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Chapter 1 - Rowan
The old garage was full of chatter and bodies as everyone fought for the chance to be heard. What felt like an endless sea of eyes was on me while I stood before them, freshly anointed as their new leader. The noise overwhelmed me, but I couldn't let it get to me—not in front of them.
We had lost more people than I was comfortable admitting in the last hit against Rose Valley, but seeing everyone gathered in one place made it seem like our numbers weren't culled at all. It was a good thing, but it didn't help my hesitation. It didn't stop me from needing to take deep breaths to collect myself again.
"Please, one at a time," I said to them with my hands up to try and calm the rowdy crowd. Wrestling a pack of bikers into silence, some gifted and some not, was never an easy task. While my dad hadn't been the best individual when he was alive, he was good at commanding their attention and respect. Taking a paragraph or two out of his book would do me some good.
"What now?" One of them asked, stood in front of the others with his arms crossed. Tattoos covered his biceps that were faded from years of experience. "What are we supposed to do?"
"What if the others are planning to retaliate? We won't be ready!"
"They'll be at our doorstep next, just like your dad said."
Irritation spiked from beneath my skin, aware of the stain my father left behind. Of the rumors and destruction he caused.
I might've been his successor, but I wouldn't follow in his footsteps. I couldn't. It just wasn't in me, and I wanted to pave a better path.
After the constant hits on the town over, we had been left to pick up the pieces and try to find a new way. It was obvious that Kai and the others weren't interested in giving up their town—the one my dad had been so interested in taking. We were left directionless.
Hence, why the pack was aiming their questions at me—the man they looked to for answers.
No matter how I chose to navigate forward, I intended to do it with grace, and I wouldn't make any exceptions. Those people needed to see the clear picture, and they deserved to live their lives as they should, not be sent out as cannon fodder for a baseless cause.
"Let the man continue, and you'll get your answers," came a familiar voice that immediately snagged my attention.
Glancing from my platform, I found Griffin, my right hand, as he cast an irritated look over the crowd of men.
Griffin had been by my side since childhood, through thick and thin, and I would always be grateful for his support.
His heavy build from years of training, skin covered in tattoos, and hard grey eyes gave him that intimidation factor that made him an excellent enforcer. While I had always been the one to lead, he was the looming reminder for others to not get on our bad side.
With a nod of respect, I returned my gaze to the crowd of lost men and continued.
"Our pre-existing assumptions concerning the Rose Valley witches were and still are false," I shouted to them, garnering their attention again. That familiar sense of authority rose in my chest, reminding me and everyone else why I was chosen to lead. "They were not behind the loss of some of our wolves. Those affected have been shiftless several months before we ever went to Rose Valley, and we continue to be after the fact. They couldn't possibly reach us here."
One of said shiftless wolves pulled away from the wall he leaned against and gave me a suspicious eye as if still plagued by that old belief. "And how do we know that?"
"For beginners, it doesn't add up. Why would the Rose Valley witches take our wolves away and render us shiftless? We hit them first, remember? They scarcely knew who we were. It was a false idea that my father planted in everyone's minds to get us riled up and to give us a reason to take out the Rose Valley pack.
"It's a beautiful and peaceful place where the supernatural and humans live in harmony, and he wanted to take that for himself. Their current leader isn't a pushover, and that infuriated him. Attacking them has only made matters worse between us, and we have caused them more pain than we can atone for."
Murmuring moved through the group, who all looked critically at me. They had been fed those lies for so long that they didn't know what to think. My dad did a number of them, and I knew fixing it would be challenging.
And yet, I was there to do exactly that. I would fix it.
The first man scratched at his beard absently, his stare just as grave. "What do you propose we do then? We can't sit around forever."
Aware of how difficult it would likely be for them to digest it, I reigned myself in again. I had to handle it right, or else they would doubt my leadership. I couldn't afford that either.
"I suggest we go to Rose Valley and call a truce with their leader. Maybe then we can begin to make amends for the damage we have caused."
Immediately, the old garage erupted in an uproar, with everyone talking at once. Many different voices clashed and collided, overloading my senses. Despite how they paled in comparison since losing that connection with my wolf, it was still enough to fray my nerves.
Their outcries tugged on those instincts of mine, annoyed that they chose to question me and my decisions rather than choosing to accept them. But I couldn't expect anything else, not when my father was the cause of that uncertainty. The cause of this new divide that has come between us as of late. Some wished for the peace I hoped to find, while the rest wanted to hit Rose Valley again.
Because of those outliers, I needed to be steadfast in my cause. Our group had been made out to be some vicious, blood-thirsty biker gang, but that wasn't how we started out. I believed in changing our image and making things right with Kai's people, and I wanted them to see it the way I did.
It would take time, and I kept that at the forefront of my mind. There was no point in me getting frustrated when they still needed that guidance.
