“Then it looks like it’s not going to happen,” I said with a shrug.
When I turned and stormed down the wooded path, Ness chased after me. She grabbed my shoulder and tried to spin me around, but I shrugged her off.
“You can’t be Alpha unless you challenge Alvin and win. How do you think that’s going to happen? Do you think Alvin is going to concede and let you have the pack?”
While Ness had a point, that wasn’t always how power exchanges happened. Most of the Lakesedge Pack had already welcomed me. For the rest, I was working on a trial period. They didn’t trust me to return after I’d taken care of my brother.
If I didn’t come back, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to.
“I’m not…” Ness paused, her voice tight. The way she shivered, it was as if something cold had suddenly wrapped itself around her. “I don’t want to force your hand, but I don’t think we’ll be safe until he’s dead and in the ground. That might be my only purpose in life. Why else would I be here?”
Beryl’s information had clouded Ness’s mind. “You’re not a tool with one purpose. You’re a shifter, a person. Don’t let anyone convince you that you have no use unless you do something for them.”
She gave me a weak half-smile, her eyes still shadowed with thoughts that she wasn’t sharing. I sighed, near defeated. If she would let me, I would pull her into my body to show her that fate had given her more than she expected.
Ness didn’t want me, though. My beast snarled at the thought. The creature inside me would have its mate, eventually. She would give in and learn how to love me at some point.
I shoved the beast down and told it to behave. Those were not the thoughts of a good man, but of a corrupted beast. There was no way that I could force Ness to do anything. I wouldn’t let the Treasure Sickness ruin her life, too.
I diverted the subject to distract my beast. In the past couple of days, I’d done a lot of thinking. There were changes that needed to be made. The pack had a lot of weak spots, and I’d figured out how to patch them for the most part.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t discussed them with Ness yet. This was her pack. I needed her approval, even if she wasn’t an Alpha. I would be taking over as Alpha, so I had the power to make any changes I wanted. However, I needed Ness to be happy and safe here.
“The pack will be safe after I bring in some new recruits.” I pressed forward down the trail. “I’ve been talking to Thor from the sanctuary in Tennessee. He says he has a few shifters who are ready for new lives outside of the sanctuary. Our pack could use some new muscle.”
Ness
Ryder wanted to…bringin new people? The thought stunned me and left me stuck. Ryder moved on ahead, leaving me a few paces behind while I processed what he’d said.
New people? New shifters in the pack?
But this was the only pack I’d ever known. If we changed the pack, would it still be the same pack that I’d sacrificed so much for? I didn’t like this idea of change. I knew what to expect from my old pack.
I didn’t want to put my trust in new people only to have them let me down later. Oddly enough, I was more comfortable with the cold looks from my old packmates. At least I knew where they stood.
Fuck, this was confusing.
I followed Ryder down the path. The smell of rot grew stronger and stronger, as if Alvin had been here moments ago instead of days ago. That should have been enough to pull me out of my thoughts, but I got trapped in the whirling torrent inside my head.
These new people were going to have to earn my trust. If Ryder expected them to fill positions of power within the pack, I would be on guard twenty-four/seven again. They were strangers; any one of them would be capable of doing horrible things.
Thor could vouch for them, and his word would go a little ways. Still, I knew from experience that bad people could hide in plain sight for a long time. Alvin had gotten away with it for years…
No. He hadn’t. Most of the pack had known, in one way or another. They’d gotten glimpses of Alvin’s dangerous side. Catriona had felt the sting firsthand when her sister was chased out of the pack.
Chased.
I had a creeping suspicion that Catriona’s sister was six-feet-under, but I wasn’t about to bring that up any time soon.
Chest tight with apprehension, I opened my mouth to tell Ryder that I would think about it. Before I could utter even a syllable, he threw his hand out to stop me. I ran into his arm, earning a quick glare from him. He held his finger to his lips, and I gave a quick nod.
Ahead, the park trail split. There was a well-worn path to the right and a break in the undergrowth to the left that seemed new. The smell of rot wafted from the left. It was so strong that I had to hold my hand over my face. Still, that barely protected me from the oppressing smell.
A soft crackle, like branches breaking, came from the left. Ryder stiffened. When I scented the air, I tried to sniff out whoever might have been hiding out of sight, but the smell of death was too strong in the air. How could Alvin have left behind such a strong scent?
For a moment, I had a hopeful thought, that we would push through the undergrowth and find Alvin dead in a small grove. Alvin had used the ritual arcana against me several times since he’d come through this way, though. He had to be alive, still. I shuddered to think that he could control me from beyond the grave.
“Stay here,” Ryder whispered before taking the first step forward.