Chapter 58: Preparations
Sophie
I glad Hunter is happy that we’re having a pup. I do wish he’d waited until we’d at least seen the doctor before he announced it to the pack though.
‘Why? I’m sure,’ Hedda purrs in my head.
‘I know. I’m just…there’s so much going on right now, Hedda. So much that could go wrong…
‘Or right…’ she says. ‘You don’t know what’s going to happen at the Committee meeting.’
She’s right and after Alpha Alaric chased the twins over our borders, it’s been crazy getting ready for the Committee meeting. Kayce stayed as expected while a very reluctant Robin finally left and returned to his pack, swearing to Nikki that he’d side with us, and he would be returning on her birthday to claim her…privately.
I can see she’s nervous, but she’s been incredible around the pack, helping in warrior training, assisting with the patrols. She called Allison a beast, and Allison is great, but Nikki? She’s all Alpha.
Meanwhile, Hunter, Kayce, and I have been on the phone nearly non-stop with my father, Alpha Dutton, Alpha Robin, Alpha Calvin, and Alpha Ezła. Hunter had spoken to him, and he’d been willing to support changing the laws. Even without having
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ever met the man, I could hear his depression through the phone, the loss of his mate still wolghing heavily on him.
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This morning, I’m getting ready to finally stand in front of the Committee of Alphas. I stare at myself in the full-length mirror, watching Hunter getting ready behind me.
“How many are there again,” I ask for the hundredth time. My palms are sweating, and my stomach is in knots. What if they Insist that Hunter claim me in front of them? What if they refuse to let us leave without him doing it? What if they deny me as his Luna? I can’t leave Hunter. But the thought of having to have something so private, so special, shared in front of those disgusting Alphas In makes me want to vomit.
Hunter’s hands come around me from behind, his lips press against the back of my head as Shaw begins purring loudly, working hard to calm me.
“Fourteen, including you and me. Twelve who will be on the voting panel. Your sister, as a Luna isn’t considered a voting member,” he says, kissing my shoulder. Of course she isn’t. Women aren’t considered equal by this Committee, even if we have Alpha blood.
“And we need a majority to keep from going to war?” I ask, knowing we have six on our side.
“Yes. Alpha Zahn is still an unknown.”
“He’s the one whose mate threw herself off a cliff?” I ask.
“His second mate. His first one killed herself too.”
I suck in air. “But then…”
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They don’t care about fated mates any longer. They will never have what we have. But I don’t pity them,” he growls. “They did this to themselves.
“What….what happens if we don’t get the majority vote?” I ask, turning in his arms.
He shrugs. “They could insist that I mark and mate you in front of them and then all is fine,” he says. I knew it, but I still tense. He leans in and kisses my nose. I won’t. Ever.”
He sighs, looking over my head. “Then, they will threaten to have you removed as my Luna and they will threaten to have my title as Alpha removed, and then it will be the threat of war.”
And then we go to war,” I say.
“Then we go to war,” he confirms. “But Nikki did give me a great idea when she was talking to her brother. I already had an angle, one that I know will hit home with the Alphas on our side and if nothing else, clearly bring them into the war with us. But her angle helps us even more.”
“What angle is that?” I ask.
“About no one watching the packs while the Alphas are out hunting their mates. If they declare war on us, and still think that they will be able to hunt for their mates, they are sorely
mistaken. I haven’t felt the need to decimate their packs until now, but I will, if it comes to that, preferably starting with Owen,” he growls.
“What other angle do you have?”
“Your pregnancy. It’s unheard of for a mated couple to be
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pregnant this soon. Your sister and Calvin are pretty rare and that has been two years. Two weeks? Unheard of.”
“That’s why you got the doctor’s report that says that I’m carrying your pup?”
“Yep. Got it right here,” he says, lifting the notebook that he’s bringing to the Committee meeting.
“And we’re sure, our six are truly on our side?” I ask, my heart still thumping in my chest.
He pulls back, looking at me. “Do you have concerns about any of them?”
shrug. “I don’t know them as well as you do. I believe Kayce, Robin, and my father will definitely side with us. I’m pretty sure that Calvin will as well, especially since my sister will be there. But I’m not confident about Alphas Dutton and Ezra.”
“Dutton will stand beside us. I’ve known him for a long time, and you gave him a lot to think about. Ezra will also. He still struggles with losing my sister. He loved her completely, like I love you. Unfortunately, she was never able to give him the same love and affection in return.”
He strokes his fingers across my cheek, staring at his hand. “I’m only now realizing how hard that must have been for him, for Lucas, for Calvin. To have the woman that you feel everything for and knowing that she doesn’t feel the same for you because of what you did to her. I can’t….” his voice is quiet and by the end, his voice breaks. I can feel the fear through the bond of what it would mean to him to lose me, for our bond to be broken like that.
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“And thankfully, you are a strong enough man to stand up for what is right. You are the kind of man who would burn down the world for the woman he loves. And I’m the lucky woman who gets to call herself yours.”
“I think I’m the lucky one. I AM mated to the legend, you know,” he says, smirking.
I grunt. “Not that again.”
“You know it will come up today. The Alphas want nothing more than for you to go away. They blame you for everything that has happened.”
“Isn’t it amazing that they give me so much power but take it all away from the other ranked she-wolves.”
“You scare them with the amount of power you wield.”
“I don’t wield any power,” I say, leaning into him.
“Don’t you? Those she-wolves are only here in our pack because of you. Kinsley is getting stronger, in large part, because of you. I am a stronger man, a stronger Alpha, because of you. You have more power than you know, Sophie. You may not want to be the face of this revolution, but make no mistake, if you were to stand against those Alphas, you could start a revolution all on your own. You don’t need me at all.”
