Chapter 60 – The Weight of a True Alpha
Rowan crossed the pack borders with Charlie and Kalen flanking him, muscles tight with tension, every sense still sharp from the night before. The mist of the forest hadn’t yet burned away, but in the courtyard ahead, a group of elders stood like a wall of judgment.
At the center was Elder Malric, scowl deep enough to carve lines into granite. The old man’s voice rose like a whip crack across the courtyard.
“Rowan!” Elder Malric bellowed, fists clenched, his voice shaking with anger. “Have you completely abandoned your duties? Do you care so little for this pack that you would put your obsession with a rogue above your people?”
“Have you lost your senses?” The elder’s voice rose sharply, ringing across the courtyard. “Have you completely abandoned your duties as an Alpha? Do you have any idea how this pack looks to others when its Alpha disappears into the woods, chasing a tainted rogue?”
Rowan stopped mid-step, every muscle in his body locking tight. The sting of those words sank deep, brushing against the frayed edges of grief and desperation still beating in his chest.
Around them, warriors and pack members started to gather, whispers rising like a tide. Elder Malric pressed harder. “You’ve disgraced the position your father held. You’ve neglected this pack, put its future at risk—all for a she-wolf that doesn’t even bear our mark. Do you have any loyalty left to your people?”
A snarl bubbled deep in Rowan’s chest as he clenched and unclenched his hands, voice low as a warning growl. “Say that again.”
Elder Malric sneered, brushing at his elder’s robe as if brushing away the threat Rowan posed. “Your obsession will be the end of this pack. You don’t honor its traditions, you don’t respect its needs. You’re too focused on chasing after one female to remember that you have an entire people relying on you! Do you value this pack—or have you thrown it to the wolves for the sake of a tainted bond?”
That was enough.
“ENOUGH!” Rowan’s voice erupted like a whip crack, infused with the unmistakable weight of an Alpha. The sound shook the courtyard, making the gathered warriors flinch and drop their gazes. Even the other elders recoiled, suddenly wary as Rowan surged forward, crimson blazing in the depths of his gaze.
Rowan stepped forward, closing the distance until he was nose-to-nose with the elder, burning crimson blazing in the depths of his gaze. His voice dropped to a dangerous, commanding whisper. “You forget your place, Elder. Do you think because your hair has gone gray that your voice can poison this pack?” Rowan’s voice rose with a dark promise as he pulled away slightly, brushing dried blood from the front of his shirt, making sure every witness could see. “I’ve shed this blood for this pack. I’ve bled for its borders. I’ve buried its dead. Do not stand there and tell me where my loyalties lie.”
He turned, voice rising to carry across the courtyard. “My pack means more to me than any breath I draw. My people are worth more to me than any elder with a sharp tongue and a bitter heart.” His burning gaze swept across the onlookers, voice resonant, shaking every ear that listened. “More than any elder or outdated tradition. You want to question my honor? Do it to my face. You want to test my loyalty? Try putting yourself between me and the people I am bound to protect.”
He swept a burning glance across the courtyard, voice rising to carry for every witness. “My finding a mate doesn’t make me weaker. It doesn’t make me careless. It doesn’t make me any less the Alpha you’ve pledged your loyalty to. And it doesn’t diminish the oath I gave when I became your Alpha. It makes me stronger. It reminds me what—and who—I am fighting for. And that is every one of you.”
A faint stir passed through the courtyard, some warriors nodding slowly, their expressions shifting from doubt to conviction.
Rowan surged closer to Elder Malric, towering over the elder, voice dropping to a deadly whisper only he could hear. “If you doubt where my heart lies, Elder, watch closely. Watch as I walk into that office, find the traitors in our midst, and rip them out by the roots. Not because you order it. Not because you deserve it. But because this pack is mine, and I will protect it with every drop of my blood until my heart no longer beats. Because that is what an Alpha *does.*”
With that, Rowan stepped past the elders, brushing by Elder Malric with a growl deep in his chest. He didn’t wait for a reply. Didn’t slow as he pushed through the doors of the packhouse, Kalen and Charlie falling in step beside him.
Behind them, silence settled like a blanket across the courtyard, and every eye watched as their Alpha strode toward the heart of the pack he refused to lose.
Rowan, Charlie, and Kalen strode down the long corridors of the packhouse, the tension palpable. Every packmate they passed lowered their gaze, some with clenched jaws and furrowed brows, others with quiet nods of respect. Rowan gave a sharp nod in return, acknowledging their loyalty but saying nothing as the three of them pressed on. The silence felt like a shield, a barrier between their burning thoughts and the prying ears that lined the corridors.
At last, they arrived at Rowan’s office. He pushed the door open, stepped inside, and waited until the three of them were enclosed within the room before pulling the door shut with a decisive click. The muffled sound of the bustling packhouse fell away, leaving only the sound of their breathing.
Kalen was the first to break the silence. “What do we do now?”
Rowan drew in a long, slow breath, brushing a hand down the dried blood on the front of his shirt. The crimson streak felt like a warning and a reminder. He turned to them, voice low and edged with steel. “We find the traitors,” he said, each word sharp as a blade. “And then… we flush them out, one by one, until this pack is ours and ours alone.”
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