The Pack's Nemesis (Quirin's Story) novel Chapter 81

Warren

I’m excited to get started with Quirin this morning. Not only is it good to feel needed, but I want to nurture the new relationship that we have. I’ll tread lightly, I don’t want to do anything to disrupt the new bond that we’ve created. But I want him to know that he’s family now and that’s important to me, it means something to me.

I stepped away when Quirin and Henry were saying goodbye, and I’d seen Beta Kier and Beta Arianna descending the stairs together.

“Congratulations! I hope you’ll be as happy as Yara and I are,” I said, smiling when Arianna blushed sweetly.

“Thank you, Alpha,” she said.

I’d watched them walk into the kitchen and heard the squeals of excitement from her friends as Arianna showed off her mate mark.

I waited patiently for Quirin and saw him turn to see what was going on in the kitchen, then saw his pack members ask to speak to him. It’s difficult not having my own tasks to do, but I know that it’s important as an Alpha to meet with your pack members when they ask for your time. So, I turn, looking out the back windows of Quirin and Kennedy’s pack thinking through the possibilities of how we can begin to clean up the pack lands. It’s going to take a lot of time and energy, which excites me. I need to feel needed again.

“Alpha Warren,” Quirin says from behind me.

I turn and smile at him. “I thought we agreed that I was just Warren to you.”

He smiles, something I’ve never seen him do unless Kennedy was nearby. “Warren, my pack members would like to speak with you. They want to take you up on your offer to talk to them like you talked to me. Are you still willing to meet with them?” he asks.

“Absolutely,” I say, stepping forward.

“Thank you. Let’s meet in my office. My warriors are already there,” he says.

When we step in, I see about ten warriors, male and female, waiting to meet with me.

“Good morning, everyone,” I say as I step in. They have all pulled up chairs and are facing Quirin’s desk.

“Would you like a chair, Warren?” he asks me.

“Yes, thank you.” He grabs a chair for me and I pull it in front of his desk, facing the group. Quirin leans against his desk rather than sitting. I’m not surprised that he doesn’t sit. Quirin has always been full of energy. It rolls off of him in waves, although that energy has a decidedly more positive feel to it since he’s been mated to my daughter.

“Alpha Warren has agreed to speak with all of you. I will remind you that he is your Luna’s father and as such, I expect you all to remain respectful during this meeting and afterward,” Quirin tells them.

“Yes, Alpha,” they say, then turn to me.

I lean forward, putting my elbows on my knees, more or less putting myself at their level and hoping to make them fec more open to talking and hearing what I have to say.

“First, I’m assuming that all of you lost someone in the wars during the time when I was Alpha and was fighting against the other Alphas. Is that a correct assumption?” I ask.

I watch as they all nod or quietly agree with me.

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10:31 Fri, 21 Mar

Chapter 182

“Anyone from Alpha Brady’s pack?” I ask, a few hands go up.

“Alpha Thomas?” Only one hand,

“Alpha Simon?” Multiple hands.

“Alpha Quinton?” A couple of hands.

“Did I miss anyone?” I ask. Everyone looks around, but no one else raises their hand.

90%

I sit back and scrub my face. “You’re all younger than I am, closer to Alpha Quirin’s age so you might not realize that things were different back then. Wars were constant. My pack was being attacked nearly every day. My warriors were dying, whether from battles or from battle wounds that were improperly treated by the shit doctor I had before I found Yara”

The memory of those dark times fills my mind. That is, until my mate pushes her sweet consciousness into mine, wrapping around me like she’s holding my hand in a unified presence to push the painful memories away.

“Those were very dark times. As an Alpha, you never want to see good men and women die, and especially for no good reason. No good reason that I could see anyway. Alpha Quinton wanted my pack lands. He entered an alliance with Alpha Brady and Alpha Thomas to attack me repeatedly and it was slowly working. My pack was dying.”

“Then I found Yara,” I say and smile. “She changed everything for me. She came into my life and immediately began healing me and my pack. She is so damn good at what she does that my pack started getting stronger right away.”

I watch as they all look at each other. “Just like Kennedy has done for us,” Quirin says and they nod.

“Well, your pack is strong, she just made you stronger. Mine was dying out. We were riddled with infection, had wounds that didn’t have time to heal, we were fighting with fevers and barely mended bones or poorly set bones that fractured again easily…” I shrug. “I only tell you this so you understand what it was like. It was a dark time for all of the packs. But then, Yara arrived and it quickly became apparent that she was the reason that my pack was getting stronger very quickly. That’s when the Alphas started coming for my mate,” I say, and Arric growls in my chest.

“When I was finally strong enough to go on the offensive and start attacking instead of waiting to be attacked, I did. I created an alliance with Alpha Harold, and we began working together against the other packs.” I hold up a hand, looking at the ones from Simon’s pack. “I’ll get to Simon in a moment. The reasons for my attack on him are different.”

“We took out Alpha Thomas‘ pack first. We thought we collected everyone who wasn’t a warrior at the time to bring them back to my pack, but we obviously missed at least one,” I say gesturing to the woman who said she was from Thomas‘ pack.

“My father was a warrior. His death killed my mother before we made it to the safe room. I was afraid, so I hid.”

I nod. “How old were you?”

“Twelve.”

“That had to be terrifying for you,” I say gently.

She nods and I see her fighting her tears.

“You must have been very strong to have survived on your own for so long,” I say to her before refocusing on the others.

“I’m sure it’s not. Patricide, especially when the Alpha was loved by his pack, isn’t exactly the way to get the get the pack to follow you.”