Pack Mentality

by Idella Breen

  “Collect yourself, Gwen. I need you alert for this meeting.”

  “Don’t worry, Remus. I’m ready.”

  Remus didn’t respond. He trusted her. He trusted his entire clan to her, to her abilities to keep the peace, to keep them civil while he kept them alive. Gwen was the best omega he’d ever had and he was eternally grateful her parents entrusted her into his care though she felt differently about them leaving. She’d never asked him for the full story when he took her in. She’d simply looked him in the eye, even as tears trailed down her face, and said, “Use me, alpha, for I fear what I’ll let myself do.”

  So, here they were, thirteen years later; she’d been thirteen and had already been ready to bear the full responsibility of an omega in the hodgepodge that was the Lander Clan. Gwen had earned respect within the clan through hard work, blood, sweat, and tears. In the beginning, few trusted her as she, like many, had come into the clan from another clan but the clan she came from was known for its ruthlessness. Gwen had come from nothing, but in the Lander Clan, and under Remus’s guidance, she had made something, a place to belong, and all in the Lander Clan valued her as their rightful omega. Remus shifted into park and turned off the engine before turning to Gwen. “Will you let me use you again?”

  She turned from the window to study his face. He could see the shadow of loneliness that had been darkening daily ever since Cait and Snow had mated. Something had happened. There was something Gwen wasn’t telling him but now wasn’t the time. Now, he needed her to focus, because where they were about to go was a battleground that could get an omega killed, could get Gwen killed, if she didn’t have her guard up.

  Gwen smiled faintly. “Use me, alpha.”

  “Gwen.”

  “I’m ready Remus. I won’t let you down.”

  He held her gaze for a moment before nodding. “Good, because we are literally about to walk into a den of wolves and none of them are our own.”

  Gwen smirked. “I’ll keep that in mind when they try to sniff my butt.”

  “Gwen.”

  She chuckled. “Come on Remus, relax a little. This isn’t my first land dispute meeting with you.”

  Remus reached out, gripped her chin, making her meet his eyes. “Gwen, this isn’t a normal meeting. They called us here under the pretense to dispute borders, but I told you what this is really about.”

  “You were serious?”

  He nodded. “This isn’t a meeting. This is a declaration of war. So, when I say we are walking into a den of wolves, I’m saying we are walking into a trap.”

  Gwen shuddered only to release a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Nodding, Remus released her chin. “If they sniff your butt, you bite them, understood.”

  Gwen laughed but quickly controlled herself into a stoic mask. Remus needed her focused. So, focused she was going to be. He needed an omega, not a depressed woman. “I’ll follow your lead then, alpha.”

  Remus smirked. “That’s a welcome change.”

  Gwen smiled and followed him out of the car. Keeping close behind him, she masked her fears, as he held the door to the nondescript building open for her. Alone. It’s how she felt at that moment so many years ago. During that moment when suddenly a piece of her died without warning and she became aware that she could no longer feel, her wolf could no longer feel, the slight hum within her soul that let her know love was out there somewhere waiting to be discovered. It was so many years ago when Gwen’s belief in love withered away and was buried under layers and layers of numbness. Was she just not good enough? Not even her parents wanted her. Was she trash? Worthless? Useless? Why would they abandon their only child and strip her of her name? How could anyone love her if even her own parents didn’t want her?

  Gwen entered the stuffy room, filled with oppressive tension thick enough to cut with a knife, and she walked through it with her head bowed and her frame made small. She knew her place in this meeting and she would play it to the advantage of her alpha. It was a misconception that omegas were weak. Genetically, they were smaller, physically weaker maybe, but omegas, if trained right, carried the companion power to an alpha's and balanced out the pack. While an alpha ruled with subjugation and absolute command omegas ruled with calming pheromones and reason over law. They say a clan lead by a mated alpha and omega was a truly unstoppable force and not for the first time, Gwen wondered if she would ever learn what such a thing truly felt like. She wondered if she would ever find the one that would bare their throat to her wolf. Was she meant for love? Sometimes she felt like such a thing was beyond her. Yet, as she stood in a room full of posturing alphas, she felt something. It was light and airy, smooth and sweet, and yet it set a blazing passion rippling through her body from her toes to her head and suddenly that feeling of loneliness and defeat was replaced with a desperate need. A need to seek, to seek and submit, and be claimed by the one that was born to be hers. Gwen gasped and froze behind Remus.

