Purr, Kitten [PUBLISHED - Sample Only]

The Meeting

I stood next to Liam in a circle full of wolves. They didn't have a fancy long table for meetings. Instead, they did the old-styled standing circle, talking so into the circle. At first it seemed like the men were feeling awkward with me around, but they soon felt better.

"What do we know?" Liam asked his men. 

Jaq looked up, looked to me shyly first and then looked down. He was such a coward. "We know the rogues have already been to the Luminos pack, which makes it look like our pack is next." Liam didn't really show any positive emotions up towards Jaq, so he cowarded back a bit.

"We have been training hard, but have we been training hard enough? This is the question we must ask ourselves. They could strike tonight for all we know," Liam spoke. His voice made everyone listen to even the sharpest edges of his voice. That tone of authority that just invited you to listen and pay attention.

"What else can we do, besides train?" asked one of the men that had introduced himself as Garreth.

"We can't exactly arm even the women and children with wolfsbane or something. They'd begin suspecting," another man, Kaiden, spoke up.

"Maybe that's exactly what we're doing wrong," I suddenly spoke up and everyone's eyes were on me, including Liam's. They all expected me to explain myself to them. "All the other packs kept the attacks as a secret from their pack members. It made them vulnerable and people got killed."

Jaq scoffed. "We can't exactly tell them without causing a panic." I glared at him.

Liam cleared his throat, also glaring at Jaq. "No, we can't. Unless we tell them before not to panic. These wolves are all trained killers," Liam spoke and I shivered, remembering how they were before I came along. "They know how to kill and take down an enemy. If we tell them what is really going on, they'll know how to prepare and maybe there will be less loss or hopefully none at all than in the other packs."

I felt really proud with what I had suggested seemed to work for now. And Jaq pulled back again, looking at the floor in shame. The urge to gloat in his face was so strong, it made me smirk.

Now, now. As much as I'd like to do that too, we need to stay in character, Liam mind-linked me. I turned my face neutral. Good girl.

"We know the rogues are fast and strong. If there is a chance, they'll most likely attack and not even give a second glance. We don't however know how strog they are," Kaiden mentioned. "How do we know if our warriors can or can not stand against them?"

"The only way to find that out is through combat itself, but we have too much to lose to have a combat with them just to find out how strong they are," the man next to Garreth, Jasper, spoke.

Garreth cleared his throat. "So we have no way to anticipate their moves and no way to strengthen ourselves?"

I decided to speak up again. "How about we do what others did. We could search for volunteers in nearby packs or we could even take a smaller pack and unite them with ours for an amount of time, until the threat is no longer there," I offered. "We have the land."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Jaq muttered.

"And why not?"

"We will be seen as a weak pack and so the packs that are our enemies will try to take us down if they know that," Jaq said glaring at me. 

"Shut up, Jaq," Liam said, rolling his eyes angrily. "Kathryn's offer is a good idea. We have good relationships with some of the packs who would maybe join ours for the sake of their own as well. Plus, the pack we helped has a good reason to send volunteers our way as well."

"What about-"

"If our enemies will indeed approach us, we will strike them back. A pack we'll know of, but anticipating the moves of a group of violent rogues is harder, nearly impossible."

And so, my word stayed on top and a grouchy Jaq stood back, not daring to open his mouth again. At the end of the meeting, Jaq wanted to talk to Liam, so he sent me away. I obeyed and went to Ivy's room, where she was reading.

Upon my entering, she looked up. "Kathryn!" I smiled at her and closed the door behind me. "How was the boring meeting?" she asked with a tone of mock. I playfully glared at her and sat on the edge of her bed.

"You were right, Ivy."

She looked at me with interest and sat straight next to me. "I know I'm a genius, but what was I right about again?"

I sighed and told her everything about the meeting and what Liam had told me before. I knew I could tell Ivy and I doubted that Liam was listening to my mind now. Plus, all he'd see was me just thinking about it all, he wouldn't know I told Ivy about them.

"Oh my Goddess," Ivy muttered, holding her hand in front of her lips. "How can we be sure they'll come to us next?"

"It seems like there's a pattern they follow. And if there isn't... Well they'll come soon enough then one way or another. I don't think they'll miss us."

"You're right, we're too big of a pack."

Kathryn, come to our room.

"Liam called for me," I sighed and stood up. Ivy nodded.

"But hey, Kathryn? Everything is going to be okay, I know it," Ivy said before I closed the door behind me.

I looked at her and smiled. "I know. We're fighters," I assured her and she grinned widely. I closed the door and headed towards our bedroom. Already behnd the closed doors I knew Liam was upset. His footsteps indicated that he was pacing back and forth in the room. I opened the door and he stopped, but he didn't do anything, until I closed the door again behind me.

"Liam, what happened?" I asked carefully, approaching him. 

"Jaq is kicked out of this pack," he muttered. I stared at him. I can't say it really shocked me to hear this, because of the way he has been acting. "He disrespected you and my choice to have you as the Luna and not someone else."

He looked at me. Very unnoticeably, he nodded his head as if inviting me over and I walked to him. "I decided to choose Jonathan as the next Beta. He has the most promising qualities for one," he explained. I gulped and nodded, wrapping my arms around his waist. He did the same and pressed his lips against my head.

"I think you did the right thing, Liam," I told him silently. He nodded and stroked my hair.

"I love you, so much," he whispered. I pulled my head from against his chest and smiled.

"I love you too."