KAI CRUZ
I blocked out the noise in the council chamber as the members began screaming at one another like the bickering barbarians they were. Inside me, my wolf seethed, begging to be let loose to put all these people in their places. But I had to restrain him. I had to restrain myself. Since taking up the mantle of leadership after my father's death, I had learned one crucial lesson: violence was never the way. I never resorted to it unless absolutely necessary.
Even so, every council meeting tempted me to take back those words.
"Can we all keep quiet?" I asked—commanded, really—in a voice so quiet it cut through the chaos. Almost immediately, the noise ceased.
Well, except for one unfortunate man.
"Alpha, I don't think this is the time for you to be telling us to keep quiet." Elder Will had the audacity to look me in the eye as he spoke words that might as well have spelled out his doom. "Our existence is at stake here, so you don't get to..."
"Careful how you complete that statement, Elder Will," I interrupted, my voice dark and final. "Unless you want your tongue delivered to your doorstep."
He paled. Even though I knew my tone had angered him, he kept quiet. He knew damn well it wouldn't end well for him if he said another word.
I looked at the rest of the Council and heaved a sigh. I understood their agitation, but what they didn't understand was that I was just as agitated as they were. Perhaps even more.
"I understand your agitation," I told them, positioning myself as the voice of reason in the room. "And I'm working around the clock to find a countermeasure."
"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Levi asked. His voice was challenging, laced with mockery. "How exactly are you going to rectify the situation? George is dead. They've approved the destruction of our natural habitat to make way for a mega-city for those ridiculous humans. So tell me, Alpha, how exactly do you plan to fix this?"
He leveled a hard glare at me, silently challenging me to talk back, to escalate this into something physical. But I had grown past that.
Levi Turner and I were once best friends. But we had a huge fallout in high school and became sworn enemies because he was always antagonizing me.
"Yes, that's true," another man spoke up. "George's sudden death has put us in a dire situation. We need to find a solution because I'm sure those humans will start cutting down the forests as soon as possible."
George, the council minister, had been our link to the human world. Long before my father died, he had used his werewolf powers to scare George into halting any development proposals in the forest. He had also proceeded to give him fifty million dollars every six months as a bribe, just like the leaders of Eden City before him. It was something I was supposed to be doing right now, but George had died too suddenly, leaving us no room to prepare or bring his successor onto our side.
As if that wasn't enough, those bloody fuckers had the nerve to approve the proposal to cut down our natural habitat.
Of course, they had no idea it was our natural habitat. To them, it looked like a forest, just like their part of the world looked like a forest to us—unless we broke the barrier and went out into their world. Which was only possible for me and a certain fucker who shall not be named.
"For now, I suggest kidnapping the person whose idea it is to destroy our habitat," Denis said. "If we have the person, the chances of them going ahead with the development are low. In the meantime, while they're still trying to find him, Kai would have won the next councilor over to our side."
"Hmm, nice idea." Most of the men agreed with Denis's suggestion.
While it appealed to me too—and I'd actually thought of it myself—it wasn't easy to just go into their world and kidnap one of them. It wouldn't break a sweat for me to do it, but kidnapping a human had certain consequences. It went against the rules of Eden City. It could be done, but the fallout would be severe.
"Maybe we should all just give it up." Levi spoke out of nowhere, drawing all the attention in the room to him. "We're all doomed anyway. Even if we're able to avert this calamity, there's a greater one waiting for us in less than three years. Since our Alpha here..." He threw a taunting look my way. "...has failed to find his mate."
"Shut the fuck up, Levi," I growled, unable to control the rage surging through me. I could feel my wolf shimmering in my eyes, proof of how badly his words had angered me.
"Why?" The bastard still had the audacity to look at me with a nonchalance that made me want to yank his head off his neck. "It's not like I'm lying. We're doomed if you're unable to find your mate."
"Stop it, Levi. This is not the time to blame Kai for what the Moon Goddess is responsible for."
That was Lucas, one of the elders on the council. Heaven saved Levi, because I was already about to stand from my chair and teach him a lesson he wouldn't forget.
Damn all the rules binding us in this Eden City. Because we lived in a modern world, we were not allowed to behave in archaic ways. We were bound by laws that fit into the modern era. Even though I was the Alpha, the most powerful person here, and I still had the final say on all things, I couldn't just act out of anger and rip Levi's head off. He knew just how sensitive that topic was for me, yet he still dared to bring it up.
"We shouldn't pester the Alpha when he's doing his best to work things out," Lucas continued. "Why don't we assemble again in seven days? I'm sure he'll have figured out a way to turn this situation around by then."
"Seven days closer to our doom, but no problem." Levi was the first to reply. He stood up and walked out without a backward glance.
The others nodded and started to walk out too. Even though they weren't saying it, I knew they were scared. Not only because of the development and what it could mean for us, but also because of the greater calamity that awaited us in less than three years due to my inability to find a mate.
Sometimes, I hated the Moon Goddess for this. Why was it a must for me to marry my mate if I wanted our werewolf race to continue, when my mate probably didn't exist? I'd searched far and wide, and she simply wasn't there.
"I believe you'll find a solution," Lucas told me as he walked out, leaving me alone in the room.
I knew. I just knew that I had to do what I had to do.
Even if it was the unthinkable.