Chapter 126 Agitated
Melissa shifted her gaze, focusing all of her attention as Hance stood up and started his speech. The man was built like an executioner. He wasn't just tall, he was huge- massive. He raised his voice to speak, and she could already feel the thundering boom would be articulated from his mouth.
"Good Day, people of Dunham," he said. "I am Hance, the first of the Vance Pack, and as you would all guess by mere looking at me, I am not a man who has a lot of time on his hands," he said and the gathering chuckled a bit.
"The purpose of the meeting is to negotiate a peace treaty between your side and our side," he said, pointing to the side where the representatives from Dunham sat and then those of the Vance pack.
"I have no good words to say, no politeness about myself. I am a very crude man, used to digging the soil with nails and lifting building blocks with his bare hands!" He continued. "This has been the tradition of the Vance pack for more than three centuries. A ruler is not just someone who inspires his kingdom through policies. A ruler is also a symbol of strength," he said.
Melissa smiled, he hadn't even begun the speech yet and he was already throwing shades at her. This would be a little bit hard but she knew she would like to shatter that pride he wore like a crown. The fact that just mere looking at her, they only see a twenty year old girl made her smile. They didn't know what they were dealing with.
"I am a symbol for my people, so I cannot come here to cower, or dress my words in poetry or parables. I will speak directly. The Vance pack is the strongest ally the Dunham pack has and we want to stop the payment of taxes once and for all. We owe you nothing, we are strong enough to stand on our own and we will exert such force right here and now if necessary," he announced.
Melissa didn't speak, she didn't flinch, when he spoke, all his guards poised themselves as if ready to pounce anytime, none of the Dunham soldiers moved. She turned back and looked at her mate who had a coy smile on his face, he was indeed ready to take them on if anything would happen. She smiled, with the amount of danger they had been in, she knew half the wolves in this entire room were dead meat to Richard. If it ever came to a physical fight, it would be a massacre on every level.
Melissa at this point seemed to understand the strength of her own kingdom. It was obvious which kingdom was stronger but war wasn't what she wanted. She didn't want bloodshed, she wanted this to go in favour of everyone.
"But!" Hance continued. "We are not brutes, nor are we savages. We do not wish to fight nor do we wish to argue about this. We do not want to be recognized as being under Dunham anymore, our subservience has gone long enough, we want to stop serving you, we want our independence," he said.
To any outsider, they would seem like the aggressor indeed, like they were unjust with their affairs. Even Melissa couldn't dismiss the fact that she felt like a tyrant for a few seconds as he spoke. But anyone who knew their history would understand why they were not. Dunham didn't absolve them in nor did they force them into this servitude.
They all came to Dunham for help and the kingdom gave theirs all its best efforts. They signed the treaty themselves and decided to become allied with Dunham willingly but times have passed and the kids have forgotten the efforts of their parents.
However, the history books and the signed letters remember. Erics could have let this go, but if they should let the Vance pack leave, it would be easy for them to circumvent and combine with the other packs to try and overthrow them. Dunham might be strong to take on their combined strength and maybe even win but the losses will be immeasurable. The dents it would put on their economy would be unfixable. So they had to do everything in their power to stop this bite, hence, they had to be tyrants
Hance sat down and exhaled, Melissa noticed a quick gesture between him and his Beta. The latter tapped his palm twice gently and smiled at him. That was when Melissa discovered she had not been using her abilities to check out emotional reactions.
She'd been so focused on getting the entire thing right that she'd forgotten to use her most lethal weapon.
"So you forgot too?" Richard asked via their telepathic link.
"What do you mean, too?" She asked.
"I mean, I also forgot I had abilities and I was too focused on the speech he was giving. I was agitated for no reason, all my attention was on him," he replied.
"Same thing happened to me," she said. Melissa suddenly realised that she'd been so focused on the man and what he said for no reason. She already knew how he would talk, why'd she get so agitated. "How did that happen?"
"I believe they have an actual empath among them," Richard replied.
Even though they were in an important meeting, Melissa could never not act like a baby when talking to Richard. "Does that mean I am not an actual empath?" She asked him, despite knowing what he meant.
The demon wolf chuckled physically then said via the link. "Find the empath and stop acting like a 2 year old," he said and she just smiled back in response.
"That would be all from me," Hance said after sitting down.
The man who'd called on him earlier now pointed to Melissa. "The lady of Dunham will speak next," he said and Melissa smiled.