  Remus reached out and grabbed Gwen’s hand, tugging her closer to him as if to hide her from the rest of the room, but Remus knew. Instinct told him, and he knew something that was already complicated just hit the jackpot of fucked, because Gwen’s eyes were locked with those of the woman across the room. The same woman that had called them here to declare war on the Lander Clan. With hair as white as snow and eyes a piercing frozen blue, Silvia McCloud stood with her head high and her shoulders wide and Remus knew, he knew to the bottom on his gut, that she had every intention of claiming what was rightfully her’s and he knew for that same reason that he was going to do everything in his power to keep Gwen from her, because Gwen was his omega, and Silvia was the bane of his existence, and Remus would never admit it out loud but he was petty and greedy, and he had no intention of handing what was his over to his enemy.

  “Remus,” her voice was cool and smokey and he hated it.

  “McCloud.”

  “I believe we have much to discuss,” her eyes were locked on his hand that was holding Gwen’s hostage.

  “I disagree.”

  Her eyes rose to his and he held back a shudder from the cold intensity in them. Then she smirked and he shuddered anyway. “Do you?”

  And Remus knew, in that very moment, as he had feared when he was invited to this meeting, that nothing was going to go the way he wanted it to, and that there was nothing he could do to change that.

  “Silvia,” Gwen whispered dreamily and Remus knew he had already lost for he could fight many things yet instinct was not one of them and he had made a promise to Gwen. Remus was many things, a liar was not one of them. Remus held his head high as he met Silvia’s glacial gaze, just because he couldn’t fight this didn’t mean he couldn’t make the best of the situation. Gwen was his. She belonged to the Lander’s. Silvia on the other hand, well, she hadn’t been a McCloud a couple of weeks ago. He would have to see what he could do about her loyalties and the sudden reason for her becoming a McCloud. Remus believed that if there was hope of making this work then Silvia needed a change in loyalties because he had no intention of giving his omega to the McCloud’s.

  At the center of the room was a table that was long horizontally. On each side were four seats. On one side, Art sat in the middle. On his left was Raegan and next to her was Kebethi who was sitting as support to the second in command. On his right was Silvia, his second in command. On the other side of the table was Remus sitting in the middle. Gwen was to his left with Sam next to her. Keith was to Remus’s right as his second in command. Gwen had been shocked at fist when Raegan entered the room and sat down on Art’s left, the designated seat for omega’s in official clan meetings. “Keep your weakest protected and your strongest on your right,” as the saying goes. It was a tradition that never fizzled out. The small child looked dwarfed in her seat and Art seemed to ignore her completely as he spoke quietly to Silvia who hadn’t stopped staring at Gwen since their eyes met across the room. Gwen could feel Silvia’s eyes like a possessive claim tingling down her spine and held back
a shudder. Of course she had conveniently forgotten to return any of Silvia’s calls or texts and of course she would have to run into the woman here of all places. Gwen honestly hadn’t been expecting Silvia to be a McCloud. It had never come up in their few brief interactions and now she was regretting not getting the woman’s full name sooner if only it would have prepared her for this horribly awkward situation. Holding back another shudder, as Silvia’s gaze seemed to intensify with each passing minute, Gwen smiled kindly at Raegan who returned it with a smaller much more subdued one.

  A throat cleared, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Remus continued, “Should we begin, then?”

  Art nodded and when Remus gestured for him to begin, Art launched into the mandatory pleasantries.

