Chapter 237
“They’re not planning violence,” he says quickly, words tumbling over each other like he’s afraid I’ll cut him off. “Not raids. Not bloodshed. They’re doing it clean. By the book.”
“Doing what,” I ask, calm and even.
“Rejecting reform,” he says. “Entirely. Pulling out of the accords. Refusing oversight. Locking records. They think if they do it slowly enough, no one will notice until it’s too late.”
I take a sip of my coffee. It’s too hot. Too bitter. I welcome it. Let the silence stretch again, long enough for him to realize I’m not rushing him.
“They say reform is optional,” he continues, desperation creeping into his voice. “That it was never ratified properly. That no one actually has the authority to enforce it anymore.”
“And you,” I say, eyes steady on his face, “don’t agree.”
His laugh is short and brittle, like glass cracking under pressure. “I don’t know what I agree with. I just know what happens next if they get their way.”
I watch him closely now. The tension knotted in his shoulders. The way his foot bounces under the table like it’s trying to run without him. This isn’t ambition. It isn’t hunger for power or recognition.
It’s fear dressed up as defiance because fear alone doesn’t survive long in a pack. “They’re scared,” I say.
He looks at me sharply, almost offended. “They’re furious.”
“Fury is what fear sounds like when it gets tired of hiding,” I reply.
He goes still. For a moment, I think he might bolt. His eyes flick to the door, to the window, to the street beyond. Then his shoulders sag, tension leaking out of him like air from a punctured lung.
“They keep saying the old ways worked,” he says quietly. “That order matters more than fairness. That we were safer when no one questioned leadership.”
“And were you,” I ask, keeping my voice level, “safer.”
He doesn’t answer right away. His mouth opens, closes. When he finally speaks, his voice is barely audible. “No.”
I nod. Not in triumph. Not in judgment. Just acknowledgment.
I could order him. I could tell him to gather names, evidence, timelines. I could
threaten sanctions, intervention, consequences that would land hard and fast and look impressive on paper.
Instead, I say, “You have two options.”
He blinks. “That’s it?”
“That’s all anyone ever really has,” I say.
I lean forward just slightly, enough to signal attention without pressure. “You can
stay. Push back from inside. Slow them down. Force conversations they don’t want
to have. It will cost you. They’ll watch you. Sideline you. Maybe worse.”
His throat works as he swallows.
“Or,” I continue, “you can leave.
Today. Quietly. I’ll arrange protection. Placement. A pack
Wank
that ask questions you’re not ready
wer.”
FindNovel.net
He stares at me like he expected something else. Like he expected a verdict instead of a door.
“You’re not going to tell me what to do,” he says.
“No.”
“You’re not going to stop them.”
“I can’t,” I say. “Not the way you think.”
His brow furrows, frustration cutting through the fear. “Why not force them? You
have the authority. Everyone says you do.”
I hold his gaze. I don’t raise my voice. I don’t dress it up or soften the edges.
“Because forced change rots,” I say. “It looks solid on the surface and collapses the moment pressure shifts.”
He leans back slowly, like the answer hit harder than he expected.
“They’ll win,” he says.
“Maybe,” I reply. “For a while.”
Silence settles between us. Outside, someone laughs. A cup clinks against a saucer. A car door slams and then the street noise smooths kinto normal: The world keeps going, indifferent to our quiet crisis.
He stands abruptly, chair scraping against the floor. “I need time.”
“I know.”
He hesitates, then nods once. “Thank you. For not… making me.”
I watch him leave without another word.
The bell rings. The door swings shut.
I sit there longer than I should, coffee cooling untouched in front of me. This is the weight no one warns you about. Not being obeyed. Not being teared. Stapding in the space where command used to be and choosing not to fill it.
When I finally stand, my chest feels tight but steady.
This is what it costs to be no one’s Alpha.
And this is the price I keep choosing to pay.