Adored by the Alpha

Chapter 79

Allen, in turn, stood beside me. "Months ago, I through my own poor judgement agreed to aid Alpha Charles in the passing of some laws in his pack. As we all know, a certain degree of agreement and approval is required to be pass any laws in any of our packs, for the sake of preventing absolute power being in the hands of any Alpha.

I made this promise in return for Alpha Charles allowing some of my mate, Paige's, extended family who lived within his pack to visit. At the time, I had not yet been introduced to the kinds of laws he had in mind. When I did read them and found them to be laws that would permit any wolf to sexually assault a human and avoid punishment through claims of the assault being with the intent of procreation, I was disgusted and made my absolute refusal to pass this law very clear to Alpha Charles. This angered him and he made threats, forcing me to evacuate myself, my mate, my mates entire family as well as my own closest family to our secondary residence in Edmonton, Canada.

During our stay in Canada, we participated in various winter related activities, among those being ice skating on a lake. Here, my mate and my younger brother fell through the ice, forcing them both to a hospital stay. My mate was staying at the hospital for observation to assure her safety when she was kidnapped by a man impersonating a nurse, on the order of Alpha Charles. They brought my mate, Paige, to an abandoned warehouse where they starved, humiliated, beat and sexually assaulted her. Alpha Charles and the people working for him made videos of the torture of my mate to upset me. Through one of these videos, my mate was able to communicate her location to us without being detected. We immediately headed there. I went there armed with a pistol and prepared to kill if necessary. When we got there, Paige had managed to escape the warehouse, but was still being chased by Alpha Charles himself. When I found the two, Alpha Charles had his arms around her, and was ready to harm her. So I did the only thing I felt was an option at that moment; I shot him in the head to save my mate. He died from a single gunshot to the head, and I immediately collected my mate and got her to a hospital to receive medical care for an infection as well as any injuries inflicted by Alpha Charles and the people who were working for him." Allen sat back down, his face stern and eyes far away. My stomach was in knots at hearing the whole story over again. It made me nauseated.

A silence fell over the room. I wasn't quite sure what to call the sensation in the room. It seemed like a mixture of the regret of losing one of their own, but also a bitter realization that perhaps the world was a better place without that terrible excuse for a person in it.

Alpha Mabel's jaw remained tense. "And your mate agrees with your version of events?" Her eyes turned to me, followed by the gaze of every person in the room. I wanted to sink into the floor.

I nodded. She narrowed her eyes at me. "Please state your name and whether or not you agree with Alpha Allen's version of events out loud, for the record."

With a lick of my lip, I mustered any and all courage I could muster under their scrutinizing gaze. "My name is Paige White, and I am Alpha Allen's mate. Yes, I do agree with the version of events which he recounted."

A snort sounded further down the table. The sensation of having ice water tossed over me covered my entire body, and I looked down to the origin of the sound. Alpha Mabel's eyes were nearly rolled all the way back into her skull.

"Oh, what a surprise - you agree with what your mate said. Not as though each and every one of us and our mate would do this for us." She threw her hand into the air with a dismissive wave.

"Hey-" Allen stood from his chair, but I stood up with him, all but showing him back into his chair with a push on the chest.

I pointed my finger at her. "Now you listen here," I cleared my throat, "I'm not some drag-along idiot. I don't go along with Alpha Allen's statements just because I'm his mate. I was kidnapped. I was sexually assaulted and nearly raped. I thought I was going to die, without seeing my family again. Without seeing Allen again, I..." I blinked away the tears, a shuffing breath moving in through my teeth.

"I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you telling me what happened to me. You don't get to tell me that I'm a liar. You don't get to minimize what I experienced."

She rolled her eyes once more. "Alright, alright, little human. We get it. You'll never get over the trauma. That said – do you think that your singular bad experience warrants the destruction of decades of tradition? Of the way that we have lived our lives and prepared our children to take over what is rightfully ours?"

It was my turn to snort now. "Rightfully yours?" I grit my teeth. "Now you listen here, Alpha Mabel. Nothing is rightfully yours. Your ancestors just so happened to be the ones in charge when you took over power. And I admit... humans had fucked up. I get it, two world wars, we weren't' exactly doing a great job. That said... you just took over and implemented a system without even asking any of us. Without ever thinking that maybe absolute power to the werewolf elites was not an all-too amazing idea?"

She crossed her arms. "Oh, well then. I'm sure your mate would be the first to step down from the role as Alpha, then?"

"I..." I looked down at Allen, his eyes filled with panic. I pressed my lips together, heat burning my cheeks and ears.

Allen shifted his eyes to the rest of the table. "I - Alpha Allen - not willing to step down from the Alpha role. Furthermore, I'm not asking any of you to do so. That said..." He sighed, using one hand to wave around in the air, whilst the other discreetly came up to my back, tugging at my shirt to get me back into my seat. My cheeks were burning hot and I was all but foaming at the mouth, but I did sit.

Alpha Zeena pushed a braid behind her ear, tilting her head to the side. "I – Alpha Zeena, for the record – would like to ask what exactly the two of you propose?"

I looked to Allen, and he to me. I could tell it by his eyes, and he by mine. We were lost. "We don't have anything concrete..." I trailed off, looking at all these people around the table. "But this system that you have now isn't working. It may benefit you, but there are millions of humans suffering. Living in slums, being taken away from their families-"

"Are you trying to say that the mate bond is some sort of capture, Paige?" Asked Alpha Mabel.

I licked my lips, inhaling deeply. "What I'm saying, Alpha Mabel, is that for humans living in the slums, the place where I grew up, the place where I'd assume you've never been let alone lived in, there are thousands of humans living in fear of being a wolf's mate, because when they are, they never go back. They just sort of... disappear. You don't see them again, don't hear from them."

I looked at Allen, and then back at Alpha Mabel. "I love the mate that I got, and he's good to me. He loves me. He's good to my family and killed to protect me. But a lot of humans don't know that. They're terrified their entire lives that they or one of their loved ones will be the mate of a wolf. And while I get that that fear stems in a series of misunderstandings, it doesn't make it any less scary and horrifying and torturous for those living with that fear. So don't put words in my mouth, thanks."

Alpha Xiandre stood. "Very well, then. It seems tension is running high. For the sake of keeping a healthy average blood pressure in here, as well as actually coming up with productive compromises, why don't we all consider what Alpha Allen's mate had to say, or at least let it flow through our minds for a bit, and then think up a couple compromises or strategies which we could live with. That said, I'd particularly suggest that The Alpha Allen couple come up with an idea to how they would want the ruling systems to change." He clapped his hands together, reaching over to the recorder and pressing the button. "Alright, reconvene in the morning. Do me a favour and no one fucking kill each other. Now, I got mates I need to get back to." He tossed his hand backwards, heading out within seconds.

Allen grabbed my hand before I had a chance to really react, dragged me through the hall and towards an elevator, pressing the button and shutting the doors right away. "Well," he said, nuzzling my hand. "We pissed them off alright. Now... how are we gonna get them on our side?"

I shrugged. "Hm-mmh."

**********

Love ya fuckers.

Wish me a good night's sleep. Hoping to get the next chapter out soon - although I have an exam coming up on the 4th. So... busy busy.

You're wonderful and I care about all of you. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and an that you'll have an amazing New Year!!!

I've also got yet another idea for a new story... 'Arranged Mates' hopefully coming out sometime in 2000-and-some-point-before-inevitable-death-envelopes-me-like-a-warm-cloak-and-I-finally-get-peace