Chapter 167: Retaliate.

Chapter 167: Retaliate.
Thorne’s POV

“This has to be our pass to play dirty too”. Carlos growls in my ear as we walk through the training grounds. My wounded guards are receiving their treatments while the ones unscathed are training. They are fewer than I had hoped they would be. And while I try not to be too disappointed by the manner that the first brawl has gone, I remind myself that this should in fact, not repeat itself ever again. 

“We never play dirty.”  I tell Carlos who grunts in response. He is referring to the recent news of Garron gathering more ways and people to use to attack us, outside of the rules of the brawl. But that is what it means to be in the Council. You make your own rules. 

“He made us brawl with two different packs.”

“And we won them both. We didn’t give him what he wanted. We won and we will keep winning until this is over.”  I retort, getting fed up. I seem to be the only one who understands the fragility of the ground we are standing on as the pack that is fighting the Council. We cannot afford to fight back regardless of whatever they do. We have one choice, and that is to brawl. Nothing else. We cannot afford to play dirty. 

Especially not with a letter as dangerous as the one I recently got from Garron. It is as good as a missile in his possession that he can use to attack my entire clan. And the same Council that most likely helped in putting it together would be the ones to rule me out because my pack members are no longer on my side according to their claims. 

“This isn’t right.”  Carlos shakes his head. I enter into my office and he trails behind me, shutting the door and immediately begins to pace the small room, while I settle on my chair. “We need to do something”

“We are doing only what we have been doing.”

He stops, his hands at his sides as he stares at me. “Are you afraid to hurt him? Or afraid you might let him hurt you? Or you don’t want to get on your wife’s bad side? Which one is it?”  He walks towards the table but I am already shooting off my chair and getting in his face. 

The tip of my nose presses against his as I stare daggers into his eyes. The rage I feel is too much for me that my fingers itch to punch through a wall. Or his face. 

“Keep my wife out of your silly mouth! You have no idea how complicated this is and how careful we need to be. Not everything demands a retaliatory response. You should only make these demands if you are ready to give your head on a platter when we start to reap the consequences. The last thing we need right now is to make the brawl more intense than it is. We are clearly outnumbered and overpowered. And so we do the best we can.”

Carlos is silent, but I can feel the intense rage pouring out of him. He clearly looks like he has more to say. I hold his gaze, deeply breathing through my nose. “Not a single word about this anymore.”  I tell him and in a swift motion, his head drops and eyes lower as he responds, 

“Yes Alpha”. 

It has to be the first time Carlos is challenging me over an issue. Or rather, it is the first time I am letting him challenge me over it. But while I would normally be more democratic in my decisions concerning the clan, I have my reasons for doing things the way I do them now. 

Carlos leaves my office without another word and as soon as he does, I lean back into my chair with a deep breath that seems to deflate the heaviness in my chest in one swoop. 

I am not attributing my hesitation to fight back Garron’s dirty tricks to any of the reasons that Carlos mentioned, but if I am being completely honest, I do feel a certain drawback whenever I think about how Ruelle might handle the news of my brawl with her father. 

I know she would take my side, but I fear the issue is me not even wanting to make her choose. 

I run my hands over my face just as a knock sounds on my door. I am still reeling from the talk with Carlos and contemplate sending them away just for an extra minute of fucking peace and quiet, but the door is already being pushed open as Vander makes his way in. 

He looks pissed. I roll my eyes, heaving a deep sigh. I really do not have the time and energy for this right now. 

“I hope you have achieved what you intended by going into the first brawl alone.”  He starts. 

“Spare me the ted talk, Vander. For your sake mostly. I already told you the reason why I wanted us to go alone. It was a small pack and didn’t require that large number of warriors.”

“And yet, look what happened”. He grits. “Half your soldiers are either wounded or dead.”

I fight the urge to bang my palm against the table as I lean forward. “How the fuck was I to know that there was a whole other army coming behind the Meedrail? Hm? How?”

“You could have prevented this much damage by carrying us along. That is why we offered to help.”

“Or I could have worsened it. Taken more people and given them more people to kill.”  I bite back, standing from my seat. 

“If you need to be reminded that my soldiers are capable of fending for themselves, then let us schedule another mass training”. His voice is calmer now, less bite to it. But he is still not making any sense. 

I scoff, moving my hands to my waist and walking over to the window on the wall that overlooks the training grounds so I could watch the guards train. “While we have the real brawl to prepare for? Not a chance.”
I catch him clenching and unclenching his fists at my words and smile before adding, “I am not underestimating you or your guards, Vander. But it is better to be too careful than completely careless.”

He opens and closes his lips repeatedly, as though his words are struggling to come out of his mouth. It is one thing to be an Alpha managing your own pack, and another to be in a position where you have to put other Alphas in Check. 

“I am coming with my soldiers tomorrow. I came here for some action, not to sit around and wait my turn like a substitute.”

I take a moment to think about it, then nod. “You can do that.”

“Speaking of being too careful. You should probably stop your wife from monitoring the brawl. She seems to be letting her curiosity get the best of her.”

My face sets in a deep frown as I try to make sense of his words. “What?”