Chapter 29

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There was silence on the line as everyone in the room looked at the phone waiting for the beta to react, they only heard silence.

"Beta Ted?" Nick asked.

After a moment of silence the beta's voice rumbled through the phone, his fury unmasked.

"What are you trying to play at Nick?" He said, deliberately ignoring the alpha title as an insult. "We are coming for you!" he vowed.

"Yes, yes" Nick waved him off "but before you vow vengeance and blood and all those interesting things don't you want to talk to Serena?" He asked.

Further silence.

Nick looked at Serena and indicated at the phone asking her to speak. He was sure the beta would not believe him.

Serena stepped forward unsure "T-ed" she said "It's me Reena" that was his name for her.

A deep breath of disbelief across the line.

"Reena? Is that really you?" the shock and surprise evident in his voice.

"Yes, Ted it is me." She reassured.

"What are you doing there?!" He asked.

"I was captured..."She said and was interrupted by a fierce growl.

"Alpha Nick, you better give her back to me, before you regret it." Ted threatened.

"Are you in a position to threaten me, beta?" Nick calmly asked.

"What do you want?" Ted spat in venom "What do you want in exchange for her?" he demanded.

"Nothing" Nick said "Because I am not holding her hostage, she is free to go. You can ask her if you don't believe me." Nick said.

"What? What is this?!!" Ted asked confused.

"I found my mate Ted, Nick was speaking the truth. I did find my mate" Serena added to ease his confusion.

"Who is he?" Ted asked calmly. He was anything but calm on the inside.

Serena's eyes flicked to Alex's face for a moment before she answered.

"His name is Alex, he is a Roma wolf" She told him.

"Alex" Ted breathed shocked "As in Alexander Knowles? One of the twins? Roma's lapdog?" he said. He was too surprised to make it sound insulting.

"Yes" she simply responded. What was there to say?

"Reena...we will find a way, we can work...." Ted started saying, he did not care they had audience.

"Ted, there is no going back from this" Serena told firmly.

Ted was taken aback "Why? Why are you doing this?" He asked confused "Do you know what they did to your grandfather? What they did to Patrick's pack?" He demanded from her, furious.

"Yes" she responded calmly "I am doing what I think is best for this pack, to ensure its survival, above all grandfather would have wanted that. His pack, his legacy to live" She told him.

"I have seen the Roma wolves Ted, we will not win against them and I don't want our pack to die" Serena told him.

Ted was silent for a moment. "I need time, I will call you back" he said with no one in particular and just hung up.

Everyone looked at Serena confused.

"He will talk to the key people in the pack before he makes any decision, he will call back. There is nothing we can do but wait." She addressed the room answering their unasked question and with that she walked out of the room as well. She needed some time for herself as well.

***

The grim faced alphas were in meeting for a while.

"So what is the motion of this council?" one of the alphas asked his peers.

"Roma now controls the world council, the enforcers are under her command now. The Lockbourne family is wiped out." One of the alphas said.

"Yes, but we have the numbers, how many wolves to the Colorado pack now have? And how many can fight?" another one challenged.

"What about the Roma wolves in Colorado, they sure can fight." An alpha suggested.

"Yes they can, but what are their numbers? In hundreds? What about our numbers? We are in the thousands, we will easily outnumber them one to ten, that's an odd difficult enough to beat them and take them out for once and for all." The other alpha pressed.

"And do you forget Lockbourne was the head of our council as well? Where is the retribution for taking out one of our own? What example are we trying to set? Do we make peace with Roma? How will we face our packs, what respect will our own packs have for us. No I agree, we fight" One more alpha voiced his support.

"Ok" the alpha who was chairing the meeting said "Lets vote on this" he said. "Now that we only have six alphas here with no one representing the Lockbourne pack here we will go with majority vote" he declared and added "Let me start with me, I have heard the arguments going on for the last few hours and I vote for negotiation a peace treaty with Roma"

"Peace" The alpha next to him voiced his support.

"War"

"War"

"War"

They were now two votes for peace and three votes for war. All the alphas now looked to the remaining alpha who would decide the fate of their course of action.

The alpha held on, giving it a thought and then stated "peace"

The alpha who was chairing the meeting sighed and said "we are split even, let's give it a day's time and reconvene, we will keep reconvening every twenty four hours until we have a majority vote. This meeting is adjourned. The alphas dispersed.

