Chapter 4

4

REMY

I paused before walking into the council room in the basement of my home. It wasn’t my first time walking in here, but there was no denying the reasons were now completely fucked up.

I had grown up in this room, sitting in on Blackwater council meetings since I was eleven. I had learned from my father, watching as he carefully and shrewdly negotiated for his pack. He had trained me, raised me, to be an Alpha.

But this day was at least a decade too soon, and every single person in the room knew it.

Rhodes and Katy flanked me as I stepped into the room, and I nodded at the men surrounding the table.

Ten betas helped my father run Blackwater. Each was responsible for a different area of the pack, and each was chosen by my father. Their loyalty to the pack was unwavering and had created a brotherhood amongst them.

I needed that loyalty now as I moved through the room and took my father’s seat.

Dante and Will followed us into the room, glancing around at the men taking up the ten seats around the table.

There were more chairs that had been pushed to the perimeter of the room. I usually sat on one and observed, sometimes with Rhodes. Occasionally Katy or the twins or other pack members had sat in, but it wasn’t the norm.

And this wouldn’t do.

“Everyone get up,” I ordered, standing behind my father’s seat at the head of the table and curling my fingers into the leather on the back until it creaked and groaned.

The current council exchanged confused looks, a few almost amused, but they all got to their feet.

“Rhodes.” I jerked my chin to the chair directly at my right.

Without saying a word, Rhodes rounded the corner and pulled the chair out. He nodded at Michael, my father’s first beta, who stepped aside with a dip of his head.

My gaze fell to the chair at my left. The chair that was always left open, reserved for my mother. The Alpha’s mate.

The chair that Skye should have been sitting in.

I swallowed back the emotions threatening to rise up, focusing on the people watching me curiously, uneasily. I needed to sort this shit out now so I could get back to finding her.

“Michael.” I indicated the next chair beside my best friend. Rhodes was my beta, but Michael was still needed in this room, in the pack.

Thankfully, Michael didn’t disagree as he took his new seat.

I kept going, assigning seats until my friends were blended into my father’s council. Old and new. Chairs were pulled from the edge of the room, squeezed around the full table.

Once everyone was sitting, I pulled my chair out and sat down, ignoring the gaping hole where Skye should have been seated beside me.

“Thank you,” I murmured, absently tracing a small scratch in the wood of the table as I pulled myself together.

Lifting my eyes, I turned to Michael first. “Any word on more survivors?”

Michael grimaced and shook his head. “No. The last survivors were found when you left. The only ones they’re finding now are... bodies.”

Which meant the tally of total survivors was hovering in the single digits.

I bit back a curse.

“And the local news? Police?” I pressed him.

“As far as they know?” Michael rubbed his jaw. “Faulty wiring that led to a fire and an explosion in the kitchen. Thankfully the resort was closed to visitors during renovations and no one was there. Press have already dropped the story from the news, and the police closed the case. Fire marshall took a little persuading, but apparently he has a pretty hefty gambling habit.”

I closed my eyes, leaning back in the chair with a sigh.

At least I didn’t have to worry about normals digging into the sudden hole in Wyoming after the bomb that had been detonated demolished the lodge. We had plenty of other issues to handle.

The Summit had been host to nearly one hundred Alphas and heirs. And now, by our count, there were less than ten left in North America. Dozens of packs had been left without an Alpha or an heir. For packs that were already struggling, the loss of leadership would be catastrophic.

“Any more movements from Norwood?” I asked softly.

“They’ve moved into the middle section of the east coast,” a beta named Chris told me. His long blond hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, his sheer size taking up an eighth of the table. Chris had grown up with my father in the pack.

“At this rate, they’ll have control of most of the country within weeks,” Dante muttered darkly, his mouth twisting in a frown.

“They can’t control that much land,” Jeremiah, another beta, mused, rubbing his dark beard. “There’s no way.”

“It’s not about the land,” Katy replied, leaning forward as she joined the conversation. “It’s about the people. The women and girls. That’s the currency they’re stockpiling.”

