All Chapters of Reborn After Rejection: I Chose the Alpha Everyone Feared: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

The first report arrived with breakfast. Caleb set it beside Hallie’s cup before sitting down. Grant turned his attention to him.“That bad?”“Not yet.”Caleb’s answer made Hallie put the cup down. He unfolded a second page.“The pack east of us has had three leadership meetings in four days. None ended with agreement.”Hallie looked between them.“Agreement on what?”“Who leads next.”Grant’s expression hardened. Hallie had heard enough scattered talk to know the neighboring Alpha’s position had become uncertain, but Cedar Draw had kept its distance. Internal succession belonged to the pack involved. At least in theory. Caleb tapped the first page.“They don’t have one successor everyone accepts. One group is backing the candidate the older leadership favors. Another says the strongest territorial claim belongs elsewhere. A third refuses both.”“No challenge settled it?” Hallie asked.“No formal settlement

By noon, Hallie had heard both sides. Neither made the problem easier. The first account came through a representative from the neighboring pack’s older leadership.He stayed outside Cedar Draw’s central buildings, exactly where Grant had said political conversations would happen if they had to happen at all.Hallie sat across from him with Caleb beside her and Grant standing a few steps back. The man laid out his case carefully.The older leadership had followed the pack’s established succession process. They had identified the candidate they believed held the strongest formal claim under that structure. People who rejected the decision, he argued, were rejecting the rules only because they disliked the result. Hallie listened.“What makes the claim legitimate?”“The process.”“Only the process?”His mouth tightened.“The process exists so succession does not become w

Hallie asked the first representative one question before he could repeat his claim.“If your candidate wins, what happens to the people who supported the other side?”The man stopped. Grant sat at the far end of the table. Hallie waited. The man finally said, “They accept the result.”“That’s what they do. What happens to them?”His expression tightened.“I don’t understand the distinction.”Hallie believed he did.“Do they keep their positions?”“Those who can be trusted.”“Who decides that?”“The new Alpha.”“Do families who supported the other claimant remain in the pack?”“Of course.”Hallie watched his face.“Without losing housing? Work? Access to shared stores?”A pause. Long enough. The representative’s jaw hardened.

Hallie rejected the first room Caleb suggested.“Too small.”He looked around it.“It seats twelve.”“That isn’t the problem.”Grant stood in the doorway behind him. Hallie pointed toward the chairs already arranged along the long sides.“One group gets the wall. One gets the door.”Caleb frowned.“So?”“One looks trapped and the other looks like they control the exit.”He stared at the room again.“You think they’ll care?”“They’ll arrive looking for proof Cedar Draw has already chosen.”Grant’s mouth shifted.“Different room.”The second room was wider. Two doors. Enough space around the table that no one had to squeeze behind an opponent’s chair to leave. Caleb walked the perimeter.“This one I can secure.”She gave

Hallie waited until the meeting ended before she asked them to leave the room with her. Both delegations were gathering papers. The older representative looked up.“Leave?”“For twenty minutes.”The woman across from him frowned.“Where?”Hallie folded the page they had agreed on.“The part of your territory closest to Cedar Draw.”Grant’s attention sharpened from the wall. Hallie looked at both sides.“You spent an hour telling me what the succession means. I want you to show me what it is doing.”No one liked that. Good. The older man said, “Cedar Draw is not entitled to inspect our pack.”“No.”“You are.”That stopped him. The woman from the other faction looked toward the door.“What exactly are we supposed to see?”Hallie stood.“I don’t know yet.&rdq