Alphas of Raven: The Forbidden Triplets

Chapter 9

Zain's POV

It was Alpha Shane's irritating voice that brought my head back to the meeting.

"Alpha John, you cannot let these cursed Ravens run wild." He yelled, starting his monthly rambling about us.

“I am dying to hear what we did this time.”

Mind you, it was a fixed feature of these monthly meetings. I knew he had used the ‘cursed’ bit on purpose so that he could get the support of the superstitious Alphas.

"Alpha Shane please state if you have a complaint about them." Alpha John told him sternly.

“I want to bring to the Council’s attention, that the Ravens are again interfering with my pack and trespassing.” Alpha Shane rambled.

“They have been recruiting rogues from my border.”

So that’s what Xaar was up to.

Why in the hell am I not shocked?

He always did this, not keeping me in the loop. Was that too much to ask for?

Wrong or not there was no way I would let Shane take this one.

“You mean to say our borders, the ones we share?” I tried to twist his words.

“Well, no, it was my side of the border." Shane continued to blabber.

Luckily, the staff entered at that exact time with the beverages, forcing John to shut us all down for the time they were here. Confidentiality and all, John was proper like that.

And that was just enough time to try to reach out to Xaar, the key word being try. Hoping against hope that he would answer

‘Would it be so hard to just discuss it with me?'

I mind linked Xaar, not sure if he would reply or, like, always block me off.

‘Discuss, what? Who was I gonna f**k?’ That was quick, especially for the person who ignored most mindlinks.

‘Isn't it my lucky day then, getting a reply from Xaar Raven.’

Even through the mind link, one could feel the sarcasm in my tone, I made sure of it.

‘What do you want, Zain?’ he barked.

‘What do I want? What I want is a heads up on your not very lawful approach.’

I growled back at him through the link, losing my patience.

‘And what I really want, since you have asked, is for you to discuss it with me before you go ahead and do these things? But we both know that is not happening, so let’s stick to you at least giving me the curtsy call, so I can be better prepared for shitpiece Shane.’

‘Great, so consider this a curtsy call, will you?’

‘Gee, thanks.’ See, he was the asshole brother.

‘Oh, please, I had already told you many times that Shitty Shane was running a full-blown rogue enslavement program. But you wanted proof, so now I have proof. And while I was there, I also freed them and got them enrolled in our rogues’ program. So, yeah, I will take those thanks.’

With that, Xaar signed off from the mind link, leaving me stranded. Told you he was an asshole, but there was so much more to him. And asshole with a purpose then.

Xaar had suspected it for a while, but we never had proof. Guess, getting direct enrollment from inside his border, was a good way to end it.

“Coming back to my issue, Alpha John, you cannot let these cursed Ravens run wild.” Shane started blabbering the second the staff left.

I knew he had used the ‘cursed’ bit on purpose so that he could get the support of the superstitious Alphas.

“They were on my side of the border.”

“What is my side of the border exactly?” I butted right in, knowing very well that it would tick John off, but I had to drive home my agenda.

“I am guessing you don’t mean the rogues were inside your pack border. Because your pack does not have a rogue program, or even a rogue slave trade issue. Then why would the rogues be inside your border?”

Shane was stunned into silence when I raised the point on the slave trade.

Caught yeah, you s**t piece!

“Alpha Shane has made a complaint to Alpha Zain, and we need to listen to his complaint and investigate it before we conclude.” Alpha John just had to intervene, asserting his authority as president.

“Sure, we can start by asking those rogues, what were they doing inside the borders? Though if you ask me, it would be absurd to even think that they had breached his borders.”

Even though I had proof against Shane, today was not the day to use it.

People did not understand that the power of information is not just what it is, but also when and how it is used.

Today I intended to let Shane go free, and make him believe everything was fine so I could hold this above his head another time.

“Now, if I think about it. Alpha Zain might be right; I want to do a double check internally to see if what my warriors reported was accurate. Because there is no way rogues could be just roaming inside my border.”

That’s how it was done.

“Alpha Shane, may I request that you check these facts before bringing them to the council" Alpha John reprimanded him.

“And Alpha Zain, might I remind you that your rogue programme is only functional in your territories. If you ever have to do some recruitment that might put you at risk of entering another pack, you need to take their permission.”

Even though Shane had taken the complaint back, our dear friend Alpha John just could not control himself. And neither could I.

“Duly noted, Alpha John.” My sarcasm game was on.

“We would seek permission from the likes of Alpha Blake, who have openly opposed the Rogue programme and would have never agreed to it. And all this is just so that we can take that rogue away from your border, provide them with the basics, and re-introduce him into our society. I can totally see it working out.”

That mini monologue had stunned Alpha John to silence, but Goddess forbid if I ever let him have the last word. That is why he hated us, the Ravens.

“Moving on to the next point on the agenda. I will hand it over to you, Alpha Azuro, so we can go through the stats.” Alpha John called.

Alpha Azuro projected something on the TV screen as he started showing us some graphs and numbers.

“As you can see, our population is dwindling.” He claimed.

Of course, we knew that what kind of i***t would not know it. It was one of the many reasons why Xandar had pushed so hard for the Rogue programme.

“Werewolves are not reproducing enough,” one of the lesser-known alphas called out.

Huh! Fools, did they really think that the werewolf population was declining because of the birth rate?

None of them believed in doing their homework.

Before I could enlighten the lot with a snarky remark, Alpha Shane jumped in.

“What do you expect them to do, produce triplets?”

Alpha Shane’s dig at us, the Ravens, did not go unnoticed by the crowd. In fact, he even earned himself applause from his supporters.

Shithead Shane beamed as he turned to look at Alpha Red, hoping to get approval from him as well.

Only to be disappointed when Red kept mum.

Oh! Red was not going to be a good boy today; after all, he owed us one for taking in his useless son in Ravenwood.

Like that little jerk could get into Ravenwood on his own.

Ravenwood was about merit, be it intellectual, physical, or creative; and we never made such an exception as taking in idiots like his

son.

However, York was confident that we could later use this as leverage against Red when we needed to. And having an Original family

Alpha owe us one would be helpful, even if he was a dud like Red.

“What do you think, Alpha Zain? Should the common werewolf also start producing Triplets?” Alpha Shane tried to provoke me.

“I thought you would never ask Alpha Shane." My face was plastered with my classic smirk as I answered.

“If you had seen the facts on the screen more closely, you would have noticed that our birth rate has been declining for ages now."

I pointed out the screen as I continued educating those idiots.

"Our population is declining because we, as a race, are dying faster than we are reproducing. Despite the birth rate falling for so long, our population decline has amplified in the last couple of years."

"Alpha Zain is right. We are dying faster, and not just from natural causes." ALpha Azuro added as he moved to the next slide.

"The unexplained-accidental deaths have gone up, and the presumably dead, which is the missing persons who have not been found, have gone up as well."

Hmmm... I was seeing these numbers for the first time, since they were not a public record. And this was not happening for our pack. This was not good.

"This has been happening for the last two years." Azuro turned to look at Shane as he said that.

Fucker! Did he think I will miss that? I knew what was going to happen next.

" Isn't that when your rogue programme started to take shape, Alpha Zain?" s**t-head Shane chimed in.