  “I’m Art McCloud, alpha of McCloud Clan, titled the Heavenly Sky Clan. My second is Silvia McCloud and her support is Kebethi McCloud.”

  The silence hung between the two alphas, then everyone inadvertently turned to regard Raegan who was still silently sitting with her eyes firmly fixed on the table and her hands in her lap. Remus cleared his throat and nodded in the girls direction. Art looked to his left as if regarding an insect and sneered, “And that is my omega,” Art practically spat the words out as if they left a bad taste in his mouth just to speak them.

  “Raegan,” Silvia stated and while the girl looked up in surprise, Silvia’s eyes never left Gwen’s.

  Remus nodded, “Right well, I’m Remus Lander, alpha of the Lander Clan, titled Sleeping Forest Clan. My second is Keith Lander and his support is Sam Lander. My omega is Gwen Lander. State your reasons for requisition this meeting.”

  Art adjusted in his seat, seeming to puff out his chest as he met Remus’s gaze head on. “We wish to discuss land boarders.”

  Gwen sighed as she watched Remus grind his teeth. The head of the McCloud Clan sat across from him spouting nonsense once again. Clean up the forest this! Clean up the city that! All with the occasional, “I could do it better if I had this much more land!” Snuck into each declaration. If Gwen were being honest, this was mostly posturing and a subtle way to get underneath Remus’s skin.

  Gwen was slowly letting off pheromones to keep everyone on her side of the table under control. This was more a contest of who would snap first then an actual discussion. Art had valid complaints. He wanted more land, and his clan was entitled to land but the only available land in the area was owned by the Lander’s. Most of it was forest and most wasn’t occupied by living areas but it was Lander’s land and Remus had no intention of sharing it. It had all been won fair and square through years and years of land disputes and passed down to Remus as a birthright.

  Gwen looked over the table at the other clan’s omega. Raegan hadn’t looked up from the table once but Gwen could sense her pheromones being released. Gwen had not expected the child to be the McCloud’s omega and she couldn’t help but feel for the child as Gwen had been in a similar situation when she was younger. It was difficult being an omega. As Remus had made it very clear, and as experience had taught her, it was a position that demanded sacrifice and it was rarely a position one chose. Betas were the most common wolves born. They outnumbered both alphas and omegas. Alphas were also numerous though few had what it took to lead a clan but omegas were few and far between.

  Often times, clans would fall or disband simply because they didn’t have an omega. Some even resorted to stealing them from other clans. Gwen wondered how Raegan came to have the position she currently seemed to occupy within her clan. She seemed subdued. Gwen wondered if that was why she had said she was always alone? Gwen somewhat felt a camaraderie with her and yet her instincts were telling her still that there was something wrong with the girl. The sour tang of corruption, though now hidden beneath her calming pheromones, was ever-present and made Gwen wary of the child. Despite her reserves, Gwen still felt that Raegan was a good person, even though her alpha was turning out to be an asshole even bigger than Remus on a bad day. A loud growl drew her attention to Sam.

  Remus held up his hand and there was a sudden tension that was palpable in the room now that it was brought to Gwen’s attention. She gulped as her wolf’s hackles rose in her mental cage. Somehow, she had managed to miss the subtle rising aggression around her as she had let her mind wander.

  She now felt the strong need for an instinctual retreat for survival. She locked eyes with Raegan. The child seemed scared but determined. Both Gwen and Raegan moved in unison, her hand latching onto Remus’s neck. In that split, second both omega’s released a heady burst of calming pheromones into the room. Everyone in the room seemed to breathe a collective sigh and just like that, the meeting continued without any bloodshed. Gwen removed her hand but refused to relax and let her mind wander again. Instead, she tried to pay attention and was surprised to hear what seemed to be the ending of the meeting.

  “Well, then it seems we have ourselves a battle to prepare for as we can’t seem to agree. I’ll send a person over with a list of our allies in this fight. The moderator will be decided on and he will appear on the agreed upon date to oversee the victor of this battle It is a pleasure to officially meet the Great Remus of the Sleeping Forest Clan,” Art McCloud said as he stood. Gwen frowned at what sounded like a mocking comment.

