Their End

Chapter 16 | Useless Arguments

CALDER

Slowly, I buttoned up the back of Remi’s dress. The silence hung heavy in the room as we dressed for this early meeting with the Elder Council. Instead of preparing for whatever was coming our way when Fifi’s brother arrived, we were dealing with politics. Blue Moon was fortunate enough to have a strong stable of warriors, but none of them were prepared for a dragonborn. Cullen and I had yet to best Fifi during the training we managed to get her to participate in. With the way she spoke about her brother, I feared what would happen when he arrived.

“Remind me why we haven’t gotten rid of this ridiculous Council yet,” Cullen complained as he approached Remi with his cuff links. He could absolutely do it himself, and he had many times, but he still let Remi help him.

“I was just wondering the same,” Remi sighed as she fixed his cuff links and then looked him over.

These meetings were worse than board meetings in the Ordinary Realm. “It’s tradition,” I reminded them. Remi rolled her eyes at me over her shoulder while Cullen continued to scowl.

“We are going to spend far too much time in there arguing with wolves who have no idea what we are up against instead of finding a way to prepare,” Cullen pointed out.

I grabbed my jacket from the bed and shrugged it on. Remi came over and adjusted my tie. I kissed her forehead, wishing more than anything I could just rid her of the underlying anxiety that now lived along our bond. We were all worried about this.

Fifi hadn’t and wouldn’t kill Sam. Unless she could make her brother and father see it differently, that meant she hadn’t completed her task. Then, there was the little problem of the ember inside her that we had yet to extract or extinguish safely. It was anyone’s guess what the consequences of Fifi’s time with us would be.

Remi grabbed onto my arm, and we silently filed out of our room, heading downstairs. My father had been the one to deliver us the news that the Elder Council was convening over this matter. I had never looked at them as much of a problem until I actually became Alpha. It seemed they were always dissatisfied with how Cullen and I managed the pack, let alone our mate and Beta’s mate. Allowing Fifi to remain under our supervision had really upset them.

When we arrived at the Council room, everyone was already seated, and the soft murmur in the room died as we took our spots. “I could think of five better uses for this space than this asinine waste of energy,” Cullen grouched silently.

Remi narrowed her eyes at him as he pulled her chair out. I loved my brother, but his opposition to all things Elder Council did not help the situation.

“Alphas,” we were greeted as we took our seats on either side of Remi. When she joined, we always positioned her between us so that it was clear where our loyalties and priorities sat.

“Should we get right to it then?” I asked. “You wish to speak about the dragonborn threat coming our way.”

“We never wanted the dragonborn in these lands to begin with. Now, another is coming? We want some answers, including why this is happening,” someone demanded.

“Let’s remember that Calder and Cullen have never done anything to endanger our pack. They have only held its best interests at heart since they were training to take over,” my father defended from the other end of the table.

“That remains to be seen with an unrestrained witch and dragonborn frolicking about.”

“I would also like to revisit the importing of magical objects into our territory.”

“How about the disintegration of the alliance between the pack and the Summer Fae?”

“We have been working to prepare for this eventuality since the moment we were warned,” Remi interrupted them before the conversation could continue down other paths. “We are taking this issue very seriously. And I would like to remind everyone that no harm has come to a single pack member during Findra’s residency with us.”

Father nodded with an approving look at her.

“Didn’t she cause the Beta child’s arm to be broken? That sounds like a pack member coming to harm. A pup no less.”

“Children will play and get injured. It is something that happens every day without the influence of dragonborn. Grayson Penning suffered no serious injury,” Cullen snapped. “I find it insulting that you would insinuate we would put anyone in the pack in danger for an outsider, much less our children.”

“Findra is not without fault, but she is no harm to anyone here. She has done nothing but strive to learn about our realm, more specifically, our race and pack,” Remi added.

“The daft dragonborn has spent almost four years housed in our pack and can barely identify her closest acquaintances by name.”

“Tell me, have you bothered to remember our third-born child’s name yet?” I proposed. Mouths snapped shut around the table. I could see the flicker of irritation cross my father’s face. My already thin patience was growing close to the point of expiry. “Since you are racially insensitive to her differences, I won’t bother to explain that she truly believes many of us look exactly alike. Let alone the similarities within bloodlines. Findra does know our names and, at times, will tell us apart. Are we going to get back to the topic at hand? Or would you like to continue to criticize our decisions as the leaders of this pack?”

“Calder is right,” my father said. “We’re here to discuss what to do about the threat coming our way.”

“What exactly will this second dragonborn be coming to do?” someone else asked. “What is it that they are unhappy about?”

“The dragonborn’s life mission is to help ensure the balance of magic across many realms,” Remi offered. “Besides that, we have not been able to discern much else from Findra.”

“So the higher powers in her realm are unhappy with what she has been doing here? Why has it taken so long?”

Cullen and I looked at each other, recalling Fifi’s explanation of how time works in her realm versus ours. That was not going to be repeated here. “In some way, she has not fulfilled her duties. We believe that is partly because she wished to remain with us. Our hope is that we are able to make this second dragonborn see reason and that this realm is not out of balance.”

“Findra finds a lot of joy here in our realm. She genuinely enjoys the companionship of our pack,” Remi explained. “I suspect she has delayed her return to her home because she loves this place so much. If we can make that clear to the dragonborn coming, we can avoid fighting.”

“Sounds to me like we need to hand her over.”

“Or rather, we were better off sending her away when she first arrived.”

“This is going absolutely nowhere,” Cullen linked.

“Neither are we.”