Chapter 116

**Maya** **POV**


The meeting with the alphas goes by smoother once we work out the right of power. I had no idea how I was able to stand in front of them and not visibly shake. I could feel the power coming from the crowd and I wanted to shrink back from the feeling of it crashing down on me. I had never felt alpha power like that before, and yet my own power seemed to vibrate stronger too.

The moment I took the reigns and told them who they needed to pledge their loyalty to the energy in the room changed. They had submitted to me and if you had told me not long ago that I would have alphas from every pack in our city submitting to me as their leader I would have laughed.

When I walked out of that meeting I gave in to the overwhelming emotions I had locked away during that whole thing. The adrenaline filtered through me and my hands shook as we walked back toward home.

“You were amazing in there,” Eli said stepping up beside me and entwining our fingers to help calm me.

I let a nervous laugh. “I have no idea how I pulled that off, but I’m glad it turned out well. I don’t think we have heard the last of that one alpha though. I can tell he won't take his downgrade in status well. We may have to expect retaliation.”

“I agree. He is a wild card.” Thomas agrees.

“We’ll be ready if he tries to come here to seek any sort of revenge. The guards have been training like crazy, so I have faith in them.” Eli assures me.

I nod. “Will you be training them harder now with the possibility of the blood demons coming for the packs?”

“I’ll work with them and make sure any strong enough to fight will be ready. Even some of the females are interested in training, and with our limited numbers of trained fighters I'm happy to include them.” He says.

I feel a sense of relief that most of our pack will be ready to not only defend themselves but others as well. I hate thinking that it may come down to us possibly losing some of our pack now that war is at our doorstep. If it was up to me I would want to protect them completely, but that simply isn’t in our fates. This had been foreseen and I was created to be the one to save them all, at least as many as I could.

As much as I wish I was better equipped for this and my parents had told me what I was sooner maybe it would have been easier to accept. I don’t blame them for trying to protect me, but I had so many years I had to make up for. This whole thing has been a crash course on things I should have known all my life. I was sure about one thing though when Isaiah came of age I would be sure he will be ready for anything. He was made just like me, and I want him to understand exactly what he is.

“I’ll work on strategies.” Thomas offers and I nod in agreement.

“I’ll help Eli with training. Weapons are more my forte so I’ll focus on that.” Noah adds.

“I hate that so many aren’t able to shift anymore,” Tommy says with a disappointed tone.

“How many still can in this pack?” Eli asks me.

“From the papers, I have been able to find it's very actually well documented. My father no doubt kept track of the people who could be used in his little army. It says there are maybe a dozen or so. Not nearly enough, so weapons training would be helpful.” I say and find myself agreeing with Tommy's statement.

Shifted wolves would defiantly be handy in a fight.

“Do you think it has to do with the lack of children? The lack of variety in the packs.” Eli asks.

Tommy and I had been looking into things on our own, but it would be wise to do more research. I asked the other alphas to investigate their packs as well. It seemed all the packs were suffering the same issues from what I could gather during the meeting.

“It would make sense. The packs have been weakened, and the children are being born with weaker genes. There are maybe one or two still born with the ability to shift. It may be that that part is just dormant, but it’s hard to tell. So many packs have kept to themselves and that has allowed peace between all of us, but staying isolated to our own packs has obviously become a problem. Fated mates have a strong bond and produce strong children, the fact that so many do not bond with their fated mates furthers the theories.” Tommy explains as we walk further down the dirt path toward home.

“Even with the blood demons possibly preparing for an attack we should find a way to bring packs together and see if we can remedy that side of things. Even a fate bonded pair would be stronger compared to a non-fated pair.” Noah says rubbing the back of his neck thoughtlessly.

“I agree. A meeting of wolves unmated could improve our odds. With pack relations being stronger it may be time to try bringing such ones together in a singular location.” Thomas agrees.

“I like it. It couldn’t hurt.” Eli says excitedly. “Let’s play matchmaker!”

I laugh and give his hand a playful squeeze. I love his easy-going personality, it always brings a smile to my face.

“We all agree then. It’s time to throw a party!” I say happily.

We are on our way to changing the mistakes from the past and making the packs stronger. This could be the extra strength we need to give us a leg up in this fight.

****

After we all eat lunch together the guys take off to handle their new jobs leaving Tommy, Isaiah, and me together. Tommy decided to sit with Isaiah and watch a few episodes of a kid’s show while I cleaned up. Every now and then I steal a glance at them and it warms my heart to see how easily they fell into the father and son role. Tommy had done a complete one-eighty now that he knows Isaiah is our son.

I loved moments like this when things were just quiet. I didn't have to think about everything I need to do and I can just enjoy the sound of Isaiah’s giggling and playful sounds. It makes so much sense now why we all just fit right away. He is ours and we belong together. There was so much we still had to figure out but right now things were just…right.

I didn’t want to think about Tommy having to leave soon, but it was a reality we would have to face soon. Even with the idea of possibly combining our packs, there was still a lot we needed to get done to make it happen. I was sure a lot of the members in his pack would not agree with the idea and may even choose to leave the pack instead. Being a rogue though was not going to be easy for them, and the other packs were on our side. They would not be willing to take in new members who would want to stand against us.

Thinking of people being doomed to that fate makes my chest tight, but we needed to present a united front if we wanted to win this war. We don’t know the numbers in the blood demon's armies or if others are joining their ranks even as we speak. Truthfully I'm not sure how many kinds of supernatural creatures there are in realms outside of our own. I had never noticed any other creatures before but I was raised around humans so of course, I was ignorant of all that. Even now I have been so busy that I haven’t taken the time to ask. Were there witches and mages out there too? We still didn’t know how many of the Fae survived.

Maybe it was time for me to learn about these things. If there are other creatures out there, maybe they could fight with us. Tommy may know, so when I finished cleaning I joined him and Isaiah on the couch. Tommy immediately pulls me into him and kisses me softly on the top of my head.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” I start.

“Of course,” he replies turning to look at me better.

“I hadn’t thought about this before but are there others out there. I mean besides the Fae and blood demons.” I ask.

He nods. “There are several races that live in areas of the world that are isolated or in different realms. It’s been a long time since we have had visitors from those races though. Why do you ask?”

“We have the packs here willing to fight but we may need more,” I say with a sigh.

“I can ask my dad. He knew how to contact the Fae, maybe even Thomas would know.” He says turning and lifting my chin to kiss me softly. “Let’s worry about that later. Just relax, we handled what we could for now. Tomorrow we can worry about the rest.”

I nod and rest my head on his shoulder. Future Maya could worry about that. Sounds good to me.