Luna of Rogues

Part 33 - Seven Alphas and a Rogue

We had been talking for less than an hour, though it felt like days to me. And in that time, we had been completely unable to reach a decision. The packmeet was split four to four.

Alphas Keith, Cornell, Chris and Jackson were being naïve idiots, in my opinion. They wanted to reclaim Lowland and Ember Packs, then leave the ferals alone in the hope that they would go west or south eventually. I didn't agree — if the hunters were using them to destroy our species, they wouldn't back down.

Alpha Jace and I both wanted to put an end to the ferals before they got any more powerful. Jaden and Zach supported us just because they trusted Jace to do their jobs for them. That was the Lloyd family for you — not always the brightest, but loyal to each other.

So the four of us had argued that to remove a weed, you had to kill the root as well as the stem. Which would mean the hunters too, but hey — one thing at a time, right? And there was a good chance Rhodric was already doing that.

Thankfully, the others didn't see the benefits of their stance. They could simply refuse to fight and leave it all to us. We couldn't exactly force them to participate. Chris and Keith's packs were far enough away to be safe for another month at least, and Cornell and Jackson's packs were already under feral control. They had very little to lose.

But without the brains to realise that, they argued stubbornly for leaving the ferals alone, without ever putting much effort into convincing us it was a good idea. No doubt they thought I would drop dead of poison before the meeting was over and leave them with a majority. We weren't getting anywhere.

"In times of indecision, the council takes a vote," Jace reminded us. "But if we're split equally, that obviously won't work. Come on, Chris. Surely you can see that the ferals are dangerous."

Alpha Chris, the most reasonable of our opposition, simply shook his head.

Jackson saw a chance and swooped in to point out, "The girl isn't an Alpha. Her vote doesn't count."

"Neither are you," I snapped "And if both of our votes don't count, it's still a tie."

"How do we solve a tie?" Jaden asked his brother.

"We have an odd number of packs, so I think it's unprecedented," Jace said wearily. Oops. My bad.

My sister had stood silently for the entire hour, but now she cleared her throat. "Well, actually, it's not. In the war when Stormhaze Pack was destroyed, there were only four Alphas present at the packmeet, and they voted in a tie."

Goddess bless Fion and her perfect memory. Only she could remember such random historical facts, especially ones which were left out of the stories. Who wanted to hear about political inconveniences when there had been bloodshed?

"How did they solve it?" he asked, looking impressed.

"They each voted for an Alpha whose judgement they trusted. Whoever wins the vote has supremacy over the council to make any decision they want. It doesn't always work, though — sometimes still ends split, but it's worth a try."

Keith actually seemed interested. "Can you vote for yourself?"

"Yes, or not vote at all. But please, let's not go Brethren Court here. There's actually just one rule: no conferring." Fion smiled slightly at that point, and I wondered if she had made it up. It would certainly help our side more than theirs — we had a clear choice.

Zach happened to be my favourite Alpha. He had experience with fighting but no interest in the political side of his position. He had spent most of the packmeet cleaning his fingernails with a knife. I didn't even consider Jaden, who looked to his younger half-brother for guidance as often as he could. The by-blow of New Dawn's last Luna hadn't been raised to lead and was only an Alpha because of his mate.