Every head swung in her direction. It had been years since my father had named a female beta, and she had asked to be relieved of duties when she became pregnant years ago. Katy was the first female to sit at this table in half a decade.

The man across from her smiled indulgently. “We know, honey.”

Katy’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say anything back at Vick. Her features smoothed out, her expression going arctic in what Rhodes had dubbed her ‘Ice Princess’ face when we were kids.

She did that seconds before launching into a verbal attack that usually left the recipient feeling like they had gone ten rounds with an Alpha.

“Don’t do that.” I glared at Vick, waiting until he looked away, jaw clenched but submitting. “Katy is here because she has a valid point, and because I trust her. She’s part of my council. I won’t have any person in this room throwing around passive aggressive, patronizing bullshit.”

“Some of us are wondering if she should even be on this council,” a voice from the other end of the table said quietly. “Because let’s be honest, not all of us are convinced this council should exist.”

I glared down at William Lodge. He had several years on my father and had repeatedly challenged my father in his early years for leadership of the pack. Dad had brought him onto the council, knowing that the Lodge family had as long a history in Blackwater as the Holts. He was determined to see them work together, and, for the most part, they had.

Rhodes tensed beside me, but I held him off by lifting my hand.

“If you have something to say, Lodge, say it,” I encouraged with a grim smile.

“You’re not fit to be Alpha of this pack, boy,” he said plainly, glaring at me down the line of his thin nose.

“Then I guess it’s a good thing my father is the Alpha,” I replied, still smiling. “I’m just filling in until he’s back.”

“And what happens when he doesn’t come back?” Lodge leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “You’re barely of age. I can see you one day, maybe, being an Alpha, but that is not this day.”

“Come on, Lodge,” Michael hissed, jaw clenching as he glared down the table at the older man. “We talked about this already. Now is not the time for Blackwater to be in any further turmoil. We all agreed to let Remy run things until we know for sure what will happen to Gabe.”

I forced myself not to react. Not to show a single emotion while they were discussing my father’s life like the damn weather. Like it was some passing thing that would eventually sort itself out.

“Now is not the time for us to be led by a boy and his friends,” Lodge snarled back. “Gabriel may not wake up. What happens when Norwood comes for this pack? Because Damien will. He won’t be satisfied with staying on the East coast.”

“No, he won’t,” I agreed, splaying my hand out on the table. “Which is why I’ve already started working on a plan to stop him.”

That caught everyone’s attention.

“Norwood is amassing an army,” I said evenly. “We need to do the same. Dante has already arranged for the Brooks Ridge pack to join ours. They’ll be here in hours. We need to reach out to our allies and neighbors. Open the borders, if necessary, especially to packs that have lost their Alpha.”

“To what end?” Lodge demanded, squinting at me from the other end of the room. “Blackwater needs to circle the wagons, not widen the circle.”

“I disagree.”

Lodge glowered at me. “And this is why you can’t be our Alpha.”

I met his gaze and held it. “Is that a challenge?”

His chin lifted and the air sucked out of the room as everyone waited for his reply.

“And if it is?”

“Then issue it, and let’s move on,” I replied with a nonchalant shrug. I leaned forward. “We’re not going to win this war by hiding our fucking heads in the sand and praying Norwood decides to stop at our front gates and move on.”

“No one said anything about a war,” Chis interjected nervously.

Rhodes’s brow furrowed as he threw him an incredulous look. “Someone blew up the Summit. Killed dozens of Alphas. Considering Norwood was long gone before the bomb went off, it’s pretty clear they either did it or knew it was coming. They’ve started invading packs in the surrounding areas. Do you need a formal declaration in writing?”

I smirked. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

My wolf snarled, snapped, ready for a fight. Our mate was missing, our family was in chaos, and our pack was teetering on unrest. I would happily beat William Lodge and every other beta in this room into the ground to prove that I was their Alpha for the time being.

Lodge took a deep breath, his flinty eyes calculating as he looked around the room. “Blackwater needs stability and leadership. If Norwood comes for us, they’ll find us ready to defend our territory.”

