The Luna Queen

Chapter 4: Shaking Things Up

Montrell

The new Elder council members have moved into the mountain. I send a mind link to inform them I’m paying them a visit and then head there thirty minutes later in my car. I’ve got a long day ahead of me. After I discuss things with them, I need to go check on the company. I haven’t shown my face there since I became Alpha a few days ago. After arriving at the mountain, we all meet up in the lava conference room.

“I hope everyone’s getting settled in just fine,” I start. “I won’t take up too much of your time, I promise. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to discuss tweaking the pack laws. I have no issue keeping the first four universal laws. However, I’d like to amend laws six through nine.”

“Right to business,” Sterling voices with a touch of pride. “Whatever you’re changing, I think we need to implement immediately. Where’s Zachary? He should be here for this.

“He’s away on business at the company. I sent him to investigate some things for me. It’s all good cause we’ve already discussed the changes we’d like. He told me he supports whatever changes we make.”

“I see. Quentin, can you record this for us? This will be a vital part of the pack’s history.”

“I’d love to! Let me grab my recorder and laptop!” Quentin sashays away and returns a few minutes later with his things. “I’m ready,” he says after booting up his computer and placing the voice recorder in the center of the table.

“Alright. Alpha Montrell, can you please state what the laws you’d like to change are for the record,” Sterling requests.

I clear my throat and proceed with reciting the laws. “Law Six: Never question the decision of your pack’s Alpha unless he or she is breaking one of the Sacred Laws. Law Seven: Only the child of an Alpha and Luna can become Alpha.

Law Eight: The Council is in charge of wolf ranks and no wolf is to be raised a rank without the permission of the Council. Law Nine: Only a wolf one rank lower than the Alpha can challenge him or her. Imprisonment or death is the punishment for any wolf below one rank that challenges the Alpha.”

Quentin is typing away. How is he even keeping up with everything? Sterling’s voice breaks through my train of thought and amazement at Quentin. “Alright, and what about these four laws would you like to amend?”

“First, law seven. Why does the mom of the child have to be the Luna? What if the Alpha dies without having a child? Or, what if the child is born before he becomes Alpha? Or like in my circumstance, my mother went rogue and my dad murdered her without a trial.”

Sterling furrows his brows. “Your circumstances are different. Your mother kept putting off her Luna ceremony and your father couldn’t keep his d**k in his pants. Instead of ensuring Crystal was his Luna, he kept f*****g her. Ordinarily, by the time the Alpha’s mate has his child, she’s already his Luna. There are rare cases of Alphas having children before they lead the pack, but usually, an heir takes over at eighteen, like Darius did. He met Crystal a few years later.”

The sternness and sense of technicality in his voice has always annoyed me. Sterling is old-fashioned but open to change, which I like about him. That’s why I chose him as the presider.

If mom got away with postponing the ceremony for nearly a year, why would she agree to it right before my birth? “Wait. I know this is off topic, but why did she agree to the Luna ceremony on the day she went rogue?” I curiously question.

“Unfortunately, I can’t answer that because I do not know,” Sterling answers with a sigh.

“Um,” Aunt Amber quietly speaks. “I can answer that.” I eagerly stare at her, waiting for the explanation. “About a week before the ceremony, Darius attacked Crystal. He beat Crys so badly, she kept herself locked away until her face healed.”

“He beat her while she was pregnant… with his child? And so close to labor,” Sterling remarks with surprise in his voice.

“Yes. He never harmed her below her neck. She said he repeatedly slapped and punched her face until she agreed to have the ceremony. When she returned to our room, you could see his handprints on her face and neck. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face was so swollen. I don’t know how in the hell we kept Ruby from going after Darius.”

“Wow. I served as his Beta for nearly twenty-eight years and I truly didn’t know my Alpha. I had no idea he did that. Just like I didn’t know what he did to you.”

Sterling’s voice is so full of remorse. He gently strokes Amber’s cheek and kisses her hand before clearing his throat and continuing. “Back to the matter at hand. I support your decision to amend that law. In fact, I daresay we should just get rid of it.”

“Right. Sorry for that distracting conversation. If y’all are okay with removing the law, I certainly am. I also feel the pack members should be able to vote on the next leader, which leads me to law six.”

“Before we proceed with the next law, are we all in favor of removing Law Seven?” Everyone nods in agreement. “Law Seven is gone. So, Alpha Montrell, what do you feel is wrong about law six,” Sterling asks.

