Freya's Inferno (Winging It Book 1)

by Sonja Bair

There was silence. “Well, I’m right, aren’t I?” I asked.

  David answered, “Yes, Freya, you are right.”

  “So I get a vote on any decision?”

  Pedro laughed. “You make a mistake thinking that werewolves are a democracy, Freya. They are a dictatorship run by the Alphas.”

  “That’s the way it has been in the past, but that doesn’t mean it has to be now,” I said. “David, you have talked about how you dislike the system. Philip, I know you have similar feelings. So now we have an opportunity to change things. And like it or not, things are changing. A Swedish flying supernatural is co-Alpha of a werewolf pack, so let’s throw out the rule book and start fresh.”

  “Does this mean that you are willing to stay co-Alpha of the pack, Freya?” David asked.

  I paused. “Okay, you got me there. But even when we figure out how to get me out, you guys have the best opportunity in the world to start making some changes. Philip, what would you like to be different about the werewolf world?”

  All heads pivoted to Philip, including Maria’s. Philip’s eyes swept to the side of the room. “Don’t make me answer that. I’m lowest on the totem pole here.”

  I tossed a pillow from the couch at him in frustration. “Says who?”

  Pedro turned David. “You got to make her understand. I know that you’ve been holding out the truth because you are a gentleman and don’t want to force into the role she doesn’t want. But she’s got to know.”

  David knew when he was painted into a corner. We all waited for his explanation. “Freya, please understand that I never chose this for you and if I knew a way to get you out, I would.” He stopped.

  “But…” I said.

  “But leadership in the werewolf pack is not like the student council president. Alphas can actually force people to do things they don’t want to do.”

  “Show her on me,” Philip said. David turned to him.

  “Are you sure?” David asked. Philip nodded.

  “Philip, slap Pedro in the face,” David said in a firm voice. Pedro jumped up, looking concerned. “Pedro, allow Philip to slap you.”

  And Philip full-on slapped Pedro across the face while Pedro stood still. Philip laughed after slapping Pedro. “I thought you were going to make me do something horribly embarrassing,” he said to David.

  “I thought they would be more convinced with you hauling off on Pedro. Besides, it’s good for Pedro to get slapped upside the head by someone lower in rank than him once in awhile.”

  Pedro glared at David, but all in all, he didn’t seem too upset.

  David turned back to me. “That’s a power that, like it or not, all Alphas have.”

  “So I have that power over Pedro and Philip too?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  I cackled evilly. “Pedro, give David a big, wet kiss on the lips.” Pedro’s face went white, but he took a step forward.

  David laughed. “Please don’t, Pedro. You aren’t my type.” Pedro stopped, looking more than a little relieved.

  “So here’s where it gets tricky,” David continued. “Werewolves depend on that top-down leadership. It’s not that Pedro and Philip can’t make intelligent decisions on their own, but the wolf side of their nature relies on Alpha commands to keep sane in the natural world. I don’t expect you to understand, Freya, but werewolves need a strict hierarchy.”

  I processed the information in silence for awhile. “Yup,” I admitted with a shrug, “I don’t get it. But let me rephrase my question. Philip, would you like to see changes from the Santa Fe pack?” He nodded. “Pedro, would you like to see changes from the Santa Fe pack?” Pedro nodded as well. I turned to David. “The minions have spoken. You should listen.”

  “And you need to listen to me.” Frustration crept into David’s voice. “You and I are in this together, like it or not. The pack depends on two Alphas. This little pack has been suffering from the lack of a second Alpha. Things aren’t balanced. I’ve been trying to keep things sane, but all of us are going a little crazy with the lopsidedness of leadership. Lone wolves aren’t the only ones that go crazy. Packs without two Alphas go crazy, too.” David searched my face. I’m not sure what he saw, but his voice went quieter and he took my hand. “I would get you out of this if I had any idea how to, but if you have any sense of responsibility toward others, and I know you do, you need to step into your role.”

  “Life is all about balance, isn’t it?” I said absentmindedly, my mind drifting to Qiang and Jia.

  Elin and Alrik had been quiet during this whole interchange. I didn’t know what either one of them were thinking. Heck, I didn’t know what I was thinking, but I reminded myself of my new mantra.

  “One problem at a time,” I said with a confidence stemming from making a decision. “I don’t want to kill Maria. I don’t want anyone else to kill Maria. I’m an Alpha, and I’m going to use that power to prevent her death. How dangerous is she now that Robert’s dead?”

  We all turned to her as if we expected her to answer. She didn’t. Probably Elin’s sweater, tucked firmly into her mouth, prevented a reply.

  “There’s an easy way to find out,” David said and grabbed his cell phone from the kitchen table. He hit a few numbers and waited for a reply.

  The rest of us listened to the one-sided conversation. David summed up the last few hours to whoever was on the line, then was silent for a while. Eventually, he made some pleased noises and nodded at whatever was being said on the other end of the line. He hung up after a few minutes.

  “Sara and Martin are now Alphas in Santa Fe.” Philip gave a small cheer and Pedro’s face lost some of its glumness. “Maria is no longer the strongest female of the Santa Fe pack.”

