Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Daniel's POV

The morning patrol reports were splayed out across my desk as if they were all pieces of one giant shattered jigsaw puzzle telling the same disturbing story. People were showing up late for their duties, arguments breaking out while washing floors, families picking sides of whispered conversations that suddenly went silent when the boss made his rounds.

The SilverFang Pack was falling apart, and I could all but see the cracks festering more inside each day.

"Beta Daniel?" Marcus rapped at my office door, wizened face etched with worry. "You asked to see me?"

I motioned for him to take a seat as I studied the senior warrior that had been a part of this pack for not only over two decades. His loyalty was never in doubt, but these were not normal times.

“I wished to talk about the patrol cycles,” I said carefully and observed his response. "Some of the wolves have been… uneasy lately. Less focused on their duties."

Marcus squirmed a little in his chair. "The pack is unsettled, Beta. There’s a lot of talk, a lot of confusion about where people’s loyalties should rest.”

“Where do you believe loyalties ought to be?” I asked directly.

His pause was telling. "With the Alpha, of course. With Ryan and his family."

“That’s not what I asked,” I insisted. I asked, “where do you think they should be?”

Marcus met my eyes steadily. “Luna Freya gave this pack three good years. Some of us served during that time and wonder if she was treated fairly. But Luna Shirley is our present Luna and she needs our respect and protection.”

A diplomatic response that told me everything I needed to know. Marcus was treading carefully, attempting to save face with his past allegiance towards Freya while upholding his current responsibilities toward Shirley. It was one of the very sorts of divided thinking that was tearing the pack asunder.

“Thanks for telling the truth,” I opened my notes, gripped between two notebook covers and turned to a blank sheet of paper. "That will be all."

I had similar conversations with other lead members of the pack over the next two days, discreetly testing loyalties. What I found was much worse than I suspected. Half the pack still had a soft spot for Freya and they were indignant at her exile as well as Ryan’s behaviour being clear evidence of bad judgement.

Sarah, one of Freya’s former inner circle, was particularly vocal in private conversations. “She was a good Luna,” she said to her mate, loud enough for some wolves I had stationed to overhear. ‘Patient, kind, always thinking about the well-being of the pack. “But look at what we have here… a Luna who spends her days plotting her revenge against the woman used then thrown aside for her."

Thomas, a more youthful addition to the pack of wolves, was even blunter. "Alpha Ryan's gone batshit crazy trying to get back for his mate. What kind of leader leaves office abandoned to moon over someone who won’t have him?”

The divisions were deep, and they split up families and friendships like infected wounds. Parents disagreed with their adult children, siblings fell on opposite sides, mated pairs were torn apart by profound issues of loyalty and justice.

“We’ve got a real situation here,” I told Shirley at our next private meeting, throwing the intelligence reports across her sitting-room table. “The pack is unraveling along invisible seams, and if we don’t do something soon, there will be open mutiny on our hands.”

Shirley perused the papers with calculating eyes, all traces of sweet smiles gone as she sat in privacy in her chambers. "Who are the worst offenders?"

I indicated a few names on my lists. “Marcus and his family are questioning Ryan's ability to lead. Sarah has been airing her grievances about your status as Luna. The Millers actually requested moving to a different jurisdiction yesterday.”

"And the others?"

"Watching and waiting," I admitted. “They’ll respond to strength, but right now they don’t know where it is.”

Shirley reclined in her chair, one finger thoughtfully tapping at her lips. "Then we have to show strength. Obvious, uncompromising power that doesn’t leave you wondering who’s in charge of this pack.”

I knew what she was implying, and some part of me flinched at the implications. But the alternative was watching the SilverFang Pack eat itself alive.

On the way to Zussaberg I introduced a system for pack discipline that would have been impossible on a conventional base. Pack members overheard speaking kindly of Freya suddenly found themselves on the shittiest jobs - patrolling werewolf borders for nights in a row in enemy territory, doing the nastiest jobs around the pack house, handling the most challenging tasks w/in pack operations.

Those who spoke out in favor of Shirley, and to condemn Freya, got the better assignments, prime spots for hunting parties, honors during pack meetings. The message was delivered as if with a soft swing of a mace: fealty to the present Luna brought benefits, but regard for the former Luna brought consequences.