“Although Alpha is a significant position and my subordinates are to obey and respect me, I don’t like that someone can’t challenge me. I’m not saying I’d like to be challenged, but someone can, even if it’s about a sacred law. If someone questions my motives, I’d like for them to come to me about it.”

“So you’d allow anyone to challenge you over any and everything?” Sterling asks for clarity.

“That’s not what I mean. I’d never do anything questionable, or at least I’d try not to, but a lot of the s**t dad did should’ve been challenged. As the Alpha, I just feel I should be approachable and I want my subordinates to respect me, not fear me. I don’t want someone scared for their life if they disagree with how I handled something. We’re a family, not a dictatorship. Furthermore, if it seems I’m not reachable, then someone can come to the council about it, but they have to come to me first.”

“Ah, I understand,” he nods. “I like that type of thinking. For over twenty years, Darius ran this packhouse like a dictator. Things were certainly different under his father. I agree with your thinking.”

“With that in mind, I’d also like to address law nine. Imprisonment or death to anyone below the rank of Beta that challenges me? If you’re not the Beta, automatic imprisonment or death. Nah,” I shake my head, “I don’t like that. That’s very old-fashioned and cruel.”

Sterling asks, “So how would you amend that law?”

I pause for a moment. “I’m not exactly sure. At first, I thought we should get rid of it.”

Sterling curiously raises his brow. “What changed your mind?”

“Although it may seem counterproductive to what we just amended in law six, I strongly feel there should be something in place for the wolves that don’t approach their superiors correctly.”

“Don’t approach their superiors correctly?” Sterling c***s his head to the side and raises his brow curiously.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe I know exactly what you mean, Alpha,” Quentin says. “There are always wolves that try to go against the grain and prove themselves. These wolves are usually the ones that incite rebellion and eventually attempt overthrowing the Alpha. It used to happen all the time at my childhood pack.”

“I’ve seen my fair share of this,” Aunt Amber adds. “Trell- sorry, Alpha, I don’t think it’s counterproductive. It’s good to have something in place for when wolves step out of line to their superiors. And I agree, death is an extremely harsh punishment.”

“This isn’t a dictatorship,” I mention. “How do you all feel about this law and how should we handle situations like that?”

“I’ve been a fighter all my life,” Cheyenne reveals. “My disciplinary actions include extreme violence and I’m sure you don’t wanna be labeled as the violent Alpha like your dad was.”

Aunt Amber clears her throat. “Can we all agree that we don’t want extreme violence as a means of punishment for- wait, what exactly would we be punishing?”

“Anyone improperly challenging the Alpha and inciting rebellion among the ranks, I assume,” Sterling responds.

“Gotcha. Once we decide the consequence, we should probably rephrase the law so it’s understood to not f**k with the Alpha’s authority.”

Everyone raises their brow in shock at my aunt. She’s usually meek and hearing such talk from her is unexpected.

“That’s damn right,” Khalil agrees, followed by a quiet laugh.

“In my experience, with situations like that, public humiliation usually works best,” Quentin explains. “In extreme cases, when that isn’t enough, death is the only option, but” he pauses a few moments, “if that’s not what we’re going for, imprisonment or banishment would probably be the adequate punishment.”

Everyone nods in agreement. Afterward, we discuss rephrasing law nine before concluding with law eight. “We’ve settled that, so let’s get back to law eight. As mentioned before, some wolves try to infiltrate the ranks of the pack on their own, which causes rebellion and civil war. I don’t have a major issue with this law, but I’d like to add the role of Alpha to that. I say this because I made some changes to the ranks without the council’s approval because of the changes to the council.”

“Changes? What changes did you make without the council’s knowledge?” Sterling is a man of order and the tone of his question lets me know he doesn’t like me not following the order.

“I promoted both Aunt Amber and her fellow omega Talia,” I reply. “I didn’t come to the council for that. Also, with Cheyenne and Khalil becoming council elders, someone had to take their place. If any of you have a problem with that, we can handle it now.”

Cheyenne and Khalil exchange looks before Cheyenne voices her opinion. “Alpha, it was never an issue for me and I think you were absolutely right to appoint someone to take our place without the council’s approval.”