  “I’m happy for Santa Fe, but I’m pretty sure that they don’t want Maria back. I don’t want her around here, either. Can we dump her off on someone else?” I asked.

  Again, we all turned to Maria as if we expected her to politely join in the conversation. She didn’t. Instead, her forehead was wrinkled in confusion. My guess was that she had expected tonight would be her last night alive, but the tables had turned faster than she could process.

  I walked over and knelt by Maria. “I am going to remove your gag. Do you promise not to bite or scream or any other such nonsense?” I asked. Maria looked at me for a moment, then moved her eyes to the rest of her old pack. All of them were keeping a stone face, betraying no emotion. She nodded slightly. I untied Elin’s sweater, removed it from Maria’s mouth, and tried to hand it back to my sister. My sister appeared a bit disgusted at the state of it and held up her hands in refusal.

  “I’m going to pass on that. You can have it if you want it,” she said. I dropped it.

  “Maria,” I said, “so far you have tried to kill David, forced Pedro and Philip to leave the pack, kidnapped my sister, and tried to kill me. Werewolves and the state of Texas would put you to death for your crimes. Do you want to die?”

  “You killed my husband and mate,” she spit out with venom in her voice.

  “Yes. We did. He got what was coming to him when he attacked David,” I said, no apology in my voice. “Do you want to die as well?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  I shrugged. “I would let you live—with conditions, of course. And I’m one half of Team Alpha. I can’t vouch for the other half of Team Alpha, but I’m guessing a lot rides on how you act right now.”

  Maria stared at the wall across the room for a long time. “I don’t want to die,” she said after forever.

  “That doesn’t cut it, Maria. If we don’t kill you, what will you promise in return?” I asked.

  It was like pulling teeth to get an answer from her, but she finally spit it out. “I promise to leave this pack alone.”

  “What about other packs? How will you act as a member of another pack?” I asked.

  Maria snorted disdainfully. “I will be the bottom of any pack I join. The death of Robert took most of my power away.”

 
I looked to David for confirmation. “This is a very unusual situation,” he said. “Alpha mates whose spouses die in violence are always killed right away. I don’t know if something is stripped away in the death of an Alpha mate during a fight. But Sara is now Alpha of the Santa Fe pack, whereas if Maria were still dominant, Martin would be mated to her.”

  “Okay, so she’s low pack now. Can we get some other pack to take her?” I asked.

  “It wouldn’t be cheap,” David said. “Werewolf packs never do anything that won’t benefit their own interests. I’m not sure that our little screwed-up pack will have anything to offer another pack in return.”

  “What are your own thoughts on Maria, David?” I asked.

  He thought before answering. “Previously, I would have automatically killed her. But now I have a non-werewolf as my co-Alpha. Strange times are these in which we live. I would say let’s try to give her to some other pack. See what happens. If we can work something out, Maria is forever in our debt. You realize that, don’t you?” He turned to her. She gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  “Philip and Pedro, what are your thoughts?” I asked.

  Philip answered first. “I was the one who everyone picked on as a kid, and as an adult, I’ve always been low in the pack. It’s a strange feeling to have power over someone else’s life. Oddly enough, I think my perspective makes me a good judge. I want to be a powerful person, but life didn’t hand that out to me in the typical ways of the werewolves. But there are other ways to be powerful. Being the better and bigger person and not seeking revenge, even justifiable revenge, is one way to be more powerful. I guess I will be powerful by being the change I want to see. I think we should, if we can find another pack to take her.”

  I believe I can say that we were all taken back the emotion of Philip’s reply. David clapped a hand on Philip’s shoulder in support but didn’t say anything.

  Pedro cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, see if you can find a willing pack. You probably won’t, so then we can kill her.”

  David laughed. “Wise words, my friend. So we are in agreement? I will contact all the other Alphas tonight and inform them of the situation.”

  I looked at the three men, who all came from such a completely tradition-bound culture, who had suffered so much at the hands of their leaders and who had somehow been able to overcome all that hatred and seek out peace instead. “I am proud to be your co-Alpha,” I said with a small hiccup in my voice.

  Chapter 31

  I made Elin spend the night at my house. I didn’t have to spend much time convincing her because she was shaken up as well. As is normal for any highly stressful time, I decided lots and lots of eating was the answer. I ordered way too much food from the somewhat legitimate Chinese restaurant in town, and Elin, Alrik, and I feasted.

  Alrik moved his flight to Sweden to the following day. All this last-minute airfare must have really been ringing up the credit card bill, but when I mentioned this, he shrugged and said the Flock could afford it.

  All during dinner, Elin peppered me with questions about what I was going to do about being Alpha of the werewolf pack. Long story short, I didn’t know. David was right that I wouldn’t let other people suffer when I had a responsibility to them. I had to be more active in the werewolf pack. But anything more than that was a mystery to me. It was a culture completely foreign to me, and I would have to tread lightly with anything I did. But of course, I had just steamrolled them into not killing their former leader, so I don’t know how I could stand treading lightly.

