**Kataleya's POV**
I watched as Justin started to get angrier and angrier the longer Christopher was inputting his opinion. The moment thatjustin started talking, I felt it as his aura blasted from him, causing nearly every person in this room to submit to him. I triedcalming him by rubbing his leg or soothingly, but that did not work. He was far too pissed off, which I guess isunderstandable. Elder Christopher was spouting all kinds of bullshit. He wanted me to go out there with none of our warriorsor, as he put it, the bare minimum, essentially stating that it did not matter if something happened to me. I understood thatthere were people that were pissed at me and did not like me being their next Alpha, but damn, that took it too far. It wasalmost as if he was trying to get me killed.
Everyone was stuck in an uncomfortable silence before King Lucas finally spoke up.
King Lucas glanced at Justin, then Christopher, before he began speaking, âWe will not leave the pack unguarded while we aregone. However, we will not send Kataleya by herself, with the bare minimum for warriors, into those woods. Shame on you,Christopher, for even suggesting such a thingâ The king paused before turning to look back at justin, âSon, I need you toreign in your aura just a smidge. You are making some of the other people in the room uncomfortable.â
I felt Justin slowly reigning in his aura and everyone was able to begin moving again. I glanced at Oliver and I could see thathe was trying to hide his smirk.
You find this amusing? I linked him.
He glanced at me before responding, âHell fucking yeah! I was waiting for someone to put Christopher in his first place! Hewanted to send you to your fucking death. Sounded like he wanted you to be f*****g kidnapped by those fuckers. I knewJustin was not going to stand for it. I am shocked though, Michael and Elijah should not have been so affected by his aura,since they are Alpha blood!
Now that I think about it, he is right. Everyone in the room but my father, the King, and myself was affected by Justin's aura.I guess you are right. Maybe it is because Justin will now outrank the two of them? Since Justin is my mate and it has alreadybeen established that I will become the next Alpha for the pack...that would mean justin would rightfully be my Luna, whichwould give him a rank jump?
Oliver shrugged his shoulders and I tuned back in to what everyone else was saying.
..Christopher, I don't know what the hell you were thinking?â my father was saying. Dad was very mad too. Looking at him,his face was turning red and he was starting to shake. He looked like he was ready to shift and rip his face off. If it was notfor the severity of the situation and what Christopher was saying could be considered treason to his pack, then I would havelaughed at the expression on my father's face. He was pissed.
âDad, I know you are mad... am too. Christopher was out of line with everything that he said, but you looked as if you wereabout to shift. Would you like to take a break? I need to meet with King Lucas, so we can decide the warriors that I am takingwith me."
I watched my father as he took a deep breath before he spoke next. âKataleya, I need to be here for that discussion, but Ithink we can dismiss the Elders from the rest of this meeting and speak of the warriors that will be going with youâ
Some of the Elders moved to protest, but King Lucas held up his hand, silencing all of them.
âYou will leave. The Alpha is in charge of choosing which warriors that he is going to trust; therefore, your input will not benecessary. Thank you for your time and unwanted opinions. You are dismissedâ King Lucas stated with finality.
Once the Elders had left the room, my father turned to face me.
âKataleya, do not get any ideas. We will not be sending you without any warriors. You will have a decent number of warriorsfor our pack to look after you."
Well, there goes that plan. I do not want to leave the pack unprotected and I do not want to have to deal with the potentialthat someone will die because they want me. I do not want to have anyone's blood on my hands. I do not want my packmembers to die needlessly.
I looked over at Justin and he squeezed my hand.
âBaby, I know what you are feeling and I know what you are thinking, but when these warriors took their oath to becomewarriors, they knew what they were signing up for. If something were to happen and someone died, it would not be on yourhead. Every single one of us took an oath not only to our pack, but to the Alpha and his family. And baby, I hate to break it toyou, but many of the warriors would die for you if need be. I have not talked to a single warrior that was upset about youbeing Alpha. They want you as their Alpha. You are very well-liked among them. Just promise me, you will not try to play heroand go after them on your own. Please don't do that to me. I cannot lose you. I need to know you are safe.
