a pansy behind that desk.
Rubbing my chin when Conrad finished up and dragged his tools to the chamber where he promptly dumped them outside the door for one of the housekeepers to pick up, I debated telling him to take his bucket of piss back to where he’d found it after he cleaned that up as well. The only reason I didn’t was because he was a dick and could be cutting to the staff, but also, because I needed to get this show on the road.
I wanted the council to get underway so Eli could lay some things out. Some things I’d never anticipated happening today or at any other point in my life.
Hoping for acceptance was one thing. Actually getting it? Well, it felt like I’d won the lottery.
Maybe that was why I was on edge more than usual. Just sitting here, feeling smug and superior, wasn’t like me, but these people, the council, brought out the worst in me. Every one of them represented something about the pack I loathed, something I hoped to help change.
Surely Eli felt the same way too?
Couldn’t he see the corruption in this room? Couldn’t he see it working away at the very foundations of the pack like worms through a rotting corpse?
I wondered if Eli was about to come into his own, if he was about to take the step away from his father’s reign and take the mantel of his power for himself.
Hope was a dangerous thing, and I’d already wasted a lifetime’s worth on getting what I was about to achieve, so hoping that he was about to bring change could have been asking too much, but I’d help him. I knew Austin and Sabina would too, and he needed that. He needed more than just an omega at his side. He needed support from the three of us.
We could help shape him into who he’d been born to be, but we were the sum of the company we kept, and in this room? There was only pomp and ceremony, no pride or honor.
With Conrad having slouched back inside, his shoulders slumped as he hovered beside his wife, who was sitting on one of the sofas, I waited for Eli to stand.
Having never been here for this event in the past, I had no idea how they worked, but when he started speaking, without standing, I got the feeling Eli’s position behind the desk was a new one.
Maybe they felt like it was his way of putting distance between them, and they wouldn’t be wrong.
Change was coming.
They just didn’t know it yet.
“You’ve noticed Ethan’s presence here, and Austin would be here too if I didn’t require him elsewhere.
“Since my mother’s passing, certain things have come to light, and with the pack’s past leaving us behind and the future embracing us, I’ve decided there will be a shakeup.
“Consider yourselves all warned. I am not my father. Your comfortable positions on the council are no longer guaranteed because of who you are and the money you have in the bank.”
As outraged voices swelled and surged, Eli’s tone merely boomed all the harder.
“My father’s way was not my way, and while I’m certain that some of you truly deserve your place here, I know most of you don’t. I’m also certain that I will be challenged in the upcoming weeks. No one likes change, after all. But you’ve already seen a mere smidgen of my power, a power that managed to prove that the council head does not deserve his seat at all if I can, with a simple growl, trigger his shame.” He eyed the still wet but semi-clean patch on the floor. “You are my council. I am your alpha. I do not answer to you. You will no longer summon me as though I am a dog. You keep me accountable, but I will not allow my next council to think they can decide when a new meeting should be called just because they think it’s time for a chat around pack-provided wine.” He narrowed his eyes. “Would anyone like to say anything?”
As he uttered the words, it was almost like a gust of air swept in alongside them. The second I felt it, the entire room seemed to burst with reaction. The wave of power didn’t make me shiver though, not like the rest of the council, who began trembling at Eli’s might.
Even Brandon wasn’t safe from the aftereffects, which only proved that he wasn’t the right beta