Chapter 5

But he hadn’t, not really. His mother had pulled him aside that first week in the new packhouse. “Don’t let her call you those childish names,” she’d hissed. “You’re to be Alpha someday. Act like it.”

Faith’s fingers tightened around the silver pendant, her eyes searching his face. “Your mother told me you hated it when I called you Harry. That you found it embarrassing.”

Another lie. Another manipulation.

“No,” Harrison said, his voice rough. “I never hated it.”

Wallace stepped further into the room, addressing the elders. “As Alpha of our birth pack, I move that we recognise Faith Blackwood’s rightful claim to leadership here, as decreed by pack law and bloodline.”

Faith’s father made a strangled sound. “You can’t—“

“Actually,” Elder Miriam interrupted, “we can and we will. The council has reviewed the evidence Wallace brought forward. The attempt to sell your daughter to the Brigham pack constitutes treason against your own bloodline.”

Harrison watched as Faith processed these words, her shoulders straightening almost imperceptibly. For perhaps the first time in years, she wasn’t shrinking away.

“I don’t...” Faith began, her voice uncertain. “I never wanted to be Alpha. I just wanted to be treated like I mattered.”

Harrison’s heart clenched. How many years had she spent believing she was nothing? That she deserved the cruelty inflicted upon her?

“You’ve always mattered,” he said quietly. “I was too blind to see it.”

His mother made a sound of disgust. “This is pathetic. Harrison, you were meant for greatness, not to be tied to this—“

“Enough!” Harrison roared, his patience finally snapping. The force of his voice made the windows rattle. “You don’t get to speak to her that way. Not anymore. Not ever again.”

The room fell silent. Even the elders seemed taken aback by the raw power in his voice. His mother’s mouth opened and closed, no sound emerging.

Faith looked at him with wide eyes, the pendant still clutched tightly in her palm. “Harry?”

The nickname, not Pearl this time, but still something personal, something from before, cut through his anger. Harrison took a deep breath, centring himself.

“I meant what I said earlier,” he told her, his voice gentler now. “You have a choice. Whatever you decide, to claim your birthright as Alpha, to leave, to stay, I’ll support you.”

Faith looked down at the silver wolf pendant in her hand, “I…I don’t know anymore, it’s been so long since I had one of those.” Faith paused, “However, we should explain to the other Alpha Heirs that nothing will be decided tonight, I wouldn’t want them to get the wrong idea.”

Harrison watched as Faith’s fingers traced the silver outline of the wolf pendant, her eyes distant, contemplative. The chaos around them seemed to fade away for a moment as he focused solely on her, the slight tremble in her hands, the careful way she held herself, as if bracing for another blow.

“Yes,” he said softly. “We should speak with them together.”

Wallace cleared his throat. “I’ll gather the Alpha Heirs in the main hall. They deserve to know what’s happened here.”

Faith’s father slumped further against the wall, the fight completely drained from him. Harrison’s mother, however, straightened her spine, her eyes calculating even now.

“This isn’t over,” she hissed, but Elder Miriam stepped forward, blocking her path.

“I believe it is, Claudia,” the elder said firmly. “The council will be conducting a full investigation into your actions. Until then, you are stripped of all pack authority.”

Harrison felt a weight lift from his shoulders at the elder’s words. For too long, his mother’s manipulation had poisoned everything around her. He turned back to Faith, extending his hand once more.

“Will you come with me?” he asked. “To face them together?”

Faith hesitated, her eyes flickering to his outstretched palm. The pendant caught the light as her fingers curled around it.

“I don’t know if I can,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “What will I even say to them?”

“Whatever you want,” Harrison said. “For once, your voice is the one that matters.”

Faith took a deep breath, then fastened the wolf pendant around her neck. The silver gleamed against her skin, catching the light as she straightened her shoulders.

“Alright,” she said, her voice growing stronger. “Let’s go.”

She didn’t take his hand, and Harrison didn’t push. Instead, he fell into step beside her as they followed Wallace toward the main hall, leaving her father and his mother behind with the elders. Her scent, fresh air, and forest surrounded him, no longer distant but immediate, vital.

As they walked, Harrison noticed Faith’s steps becoming more deliberate, her chin lifting slightly with each passing moment. The packhouse corridors seemed different somehow, the portraits of past Alphas watching them with new eyes as they passed.

“Did you really not know?” Faith asked suddenly, her voice low. “About what they planned for me?”

“No,” Harrison said, the single word heavy with regret. “But I should have. I should have seen what was happening.”

Faith nodded, accepting his answer without comment. The pendant gleamed at her throat as she turned toward the sound of voices ahead, the Alpha Heirs waiting in the main hall, expecting an announcement of rejection, not the truth they were about to receive.

“Harry,” she said, pausing just before they reached the doors. “I’m not saying I forgive you. Not yet.”

Harrison felt his heart constrict, but he nodded. His phone buzzes in his pocket.

“Five bucks that’s your friends,” she stated without needing him to look at his phone. “Take it.”

Harrison pulled his phone from his pocket, glancing at the screen. Three missed calls from Deacon and a string of texts asking where he’d disappeared to. He silenced it and slid it back into his pocket.

“You’re right. It’s them,” he said. “But they can wait.”