retired alpha automatically becomes a member of the Elder Counsel. I really did not have the energy to be a contributing member, but the old, familiar pull of duty had me dragging my aching body to the conference room whenever Ellis demanded a meeting. It wasn’t as if he wanted counsel, he was too full of his own ideas and opinions to listen to wisdom from a bunch of old people. No, he simply wanted an audience whenever he made another sweeping change.

I dropped into a leather chair, not at the head of the table, but on the side. I resisted the urge to fold my arms on the table and lay down my head. I really was nothing more than a bag of bones, and I hardly had the energy to get out of my bed, let alone listen to another one of Ellis’s monologues about whatever announcement he was about to make.

The other members had expressions of mixed exasperation and concern, and they shifted uneasily as Ellis came into the room. For reasons unknown, he had taken to wearing army fatigues on a daily basis. The boy had never even served in the military, but apparently, he aspired to turn my pack into an army.

Not my pack, I corrected myself as soon as the thought entered my head. His pack.

He sauntered to the head of the table but did not sit. He stood, leaning his palms against the surface, staring at each of us as though it were some kind of staring game. I had no qualms about looking away at first; I was too tired for an alpha p.issing contest. When he was satisfied that he had dominated the whole table, he relaxed and sat in his chair. “I have an announcement,” he said importantly. Boy, did I call that one.

“As you should already know, our growth as a pack has been completely stagnant for the last fifty years. We have not acquired any new land, and our population has not increased significantly in all that time. In fact, our census last year saw us down by 14, mostly due to our females finding mates outside of the pack.” He sent a particularly intense glare in my direction, as though it were my fault that those women had left the pack for their soul mates. I also knew that four young people had come to join us for the same reason.

The fact that we had been peaceful and stable as a pack for decades was not a failure in my eyes. I just looked away from him and contemplated the gardens out the window. The roses were in bloom. They had always been a favorite of Mary’s. And there she was, in my imagination, pruning shears in hand, cutting roses to put in vases around the house. The memory was so real, I was tempted to leave the table and go to her.

Cruelly, Ellis brought me back to reality. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have just signed an agreement that will increase our pack lands by forty-seven percent, and more than double our population. And all without any bloodshed!”

The other council members looked at each other in confusion, and I felt my own brows drawing together, “What agreement?”

“An alliance with Alpha Forge.” Ellis’ chest puffed out.

“What kind of alliance?” I asked, my suspicions growing.

“A mating alliance,” he dropped the bomb proudly, “I will take Forge’s eldest daughter as my mate, and in return, he will cede the pack to me when he retires. I don’t know the exact date of his retirement, but I think it will be sooner rather than later.”

I forced my tired body to sit up straighter, “But she’s not your fated mate?”

Ellis looked at me with an expression of exaggerated patience. “That’s the point, Father,” 'Father' came off his tongue dripping with sarcasm, “She hasn’t found a mate, that’s why her father is putting together this little arrangement. Apparently, they won’t make a female the alpha, so this is his idea of a solution.”

“But what about you, Ellis? You are still young; you could still find your fated mate!” The whole idea pained me. In my experience, nothing good came of these sorts of arranged pairings. Mary’s first mating with Ellis’s father was a prime example. Even if the person’s wolf accepts the chosen partner, it's never the same. I shook my head in disbelief and looked around at the other council members, hoping for some backup. But some were actually nodding at the idea in approval, and others looked like they were holding their tongues, knowing there was no point offering their view.

“I don’t need to wait around for a love match,” he sneered, steepling his hands on the table, “In my opinion, having a fated mate makes you weak and vulnerable.”

“You are wrong,” I gritted my teeth in frustration, “A fated mate makes you stronger, it makes you the best version of yourself.”

“Right. Until she dies.” His words were like a slap in my face. It was a point I couldn’t argue about. Mary’s death had rendered me useless. But still, I wouldn’t trade the years we had together for anything in this world.

I felt bad for the woman who was being passed around in this deal. If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t allow her to mate with a man like Ellis, not even if he was the last man on earth. I felt vaguely disappointed in old man Forge. He and I always had a good professional relationship. I’d counted him as an ally and a friend, we traded together, and shared resources when needed. He governed his pack according to an older, outdated set of traditions, and I’d heard it rumored that the real power in the Two Pillars pack was wielded by their council. But to each their own, and it wasn’t my business how they did things, as long as there was peace between us.

But to use one of his daughters as a political pawn like this? That was low.

I blew out a breath and released my worry along with the air in my lungs. I reminded myself that this was no longer my pack. What Ellis chose to do, and with whom, was not within my control and even though it concerned me, as I tried to muster the strength to keep arguing, I found that there was simply nothing left in my reserves. I just had nothing left. I wouldn’t live long enough to see the outcome of his maneuverings anyway. I think we were both surprised that I had hung on this long. This was his world now, and I wasn’t a part of it. I was more like a ghost just haunting the periphery, observing, but not really participating.

I let my eyes travel out the window again, and wondered why I even bothered to keep attending the council meetings, to keep going through the old familiar motions of duty. I had no reason other than the fact that it had been programmed into my DNA to care for the pack. I searched the garden paths for Mary, but I couldn’t seem to manifest a vision of her there anymore. What would she have thought of her son’s plans for an arranged mating? I know she would have disapproved, and she would have talked him out of it. She was the only person he ever seemed to listen to with any modicum of respect.

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear,” Ellis had continued to expound on his plans, and I had no idea which details I had missed while my mind had wandered off in the garden, “Miss Forge will be a Luna in name and title only, she will have no real power over this pack. Keep that in mind when she arrives.”

I suppressed a groan at the nonsense of it all. A luna in name only? What was that? That was a pack without of balance, and an alpha with no check. “When does she arrive?” I asked, forcing myself to keep my tone neutral.

“Wednesday,” he said, looking annoyed, as though he was repeating information he’d already delivered.

“Right, Wednesday.” I cleared my throat and pushed myself to my feet, taking a moment to get my balance. “If you will excuse me, Alpha. Elders.” I nodded at them before I turned and limped out of the room. I couldn’t bear to listen to any more of his scheming nonsense, nor could my mind dwell on the fate of this poor woman he was bringing over from Two Pillars.

I looked longingly out at the forest beyond the gardens, but I no longer even had the strength to shift into my wolf. Instead, I climbed the stairs, every joint and muscle protesting at the effort. At the top of the stairs, I turned right, down the long hall to the Alpha suite at the end. I opened the door and entered the room where I spent most of my time these days.

Mary had made the room cozy, but I had ripped down her paintings and decorations in one of my early rages. Now I had only the scarred walls and broken furniture to remind me of her delicate touch. I didn’t allow anyone in the room, not even to clean it, so a layer of dust was building up over the lampshade and the top of the dresser. Black-out curtains kept the room dim, partly because I couldn’t stand to see what I’d done. For months I had refused to change the sheets, still clinging desperately to her scent. But when the scent was gone, I’d stripped them away, along with her favorite quilt, and replaced it with generic black bedding from a big box store, something that had no scent apart from the factory smell, and no memories attached to it.

I let my exhausted body drop onto the mattress, kicking aside the tangled blankets, and rolled to my side so that I could see the framed photo of Mary on my bedside table.

She was laughing in the photo, the wind blowing her golden blond hair across her face. I reached out and traced her rosy cheek across the glass. Her smile almost seemed to mock me, trapped inside that black and gold frame. “Why did you leave me?” I asked the picture, just as I’d asked a thousand times since her death.