“With how delicate things have been, this pack doesn’t need any lacks. You did what you had to do to keep a smooth transition. Also, I feel your amendment to law eight is reasonable and I support it,” Khalil adds.

Sterling clasps his hands together. “Are we all in favor of these changes?” Everyone confirms they are. “An additional issue arises. We have nine sacred laws. Each pack should have ten. Alpha Montrell, how would you like to fix that?”

“Hmm. I’m not sure. Is it a sacred law to have ten laws,” I jest because I can’t think of anything to make into law.

“Well, no, it’s not written in stone, but it’s nice to follow the universal guidelines provided by the Head Council of Wolves.” There Sterling goes with that technical and matter-of-fact tone.

I recall all the laws and ponder on what a tenth law could be. I then ask who is familiar with the laws and Sterling is the only one. Since I want their feedback, I go over all the laws with them and hope we can come up with a new law.

Khalil speaks first. “I noticed that a couple of laws mention a judging ceremony by the council. In my time here, I don’t remember judging ceremonies happening often. What if we create a law ensuring judging ceremonies take place?”

“That’s because they didn’t. Darius usually took matters into his own hands,” Sterling points out.

“I like what Khalil said,” Aunt Amber chimes in, “but to go along with that law, how about we add consequences for not allowing a wolf to go through judgment? I say this because Crystal was supposed to have one because she went rogue and I can only assume for also breaking the tenth law of not submitting a formal letter when she left, she should’ve also had a judging ceremony. However, Darius killed her shortly after we returned to the packhouse. The pack should’ve held Darius accountable for that, but he wasn’t.”

“So how do we ensure judging ceremonies without having one?”

Everyone takes a moment to ponder. Then Quentin makes his suggestion. “What if we piggyback on law six? Say - hypothetically someone in your ranks does something and you don’t handle it properly? Or someone doesn’t like how you handled something. In a scenario like that, the tenth law can be they have to come to the council about it, and the council will hold an independent judging ceremony. Does that make sense,” Quentin quips.

“Makes perfect sense,” I answer. “And I think that’ll work as the tenth law.”

Quentin takes a deep breath. “So then, how do I type up this new law? What exactly should it say?”

“Everything we just discussed,” Sterling responds pointedly.

“Hmm, let’s see,” Quentin mumbles and frantically hits the keyboard. “How about this? Law Ten: If the Alpha does something questionable or if he or a higher rank doesn’t hold a judging ceremony, one should seek out the Elder council. The council will hold a judging ceremony without the Alpha’s approval. Does this sound good?” Again, we nod in agreement.

“Oh well, then there’s one more thing,” I say. “We need to change a minor thing for law five. The chief of each rank should know the location of the council and not just the Alpha and Beta. If there’s an issue that needs to be dealt with from law ten, subordinates need to report to their superior about any issues.”

“Quentin, you got all that,” Sterling asks and Quentin reassures he does. He then writes something down on his notepad and places his pen down. “Well then, that settles it. Is everyone okay with what we discussed and changed here today?” Everyone once again nods in agreement. “Very well. This session is over and I’ll have Quentin get the new laws implemented.”

Quentin ends the recorder and closes his laptop. He grins widely, showing his excitement to be the pack historian now.

I stand to my feet now that the meeting is over. I quickly call their attention before they disperse from the lava room. “Before I leave, there’s one more thing I wanna address. It’s not required for this to be recorded. While I greatly appreciate your respect in referring to me as Alpha, please call me Trell. We’re mostly family and it feels weird when you say ‘Alpha Montrell,’ so I’m not trippin’ if you address me as Trell. The only time I will require that is in serious, formal situations.”

“I’m not sure I can do that,” Sterling counters.

“Challenging me already,” I tease.

“Of course not. My father worked closely with your grandfather and Alpha Oliver was very strict about showing respect to your superiors. I fear that’s why Darius was so entitled and felt everyone should respect him. The pack members respected him out of fear and not for the man he was. I said all that to say, I cannot simply refer to you as Trell.”

“Well, only dad and you called me by my full name. I’ll accept Alpha Trell if you insist on sticking to your roots.”

“That I can work with. Have a wonderful day, sir.”

As soon as I finish my conversation with Sterling, Zack sends me a mind link explaining how bad things are at the office. Everything is in disarray, especially dad’s office. I expected this, because his office at the packhouse was the same. I head straight to the company to tackle organizing dad’s office.