Chapter 26 Gabriel

I fiddled with my tie until the bow was perfectly aligned and centered. For whatever reason, my fingers just weren’t cooperating. What should have taken me seconds, took over twenty minutes.

It didn’t help matters that Seith sat in the armchair directly behind me making faces in the mirror.

I growled and pulled the ends apart for the umpteenth time.

“What gives?” my cousin asked from his casual perch. “You tie these things all the time. Want me to get a clip on one?”

“Fuck off,” I replied irritably. “Sorry. That came out meaner than I wanted it to.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’m used to you and your moods by now. Seriously though, what’s going on. You’re radiating anxiety. It’s icky.” He said, adding a shiver for effect. “Make it stop.”

“Jackass.” I murmured, but his smile showed he heard it anyway. “It’s the damn ceremony tonight.”

“So? I mean it’s not like it’s your first one.”

“I know that. But this one feels like it’s got a lot more at stake.”

Seith nodded his head as if he finally understood everything. “You were in the truck for two days with my Dad.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh.

Seith got up and clapped my shoulder. “Sorry Dude. If I’d known what he had up his sleeve, I woulda told him to drive his own truck like normal.”

“It doesn’t matter. Your mother hit me up the day before. It’s like they’re on a mission now because Lucien has a mate. I don’t give a fuck if Lucien has a mate, or if he doesn’t. It never mattered to me.”

Seith squared me up and looked me dead in the eye. “If Lucien wasn’t alpha, and wasn’t mated to Daddy Ravenhall’s Princess, I don’t think anyone else would care either.”

“I’m not following. Vanessa is a spoiled brat, but why would anyone care about that?”

“Rodgrick is old school. While the rest of the packs are happy with their current territories and affiliations. Rodgrick has been trying to amass more land, more packs.”

“Why wasn’t I aware of this?”

“Because it’s happening far enough away from us to not care, and it’s happened only a couple of times, with packs that were so few in numbers and land that we thought it was a blessing for them to finally have protection.”

“I still should have known,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want to play the Alpha card, but damn-it I am the Alpha.”

“I know, but Dad didn’t think it was necessary to put it on your spectrum at the time. It’s not like it was yesterday.”

“Regardless. Maybe we could have done something to help those packs.”

“They’re way the fuck out of our scope. You think spending a couple of days with Dad making rounds and hearing about how you need a mate isn’t your idea of a good time, imagine a couple weeks of that…multiple times a year.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure how many Alphas even knew. It circled with the Betas a couple of years ago. Then nothing.”

“So what’s circling now?”

“Marrying off Vanessa to a Northern Hemisphere pack was rumored to be his game plan. It would put him solidly in our realm, and give him plausible reasons to look to gain more territory-to be closer to his precious daughter of course.”

“There’s no packs in this hemisphere that aren’t under protection.”

“Yeah, but now he has Silverpine.”

“No, he doesn’t. Lucien does.”

Seith barked out a deep guttural laugh. “Yeah. That’s a good one.”

“What do you mean?”

“He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing. When he should have been learning, Corren and Victor let him and Kane go play. Rodgrick is going to hone in on that inexperience and step in. Watch.”

“Lucien may be a lot of things, but he’s not stupid,” I countered.

“That remains to be seen.” Seith replied with a heavy sigh. “Rumor has it, the pack sees him for twenty minutes a day. He’s too busy getting laid.”

“How do you find this shit out?” I said, finally finishing my bow tie.

“I told you, the Betas. Your Father was instrumental in getting the Twelve to adhere to the non-invasive pact. We all got along. That philosophy didn’t extend to the southern hemisphere. They’re still battling over territory.”

I grimaced. “There is absolutely no point to that in this day and age. There’re so many other ways to be strong and bring in money.”

“I know that, you know that, and the Betas know this. The southern packs value land and takeovers.”

“Barbaric,” I said. “Just like this fricken ceremony. There’s no reason to even be mated to keep a pack strong. Community makes it strong.”

“You know that’s a crock of shit,” Seith chided. “You need a mate.”

“So do you,” I shot back, and noticed the wince on his face before he went back to grinning. “What? What did I say? Did you find your mate?”

“That’s not a conversation for today. Gee. Really. Please.”

I stared at him; his eyes implored me to not press the issue. I just nodded and moved on. “With all the advancements and peace accords, why do we still place our futures in the hands of a fable?”

“Eh. I don’t think it’s a fable. You saw the magick of the bond at the last ceremony as well as I did.”

“Look where it got her,” I said softly, wishing I’d stepped in before the Silverpine Security whisked her away. “I saw her you know. At the diner the next morning right before you sat down.”

Seith’s eyebrow shot up. “Oh really?”

“Yeah. Sadness and humiliation flowed from her in waves. The waitress even wanted to scoop her up and keep her safe. She wasn’t acting like someone who just murdered an Alpha.”

“They seemed pretty sure.” Seith offered. “It’s still sad though.”

“What is?”

He stopped short, pulling my tuxedo jacket back toward him. “Oh. Um. Well. I heard she died; right before the funeral.”

I froze, blinking rapidly. I opened and closed my lips, not quite sure what to say. If there was even anything to say.

Seith watched me in the mirror’s reflection, with a curious look on his face. “Yo. Gee. You okay?”

I blinked again. “Yeah. I guess I wasn’t expecting a kid to die.”

Seith’s arms raised up, offering me the jacket. I turned and slipped my arms in the sleeves and then adjusted my cuffs.

“Apparently, she refused to eat or drink. When they tried to give medical support, she went mad and attacked.”

My shoulders deflated a bit. Why I suddenly felt sad, I couldn’t say. But I felt a little emptier than I did just a few minutes ago.