The Broken Crown

A Storm is Coming

Every empire crumbles from within under the rule of a weak ruler. A day will come when your puppet masters will find no use for your strings , and I will be there to watch you rot away. You will rue the day you forgot about us.

Us? What is he trying to say? 

Looking over to Brie, I try and read her face as she stares at the warning with a peculiar look on her face. "Who else is working with Asger?" 

"Keva?" I ponder, thinking about how she tried to get me to marry River before I decided to fight my own war. "Could she be playing a hand? She was the first actual alpha of River, just setting up the pack for him before he was of age." 

"What empire is he referring to?" Brie asks on top of my own question. "Asger references no empire in specific. The Roman Empire crumbled apart from within, but as did many others. As did the Elven Empire which is where Eternal Shadows was built on its ruins. Are they wanting to rebuild what was lost before the werewolves gained majority power?" 

I click my tongue, thinking to what Brie has brought up. "If they are trying to rebuild what they have lost, then River is setting them up for success while they eat him alive. They are taking advantage of his mindset of his rightful destiny." I look away from the vanity and head for the door. "We need to meet with the other alphas of our council, to talk with them about all of this. The war could not really be about placing someone back on the throne, but about taking elves throne back." 

Rushing out of the room, Brie calls out to me, calling for me to stop. As I make it to the front door, Brie catches up with me as the hollow house begins to fill me with a fear and sickness. I do not dare look into the living room as I know what transpired within that room. "Are you sure you can trust all of those alphas?" 

"They pledged their loyalty to-"

"Loyalty is as common for them to hand out as it is to banish a pack member, Leala. You cannot just so blindly trust them all. I know you trust Penelope and Yusuf the most, but even though they were the first to be by your side, it does not mean they were not the first to think of how to murder you after pulling your strings." 

"I am not a puppet."

"Yet Oliver played you like one," Brie comments, watching my facial expressions harden at her remark. "I know that is not easy to hear, but you are a young and impressionable alpha, Leala, while many of them have decades under their belt or have been trained for this sort of title most of their lives. Please, hear me out, Leala, that you need to have a selective inner circle which takes more to get into than just pledging loyalty." 

"You are not an Alpha, Brie," I remark, my voice stern. "You were just made a Gamma and you now think you can talk to me in such a way-"

"If I were not able to talk to you in such a way and hold a title of authority in this pack, then I would be doing you a disservice. You need me and Cedric to be open and honest with you. Unlike the rest of those alphas who pledged themselves to your cause, we do not have hidden intentions to swipe a crown from your head for our own." 

"Who even are you, Brie? Can I even trust you? You came into my life so suddenly and now think you some god-sent guardian angel. You have lied to me already." 

"I have not lied to you, Leala," Brie tries to convince as I take a step closer to the tall blond. 

Holding my head high, I tilt my head to the side and offer the gamma a questionable look. "Then why did you lie about not being able to read Elder?" 

"Leala-"

"Alpha Leala," I correct, interrupting Brie sharply as I can feel my wolf surfacing. "You say you are here to help guide me, yet you lie to me. Why? What are your hidden intentions?"