Jason

The day of our hearing dragged on and on. Carrie sat beside me, an expression of boredom tinged with outrage on her delicate features. The conference room where the alpha business was held was huge. Off to one side in the centre was a raised section with several podiums where speakers would go to talk, and directly in front of that were places at desks where all the head alphas of the Alpha Assembly were assigned to sit, their lunas—if they had them—seated beside then like decorative trophies.

They had all taken their places before we had been allowed inside. Those of us who represented smaller packs or were regular wolves who wanted to observe the proceedings were relegated to positions at the edge of the room where all the lofty alphas would have no need to consider us unless we were dragged front and center on the podium.

Finally it was our turn. Bluegorge's allegations were read out to the crowd by a grizzled old werewolf who seemed to have no actual interest in the proceedings, and then I was called to the front to speak for the pack. I would have let Carrie speak instead if she had wanted, but she insisted I do it. Unfortunately, it was likely that the head alphas really would take what I had to say more seriously than if it was coming out of a luna's mouth. It annoyed me that they might dare disregard her, but she was right. Getting our side heard was more important than anything else at that moment, even if I would have enjoyed seeing her turn her fire onto this group of overbearing jackasses.

She stayed where she was as I walked up to the front and took my spot at the podium. I was surprised that I was on the same level as the alphas at their desks, I would have thought they would have preferred to look down on their supplicants.

It probably would have been lower if some of them wouldn't also speak here over the course of the assembly. The pretentious assholes would have it no other way.

My gaze flicked over Asshole Dane. He really did look like his silver spoon had been shoved up his ass at birth. He had obviously found his mate the day I'd met him, since she was sitting next to him in the luna's seat. The female he had inexplicably preferred to Carrie looked kind of sulky. It boggled my mind, but I wasn't complaining since Carrie was mine and the asshole never had any right to her in the first place. I had wanted to beat the hell out of him when I found Carrie cornered by him in the washroom, but she was right. It would have made us look bad if he had shown up looking defeated for our hearing.

Still, if he pulled that shit again... It had only been the fact that she seemed completely unharmed that had helped me keep a grip on my furious wolf. I'd been just as angry, I wouldn't have been able to control myself if he had laid a hand on her.

But there were more important things to deal with than that pretentious prick. I waited for my turn to speak, since the blowhard from Bluegorge, Alpha Irvin King—even his name was pretentious—was talking about pack saturation from the other podium. He might as well have had "I hate rogues" tattooed across his forehead for everyone to see.

Finally, I was given the floor. Carrie knew I wanted her to remind me if I forgot anything, but mostly I could feel her belief in me seeping through our bond. I wanted to live up to that.

"I'm Jason Bronson, the alpha of Glenshadow. I became a rogue several years ago when my former pack, Glenhaven was attacked without provocation by Stonemason. Most of the pack was killed during the attack, and the rest of us were taken prisoner."

For one brief second my eyes flitted over the current Stonemason alpha. The alpha had changed, but the pack had suffered no further penalties whatsoever. The injustice had not escaped me, but I pushed the burning anger away in order to focus on my goal, keeping my new pack in existence. That was the priority.

"Most of the prisoners were released, but I and eight others escaped later with some assistance. Four of us were separated from the rest. Once free, we were unable to find a pack willing to take us—" A couple of the alphas who had turned us away were currently listening to me speak. "—so we remained rogues because we had no other choice. Eventually, we were joined by a couple dozen other rogues who missed the life of a pack, but could not find one willing to accept them, and we formed a new pack."

"For the next year, we travelled as a rogue pack until we rightfully acquired land from the humans in a good rural location. We moved there and began setting up our pack while breaking no human or werewolf laws."

Finished my piece, I waited to be challenged.

"Did you apply for pack recognition before you began to build?" a portly older alpha asked from near the front.

"No, and if you check section—"

"C54b."

"—C54b of the assembly's pack regulations, it can be filed any time in the first five years and still be valid."

"While that's true, we do prefer for things to be done in the correct order."

If they declared my pack invalid over an informal technicality that wasn't even against the rules, I didn't know how I would react. My wolf was already on edge... No, I would keep calm for Carrie's sake, and for my pack members. "Unfortunately we're currently working to set up streams of revenue and build the basic infrastructure, and that is taking up a significant proportion of our time."

"That's understandable," agreed another alpha. "I'm more interested in the pack saturation issue."

This one was simple. "We're located about halfway between Bluegorge and Fernclaw, with at least twenty-five miles of unclaimed land between us on either side to ensure that no one infringes on anyone else's territory. The space between is largely forest and holds only a scattering of human dwellings. As I already stated, our land was legally acquired, and as you all know, there are cases of packs located far closer together.

I didn't look at Asshole Dane, but I knew that as one of the twin packs, he was more than well aware of the fact. Maybe I should have tried to be more diplomatic when I met him the previous day, but smirking and getting Carrie away from him had been about the best that I could do under the circumstances with my agitated wolf howling for justice.

Alpha King, who had returned to his seat, had an obviously clenched jaw, but didn't respond and we moved onto the next matter at hand, the allegations that Glenshadow was intended to be a front for a rogue army, or some other such nonsense.

Apparently the alphas were taking it seriously, however, because they debated back and forth while I waited for my turn to speak. I could feel Carrie's irritation with the spurious arguments as clearly as my own.

"While there are a number of former rogues making up the beginning of our pack, the people we're taking in are not looking for a war, they're looking for a pack that they can be a part of. They left their packs for non-violent reasons, and have been barred from rejoining other packs due to pack prejudice against rogues. Most of their crimes were not worthy of being expelled entirely from werewolf society, and yet being banished was the equivalent of a slow isolated death sentence for most."

"We have no intention of knowingly harbor dangerous criminals, we're peaceful disenfranchised werewolves seeking to assist other people in the same position as we find ourselves."

Once I was done speaking, Alpha King took another stab at trying to make Glenshadow look dangerous, but really only succeeded at making himself look like a whiny coward.

I had to hold myself back from laughing at him, until the moment I wanted to murder him in cold blood in front of a room full of witnesses.

"Mark my words, these are exactly the sort of wolves we don't want grouping and gaining power. They're unfit to be a part of a pack. And if you need more evidence of that, the new luna of this dangerous pack is little better than a status hunting whore. She couldn't bag a proper alpha, so now she's slumming it with the rogues."