Page 10 of New Blood

When his sons and nephews grunted in agreement, Jude lifted his hand to ask for silence. When they didn’t listen, he growled low and dark, the wolf inside him wanting to break through to the surface to teach them that their attempt to challenge his or the Alliance’s authority would be stopped in its infancy.

“That’s where you’re wrong, William Gallagher.” He trained his eyes on the old alpha. “It’s because of your inaction, your failure to rein in your son, that the Alliance was forced to intervene. I wouldn’t be here if you’d done your job as alpha.”

Gallagher made a step toward him, but Austin and Mason gripped him by his arms and held him back.

“Now, you’ll have to deal with the consequences of your failure. By letting Cameron run wild to kill humans and then covering up his crimes, going so far as to fake his death, you brought this on yourself.”

Jude pointed his index finger at Gallagher, simultaneously pinning him with narrowed eyes.

“How dare you?” Gallagher spat. “First, you kill my son, and then you blame me? Fuck you!”

Before he could reply, Eve rushed to her father’s side, shock widening her eyes.

“He killed Cameron? Not the vampires?” She turned her head to glare at Ransom now. “You made me believe it was the vampires, when it was him?”

She pointed in Jude’s direction.

Ransom lifted his chin in defiance. “Not my problem if you made assumptions.” The bitch at the end of his sentence was implied.

Eve swung her gaze back to Jude, her eyes full of hatred. “You killed my brother!”

“I had no other choice.” He forced himself to speak calmly. “He was about to kill the woman he’d turned into a werewolf. She was an innocent.”

“You—”

“And that’s the end of it,” he said, cutting her off.

He didn’t owe her an explanation, and he wasn’t going to get drawn into a discussion about why he was justified in killing Cameron. He had more important things to discuss.

Taking a breath, he let his gaze sweep over the assembled. “Here’s what’s going to happen. William Gallagher will be removed as alpha and turned over to the Werewolf Alliance. They will decide his fate. If he killed innocent humans, he’ll be executed. However, if he didn’t kill any humans himself while covering up Cameron’s murders, he’ll be exiled. The Alliance will decide where to. Should any of you wish to accompany him into exile, you’re free to do so. You have until tomorrow at noon to make a decision.”

Quiet murmurs and displeased grunts bounced off the walls. Together with the furious glares coming from the immediate Gallagher family, the atmosphere in the room felt toxic.

“And I suppose you’re gonna take over as alpha,” Byron spat.

“You suppose correctly,” Jude replied, looking at the hotheaded young werewolf. “This pack will now be ruled by the Werewolf Alliance, and they’ve authorized me to become your new alpha. I understand that this will be a bit of an adjustment—”

“A bit?” Byron cried out, his face beet-red.

Jude ignored the interruption. “Therefore, I’ll do everything in my power to unite the pack and bring it back onto the right path. And as I already said—” He now pinned Byron with his gaze. “—if you don’t like it, you may join your former alpha in exile.”

Byron huffed. “What a choice that is!”

Thaddeus put a hand on his brother’s arm to calm him, but Byron simply shook it off.

“You can’t just take over here!” Byron continued.

“I’m not finished!” Jude bellowed, bridging the distance between him and Byron to go nose to nose with him. “Don’t mistake my politeness and calmness for weakness. I promise you, it will be your last mistake.”

For a moment, there was silence in the room, and he could almost hear Byron’s heartbeat. Another breath, another beat, and Byron backed away.

“Good,” Jude said calmly. “Now that we’ve cleared this up, here’s what’s going to happen. After a suitable mourning period, I will be mating with the highest-ranking female of childbearing age of the pack. This will assure that the Gallagher bloodline will continue, and the alpha after me will have Gallagher blood.”

A gasp echoed against the walls. Several of the assembled looked in the direction it had come from. He didn’t have to look to know whose reaction it was, but he did it nevertheless. Eve stood there, staring at him in disbelief. She hadn’t expected this.

He felt obligated to address her directly. “As I said, there’ll be a mourning period to give you time until the mating.”

Eve didn’t reply. She didn’t look happy about the news. And why should she? She didn’t know him, and to find out that she was supposed to become his mate for life was news that wasn’t easy to digest. Had they been alone, he would have told her that this would be a difficult situation for both of them, since this would not be a love match. But then, his parents hadn’t mated for love either. Their union had been arranged, though they’d fallen in love later and were happy together.