***

There was a knock on the door and he got up to open it "Alpha" he greeted in surprise "I did not expect you"

"I know, can I come in?" The alpha asked.

The man stepped aside and the alpha walked in to the room. Both of them sat down.

"I know why you voted for peace in the meeting earlier today." The alpha began.

"You know my view, I am no friend of Roma but Roma is too dangerous to be taken head on, we will have too many causality's even if we win."

"I agree" the other alpha answered.

"But what if I told you we could win, what if I told you me and a few other alpha's have an idea we believe can work, what would you say?"

"I will say I am open to listening to what you have to say and if I see merit I will consider to reconsider my vote"

"Excellent!" the alpha rubbed his hands excited, let me give you a brief "We know the Roma Empire is dangerous "he began "But it is also more fragile than it ever was."

The other alpha looked intrigued.

"Let me explain" the alpha continued looking at the expression on his fellow alpha's face "Evelyn Roma is a child, an eighteen year old girl with too much power in her hands but she is protected by her inner circle especially Sebastian, guided by him, he is the brain and she is just the trigger. So we take out the brains and the trigger will be useless. Without Sebastian constantly guiding her the eighteen year old girl will not be a threat to us." The alpha explained his view.

"But still Roma wolves are deadly as proven already" The other alpha objected.

"Yes, I agree but winning a war is as much strategy as sheer power and remember we have numbers on our side." The alpha pressed.

"Ok...go on" the other alpha said, wanting to hear the complete plan.

"We cry for peace get Sebastian to a meeting and take him out and simultaneously without any warning we launch an coordinated attack against Colorado, we will let them know about Sebastian's death just before we attack to impact their moral and with him gone, we will not have anyone whispering in to the girls ears and in all this confusion we will have numbers on our side." The alpha explained.

"I see, but we will be playing dirty, we will not have any honor winning this war." The other alpha cautioned.

"Where was the honor of killing Lockbourne in the word council chamber, the one place where you were supposed to not cause any harm?" the alpha said and added "What about Patrick's pack, where was the honor in wiping out the entree pack? The woman, the children? No alpha, the Roma wolves deserve no honor, we will use their own underhanded tactics against them, I say it's just fair for them to taste their own medicine." The alpha explained.

"What about the rest of the alphas, who are not in the council?" he asked. The council consisted of seven elected alphas. These alphas were elected by the alphas across the united stated.

"Most alphas will fall in line with the rulings of the council the ones who don't fall in, we take care of them once we take care of Roma" The alpha explained "Besides the seven of us represent most of the firepower in the American packs"

"We are only six remember? And what is happening with the Lockbourne pack, will they back us?" The alpha asked. Lockbourne had the most firepower.

"That is the easiest part! They must be frothing at the mouth the way their alpha was killed I am sure they will welcome a good fight, their beta is currently in charge and I am sure he will fall in line with the ruling of the council, he is the lease of our worries right now."

After a few moments of silence the alpha replied "All right you have me interested, convince we in the next twenty four hours and you will have my vote."

"Fantastic!" the other alpha replied.

***

"Ok gentlemen, it's time for our vote" the alpha leading the meeting began and added "My vote remains unchanged, we pursue peace"

"Peace"

"War"

"War"

"War"

"War"

The council sat in silence for a moment reeling in the repercussions of their actions.

"Two votes for peace and four for war" The alpha said gravely "we go to war. This council is adjourned gentlemen" The alpha's dispersed.

***

Sebastian walked in where Roma was sitting.

"Yes?" she asked

"The enforcer just called me" He said.

"You mean David?" she asked.

"Yes, yes the same guy" he said dismissively "The American council wanted to sit down to meet to discuss potential peace treaty." He said.

"Really?" she asked "They sound...accommodating" she said unconvinced.

He shrugged "no harm in listening to what they have to say."

"Ok, where and when do we meet them?" She asked.

"A week from now and they just asked for me...they apparently wanted us to be sure that this wasn't some form of ploy or trap for you, so the first few meetings until we work on an agreeable proposal is just me and once we have an agreement you just waltz in I guess to sign the treaty I guess." He explained.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"May be they are stalling or they genuinely mean peace, either ways it's too good an opportunity to pass, I will attend it." He declared.

"Ok" she agreed, there was no harm in listening to them she thought.

A thought she will come to regret for the rest of her life.