Chapter 34.

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I thought I would get some rest after the long flight, but when I found Richard waiting to pick me up from the airport, I knew something was wrong.

"They let you come alone?" I asked.

"Yes. They've got a whole meeting set up for you." I stopped walking and looked at him. He was not joking. Damn it, seriously?

"I'm exhausted." I almost whined.

Richard laughed. "I'm guessing they consider this more important than our fight considering they don't care about whether we share any secrets anymore," he said.

"They're going to interrogate me, aren't they?" I asked.

"I think they'll do more than that." Richard frowned, "They're not exactly happy about your lack of... female organs." I shoved him as he ran his eyes over me and we laughed.

I sighed. The whole Luna and Alpha heir thing Karabo had told me about had been completely forgotten about until that moment. I guessed even though I found it absolutely ridiculous I had to respect their customs. Still, my mate was not going to create an heir with anyone in any fucking pack no matter how long things had been done that way.

"They're tough but I'm sure you can overturn them, they're not going to let it go easily. Even Karabo and I have to fight them in almost every decision we make." I raised my brows.

"Some of your pack members are not happy about the hereditary line?"

"A few are far from it, especially because of Karabo's father's suicide. They don't think the family's fit to lead after that, but everyone else is happy with the way we've led. No one's ever challenged us yet, we're too strong even though we're very calm. I guess some people are like you." We chuckled. He meant some people would have wanted their pack to have a better reputation for being ruthless, Karabo's pack was nothing like that.

I smiled. Our packs were pretty much opposites. I was happy, it was tough to deal with Karabo already; if we were alike we would undoubtedly have killed each other... and then been incredibly sad about it.

Richard and I drove back to his pack talking about what things had been like without Karabo, and I was impressed. He sounded like a great Beta even though he thought he made tons of mistakes, clearly just over-thinking. He pointed out that I smelt like my mate and I smirked making him figure out that we had mated and watched his eyes widen.

"What if this doesn't work? What if Karabo beats Ashton?" I snorted but caught myself off halfway through. I wasn't sure whether to side with Ashton thinking he could beat Karabo because wolves from my pack were just that strong and I supported my Beta or whether I should have sided with Karabo because he was my mate and a powerful Alpha and really, though I did not want to admit it for the sake of our merging pack, in the back of my mind I knew there was no way Ashton could actually beat him. I figured the same for Richard and me.

"Worry about yourself, Beta." He frowned at me and I shook my head trying to be positive, "Seriously though, it will work. I know both of you can put up a fight, you're great Betas. We would not have suggested doing this if we weren't sure of that"

"You have more belief in us than our own mothers do. My heart." He lifted his hand to his heart mockingly and I reached out to punch his shoulder earning a whine in return.

"You better be tougher than that." I laughed.

"Shut up," he growled rubbing his arm quickly.

When we reached his pack grounds, Richard parked in front of a house and nodded his head towards the front door. They really weren't going to let me get any rest before this meeting...I glanced around smiling at the nostalgia that being there brought me. It also made me sad. I wanted Karabo...

"You can stay at Karabo's mom's, she's expecting you. I'll drop your bag off." Richard said. I gave a nod and climbed out of the car hearing him call out a "Good luck, Alpha."

I smiled back at him before walking up to the front door and giving it a knock. When no one replied within five seconds I let myself in.

"Good morning," I called after shutting the door behind me.

"Alpha. Good morning." I smiled at the woman that walked in. I recognised her from the call back home, I didn't know her name, though and could not remember if Karabo had linked it to me. "Follow me." I gave a nod as she turned and walked into the hallway. I followed her into a dining room filled with twelve other elders. None of them looked young enough to be current leaders.

I greeted them with a slight bow before introducing myself and then listened as they introduced themselves. I recognised Matthew and Zain as being the most talkative members on the call the previous day. Matthew seemed like their obvious leader seated at the far end of the table while staring me down. I didn't sit down when our introductions were finished.

"You called for me?"

"Yes." Matthew said, "I'm sure Karabo has told you about our pack, how the lineage works."

"He has," I confirmed.

"Then you know why your... situation is a concern to us." Situation? "Our pack needs an heir, from Karabo: not an artificial heir and all packs need a Luna."

"I understand. Surrogates aren't artificial and my pack has been able to run fine without a Luna for a while now."

"Yes, we've looked into Galaxy and clearly some feminine guidance would be beneficial for your pack, that's not any of our business though. Our young Alpha has to be a direct descendent of Karabo's and because his mate is not female, the child's mother will be Luna." Matthew insisted. I brushed off the comment about my pack.

