I enter the pack hall from the rear door, and as I look out from behind the stage curtain, I can see it’s full of members of the pack, the visiting leaders and their pack members, and the remaining members of the Elder council. Everyone is talking loudly, but they all stop talking when I walk onto the stage. The members of Blood-Moon all kneel when I approach the microphone, and I have to clasp my hands together on the podium to stop them from shaking.
‘*Breathe. We’ve got this, Athena. I told you, I believe we were made for this,*’ Enyo says softly, and I feel her strength envelop me.
I clear my throat before saying, “Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming on such short notice. I’d first like to say congratulations to all of those who found their mate last night. Despite the sour turn of events, I’ve been told that there are fifty new mate bonds here this morning.” I stop as everyone in the hall claps for the new couples.
“I would also like to offer my heartfelt condolences to those who were unsuccessful, and I pray the Goddess will help guide you to your mates when the time is right.”
I look nervously to the front row, where I find Mom, Uncle Alex, Ryna, and Gino, who all smile up at me.
‘*You’ve got this, Athena*,’ Ryna mind-links.
I take another deep breath. “I’d like to address everyone here regarding the events of last night. But first I’d like to explain a few things that ultimately led to those events. As you all know, two years ago our pack was attacked, and we lost many souls that day. One of those was my father, former Gamma Hector Argos. When I left our pack so many months ago, I had originally set out to avenge my father, and last night, I was finally able to do that. But I was also able to find out the truth about Alpha Niko and save our Luna from a monster.”
Everyone claps, but I hold my hand up to stop them. “While I appreciate the round of applause, I must admit to you that killing Alpha Damon wasn’t done selflessly. He was a traitor to our pack, to our Luna, and to the Goddess. But there were only two faces that I saw when I killed him. And they were the faces of my father and my mate.” I take a step back from the podium and clear my throat and take a deep breath as my emotions try to take over.
“You see,” I continue, “while I was away, I found out so many things about myself, the attack on our pack, even my father. But I also found my mate. But before we could mark each other, Alpha Damon betrayed us, and my mate was murdered.” I clear my throat as tears well up in my eyes and threaten to fall.
“He was killed out of fear. A fear that is at the core of why not only our pack was attacked but also other attacks that happened five years ago on packs that are represented here today. Countless innocent lycan have been killed because of this fear, and this is one of the main reasons I wanted to address you all today. Because what I’m about to tell you not only affects me, but all lycan.”
I look around the crowd until I find Alpha Peter from Moonstone. “Alpha Peter and Beta Jason, would you please join me on stage?” I ask them, and they head toward the stage, Alpha Peter with a confused look on his face.
“What’s going on, Athena?” Alpha Peter asks as he climbs the steps of the stage.
“I need you and Beta Jason to back up what I’m about to tell everyone,” I tell them with my hand covering the microphone, and Jason smiles widely.
“You’re telling them the truth?” He asks.
“They deserve to know,” I tell him.
Alpha Peter looks concerned but nods his head and stands beside me.
I direct my attention back to everyone. “As you heard from Alpha Damon last night, the reason our pack was attacked was because of me. This is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. To the families that lost loved ones that day, I will do everything in my power to make things right and bring the rest of those responsible for their deaths to justice.” My voice cracks at the end, and Jason squeezes my shoulder. I can hear sobs coming from the pack, and I just pray to the Goddess that they can forgive me one day. “Unfortunately, Alpha Damon is not the only one who is trying to kill me. I believe Alpha Costas was also working with him, but there are others out there. For this reason, I may not accept the role of Alpha.”
Gasps and nervous chatter erupt into the hall, and I wait for them to quiet down so that I can finish.
“Please let me explain. I don’t want to put this pack in further danger from the people who are after me. There are things you all need to know before it is decided if I should be Alpha, and once these facts have been brought to light, I will leave it up to you, the pack, to decide if I should lead or not.”
“Those of you visiting us from other packs may be wondering why our previous Alpha felt the need to have his future Gamma and a member of his own pack killed, and the answer comes back to fear. Most of you here today have never seen my lycan until last night, and as you could tell, she’s different from other lycan. For those of you that didn’t see her, allow me to introduce you to Enyo,” I say, and step to the side of the stage, and Enyo takes over and shifts.
There’s gasps and whispers from the crowd as Enyo stands tall above them. Enyo turns her head to Alpha Peter and nods, signalling for him to explain.
As Alpha Peter explains to them what he and Luna Racheal were working on, there’s a stabbing pain through our head as multiple people try to mind-link with us.
‘*Athena*!’ Mom’s voice comes through.
‘*Holy shit*!’ I hear Ryna and Gino both say.
‘*Guys, cut it out! One at a time*!’ I yell at them. ‘*I still have wolfsbane in my system, remember*?’
I look over to them and they’re exchanging weird looks between themselves.
‘*Who’s gonna tell her*?’ Mom asks.
‘*Tell me what? What has gotten into you lot? This is important*!’ I scold them.
‘*Athena, you’re a fucking giant*!’ Ryna says, shock coming through in his voice.
‘*I told you last night Enyo looked bigger*!’ Tony joins in.
‘*Enough! We’ll discuss it late*r!’ I yell at them and turn my attention back to Alpha Peter, blocking them out.
“We believe they have been chosen by the Moon Goddess. We just don’t know what for,” Alpha Peter says.
“We can help somewhat with that,” Elder Laskaris says, and he and two other Elders come up to the stage. “First of all, last night, not only did Athena take down a monster, but she also helped to expose members of the council, who have been using their power and influence to harm those that they are supposed to protect. This will be announced to all packs officially, but you all should know that there has been an investigation opened on Elder David Baros, as well as others,” he explains, and everyone starts whispering and speculating.
