“What on earth is the rush?” He asked, “are you dying?”
“No son.” his father shook his head. “Choosing now will give you and your Luna time to get to know each other, before you have pups, get to like each other and come to love each other, that’s how proper mating alliances are made and that’s how they work, it’s for the best to do it early.”
He was just staring at the man now, it had to be more than that, something else was going on. He just hadn’t figured it out, was all “I just can’t pull a name out of thin air,” he muttered, and I don’t see the urgency to be honest with you.”
“Don’t you dare hang up on me boy.” His father grated out as he’d seen Slade’s hand reaching out to end that call once again.
“What can you do about it from six hours away?” He shot at him and disconnected the call once more, refused to answer the next one, or the ones after that when they came in.
He was sitting in his room staring out the window when Alpha Gretta strolled into his room and looked right at him “someone ticked off their father, my office Slade.” He sighed and got up, followed her all the way there to her office and found all four of those council members sitting staring at him now.
“You gotta be kidding me right.” He muttered as he watched Alpha Gretta place a call to his father and put it on speaker for all to hear.
“Thank you, Alpha Gretta, for the assistance with my son and his petulant fit.”
Slade actually snarled at his own father over that one, and everyone in the room stared at him. Not even Hail his wolf was happy with how this was going. He saw Alpha Tyler’s wolf surface and look right at him.
He settled his beast and murmured “what do I owe the pleasure, father?” Like the ever-present good son, something he usually was.
“I don’t like the disrespect you show.”
“Well, neither did I.” He shot right back “now you’re pulling the entire counsel in!”
“What did you think was going to happen after those words, Slade? Of course, I was going to show you I still have power and control over your life, even there.”
Slade stood up. “If you leave this office without being dismissed.” It was Alpha Gretta. “You’ll be punished for all to see. We do have 24 shaming posts, six outside each dorm. You’re aware of that, yes?”
He was, there were currently three wolves on those posts at the front of the Wilder dorm, after three wolves had gotten into a punch up. The night before last, she-wolves at that, all angry about the one Alpha they were all apparently sleeping with, and didn’t know they’d been sharing him. They hadn’t liked it, and their yelling match had turned into a fistfight.
He was just standing there, he watched Alpha Patrick produce a set of silver cuffs and put them on the table before him. They would, it seemed, cuff him to a shaming post and shame him for not wanting to deal with his father; accept a mating alliance.
He stalked around the room more than annoyed, was being mated off and didn’t even get a say about it. He watched as Alpha Hailey smiled at him after his third lap around the room. She had strolled herself over to stand next to the door, he’d looked at it more than once as he’d stalked about, debating with himself if he’d rather be put on that shaming post, than finish this conversation at all.
“Son?”
“Alpha Roman,” he shot back, and actually heard Alpha Gretta snort with amusement at his own words. He looked right at her, she was fully amused, he realised. It was likely by the way Alpha Hailey had stepped to the door, they all knew he was considering the option of being punished, really considering it.
“It’s not a bad thing, son.” His father sighed, “and I’ll put anyone you want on the list. Just tell me who you’d be willing to accept.”
“And my Goddess Gifted. What about her?”
“You might not even have one. Your mother and I have never come across ours.”
“You verbally relinquished them back to the moon goddess if I recall correctly.”
“We did.” His father stated simply “I love your mother and she, I, you will come to love your chosen mate as well, just need to be open to it, is all, son.”
“And if I’m not?” He snapped.
“Then I’ll choose for you, what’s best for the pack.”
“Oh, just like you’re trying to remove Oriana as my Beta, because you think that’s best for the pack.” He roared at the man as his fists balled at his sides. He was not only being railroaded out of his Beta but into an alliance mating and Chosen Luna.
He heard Gretta clear her voice and looked at her, she looked right at him pointedly so, and then kind of just tilted her head skyward a little, and shrugged her shoulders at him before returning her eyes back to him, and tapped the seat next to her.
He knew she was trying to tell him something, didn’t really understand what it was. He was staring at her with a frown, trying to figure it out. She smiled right at him and looked at the seat next to her. He stood there and thought about her actions. She smiled at him after he looked at the seat next to her, and then back to her.
“Alright.” He finally stated “Oriana, my Beta, as my mate.” He rapped out at his father. The man was trying to remove her from his side as his Beta. Well, he could put her right back there next to him. That was what Gretta was trying to tell him he thought.
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