Chapter 177 Pack Lessons
ELIJAH
Leo was to be pulled from his class and waiting at the front of the school when I arrived, which was exactly what happened. He was standing by the gate with his bag still on his shoulder and his uniform slightly rumpled, and when he saw the car coming he stood up straighter, instinctively remembering the many times he has been told many times that posture communicates readiness.
I would watch him sometimes, trying to compare this boy that was almost my height to the little boy who wouldn’t sleep without his toy train.
The change wasn’t just in his physical stature, but everything else about him. Like a part of him that had been uncertain in him was becoming certain. The quiet, watchful child who had needed to learn that it was safe to want things had become someone who knew what he wanted and moved toward it with intention.
He approached the car and I ruffled his hair before he could stop me.
“Dad, you’re messing up my hair.”
“I’m aware,” I laughed, to which he rolled his eyes. Raising a teenager was so fun. Note the sarcasm. “Get in.”
He got in and we moved and he looked at me with the patient expression of someone waiting for information they have correctly determined will be provided without prompting.
“Where are we going?”
“Golden Blade pack. It’s a significant distance from here.” I settled back against the seat. “I want you to watch this meeting, not participate in it. Listen to how negotiations begin. Note the things that aren’t said directly in meetings like this, those are often more significant than the stated positions. And pay attention to how the other Alpha conducts himself in the opening minutes, before anyone has committed to anything. That’s when you see the most accurate version of who you’re dealing with. I’ll ask you questions afterwards so pay attention.”
I knew I didn't have to repeat myself, Leo was an intelligent and hardworking boy. He would be an amazing alpha.
“Why Golden Blade specifically? I thought there was a land dispute between your pack and theirs.”
“There is.” I nodded, impressed he was keeping up with diplomatic matters when I hadn't told him to. “Which is why a treaty matters. Allies who have never had cause to disagree are easy allies. Allies with whom you have resolved an actual dispute are a different kind of alliance — stronger, because it’s been tested.”
“So you’re going to give them something.”
“I’m going to offer them something that costs me less than the ongoing conflict costs us both. That’s the art of it.” I paused. “The elders have been pressing for this. They’re correct in the broad assessment even if the timing could be argued. A Lycan King who refuses to expand his alliances because it requires sitting across from someone he has been at odds with is a Lycan King whose pack will be smaller than it could be. Pride is expensive and dangerous.”
Leo nodded slowly.
“What does mum think about it?”
“She told me to walk in, say what I came to say, listen to what they have to say, and come home. She was more useful about it in thirty seconds than the elders were in three meetings.”
Leo almost smiled.
I noticed the cars at the front stopping, I stopped too and got down from the vehicle. Leo followed suit without being told.
“Alpha.” One of the warriors in our entourage said, walking up to me with a worried expression. “I believe we may be followed. I’m picking up movement in the trees alongside the road that doesn’t match the wind pattern.”
I shifted forward and focused on more than just the perimeter we were in.
He was right. I could pick up other scents in the air, and it was nothing like the signature of the people there. So they weren’t their scouts.
I looked at Leo.
“Listen to me.” I kept my voice low and completely steady because I needed him to hear information, not react to alarm. “We are about to be attacked. This was planned and our route was known in advance, which means someone communicated it. When it begins, you run. Don’t go toward the road. Head to the trees on the northern side. You run and you keep running and you do not stop for anyone who isn’t a member of our pack. Do you understand me?”
His face had gone very still. His body wanted to react before his mind had finished working.
“What about you?” His voice was steady, which I gave him credit for. But he looked nervous, and scared.
“I will be fine. I need you safe because you are my priority and you cannot defend yourself without your wolf, and your wolf is three years away. So I need you moving and I need you moving immediately when I tell you. Understood?”
He nodded once.
Before either of us could move, we were ambushed from all sides. I shifted before I had fully hit the ground, landing already changed, already moving.
There were more of them than the initial wave had suggested. For every group my guards dealt with, more rogues emerged from the treeline.
“Run now!” I got the words out before fully committing to the wolf closest to me, and I caught a glimpse of Leo moving.
I cleared six of them. I was working through the seventh when the needle hit my left shoulder.
My body instantly went weak. I shifted back to use what clarity I had left. My vision was narrowing. My legs were unreliable.
I felt a slash on my left and I went down completely.
From the ground I could see the treeline and the figures moving through it, away from the road, and one figure in the middle of them that was smaller than the others and was not moving of his own accord.
I tried to get up.
I could not get up.
I lay on the road and watched the trees close around the place where my son had been as the sedative finished what the blade had started.