APEX

Ch. 27: A Plan for Redemption

Rhys

The issues discussed in today's meeting were, I was told several times by my father, of utmost importance. The esteem werewolves had been held in for decades had taken the biggest dip yet following the news reports revealing Zara's murder.

The sensationalized headline in yesterday's paper beamed across the conference room screen: Human Slaughtered During Full Moon Attack at Apex Lodge: Beastly Perpetrator Still at Large.

While the article didn't outright blame a werewolf, it heavily implied that one was the only likely culprit. It also insinuated a connection between this event and the attack on Trevor Daniels, who had recently been released from the hospital and was still grappling with traumatic injuries.

I was happy Tobias wasn't the one who'd written the article. I didn't need another reason to feel sour towards him. Still, this journalist had a point. Anyone with half a brain would suspect something was deeply awry within the Apex pack.

As the meeting got underway, I listened to my father's baritone voice invoke the need for steady calm and chastise us for our lack of discipline and decorum. "When I was a young wolf, my pack would never have allowed for one of our own to break from the principles we've held for so long," he said. "To jeopardize everything Apex has built—for what? One thing is for sure. No one would have dared cross me to do this. Now that I have placed such responsibilities onto my sons, it is you they must fear crossing. Especially you, Rhys. Clearly, you aren't presenting your pack with the authority necessary to combat this corruption within our midst."

"Mr. Rawlings, if I could—" Calla began, only to be cut off by him.

"You may not, Ms. Bardot. No. I take issue with you as well. You were hired to bring us the authority that had been lacking. And yet, on your watch, a young woman was murdered. Our status amongst humans is worse than ever, and I hope you realize, this affects Crown as much as it affects Apex. The lion is at your gate as well as at ours. The only difference is, we're still better able to fight it off."

"Father, stop!" I said in a sharp enough tone to earn a look of scorn from him. I did my best not to cower. He may have turned over to me the role of Apex Alpha, but he was still the de facto leader of the pack, and no one, not even me, was meant to defy him. And yet, the veiled threat he'd just lobbed at Calla could not go by unchallenged.

He stood up and stared me down, just as he had to Calla a month previous. But I wasn't Calla. I was Gerald Rawlings's first-born son, an Alpha, and no matter what he believed, he had overstepped. "Do you want to try that again, Rhys?"

A plea worked its way past the defenses I'd set up in my brain to keep Calla at arm's length. Please. It's okay, Rhys. You don't have to do this.

I could have possibly listened to her, had her appeal to me not been delivered by another, quite contrary emotion. Her mind may have been telling her she should calm me down, but the rest of her liked me coming to her defense. The jolt of praise for my behavior cut off any hesitancy I had to continue.

I cleared my throat. "Calla is doing a great job. I realize our latest approval polls aren't where we want them to be."

My father snorted at this.

"But they'd be worse if it wasn't for her. Women admire the fact that we were willing to place her in a top position at Apex. And men, well, even those that hate werewolves...for obvious reasons, don't completely hate her."

"That doesn't change the fact that she was here to improve our position and she hasn't done that," Gerald said.

"She's not the one that made it worse though either."