Alpha Rising

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Alvira's P.O.V.

My breath caught in my throat, and I felt Alban find my hand under the table to give it a nervous squeeze. The oppressive silence in the meeting room was enough to make my ears ring, and I guess I’d been noticeably jittery. I returned the squeeze and nodded over to him. This would be okay. A sharp breath caught y attention and my eyes snapped back up to the line of Elders sitting before us.

“I beg your pardon?” Bartholomew asked, shaking his head as though he hadn’t heard my Father’s loud and booming voice echoing in the room.

Dad smiled, looking to Alban and myself for a moment before turning his face back to the Elders. He was the epitome of respect. His tone was calm and even, there was no ferocity in his stare. He didn’t even make so much as a grumble.

“Would Elder Yancy,” Dad asked again, motioning towards my grandfather. “Please read aloud the wording of the law that specifically states an Alpha’s right of succession.” A flutter in my heart made my lips twitch into a little half-smirk. This was the first time that I was being officially recognized for something that I had more or less known all of my life.

The leading Elder seemed to think a moment, twisting his head this way and that and leveling his gaze on each of us in turn. He heaved a sigh and sat back in his chair before waving his hand in confirmation. “So be it.”

“What?” Elder Yancy said with a start. My Grandfather looked perplexed. But beyond that, he looked petrified. He knew something. And he knew that knowledge was so close to being disclosed.

“You heard correctly,” Bartholomew confirmed with a visible air of frustration prickling up in the way his lips scrunched into a thin line. “Would you kindly read aloud the second page of pack law.”

Yancy was stammering, wildly gesticulating with one hand, and clenching his other over and over into a tight fist. “Bartholomew, you can’t be serious.”

“I am,” Said the elder Wolf. “As your superior, I am ordering you to read the evidence for the record.”

Instead of simply complying, Yancy then turned his attention to the prime Elder. I don’t know if he was hoping to stall or what. Maybe he thought that by raising a fuss he could get out of it. “Altheus this is-”

But the other Elder was having none of it. “Elder Yancy you will do as you’re told.” The old wolf snapped twice, and Elder Duke produced a large red leather book. It was then that I truly noticed that the lower half of that back wall was a dedicated bookshelf. Nearly all of the books were the same in color and size, so I didn’t notice the variation before. But the law was bound in rich crimson and emblazoned with a howling wolf’s head surrounded by a thin crescent moon.

Yancy paused on the page, looking back up at his fellow Elders. When none of them relieved him from the task, he sighed.

“And so it be,” Yancy started reading, taking his sweet time and speaking nearly through gritted teeth. “That the first-born–” His jaw clenched, and he knew that he couldn’t mis-speak now for the fear of being questioned. “Pup of an Alpha line may be blessed with the Goddess’s responsibility of protecting and leading her Earthly packs.” He was about to stop “They shall train under the Alpha in the ways until such a time that the Goddess and the Elders deem fit to confirm their rank.”

Bartholomew looked from Yancy to my father and smiled faintly. “Is that satisfactory?” He asked, folding his hands politely back in front of him on the table. “Or was there another page that you were thinking of?”

Dad shook his head and raised a hand in a subtle motion. “That was all from the book, thank you.” The Elders started to mumble and whisper in conference as my dad spoke up again, trying to prove his point. “But you see, Elders,” he said clearing his throat. “The texts do not state that the pup born will be male.”

A low growl emanated from my Grandfather, who seemed to literally rise and ripple at the confrontational implications. “No Alpha born has ever been a female,” Yancy said with a low hiss. “It is unheard of.”

Dad was quick on the reply. “No, not by what your records state.” My father stood again, his heavy shoulders proud and straight with confidence. A fire sparked in his eyes, and I felt Amelie perk up to attention.

“Alpha Zachary has a point,” Elder Duke said, speaking up for the first time before the others could begin a contrary rabble. “Simply because there is the claim that is not done, does not mean that it does not exist.”

The thought seemed to stir some questioning murmurs amongst the Elders, some sounding positive and others sounding negative. “Perhaps there are circumstances outside of what is simply written that are beyond even our understanding.” Duke squared his shoulders and gave my father a bright look. “Alpha Zackary, you mentioned in your call that you had a second point of contention?” When my father nodded in confirmation, Duke grinned. “Have you brought with you the proposed documents?”

“I have,” my father said. “I’ve brought you both troubling accusations and evidence against one of your rank.”

“Have you reached out to one of the Elders about this issue before this meeting?”

“He has,” Elder Duke said, this time producing a file from the folds of his robes. “I walked Alpha Zachary through all of the proper procedures.” He slid the file right past Elder Yancy and into the hands of Elder Altheus. “You’ll find my own investigation in there as well.”

The ELder’s eyes widened in shock when he felt the thickness of the file that my father handed to him. “And you’re certain?” Altheus questioned carefully, glancing from my father to my grandfather.

“Yes.”

Altheus thumbed through the file briefly before freezing and visibly darkening. He shot a glare over towards Yancy and then turned back to my father. “Alpha Zachary, please hand over the rest of the documentation you speak of.”

“Of course,” Dad beamed, happy to oblige in something that he’d had suspicions of for over two decades. “Here,” Two packets were produced from the file that Beta Stephan walked up to him, and he laid them out one at a time in front of Bartholomew and Altheus. “The official pack birth records as notarized by our midwife, as well as Agate’s birth records during the time Elder Duke was born.”