“You’re pushing too hard,” Marcus said to me one day during our scheduled confab, for once asserting the kind of authority he would usually reserve for outbreaks. "The wolves are beginning to be afraid of their own leadership. That’s not pack unity — that’s tyranny.”

“We have to,” I said sternly, and knew the sound of my words was sour. “Ryan’s distraction has created a vacuum of power that must be replaced. Do you want a leader or don’t you, or do you have just a pack of wolves that doesn’t know who to eat?”

There was a long pause, and Marcus obviously considered his response carefully. “I prefer leadership that doesn’t make wolves choose between what’s right and what’s safe.”

It stung because it was what I had been increasingly asking myself about my methods of working. But the alternative — watching the pack tear itself apart — felt worse than a little temporary rough, Trumpian noise.

“I’ll take that under advisement,” I said coldly. “But it’s your job to obey orders, not second-guess the wisdom behind them.

As Marcus walked out of my office I could read disappointment in his eyes. Another relationship messed up, another bridge burnt in pursuit of pack calm. The price was going up every day, and I couldn’t see another way forward.

The last straw struck two weeks after three more families asked for transfers to other territories. They all formally cited diplomatic issues: enhanced opportunities for hunting, family bindings or the desire to see the world. However, every wolf could read between the lines. “They are abandoning ship,” I told my friend Ryan while we still talked during meetings.

“Twelve pack members have left us this month, eleven others have announced their intent to do so in writing. And those three families we know of will make us fall below the minimum number of wolves to keep our territorial rights.”

“Do what you think is best,” Ryan sighed dully, looking much older than a 25-year-old should.

“You’re not hearing me,” I snapped, losing the last straw of patience. “The pack is coming apart at the seams, it’s falling apart, Ryan. And it’s all due to your obsession with Freya.” For the first time in weeks, he looked at me.

“What?” he asked.

“Your obsession with your former mate has killed this pack,” I told him bluntly. “Half the members think you’re mad, the other half are afraid they’ll be punished for expressing that opinion. We’re bleeding, we’re losing strength, we’re making enemies out of friends.”

His face flushed with temper. “The challenge is tomorrow. I win or lose, nothing will be the same, but one thing will remain the same: our approach to leadership. We need a leader who is present, focused, and committed to the wolves he agreed to protect. Not someone who lives in the past!”

“She’s not the past,” Ryan whispered, but even he wasn’t convinced by his own words.

“She carries my child, Daniel. My heir. How can I abandon them?”

“Because you have a daughter. A daughter who doesn’t need a ghost or memories – and a dad. A dad who isn’t palling his own death and planning posthumous reunions.”

Ryan looked at me for a long moment, something that resembled comprehension flitting across his eyes. For a second, I thought I had finally done the impossible; that he would pull himself away from the edge of self-destruction.
His face hardened with fresh resolve. "I have to try. I need to at least know that I did all that I could.”

The last shred of my faith in his judgment broke off as he made his way to get ready for forcing me into battle against him again. Ryan was going to be dead tomorrow – that, I could guarantee. Godric Nathaniel had never failed an assignment, and emotional frustration was no match for four decades of war-proven patience.

But Ryan’s death would be just the beginning of our troubles. Now Shirley would have to solidify her grip on power — and that required neutralizing any remaining threats to her authority. Not to mention the long shadow a certain former Luna cast over too many members of the pack.

Shirley was sitting in her room, breastfeeding baby Miu as she watched over the area that would soon become hers to dominate.

“Ryan will not see reason,” I wrote. “The race will of course go ahead “

"And after?" she asked without turning around.

"After, we rebuild. We construct a story, that which killed him is the answer to your rule, and we do away with any continuing tension in our pack.”

"What kind of narrative?"

I joined her at the window, looking out at the wolves who would soon be in need of new leadership and a vision for a different future. "The truth. Ryan is dead because he couldn’t tear himself away from an abusive woman who, as Evans describes it, “wrecked his head” and broke him until there was almost nothing left of the man he used to be. I can tell you absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, that Freya Khan is poison and any Alpha dumb enough to get under her spell is ruined!”

Shirley simply smiled, but the sights were far from sweet or innocent. “I could rely on you, Daniel. We will make this pack as stable and strong as it should be together”. As I paced out, I could feel the burden of our actions crashing upon my shoulders. Tomorrow would see tragedy and defeat, yet it would bring new opportunities to create and mend. Some things had to be sacrificed for the sake of the others. Ryan’s devotion was one of them.