Bastard | ✓

BASTARD: chapter forty-two

cloud

The room was packed to the brim.

It had been two days since Maia woke up and now it was time to come up with our plan of attack. Alpha Tatum and Gray had called around to both neighboring packs and ones that were involved previously in the last feral lab raid.

Sitting around the room from the Howling Night were Alpha Tatum, Nara, Raiden, myself, and Maia (who insisted on coming much to Raiden's displeasure). The only one who was missing from action was Hopper, the head warrior, but when Maia brought it up, he shut the conversation down with little to no answer on the man's whereabouts.

From the Dark Woods, Gray, Quinn, Onyx, Gaius, Foster, and Moses, the head warrior. The pack was currently in the hands of Foster's parents, the former gammas, who agreed to come back while the situation was being resolved.

There were three other packs here also though. One was the Solar Moon which was Onyx's birth pack. He had reached out to their alpha and she agreed to help. The second was the Red Eclipse pack, the one Raiden, Nara, and Gaius had gone to visit. Their Alpha sat across the table from me, but instead of bringing her beta or gamma, she brought one girl with her who didn't appear to be a wolf. Though, despite the lack of representatives, she assured the others that the Red Eclipse would be offering full support come the time when we'd head off to rescue Beta Reo.

The last pack there was one I was unfamiliar with. I didn't know much about it other than the fact that the alpha was Quinn's younger brother. He sat across from her and the resemblance between them was undeniable. Beside him were his beta: a girl with short, curly black hair, his gamma who had mid-length blonde hair, and his head warrior who was a short woman with a buzzcut. They had been the first to arrive and though they were new to me, Gray and Quinn welcomed them with open arms which told me that they could be trusted.

Lastly, sitting at the far end of the table was Councilman Steele. His face was curled into a deep frown as he stared at the group of us. While I knew that he'd been present during the last lab rescue, I didn't fully trust him. Gray, Gaius, and Onyx seemed to, but as far as I was concerned, he worked in the same field as Alpha Demos, meaning that there was a chance he was working with him.

"Now that we're all here, let's begin," Councilman Steele says. "Alpha Tatum, would you like to start?"

All eyes flicker to Alpha Tatum whose face remains blank. "Most of you have already been told the reason for this meeting, but just so we're all on the same page, I'll explain again. At one point, my back — the Howling Night — had a relationship with Alpha Demos. We were allies up until recently when he entered my pack lands without permission in an attempt to harass and harm one of my members. In the process of trying to get him to leave, he injured my gamma and kidnapped my beta. Had this been the only issue at hand, the Howling Night and the Dark Woods would've handled this problem alone, but we've recently come into possession of the knowledge that Alpha Demos not only may be connected to the recent events of feral wolves being created, but also the illegal and immoral capturing and breeding of supernatural creatures which is the reason Alpha Gray and I called you all here."

Sitting straighter, Gray took over. "Alpha Tatum and I have talked about it and if at all possible, we don't wish to kill the wolves being held captive. There's still a whole other side about this building that we don't know much about, but any wolf who doesn't show any signs of being feral and doesn't aid in helping Alpha Demos attack will be loaded onto vans and taken back to the Howling Night, any helpers of Alpha Demos will be taken in by the council to await trial which is why Councilman Steele is here. As of now, this operation isn't well known so we plan to use the element of surprise in our favor. Coming up soon is the trial of my gamma, Onyx. Alpha Demos should be present at the trial. We plan to split up into two groups and on the day of the trial, one group will be at the location of the building where the captives are being held and break into the building."

"How do you plan to split up these groups?" The woman with the buzzcut asks.

Quinn quickly jumps in and says, "Group A will be the one going to Onyx's trial. It will be made up of: the Solar Moon and the Dark Woods seeing as it's very likely that members from each pack will be called as witnesses. We will also be taking Cloud."

Wait, what? I didn't mind going to the trial, but I didn't want to go without Raiden. Knowing that he'd be fighting made me nervous.

"Group B will be made up of the Howling Night, Red Eclipse, and the Lunar Lake. The Howling Night and Lunar Lake will be the two primarily inside while the Red Eclipse will be mostly outside to take care of anyone who tries to escape, to help the captives get safely out and onto the vans, and act as a backup just in case anything goes wrong. We want this to go quickly and soundly — get in and get out."

"During Onyx's trial, Alpha Demos will be ready to do anything to turn the council against him. How do you plan to combat that?" Maia asks.

"Even before I was asked here, I've been doing my own case on the ferals. Judging by the evidence, It's highly likely that Alpha Demos is involved in it. Since Michael Cain's imprisonment, Alpha Demos has been his most common visitor. His pack was allied with Michael's old one as well, close ones at that. Between what you've all told me, we strike during the trial. We wait just long enough for him to dig his own grave and then we expose him. In the rare case that they attempt to retrial Onyx, it won't matter. The judges are split right now. We take Demos out and then there'd most likely be a tie — in that case, it would just be dropped."

"When do we strike?" Quinn's brother asks.

Councilman Steele looks at him and says, "The trial is in two weeks. We prepare now and then two days before, Team B will head out. One day later, Team A will. We strike then."