I could feel the tears stinging the back of my eyes and I rapidly blinked, trying to clear them.
I promise. I will stick to the plan. I will not sneak off to find them on my own. Thank you for standing by me, Justin. I loveyou! I could tell my voice was cracking through the link I could feel the trickle of the tears starting to run down my cheek. Justin reached over and touched the wetness on my cheek,using his thumb to wipe away the moisture.
love you too, my queen! He whispered through the link.
I turned back to everyone else in the conference room and they were all just watching our interaction without sayinganything.
Lucas nodded his head towards me. âAre you ready to discuss warriors?"
I nodded my head at him.
âFirst thing first..we are going to start with the key warriors. The ones that will directly surround Kataleya. There are a fewrare Lycans that are a part of my guard that I would like to directly assist you. Ashton is able to create an invisible barrieraround himself and those he chooses. This ability makes to wear anyone he chooses and himself appear to be invisible,which could help us keep a few warriors near Kataleya, without hiding within the tree lines."
âThat would be helpful. If we use your Lycan, then I would want to have Justin, Aziel, and Gael with Kataleya, plus your Lycan.âI shook my head. âI don't need all of them surrounding me, Alpha. I would prefer to have only two guards with me, plus theLycan. I also, do not want all the stronger warriors with us. A few of them will need to stay behind to help protect ourborders.â
âKataleya makes a point. Some of your strong warriors should stay here, but only one or two. I will have some of my guardsstay behind to guard your pack and I am sure Alpha Eric would not mind lending a few of his warriors to help you out too,"Lucas stated.
Alpha Eric nodded his head. âI already have a few of my warriors that are on their way to your pack. They will be more thanhappy to stay to guard your pack while we deal with these bastardsâ
âI want to have Garrison with us; I stated, âbut, I want him to be one of the ones hiding in trees.â
So, for the next several hours, we discussed the pros and cons of each warrior that we would be bringing with us and thenwe discussed which warriors would be left at the pack and who would be doing the patrols. There were going to be an evennumber of wolves from Alpha Eric's pack and our pack. King Lucas was, also, going to send us several of his Lycans that weregoing to have the sole mission to protect everyone and make sure no harm came to us.
I was shocked to learn how many of the rare form of Lycans lived in King Lucasâ territory. Typically, Alpha wolf's, once theytake over their packs as the new Alpha, will develop some type of gift. It could be something like increased speed or healingabilities. With Lycans, sometimes, they would develop special gifts that aided them as well. Then, of course, their king's (orqueens) would develop special abilities as well, but their abilities would differ from those of the Alpha's. If a king developsan ability that an Alpha could possess, then the reigning monarch would have multiple gifts. Some of the most commonLycan monarchâs gifts consisted of control over one (or multiple) elements, necromancy, or the ability to talk to the MoonGoddess.
Legend has it that while Alpha's, Lycan's, and reigning Lycan monarchs have these special gifts, female Alphas possess manygifts. On top of the gifts that they possess, their mate bonds are different. Unfortunately, there are not many documents thatcontain much about female Alphas and the abilities that they contain or even what makes their mate bonds different fromthose of a regular mate bond, but I was determined to find out. Not only for myself, but also for Justin's sake. I could feel thathe was taken aback by his newly-found powerful aura, but he was not sure how exactly to hand that After we left the meeting, Justin and I had to alert the warriors that were chosen to be a part of my special guard and theones that were going to be travelling with us for this âmissionâ and what everyone's role was going to be.
I will admit that I am worried everyone agreed to allow Justin to travel with me, but I was nervous, incredibly nervous. What ifsomething happened to him? How would I handle that?
And the other thing that neither one of us has bothered to talk about yet is my heat. What are we going to do when I go intoheat? How will we handle something like that? What if my heat hits while we are out searching for those bastards?
The heat can attract wolves from miles away. Depending on the rank and status of the wolf, the worse the heat is. Not onlywas I born to an Alpha and hold the rank of an Alpha female, but I am destined to be the Alpha for my pack..which meansthat my heat is going to be strong and powerful.
Hopefully, we can end this quickly and efficiently.