  Alrik, unlike Elin, was mostly silent during dinner. I eventually threatened to poke him with my chopsticks if he didn’t say something.

  “I often don’t know what to say to you,” Alrik said with a shake of his head. “You yet again found yourself in the middle of a life-threatening mess, but somehow, you came out on top. You get in more trouble than anyone I know. But you always manage to survive. Not only survive, but somehow end up making the best of the situation. You frustrate me beyond understanding. But at the same time, I respect the hell out of you for that exact thing. And even more than that, I think I love you. I think I have loved you for a long time.” He stopped abruptly and searched my face with his eyes.

  There was no oxygen in the room. I couldn’t breathe. My cheeks blazed bright red. Elin got up quietly and left the room.

  Alrik looked at me steadily. “I know that was unfair to say right now. But I think it’s time that I start playing every advantage I can get. I don’t expect you to answer right now, but I know that you have feelings for me. To what extent, I don’t know. But I’m not going to be subtle about my feelings anymore. Not with some strange werewolf trying to drag you into a mess you have no business being part of and trying to claim you as his mate. I’m going to be back in San Luis Obispo as soon as I can. We can spend more time talking or whatever you want to do. In the meantime, think about what I said.” He leaned over and gently took my head between his hands. He paused to look into my eyes for a moment, then kissed me softly.

  There were fireworks in my stomach. And butterflies in my brain. And tingles in my toes. And oh, I don’t know, a bunch more metaphors for a bunch more places in my body.

  Alrik got up. “I’m going for a run. Since no one seems out to kill you at the moment, I think I can take a break being a bodyguard for a couple hours. Try not to get into too much trouble.”

  He left the room. Oxygen creeped back in. Elin came back in and sat down next to me. “Can’t say that I’m too surprised that Alrik said he loved you. It was clear to everyone but you. Regardless, that was quite the bombshell of an announcement. Where is he right now?”

  “He went for a run?” My answer came out in question form and in those few words, I think I was trying to express my confusion about the whole situation.

  Elin, being my sister, understood. She ruffled my hair. “Take some time to think about it. Nothing needs to be decided now. And he went for a run after eating fourteen pounds of Chinese food in the last hour?”

  I shrugged. “I guess that’s one of his supernatural abilities as well.”

  We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Elin started to tell me about a particular cow on the ranch that was an escape artist. This cow had been found wandering the property of all the surrounding ranch lands, even making it as far as the closest town. Elementary school kids found her in their playground during recess and had a blast petting her and giving her treats to eat. Elin was petitioning to change the school’s mascot from the Squirrels to the Wandering Cows.

  She was telling me about her unsuccessful meeting with the principal when my cell phone rang: David. My sister raised her eyebrows at me and motioned for me to take the call.

  “So there’s good news and bad news about Maria,” he said after some initial pleasantries.

  “Okay, give it to me,” I said.

  “We found a pack willing to take her. Her life won’t be easy. But she’ll have a life, so there’s that.”

  “Great! I’m glad that worked out. But what’s the bad news?” I asked, hesitating a bit. I didn’t want any more shocking news today.

  “Remember I said that no werewolf pack would do something that wasn’t self-serving?”

  I nodded as if he could see me over the phone. The question must have been rhetorical because David continued. “So this pack made a trade with us. They would take Maria into their pack if we would take their troubled pack member off their hands and into our pack.”

  “Oh, no,” I said, stomach falling into my shoes. “That sounds bad. What’s the problem with the werewolf? I don’t think I can take another homicidal, power-hungry maniac.”

  “It’s worse than that,” David said. “It’s a teenager with a serious chip on her shoulder and blatant disrespect and disregard for anything resembling authority.”

  I laughed. And then laughed some more. “Sold. Believe it or not, I like teenagers—even ones with attitude problems. That is a problem I can face.”

&nbs
p; David’s smile came through the phone. “They warned me that they were getting the better end of the deal. But I thought we could handle this together. You teach teenagers, Pedro works with troubled youth, and I was a pain in the ass growing up, so I think we have the experience to try to handle her.”

  “What are you talking about? You were a pain in the ass? You’re a pain in the ass right now. You never grew out of it,” I said.

  “True, true,” he said. “The exchange is going to happen two days from now. Unfortunately, we have to handle Maria’s bellyaching until then. Her gratitude for saving her life doesn’t extend to Pedro’s cooking.”

  “Do you really think she will leave us alone and not come back to attack us?” I asked. The worry had been nagging me.

  “I believe so. She promised not to, and promises in werewolf culture have more weight than in other societies. Plus, the Alphas of her pack assured me they would prevent her from returning.”

  David and I finished up our conversation and hung up. I turned to Elin and explained the situation. She listened carefully.

  “Alrik was right,” she said. “You get in more trouble than anyone I know, but you make the best of every situation. You’ll make the best of the situation with this teenage werewolf. And you’ll make the best of the situation between Alrik and David. You always do.”

  She grabbed two fortune cookies and threw one to me. We opened them.

  “Mine says, ‘You are sunshine for a rainy day,’” Elin said.

  I looked up at her in disappointment. “Mine says, ‘You will be hungry again in one hour.”