"I respect your culture but merging means compromising. My Beta has a female mate and yours will probably also have a female mate once he finds his mate, they will act as Lunas. The Alpha will be chosen at random, as Alphas are always chosen within my pack."

"No." I raised my brows as Matthew frowned at me, "We do not approve of any of this, not the merger, not you, none of it. And so, as in every pack where there's a clear problem with leadership, it will be challenged." I stared at him.

"You want to fight for the Alpha position?" I asked to clarify it, even though I was certain he meant that.

"Obviously not any of us, we're too old. We'll choose a suitable match. You can inform your mate." He didn't even refer to Karabo as their Alpha... I resisted the urge to clench my fist and show my annoyance with him.

"Well, seeing as this is our pack, why wait when there's already an Alpha here?" I asked.

"You're saying you'll do it?" A female elder asked.

"Yes. I'll do it." I said.

"Alright. If our fighter wins, whether you beat Richard or not, this Beta deal is off and we'll tell Karabo he isn't needed back here, he'll just have to enter a fight as well if he returns." Matthew said looking quite pleased with himself.

"Right, and I'm going to assume that if I win, you're leaving this pack," I said, "and anyone that sides with you leaves as well." I ran my eyes over the other elders and some of them seemed distraught.

"Deal." He smirked.

"Say when. I need to prepare for my fight. Good day." I gave a slight bow as a greeting and walked out hiding exactly how pissed I was. I was reeling and had never wanted to kill an elder so much.

How could Karabo even have people that disrespected him like that in his pack? They obviously had no faith in him or any decision he made. I hated Matthew especially. Who the hell was he?

I made my way to Karabo's house and found it empty with just a note from his mother saying she had gone to buy groceries and I could use Karabo's room or any of the guest rooms to get some rest. I chose his room because I could smell him in it and so it made me feel like I was home.

My phone began ringing once I had laid down on his bed and I reached for it to find a smiling picture of Karabo on the screen.

Oh yeah. I was supposed to call him once I had landed...

"Hey, Babe," I said shutting my eyes.

"Nice to know you're not dead, 'Babe'," he said flatly. I couldn't help but chuckle at the petty tone he used for the nickname.

"I'm sorry... You would have felt it if I died though." I pointed out with a smile.

"You're the one who said you'd call. Just do what you say you will." his voice was slightly annoyed but didn't make my smile waver because I was finally hearing him. "How is everything?" he asked.

"Great, I haven't seen your mom yet, but I had a meeting with the Elders."

"A meeting? Why?"

I recounted what happened to him while staring at the blank grey ceiling that made his bedroom roof. When I finished, he said nothing and after a while of silence, I furrowed my brows.

"You there?" I asked.

"You agreed to that?" his voice carried clear disbelief and I frowned as I sat up.

"I said I would fight on your behalf."

"You can't be serious," he said.

"What's wrong? I thought you would be happy. I took their challenge for you." I kicked my legs off the side of his bed so I was completely sitting now.

"Jesus, Eli. You can't bet on something like that without talking to me first!" he snapped in my ear.

"I'm your mate," I said.

"Exactly!" he replied, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"What? You don't think I'd win? Thank you for the vote of confidence."

"This isn't about you, of course you'd win. This is about my pack, my position in it," he said.

"I know. I thought we were merging?" So they were questioning my position as well.

"We haven't merged yet, it is still my pack. You don't make decisions that could alter my entire pack and their safety without even talking to me! And if we were merged, you have to run things by me anyway." he said.

"Look, if we have to run every single thing by each other before we do things, we'll never make decisions quickly or move fast enough. Karabo, I did it for you, to earn respect for you because you haven't done that yourself." I heard a cough of disbelief.

"Fucking unbelievable." he muttered, "For me? Respect? Come on, Eli. This isn't about me, or us, or the packs to you, it's about you. You do things because of your pride, everything is always about you and what you want, what you think is best. You're so fucking inconsiderate and selfish." The line went dead before I could reply filling my ear with a deafening silence.

I let out a frustrated shout as I slammed my phone onto the bed beside me. I lay back down and sighed running my hands over my face. For a few minutes, I argued with myself about whether to try to call him again or just sleep and eventually ended up turning my phone off. Obviously, he did not want to speak. I needed to rest before the fight with Richard tomorrow, and I guess the time would let Karabo cool off too.

I turned onto my side but ended up tossing around for about an hour before I glared at the ceiling. What was his problem? I couldn't just let them disrespect him like that. I had to agree. How dare he call me inconsiderate and selfish when the only thing I had thought about at the time was helping him! I rolled over again, still unable to stop glaring at everything I looked at.

Maybe they were right. Two Alphas in the same pack would be ridiculous.

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