Page 30 of Escaping Wildfire
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Do you think our brothers and sisters are okay?”
“Gema’s a fighter, she’ll do everything in her power to get back to us. That bastard alpha may make her bend, but he won’t break her.” Cristian quickly responded.
“She is a fighter.” I agreed. “Doesn’t make me worry any less for her. I hate not knowing how she’s doing or feeling. And my brothers, they are always causing trouble. I’m scared they’ll do something stupid to make the alpha mad.”
“I’m worried, too, man. That phone call with Jasmine is gonna haunt me for a long time. My sisters must be hurting so much right now. I just want them safe here with me.”
“We’ll get them back, all of them, and then we’ll do away with Alpha Marek and get our pack back. There’s no other choice for us…" Cristian trailed off as we started to drift off to sleep. Tomorrow would be a new day. We’ll still wake up to the hurt, but we can start fresh with a new plan.
ALPHA KEDRICK
I tossed and turned all night and finally got out of bed an hour earlier than usual. I had decided to call The Council and have us meet on an emergency basis. I was only considered a trainee member as of now, but the other members had always been respectful of my judgment, so I hoped they would decide to help.
The Shifter Council was established about 60 years ago after a nasty war between the bears and foxes. The wolves ended up split with different packs helping different sides. After over seven years of fighting, some of the younger shifters got together and decided it was time for peace, thus establishing The Shifter Council. The Council was made up of a total of nine Alphas and Lunas, three members from each shifter type.
Over the years, they had discussed adding more members as packs grew in number and inviting other types of shifters, specifically the cats. The cats had always refused, though, as they preferred to live in smaller groups or on their own.
Council members served until they retired from their pack. Packs and clans around the country would then nominate their Alpha or Luna, and The Council would select a replacement from those nominated. After The Council was created, the foxes adopted the term pack from us wolves, but the bears continued to call their communities clans. Alpha Tate and I had been selected together to replace previous alphas, but we were considered trainees until the other alphas officially stepped down.
I asked the boys to meet me in my office, and I told them my plan to call an emergency council meeting. They all agreed with the plan, and I set off to send a message to the other council members who all agreed to meet virtually this afternoon.
The meeting was about to start, and I could see the others log on. We were waiting for two more members, but I was already starting to feel anxious. The Council was established for peace, so I wasn’t sure how they would react to my request to start a war.
“We’re all here now, Kedrick. Would you like to fill us in on why you called this meeting?” Alpha Dawson, our current Council Lead and a fox shifter, started us off.
“Yes, I’ll get right to it. Alpha Marek has attacked another pack. That makes a total of five packs in the last six years. Four of which were completely decimated. Cobalt Falls was his latest conquest just last night. This time he didn’t kill off the pack completely. He took the ranked families as prisoners and annexed the rest of the pack. The ranked heirs were not present for the attack as they are currently here at Harvest Moon completing a training program, but the three boys have now lost their pack ties and are worried about their families. Harvest Moon has agreed to help them, but I want the rest of the packs and clans to also help. It’s time we stopped Wildfire.”
The other council members were quiet for a moment before Alpha Keenan, the bear shifter whom Tate would soon replace, spoke up. “Look Kedrick, I understand your need to help, especially when the boys are in your territory, but The Council is primarily set up for relations between the different shifter types. We’ve never stepped in between business for the same shifter type. Personally, I’d like to keep it that way. Wildfire is strictly a wolf problem, and the bears don’t want problems with Alpha Marek. I won’t agree to start a war with him.” Some of the other bears and foxes nodded their agreement.
“With all due respect, Keenan, what makes you think you’re free from Wildfire just because you’re a bear?” Luna Beatrix, one of our wolf members, cut in.
“She’s right,” Tate added, “Cobalt Falls is only thirty minutes from Brown Claw. Nothing is stopping Alpha Marek from attacking us. This is a matter of prevention right now. If we help the wolves, we keep Wildfire from moving on to the bears and foxes.”
Alpha Georgina, one of the foxes and a rare female Alpha in her own right, spoke up next. “I’m with Keenan on this one. My pack can’t afford to go to war with Wildfire. We are small and much too far away from the main conflict. It doesn’t make sense for us to involve ourselves in wolf matters.”
“I understand being apprehensive about getting involved, but Wildfire is getting out of hand, they have been for years. They’ve kidnapped children this time, and who knows for what purpose? Not to mention that Alpha Marek has no qualms about killing innocents. How can any of us just stand back and let this continue to happen?” My emotions were starting to get the better of me, and I felt the anger bubble up inside me.
A few of the others started talking over each other, and it seemed that chaos would soon give way. Alpha Dawson seemed to sense the same as he took back over the conversation. “Alright, everyone. It won’t do well for us to argue, we seem to all have made up our minds on this matter, anyway, so let’s just put it to a vote. All those in favor of letting the wolves handle Wildfire on their own say ‘aye.’” He paused to give the others time to vote. The three fox alphas and the three bear alphas all voted in the affirmative. They didn’t want to help, just as I’d expected.
“Now all those in favor of helping the wolves.” The four wolf shifters and the lone bear, Alpha Tate, all voted to help. It wasn’t enough, though. We’d have to find another way.
“Alright, Kedrick, there is your answer. The Council, along with the fox and bear shifters will not involve themselves in this matter. If anything changes, and Wildfire makes this an interspecies conflict, then we can revisit the matter, but until then, there is no point in discussing this again.” Alpha Dawson said with an air of finality.
“Understood. Thank you for hearing me out.” I managed to remain polite until I hung up the call, but I was seething on the inside. Ellis must have sensed my emotions as she walked into my office just as I was hanging up. “I take it it didn’t go well?”
“Not even close. The foxes and bears don’t want to get involved. They won’t do anything unless Wildfire goes after one of theirs. I just hope they don’t have to find out the hard way how bad Wildfire can be.” Ellis sauntered over to me, and I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her over to straddle my lap. Her touch could always calm me. I breathed in her wildflower scent and held her close to me as I brought her lips down to mine for a short kiss.
“As much as I would like to take this further, three young men are pacing the hallway outside of your office hoping to hear what The Council decided.” I nodded and swiped at my face as Ellis stepped off of my lap.
“Alright, let me get them in here then.” I opened the door to find three eager faces staring back at me. I waved them inside and told them what The Council had decided.
“So, they won’t help?” Jordan scoffed. “It figures, I shouldn’t have expected better from them. We’ve been trying to get them to help for years now, but I bet they’d be begging for help if it was their pack.”
“I’m sure you’re right, but they won’t hear more on the matter, so the reality is that we’re on our own. You have the full support of Harvest Moon, though…we just need to come up with a plan now.”
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14 Date Night