Bloodfire (Blood Destiny 1) - Helen Harper Page 0,19
the carpet needed replacing after all.
Julia ignored my blush. “We’ve got more pressing matters to discuss,” she continued. “I wasn’t expecting the Lord Alpha himself to be here.”
“You mean the gray haired guy? He didn’t seem that bad actually, “ I commented, swinging myself on to a low branch.
“Fool,” she hissed unexpectedly. I almost preferred dear. Almost. “He’s not the Brethren’s alpha, that’s just what they want you to think. He’s merely their spokesperson. I thought you’d have picked up on where the real power was coming from.”
I suddenly had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Ummm…green eyes?” I offered tentatively, hoping I was wrong.
“Green eyes of the devil, hair as black as his were’s and physical strength to match his strategic skills.”
“Oh.” I’d only noticed his eyes. My hackles rose. “So he thinks that he’ll trick us by pretending to just be a minion?”
Julia sighed. “It’s a smart move. He can find out more about us if we’re not jumping to attention every time he walks past. Besides which, regardless of the attempts at blurry paparazzi shots on the Othernet, he appears to dislike the limelight.”
“We’re not his enemy, Julia, he doesn’t need to dislike us,” I pointed out.
“He doesn’t know that. There was a lot of resistance when he took over as Lord. And he’s only been in that position since August - he’s ridiculously strong, and not just physically, but there are a lot of the Brethren who still don’t feel that they can trust him.”
I dismissed the topic. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll stay out of all their way and he’ll never notice me.” Of course that meant trying to ignore the fact that he’d noticed me during the welcome ceremony.
“You can’t,” she said flatly. “He’s demanding that every single pack member’s skills are tested and that he personally oversees each evaluation. I can’t gainsay him. No doubt there will also be interrogations to find out who is responsible for John’s death.”
“But everyone’s whereabouts have been accounted for!” I burst out, suddenly angry. The embers of flame inside me that had been quashed since the terrible meeting in the hall were starting to flicker. “What right does he have to come in here and do this? We don’t need to be evaluated to know what our skills are. And what right does he have to take away pack members to London? Why the fuck should we do anything they ask?”
“Because no matter what your opinions may be, Mackenzie, they are the alpha pack, and he is their alpha leader. Without the Brethren we would not exist. They support us financially and allow us to live here with minimum interruption in the relative safety of Cornwall.”
I scoffed. “If it was safe here in Cornwall then John would still be alive. Besides, why is this the first time they have come here in thirty years? They didn’t care about us before.”
“For which we should be thankful, dear.”
I could feel the flames continue to rise, scorching my insides and daring me to let them out. I forced myself to control them and looked at Julia right in the eyes. “Are you going to let them just take our people away?”
Julia sighed. “You know as well as I do that those who leave will want to do so. The old ties to the pack are gone with John’s death”
I wasn’t going to give up and was breathing harder at the effort of banking the fire. “Why are they going through this pretense of choosing our new alpha? We all know it’s you already!”
“We’ve been through this. The rituals are what keep us together, and this is one of the most important. If I want to be a strong leader, then I need to be seen to be following the Way.”
“It’s stupid,” I muttered childishly.
“It’s the Way.”
Julia folded her hands together implacably and looked at me. “At the risk of repeating myself, you need to rein in that temper if we are to get through this.”
I was immediately apologetic and could instantly feel the fire falling back down to a smoulder. “I know. I’m sorry.” I suddenly thought, and not for the first time, that I should have left when I became 18 and couldn’t be turned. This wasn’t fair on any of them, even bloody Anton.
“This is your home.” She reached and touched me softly on the arm and then reiterated her point from the previous night. “We need you too.”