“On the contrary, Alpha. I desperately need you. Multiple times a day,” I say, smiling flirtatiously up at him.
“Needing me for sex and needing me in your life aren’t the same, Soph.”
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“I need you for everything, Hunter I didn’t realize how much I needed someone else until you came into my life. But even that night when you took Nikki to the pack hospital, I was feeling out. of control, uneasy. Just reaching out and feeling your presence. in my mind, even though you were focused on her, it still soothed me. If I am to be the cause of the revolution, you, my dear mate, are the foundation that allows me to lead and to shine. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to do it.”
He smiles down at me for a long moment. “How is it possible that I can love you more every day?”
“I don’t know. But I feel the same,
He leans in, kissing my softly, sweetly, tenderly. The kiss lingers and all my worries about today leave my mind. Maybe that was his plan, because by the time we’re ready to go, I square my shoulders, lift my chin, and take my mate’s hand.
“Let’s do this.”
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Chapter 59: Committee of Alphas
Hunter
I can feel my mate’s tension as we walk into the committee chambers. The Alphas, being pompous a**holes, made sure that their seats sat up much higher than those who were there to be heard. This way, they can literally look down their noses at you.
I’ve never liked the practice. We’re Alphas, why do we have to prove that we stand above the others? If those who present themselves in front of the committee don’t realize that just by our aura and presence, then perhaps those in their Alpha positions don’t deserve them.
This time, it’s me and Sophie who are on the floor, looking up at the Alpha chairs as the committee members enter.
I feel Sophie stiffen beside me and turn to look at her, keeping my eyes on the Alphas.
“What is it?” I murmur.
“Who is the Alpha that just came in?”
“Alpha Zahn, why?”
She looks at me. “He was the one who caught his mate in the woods where I was staying. He’s the reason I ran.”
I look at Alpha Zahn again. The timing would have been right.
He caught his mate and she threw herself off a cliff right around
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the time that I found Sophie.
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I nod, acknowledging that I heard her, but continuing to watch as the others enter. Kayce walked in with us, but I nod as Dutton, Carter, and Luna Amy enter the room. I see Sophie. finger wave at her parents and her father winks at her before taking his seat. I notice that they are all sitting on the left side of the seating, while Zahn, Alaric, and Owen have chosen to sit on the right side.
When Ezra walks in, he raises his eyebrow, looking at the seating arrangements. “Choosing sides already, I see,” he says, sitting beside Kayce.
“That’s Ezra,” I say in an aside to Sophie.
“And that?” she asks about the Alpha who just sat down on the right side of the seating area.
“That’s Alpha Aiden,” I whisper.
She nods. “He’s the one who was hunting me before I got on the train,” she says and an inadvertent growl escapes.
I cut it off, but not before the room goes quiet. Since the meeting hasn’t started, everyone looks at me, then turns back to their own discussions.
‘He’s second after Owen on our list to obliterate,’ Shaw says in my head, seething at the man who hunted for my mate.
‘Yes,’ I say. I’m not going to argue. If he’d caught Sophie, I would never have found my fated mate. She’d have been taken by someone else and she’d be a shell of the person she is today.
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watch as Alpha Joshua walks in with his mate, Luna Margot. She’s stoic, always has her face well-schooled, and in the three years since she’s been mated to Alpha Joshua, I’ve never once seen her smile.
Next to enter is Calvin with Luna Amelia. I knew from our discussions that he didn’t want her here because of her pregnancy, but Amelia, being the Alpha she is, insisted. Calvin sits her in between himself and her father. The safest place in the room by his standards.
I watch as the last two enter the room, Alpha Elias and his mate Luna June. June moves to sit beside her daughter, Luna Margot. I watch as she takes the younger woman’s hand and they both face us, as if creating a unified front. Alpha Elias, the oldest Alpha in our Committee, leads these meetings.
He stands in the center of the seating area, looking down at me.
“Alpha Hunter, you have been commanded in front of this Committee of Alphas today because it has been brought to our attention that you have broken one of our laws. How do you plead?”
“Guilty.”
He wasn’t looking at me, obviously expecting me to argue. But I won’t. I’m standing up for Sophie and for what I believe in.
His eyes snap back to mine. “You agree that you broke one of our laws?”
“It’s a law I don’t agree with, as this committee is aware.”
“Whether or not you agree with it, it is still a law Alpha.”
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“Yes,” I say, standing my ground. Because he’s above us, and because I’m an Alpha, my chin is raised to look him in the eye. I’ m glad and proud to see that Sophie’s is as well
Alpha Elias looks at me a moment, obviously restructuring the argument he had already planned
“You took this woman as your mate?” he asks.
“I believe you know I did. I’m sure that when my previous G**a joined Alpha Owen’s pack, he let Alpha Owen know, who then let you know just who my mate is,” I say, looking at Owen, then back at Elias. I’m not going to let them play games
with me.
“Yes,” he says growling as he looks at my mate. “Sophie Meyers.”
I take a protective step forward and partially in front of Sophie.
“She’s Sophie Reynolds now.”
“That remains to be seen,” he says, refocusing on me. “You have broken our laws. Do you intend to rectify that here and now?” he asks.
“How do you propose that I do that?”
“You would need to mark her in this committee chamber, of course,” he says arrogantly.
“Do your noses not work?” I ask innocently. Sophie has placed her hand on my back, whether to keep herself or me grounded I’ m not sure, but my protective Alpha nature is pushing forward.
“Excuse me?” he growls, but I see Kayce smiling. He and I
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