Both of the elders looked between Dad and Elder Duke. I could see the shift in both my father’s eyes and in Elder Duke’s under their scrutiny. They both held a deep pain that I could only imagine. One that I hoped never to feel. Nobody should.

The papers rustled in Altheus’ hand, and he cleared his throat to read the first one aloud. “On the night of August seventeenth, nineteen ninety-nine,” he started. “The young pup Amelie Yancy Lundine was pronounced dead due to birth complications.” The room went silent, each of the men aside from Yancy muttering a soft prayer to the Goddess under their lips. Altheus went on to read the midwife’s statement, that she was certain the pup was healthy at birth, and that she was only notified that she stopped breathing by Elder Yancy. Being an Elder, she trusted him to speak the truth.

Bartholomew took the paper from Altheus’ shaking hand and continued on the reading of Elder Duke’s accusation. In that, too, Yancy was in attendance. But so was one of the former Elders, now since deceased. In Elder Duke’s file, the claim was laid that accused the archived birth records of being falsified to remove the first-born females in the alpha lines after they all seemingly suffered birth complications within a week of their births.

Almost immediately, the same Elder who was acting as scribe stood to retrieve two large ledgers from the expansive bookshelf behind the table. I knew immediately that they were the Black Opal and Agate Alpha ledgers. I could see Black Opal’s name scrawled on one of the large dark covers even from where I sat.

Altheus had them laid out in front of him, and he ordered the rest of the Elders to keep back while he searched for himself. Thin fingers trailed down pages upon pages until they stopped, first in one book, and then in the other. The Elder leaned over to the scribe and whispered something into his ear that I couldn’t quite make out, unfortunately.

“Yancy,” Altheus growled, his stance in his seat shifting as he moved. The man was tense and very clearly upset. “I will give you exactly one chance to be honest with me.” Altheus stood, turning to face my Grandfather “Are these accusations true?”

I could see Yancy tense and clench his jaw. His gray beard trembled as he started to shake in what I could only assume was rage. But silence remained.

“Yancy!” Altheus barked, making both myself and Alban jump.

“Do you have any idea,” Yancy hissed as he rose to his feet. “How fast our packs would have fallen?”

The remaining Elders in the room all looked on in disgust and in pain. I really began to wonder if they were all in on it or not. If they were, then they were damn good actors. It was looking more and more like Yancy was acting alone for the past three decades. Which, funnily enough, lined up with when the last Elder had passed on.

“What have you done?” Bartholomew asked darkly, standing beside Elder Altheus and trying his best not to tremble.

“I’ve kept up our traditions,” Yancy bit back.

“No,” Altheus stated, rising to his full height. “This handwriting,” he said, tossing forward the book that the scribe had pulled. “It’s yours and only yours. “You have been selectively altering the birth records.”

A quick glance down had my grandfather snarling in rage. Yancy wheeled on my father and roared in his face. “You ungrateful whelp!” You lied to me?” His hands slammed on the table with enough force to nearly crack it. “You had me convinced that Alban was the-”

“Yancy! You will stand down!”

A thundering wave rippled through the room, and I knew instantly that it was coming from Altheus. The aged Alpha pressed his will on us and made the whole room bow in submission. "I will be conducting a full investigation into this matter," he said, standing tall above my grandfather's kneeling form. "Personally."

The old man looked over towards us and beckoned for me and my brother to stand. "You two," he said with more care in his tone. "Which of you bears the mark?"

Alban looked down, his hands open, and then looked to me.

I swallowed hard and I stepped forward, keeping my chin held high. "May I show you?" I asked, fully willing to provide the proof that they asked for. When he nodded, I shifted my leg forward and raised the hem of my dress enough until they could see the clear dark paw print against my skin, while still maintaining my modesty. The mark was high on one thigh, partially wrapped around to the side of my hip.

I left it visible until Altheus motioned for me to lower the fabric and nodded firmly. "Do you know why this was never brought to attention before, Miss Lundine?"

"To my knowledge," I replied with a sigh. "It was to protect my life until my parents could formally lodge for this investigation."

The wise old wolf nodded and looked over me very carefully. "You, are the one mated to Alpha Nikolai of Star Garnet, correct?"

"Yes, Sir."

His lips twitched into an almost smile, and he let out a low chuckle. "Very good. I know that my Great Grandson has truly been blessed with someone so fierce and powerful."

His...what?! My eyes felt like they would bulge from my head with how that news hit me. I looked back at Dad, who was just as shocked. When my eyes moved back to Elder Altheus, he was smiling more naturally.

"I, Altheus, Elder of pack Star Garnet and leader of the Council," he said. "Do hereby stip Yancy of Black Opal of his title. And do so state for our Goddess and for our record that you, Alvira Yvette Lundine, shall be granted the right to begin your official Alpha Training under your father."

My heart raced, and Amelie perked up even more. I was realized. I was... I turned to look at my father, who was trying not to cry by the look of it. He held his arms open for me, and I took the few steps into a run right into them. When he wrapped his arms tightly around me and kissed the top of my head, it felt like all of my pain and all of my fears were relieved.

I would be the Alpha.