“To be honest, when I saw you kissing him. I feared one thing that would have scared me even more than losing a battle; I feared losing you, Miranda.”
“I thought… that this was a way of me punishing myself for my mistakes, for sending most of my troops away like that. It never came to my mind that Rakur would be planning otherwise… I let my people down, and if it wasn’t for Walden, we wouldn’t even be here right now.”
“You made a mistake with dispersing your soldiers, everyone makes a mistake sometime in their lives, Damian… even as a leader… even as an alpha, there will be times where things won’t go the way you expected. It happened with me and Camila. And for what you did, you might think it a mistake, but you did it for me… you did it for my people… I’ll never forget the sacrifices you made to protect me, Damian…. I love you.”
Moved by her words, and forgetting all about their previous argument, he kissed her, “I love you too, Miranda.”
**********
There was a gathering amongst the silver wolves in the court the next day. They all thought the gathering to be in relation to the war, but when the alpha ordered the keepers to bring in the royalty stone, the wolves suspected that something different was about to happen, and indeed it was, as alpha Damian gave a shocking announcement.
“Today marks a new day in the future of the silver dynasty, and to mark this special day, I have decided that from now on, we will be sharing the royalty stone to other packs, as it will no longer be ours to keep alone.”
Gasps and murmurs were heard amongst the crowd as everyone wondered the reason for this sudden decision by the alpha. The silver wolves had guarded this precious stone for centuries, and now this alpha wants to give it away, just like that. What has gotten into him?
Damian let them express themselves for a few minutes, he’d been expecting this, and he knew just what to say to answer their questions and settle their uncertainties.
“For years, the stone has always been rightfully where it belongs, at some point it caused disruption with the rogue king as he was ready to sacrifice anything to lay his hands on it. But then… there was a period where we didn’t have this stone… that happened to be my fault because I trusted someone I shouldn’t have in the past, and almost brought calamity upon my people.
“But even when I didn’t have the stone… it never stopped me from fighting to right our wrongs… it never stopped me from winning our victory back and bring prosperity back to our people… I still did that, even when I didn’t have the stone.”
Silence. Everywhere was quiet now, as the wolves took slow steps in understanding the message their alpha was trying to pass across.
“Other packs envy us because they believe it’s this stone that has been keeping us, that’s made us reach where we are today, and even though I know the stone holds great power, I do not believe this is true. The silver pack’s glory never lied in any stone; the stone is just a blessed ornament from the goddess.
“The real power lies in the strength and unity of the pack, which was what we witnessed yesterday. I want you all to promise me something in your hearts, even till the time I cease to be your alpha. I want you to promise me that we will never let anyone take away our love, our unity which binds us together.
“Apart from giving… or rather sharing the royalty stone with our neighbors, I also intend to sign more peace treaties in the future, as yesterday, apart from the night shadow alpha, we also received assistance from one of my allies, alpha Jireh of the red moon pack. That is the power of unity, and we should never ever try to break that bond.
“Yesterday made me see the great things that all twelve tribes can achieve if we are united, we had a lot of conflicts during the first war, hence giving the rogues an upper hand, but if we work together…If we unite, those rogues will never stand a chance, no matter how many decades king Rakur uses to build his army, he will always fail if we remain in unity.”
After the speech, the silver wolves gave an applause. When he’d first mentioned it, they never thought they’d be agreeing with him until after he spoke, but now they’d seen the wisdom in his words, and they were ready to follow along suit the wise decisions of their great alpha.
**********
Impatience nearly made Samara tear her hair out…. She needed to know what had happened, she needed to know the outcome of the battle… what worried her even more was the fact that she had not heard any news of any dead alphas. She had not heard any news of the rogues colonizing the silver territory. Walden had not been around either, and she certainly could not make her way to the battlefield. What was going on? She wondered.
That night, her desires were answered as she spotted a messenger bird on her window. Rakur had sent her a message to meet with him in their usual spot. Of course, she wouldn’t miss it for anything… thankfully, Walden wasn’t around. This was the perfect time to sneak out and discover what had happened.
**********
A few hours later, Samara was at the meeting point, but the greeting she received from Rakur was far from friendly.
“Hello partner, it’s been long since…”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He growled angrily, cutting her short.
Samara shook her head, “I don’t understand… what’s all this about???”
“I said… why didn’t you tell me that the silver alpha had strong alliances with other packs??”