Chapter 40 Ch 40

When Tandan and I joined the others inside Danny's house, we found everyone crowded in the dining room. Peter was talking to Basileus about something. Angelica stood up from her chair at the table and turned to me.

"He wanted to wait for you," she said. "The seat to his left is yours."

My cheeks warmed as I glanced at where Basileus sat at the table—on his haunches and without a chair—and then the empty chair beside him. Tandan's hand brushed against my back. Half of my mouth lifted in a weak smile before I left him. Basileus' gaze found mine.

"Angelica," he told her, cutting Peter off, "tell everyone to leave us. I only wish to speak with you, Peter, and little pup."

While she translated for the others, I took my seat beside Basileus. He looked down at me with a jagged smile.

"I have a name, you know," I said. "It's Lee. Not little pup."

"You don't like the name I gave you?"

Any emotion on my face aside from annoyance flaked off. He chuckled at the blank look.

"Now, I've heard your mate call you Lee and your parents call you Rylee. Care to explain that to me?"

Shrugging, I explained, "Lee is what I want to go by now. Rylee was a different girl."

"Mhm." He appraised me with the curiosity of an ancient mind.

I didn't feel like getting into the nitty-gritty about how I wanted to be a different person when I left home. Rylee was my old self, the girl I had tried to shake. Apparently, it worked too well. My family had all but disowned me.

"What is he still doing here?" Basileus asked Angelica.

We all turned to Danny, who was settling into the chair across from me.

"He won't leave," she told him. "He said it's his home, so he deserves to be here."

I gave her a quizzical look. "He doesn't even understand what we're saying."

Sighing, Basileus said, "Then let him stay. He's allowing us to convene here, so I won't show him what an asshole I can be just yet."

"They'll all know soon enough anyway." Peter smirked.

"Well, we all already know what an asshole you are," Angelica quipped, making me stifle a laugh.

Once everyone settled down, Basileus led the meeting.

"As you all know," he began, "Nature brought me back. The prophecies indicate my return is warranted by a significant change in the world of our kind. I've spent time considering what this could be since I've been back, and I can only conclude that it's due to the oppression of our species and our culture. The ape descendants have taken even more control of the world since I was last here. Although I did what I could while away to prevent this from happening, a king does not wage war alone."

"War?" Peter asked, whether in worry or excitement I couldn't tell.

Leaning forward, Angelica gazed at Basileus with knitted brows. "You intend to take humans to battle?"

Basileus glanced at me. I shrunk away, uncertain as to what my purpose here was. He cleared his throat and sat straighter.

"Yes, I intend to take them to war."

"Alpha, you don't know the ways of humans," Peter spoke. "They have weapons. Some powerful enough to rip apart this planet. You can't wage war with that."

"One can wage a war in whatever circumstances he finds himself in." The stern look on Basileus' face deepened. "But waging a war blindly and with over-confidence does not mean you will win. I've lost battles, Beta Peter. You were at my side when we lost. You know. Yet we have also won impossible battles where we were outnumbered by thousands and had been fighting for years."

"You don't—"

"This," Basileus cut off his Beta, "will not be like the wars we fought together in the past. Lycans were never spread so distantly as wolves are today. Every continent and country has wolves now. They traded pack lives for human lives—to work and be enslaved by man's design. So we will not attack our enemy on a battlefield." He took a deep breath and nodded his massive head. "We will attack our enemy from within."

We were all quiet at first. Then Peter roused himself again.

"The only way this could work is if we managed to bring all the wolves from every corner of the world together. And even then, many wouldn't obey you. They've lost their sense of loyalty. Some," he said, glancing at me, "repress their wolf sides, even."

My heart seemed to hiccup at the attention he called to me. They all looked in my direction now. How the hell would Peter know what I do with my wolf? We'd never met before today.

He raked his hateful eyes over me before turning back to his leader. "This mutt you are so fond of, Alpha, is one of these. Can't you hear the desperate, lonely cries of her wolf? Like so many others, she has caged away her true self. Wolves like her will not join you. They do not wish to be connected to Nature or be who they really are. They have created a false identity for themselves. They think they are human."

The room was again silent. I stared down at the table, unable to defend myself. He wasn't wrong about me. He probably wasn't wrong about other wolves either. Would they really give up the lives they had now to fight for someone they never knew about? If I wasn't connected to Basileus in such an intimate way, would I fight for him? My body stilled under the pressure in my mind. Would I even fight for him now?

