When the pleasure faded, we were both breathing heavily, hearts pounding in tandem. I turned to face Kaden, and he wrapped his arms around me, staring at me in the darkness. At some point during our ravenous fucking, true night had fallen, and there were no lights on in the cabin. Not that it mattered to us.
Kaden cupped my chin in his hand. "You fought for me."
"Of course I did." The startlingly tender motion caught me off guard. "Good thing I was trained by the best."
He rumbled his approval, deep in his chest. Then his thumb slid down to touch the mark on my neck. "How does it feel to be the new alpha female?"
"Terrifying," I admitted.
He chuckled at that, his voice low. "I felt that way too at first. But you'll get through it, just like I did."
"Are you sure it should be me?" I asked, finally voicing the biggest fear inside me.
"I'm sure." He pressed a soft kiss to my lips. "There is no one else I would rather have at my side, ruling my pack with me."
I kissed him back, clinging to his strength, his surety. I had no idea how to be alpha female, and with tensions so high in the pack, I could tell it was going to be an uphill battle to get everyone to accept me—but I had to try. For Kaden. For my pack.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The next morning we called a meeting at the lodge and invited every pack member to attend. It was obvious that far too many people had doubts, concerns, or questions about what was going on, and things had only gotten worse while Kaden had been gone for a few weeks. That was partly my fault, and I told Kaden we should tell the pack everything. Yes, everything. Kaden was hesitant, mainly out of a need to protect my privacy since it involved airing out a lot of my family's dirty laundry. But I strongly felt that we had to be open and honest with our people, and also felt it should be me who did a lot of the talking. The pack needed to hear why I'd left with Jordan from my own mouth, along with everything I'd learned while in captivity, and afterward with my brother.
When I got to the part about Jordan being my half-brother, the pack's outrage and horror told me I'd made the right decision. The Ophiuchus were already skeptical of the Sun Witches and how they used magic on the Zodiac Wolves to control things like shifting and mate bonds, and this sent them over the edge. By the time we got to the end of our recap and explained our plans going forward, many more of them were on our side than before.
There were still some pack members who didn't trust me, or saw me as an outsider, or simply thought I was still too new or too young, but that was to be expected. Kaden said many had felt he was too young when he became alpha too, and change wouldn't come overnight. I'd have to keep working to build their trust and loyalty like he'd done. I’d fought for my title and won, but the battle wasn’t over yet. That didn't bother me though. This was my pack, and I wasn't going anywhere.
We spent the rest of the day and long into the night meeting with people individually, listening to complaints and concerns and trying to alleviate them. Though Kaden had only been gone for a few weeks, it seemed like everyone needed to talk to him about something urgently. I took the time to try to memorize everything I could about each person, committing their names to memory. Tanner and Lindsey never showed up though, and I wondered how many others had stayed back with them too.
By the time we returned to the cabin that night, my brain was fried. Stella fed us something, and I passed out on the couch not long after, in the middle of her telling us about her day. I vaguely remembered Kaden carrying me to bed, and that was it.
When I went down to breakfast the next morning, I found Kaden already up and making me pancakes, with no shirt on. Yum. I got a nice view of his corded back muscles as he flipped them, and when I got close, he pulled me in for a scorchingly hot kiss that left my knees weak. He fed me a bite of pancake, and it was delicious and fluffy. The guy was hot, smart, powerful, and he could cook? I'd really hit the jackpot.
After breakfast, we headed outside to spend another day meeting with pack members. The morning was misty, the days growing cooler now that fall was approaching. A few of the leaves had even started to turn already. We passed Stella sitting with a group of pups by the lake, doing her best to continue her kindergarten class without an actual school. We spoke to others who were fishing, or chopping wood, or hanging out in front of the lodge. We knocked on the doors of people's cabins, seeing if there was anything we could help with. I had never realized that so much of being an alpha was just checking on your pack and seeing how they were doing or if there was anything we could fix, whether it was an argument between neighbors, or a broken toilet, or a kid who'd lost their toy in the woods. Then again, this was Kaden's way of being an alpha, and it was vastly different from how my father had led the Cancer pack.