“Now, Alpha Peter and his lovely Luna have done some great work on what they have found out about the chosen. However, I’d like to elaborate further. There is a prophecy regarding those that have been chosen by the Moon Goddess. Unfortunately, the prophecy was erased from our history by previous generations of the Elder council. Because of this, we can’t tell you why they were chosen. We believe the full extent of the prophecy is only known to those who wish to destroy the Moon Goddess’s work. There is a war brewing that will affect all lycan, and those of us remaining on the council will do everything we can to help stop that. But we believe that the chosen will ultimately be the ones to protect us all.”
“Why weren’t the packs told about any of this earlier?” Someone yells out angrily.
“A lot of this is new information that we weren’t able to put together until recently,” Elder Laskaris explains.
“That’s not good enough! Packs are being attacked, and no one is giving us answers. Are they to do with the chosen?”
“We don’t know…”
“How can you not know?!” the she-wolf yells out, cutting Elder Laskaris off.
Jason brings a robe over and stands in front of us so that we can shift, and then I put the robe on and stand next to Elder Laskaris.
“Please let me finish. We don’t know because we don’t know if the packs being attacked have chosen lycan as members,” he explains.
“So why don’t we take this as an opportunity to get more information?” I add. “I will make a conference room available, and any of you who are visiting from other packs who were attacked, you can let the Elder council know if you have members of your pack who are chosen or not,” I say.
“And for the rest of you that haven’t been attacked, if any of you know of any chosen that are in your pack, please tell us. They are in danger, and so is your pack if the wrong people were to find out. If you don’t trust me in my position as Elder, then please trust Athena. She will protect those that are chosen, as well as the rest of us,” Elder Laskaris says.
“Now, returning to the issues with Blood-Moon. I believe Athena will make a great Alpha. I hope you can all rise above the fear of what’s coming and accept her.” Elder Laskaris bows to everyone, and he and the other Elders move to the back of the stage.
I approach the podium again and raise my hand to get everyone to stop speaking.
“You have all had a lot of information thrown at you this morning, with very little time to comprehend what it all means,” I say. “I have had months, and I still don’t understand everything. However, a decision needs to be made regarding the future of our pack, and I’m leaving it to you all to decide who should run it. Even with Alpha Damon gone, our pack is not out of danger, and if you accept me as your Alpha, the danger will not pass quickly or without a fight. But please know, I am my father’s daughter. I am a proud warrior who will fight for you until my death, as he did. I will give you all some time to discuss this, and we will meet again later this afternoon,” I tell them.
“We don’t need to discuss this!” someone yells out, and I look around to find Leah and the Crescent warriors coming to the front of the crowd. “You are a proven warrior, and you won the right to be our Alpha last night by killing not one, but two Alphas!” Leah yells out.
“SHE’S A WOMAN! NO WOMAN CAN BE ALPHA!” someone else yells out, and I can see a few people nod in agreement.
“That WOMAN defended you all last night! She killed Alpha Damon, who was nothing but a power-hungry toad, who defied the Moon Goddess, and killed the best Alpha our pack has ever known, Alpha Niko! She defended you from Alpha Costas, who would currently be our Alpha if Athena hadn’t fought against him! He cheated, and she STILL defeated him! And where were the men when the rogues attacked? FOLLOWING ATHENA!” Leah yells out over the crowd. “Men in power have done us no favours. It’s time for us to put our faith in our Goddess, who has CHOSEN Athena!” She says as she turns and kneels in front of me, as do the other Crescent warriors.
Slowly, people kneel until almost all the Blood-Moon pack are kneeling in front of me.
“Those of you still standing, I assume you do not agree with Athena being Alpha?” Elder Laskaris steps forward again and asks.
“This is all quite unorthodox,” someone says from the back of the room.
“Please come forward and express your concerns,” I say, looking for who spoke. An older man steps forward, who I recognize as Mr Williams, one of the oldest members in the pack. “Mr Williams,” I say, bowing my head in respect to him as an elder of the pack. “What would you like to say?” I ask.
“With all due respect, but I’m not sure that you’re the right person to be Alpha,” he says cautiously.
There’s a growl from my right as James steps forward angrily. “How ridiculous…”
“Let him speak, Beta,” I cut him off. “He’s entitled to his opinion.” Jason nods his head and steps back. “Please continue, Mr Williams,” I tell him.
“No one can deny that you’re a skilled warrior, Delta, as it was shown last night. But we will be the laughingstock of lycan packs if we are led by an unmarked female. Who would be your Luna? Ryna?”
Ryna growls at the old man, while others snicker.
“Are you saying that one of our most promising young warriors would be unfit to help me lead this pack because he’s male? I thought the argument was that I’m female and not male?” I say, a growl escaping at the end. “Do any of our visiting leaders think we are a laughingstock for considering a woman to lead?” I ask the room.
A young Alpha steps forward, who I recognize as the same one who was dancing with Cassia last night. “We have a unique opportunity here to push our kind into the 21st century, by accepting Delta Athena as the first female Alpha,” he states. “Our Lunas show us every day how well women can lead. Why can’t it be as Alpha?”
“Alpha Pollux is right, and there is nothing in our laws that states an Alpha must be a man. Give Athena a chance to show her worth as a leader before you judge her,” Elder Laskaris says, and Mr Williams steps back, shaking his head.
“It’s settled. We will hold the Alpha ceremony tonight,” Elder Laskaris tells everyone, and there’s applause as everyone slowly files out of the pack hall.