AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stood up and turned to face me.
I walked over to him and shoved him. “You have the mark of the alpha. You, who refuses to claim the title and lead these people. How can you judge me?”
“I might have the mark, but I have no pack to lead. Your pack is still alive. You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me.” His expression was dark, his tone angry.
I stepped back, my chest tightening as anger and fear mixed. “I don’t know anything about you because you won’t tell me. I’ve been nothing but honest with you since we met.”
He pulled his shirt over his head. “I was the last of my pack. The only survivor of a massacre. When the mark showed up, it was the fates way of reminding me of all I lost. My family, my mate, my home… It was all taken from me by your pack.”
“They’re not my pack,” I said through gritted teeth.
“They are and you are supposed to be a leader and you walked away,” he said. “If you gave a damn, you’d step up and be the leader you were marked to be.”
“I’m sure that would go over well. The cursed girl who can’t shift wants to step up and take over as leader of the people who spent years abusing her. You have no idea what I’ve been through.”
“You can change that,” he said. “You don’t have to give up.”
“Don’t you dare lecture me,” I said. “You have a pack right here that you refuse to step up and protect.”
“I do everything for these shifters. I lead them,” he said.
“You deny them and yourself of true family by refusing to form a pack,” I said. “You know what you’re risking by keeping them feral.”
I knew that not everything I learned was accurate, but I had been taught the importance of pack. It strengthened shifters to have that bond with others. It also gave them legitimacy in the eyes of our king. Packs could ask for resources, they could find allies in other packs, and they could grow and thrive. Staying feral kept Alec’s community weaker. If they were a pack, they’d probably have the funds for homes and schools and infrastructure. Instead, they live in tents.
“Don’t lecture me on pack,” he said.
“Get out of my tent,” I said.
To my surprise, he didn’t argue. When he walked out the door, I thought I’d be happy to see him leave. Instead, I fell to the ground, my whole body shaking. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself.
How had everything gone so impossibly wrong so quickly?
“Hey, you okay?” Sheila asked.
I looked up to see her standing in the doorway. “You heard all that, didn’t you?”
“Do you really have the mark?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Look, try not to take it personally. Alec lost everything. He struggles with the idea of pack because he thinks he’s cursed or some shit. I think he feels like if he was in a pack, he’d lose it all again,” she said.
“Then why give a shit about what I do with my pack?” I asked.
“You have a pack. They suck ass and they should probably all die a fiery, explosive death, but they’re alive.” She sat down on the ground next to me. “Give him a little time. I think he was surprised.”
“He was surprised? Imagine how I feel.” I shook my head. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“I know what you mean.” She touched her scar.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”
“You weren’t. You’re fine.” She stood. “I know what we need.”
“About a gallon of tequila?” I asked.
She laughed. “Come on. I have just the thing to help us clear our minds.”