"You're right," Basileus stated. My head snapped up so I could see his face. He looked completely composed and unworried. "Wolves are disconnected from their roots. They do not know who they are and they might not wish to ever know. But who are you to criticize them, Peter?"

Hurt flashed through Peter's eyes. He stood up from his chair. "Alpha, have you forgotten that I have waited patiently and loyally for you all these centuries and millennia? You cannot call me a hypocrite. No one has been more faithful to you than me."

The room practically ached with tension. I wanted to run and hide. This was an argument that preceded me in every way, and I couldn't help but feel like I was eavesdropping on something private.

"You condemn them for losing themselves to the way of humans," Basileus replied, "but what did you do to stop them for all those centuries and millennia you waited?"

Peter's face dropped. The color in his face drained away. He'd been called out. Accused. And he knew it was true.

"You were given the gift of immortality. Agathe gave her life for this gift, but you used it to—what? Indulge in passions? Lay with ape descendants and wolves alike? You blame our children for losing their way when you were nothing but a lustful drunk yourself. How many of our descendants of mixed blood can be traced to your bloodline? From a night you spent with an ape's descendant? Agathe would be in sorrow if she could see you now."

The shame contorting Peter's posture and face burned into anger. Color rushed back into his face until it was nearly purple with blood.

"You have always been a self-righteous bastard," Peter snapped. "You expected perfection. Always. Now you'll be a damned fool to find no one is perfect and no one will uphold this war you intend to bring! You will lose. And I will be there to watch you burn while I live on." He sucked in a ragged breath. "Agathe knew who I was when she sacrificed herself. She knew and she loved me anyway. But you—you are a blind fool. Not a king. A fool."

Snarling, he grabbed his chair and threw it across the room, over my head, where it splintered into pieces against the wall. Basileus yanked my chair closer to him to protect me from the flying splinters. Peter stormed out of the house, slamming the door. Danny's eyes were a mile wide. This must have been so confusing for him to watch.

The others came running into the room. I noticed my parents and brother and, most importantly, Tandan. His beautiful dark eyes narrowed to where Basileus was holding me flush to his side. My brain was still spinning from that conversation.

"What happened?" Kiara demanded.

Basileus ignored them while Danny frantically relayed what he knew. "The prophecy has been fulfilled," he said, looking at Angelica.

"You knew he betrayed you all along?" she asked.

"I could see many things from the celestial realm, but only what Nature allowed me to," he explained. "Peter was often the focus. Nature wanted me to understand that he could not do what needs to be done. He would not have been faithful through the war."

"There was a prophecy?" My voice sounded like a mouse's squeak.

"Yes." Angelica sighed and ran her fingers through her graying hair. "The prophecy claimed that Basileus would return. Someone would betray him. The war would begin and someone of significance would die."

I paled. "Someone's going to die?"

Basileus hummed in confirmation and then said, "We can't worry about that now. My Beta has been removed and I must choose a new one."

The room had quieted again, though everyone still stood inside. Basileus looked at everyone. I didn't realize until that moment he intended to choose a new Beta out of these people. Everyone watched us, trying to determine what was happening.

"Danny?" Angelica suggested in French. "He has been an Alpha. He's the most suitable for the position."

Shaking his head, Basileus said, "No. He is afraid of me—as he should be. He treated a king as a prisoner and I will not forget that."

"Then...Danny's trainee?"

I gasped. "My brother?"

They both looked at me. Basileus' eyes scanned my face until he shook his head again.

"No. He is too inexperienced and impulsive. I will neither forget how he turned on his sister, even if for what he believed was for the sake of his pack."

I was touched that he understood what happened and that he cared enough to keep my brother out of it. I knew that troubles were ahead with a war on the bounds and, even though Braden had been an asshole to me, I wanted him nowhere near all of that. My parents wouldn't survive if something happened to both of us.

So that left very few options left for Basileus. Out of the males, which Betas typically were, that left my dad and Tandan. My dad refused to be in any kind of pack leadership. He didn't even want to be in a pack. There was no way he would be the second hand to our King Lycan.

"Rylee," Basileus said. When our eyes met, he finished, "Tell your mate he is my new Beta."