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It is a humid, sticky sunset when the dread looms over us all. The weather does not aid our moods.
The two other Alphas -- including Liam and myself -- are seated at the table as I analyze Beckett's neat hand written. Cursive. Signed Sincerely, Alpha Beckett, at the bottom that makes my stomach curdle as I clench the paper. I smooth out the creases a minute later so that when I pass it over to the others, they can make out the bullshit he writes.
"He's delirious," one of the older gentleman Alpha's of the North Side pack declares, "does he really expect you to surrender?"
"Apparently," I reply with a shrug of my shoulders. "He wants me to hand over my pack members as well, as I'd ever willingly allow him to take over my pack."
"Why would he make such a big claim?" The next Alpha is younger, but the golden wedding band on his finger tells me it hasn't stopped him from marrying young and producing children. He's nineteen, at the most. "What does he have that could beat an army of 5,000 wolves?"
"Serums," Liam inputs and the other Alpha's hum in agreement. "A big enough dose is deadly. He's been allied with the hunters."
"Another reason we need to take him down," the final and rather burly Alpha declares, he has a full head of thick black hair and a permanent scowl on his face. "He already said if we deny the surrender, then we battle this weekend."
Stella raps her fingers across the wood. "Then that's what we do," she says, "we form a combat plan and we take him down. But if Adam's dead-"
"-He's not," I assure her. "It's the only ransom Beckett's got and he's not stupid enough to discard him." The way I speak of it in such a desensitized manner even startles me. Like Adam is an object. A tool for bargaining in a middle of a war. Like that's the only thing he's been reduced to.
Stella is clearly uncomfortable at the casualty of my remark and she shuffles in her seat, "right," she replies. I can see the wheels turning in her head as my eyes are drawn towards Liam's.
"Then we begin the council for plan of action?" He directs the questions to the other Alpha's, because this is Liam's field of expertise, and they nod in agreement. We talk for hours on end, shuffling chess pieces on the wood board in front of us. It's all very metaphorical, the white queen and king, the knights, the rooks, the bishop, and the pawns. On the opposing side is the black king, a queen absence in it's place, and I realize we've all been reduced to players on a board. One pawn on the opposing side sticks out to me because we all have a silent agreement to who it is -- Adam.
I think that's all Adam has ever been to Beckett. A pawn in a game of chess. And Stella makes her distaste for that with a curl of her lips and leaving as quickly as possible when the meeting is dismissed. I can hear the slam of the kitchen door behind her and I bid the other Alpha's a cordial goodnight before I go after her, I barely am able to close the door behind me before Stella appears in front of me, running a hand threw her hair and a scowl plastered on her face.