“Not good enough,” I bit out, my teeth grinding together. “Blackwater isn’t a pack that just exists and hides. That’s never been who this pack is, and I’ll be damned if that’s what we do now. I’m not going to sit back and wait for Norwood, or anyone else, to come for us or to pick off packs that are completely vulnerable.”

“Remy’s right,” Michael interjected, leaning forward. “We can’t sit back passively and wait to see what happens next. Being proactive is our only option.”

“So, what do you propose?” Lodge ground out.

I tapped a finger on the table, aligning my thoughts. “Most of the Alphas on this side of the country are dead. Until a new pack order can be set up, we offer them sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary?” Skepticism dripped from the word as he repeated it with utter disdain.

“We make them part of our pack,” I clarified.

I anticipated the murmur of dissent that swept the room. I let it happen, waited for them to settle before moving on.

“Your answer is to exhaust our resources by taking in an undetermined amount of strays?” Lodge smirked at me from across the table.

“My answer is to create a resistance big enough to stop Norwood until we can help these packs establish their own leadership while pooling all of our resources,” I countered.

“Remy’s right,” Dante said firmly, placing one arm on the table and angling himself at Lodge. “It’s why Brooks Ridge now recognizes Remy as our Alpha.”

“You’re surrendering your pack?” Chris asked, amazed.

Alphas never gave up their pack. It was taken from them either by a challenge or from the Council.

A Council that was now bits of bone and dried blood staining the grass of a destroyed resort. None of them had survived.

“I’m surrendering my position for the survival of my pack,” Dante replied curtly. “It’s a position a lot of packs will be taking.”

“What’s left of the pack is arriving here in a few hours,” I added.

“And where the hell are we supposed to house these extra people?” Vick spoke up again, looking around the room.

“We have the space.” I glanced at Katy, nodding for her to speak up.

“The weather is nice enough right now that it buys us some time,” she jumped in without missing a beat. “People can use tents and camp out. We have plenty of space and resources and people to build new houses. The Eastern ridge had already been zoned for more housing since our population is on the rise. We’ll fast track production of those houses. For the interim, we’ll ask people to house some of the displaced, especially families with children.”

“You expect us to provide housing for refugees?” Vick demanded, incredulous.

“I expect this pack to step up,” I snapped, growing more and more pissed off that these people who so readily supported my father couldn’t see this is exactly what Dad would have done. “Brooks Ridge is our oldest ally, and they need us as much as we need them.”

It was more than that, though. Brooks Ridge had always been a notoriously small pack, but they were also notorious. They were strong and known as some of the best fighters in our world. There was a reason the small pack had survived so long in the barren, northern part of Alaska.

If a war was coming, having Brooks Ridge as part of our pack was only an asset, and one that we desperately needed.

“How many packs do you think we can reach?” Chris asked.

“As many as we have to,” Michael answered, spreading his arms. “Remy’s right; we can’t just pretend that what happened at the Summit isn’t an act of war. And not just against all packs, but against ours .”

Lodge glared down the table at me. “I would feel better about this if we didn’t have a kid leading this pack.”

“If you think you’re the man to lead this pack, then challenge me.” I stood up, bracing my hands on the table. “I’ve never once backed down from a challenge, and I sure as hell won’t now.”

Michael grimaced, spreading his hands out flat on the table as he tried to sway us towards peace. “No one is—”

“Fine.” Lodge stood up from his end of the table.

I straightened my back, lifting my chin. My wolf stirred, hungry and ready to devour.

“I, William Lodge, challenge you, Remington Holt, for Alpha of the Blackwater pack.”

I craved the rush of adrenaline that rocketed through my system. Rage and fury flooded my veins. I filled my lungs with a deep inhale, feeling as muscle and tendon stretched and burned back to life.

There was no denying the grin on my face as the beast I kept caged in my chest awoke. I met Lodge’s gaze, my smile growing when his resolve flickered for a second. It was barely the length of a heartbeat, but there was no denying it.

He wasn’t entirely sure he could beat me.

I leaned forward and grinned. “Challenge accepted.”