  Remus simply nodded and stood as well to stay eye-level with the other alpha. There was a moment of an awkward silence where both clan leaders held each other’s gazes before Art nodded and said, “When the date is made official, we will see how great you really are.”

  Remus held his silence. Art frowned then said, “Fair enough.”

  Art, Kebethi and Silvia headed for the door, Art paused before he stepped outside and glanced over his shoulder, “Oh, and one more thing. I hear you have somewhat formed an alliance with the last of the fallen Fallon Clan.”

  Remus didn’t respond verbally but Gwen felt the tension roll off him in waves.

  “I’d hate for that alliance to prevent us from being good neighbors, after all, is said and done. I suggest you keep a close eye on them though. A word of advice, Fallon’s are known for their greed of resources. I would exercise caution when offering them too much. They might not think twice about biting the hand that feeds them, or so experience has taught me.”

  Sam jumped up and growled deep in his chest but Remus’s hand clamped down on his shoulder holding him in place and still, Remus refused to speak a word even as he maintained his glare on Art. Art’s frown deepened and he shrugged. “Don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” he said, then left. Raegan stood up to quickly catch up but was bumped aside by the other members present. Gwen frowned but felt relief when Silvia waited at the door for her and held the small child close to her as everyone else left the room. As the final McCloud left Silvia turned to face Gwen who had moved closer, wanting to make sure the child was okay, or so she reasoned with herself later.

  “You didn’t answer my texts.”

  Gwen shrugged. “I was busy.”

  Silvia’s eyes seemed to smolder and Gwen realized that she wasn’t going to be able to lie her way out of this.

  “Hello, Miss Gwen.”

  Gwen looked down at Raegan, and even though her instincts were telling her to fight or run, Gwen couldn’t help but smile at the innocent smile on the child’s face. “How are you Raegan? Doing well? Elena’s been asking about you.”

  Raegan’s face seemed to glow and her body hummed with barely restrained energy. “I want to see her too!”

  Gwen chuckled. “We will have to organize a play date.”

  Raegan smile dimmed a little and she looked up at Silvia who nodded. “We can work something out.”

  “Thanks, Vi!”

  Gwen smiled and looked up at Silvia. “Are you her guardian?”

  She shook her head. “Raegan belongs to the clan,” she said and left it at that.

  Gwen frowned but realized Silvia wasn’t going to elaborate.

  “Gwen,” Remus’s strong tenor brought her back to the pre
sent and therefore the situation they were truly in. The McCloud’s had just declared nothing short of war on them and here she was getting sweet with one of them. Sure, they were mates, but there were some lines you just didn’t cross.

  “I have to go.”

  Silvia nodded. “Gwen?”

  She turned around.

  “Don’t push me out, I—” she abruptly cut herself off as if she was about to admit something she might regret.

  “Yes?” Gwen encouraged, hoping Silvia would give her something to latch onto.

  Silvia shook her head. “Don’t push me out.”

  Gwen frowned but nodded and jogged to catch up to Remus and the rest of her wolves who were definitely frowning. She snapped when Remus opened his mouth. “You promised!”

  He snapped his jaw shut then opened it again after glaring at Silvia’s retreating back. “Just promise me one thing?”

  “What?”

  “Don’t talk to her for a while.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Gwen, this is messy. All of this is goddamn messy and we need to figure something out or it’s going to become a shit storm.”

  Gwen was quite as she followed the rest of the wolves outside. She was situating herself in his truck when she came to a conclusion. “Fine. I won’t talk to her—”

  “Or text her—”

  “Or text her, until we can figure something out. But Remus, you promised.”

  “I’m not a liar, Gwen. I just didn’t know one of your mates was her.”

  “What’s between you two anyway?”

  “History.”

  She waited but he just started up the engine and pulled out of the parking lot. “What kind of history?”