Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
FIX THIS!
I would’ve smiled if there was anything to smile about. I knew Ash was a council plant, and a week of reading her intercepted emails and texts only proved it. But—and it was wild to me that there was a but attached to this truth—Ash wasn’t completely on their side.
The messages that Ash received from every single member of the council when they found out she canceled classes, instituted the placement exams, kicked the alphas out of the best dorms, and instituted the honor board... Well, let’s just say, I learned a busload of new swear words.
They all came down on her for playing into the “high priestess’s misinterpreted vision,” but she came back just as hard, saying that I was Luame’s chosen representative on earth. If I was misrepresenting Luame, then Luame would tell us so in the form of me bursting into flames. Until that happened, Ash would trust my word on the vision, and carry out Luame’s wishes to the letter. She would betray her faith under no one’s command.
It was really fucking confusing.
Ash seemed to both be on my side and on their side, but of course, that was impossible!
The only thing I could think was that she respected me as high priestess, but hated me as headmistress. So, she’d sabotage everything I did as headmistress, but support my efforts as high priestess. But since both those efforts were linked now, she was both my ally and my enemy, and it was as weird for her as it was for me!
I texted Ava to let the text and her replies through without editing, then watched as Ash received the message and typed a reply.
Rianna: I very much disapprove of a girl who is little more than a child leading a bigger mob of children to shout at and barrage the clan leaders with uneducated nonsense. Influencing law is a serious and sacred duty. It should be done with care, education, and forethought, as such, I will do my best to curb the high priestess and make her see sense. Fortunately the projection equipment was sabotaged by person or persons unknown, so there will be no repeat of last week’s circus.
However, barely educated children though they may be, not everything they said was wrong, and it’d be foolish to dismiss their opinions as so. I, for one, never saw the sense or wisdom in a beta woman never seeing her children again because she found the courage to leave her abusive, cheating alpha spouse, and going by the trending news on Loop Garou, a great many people agree.
The alpha council may want to accept it’s not just High Priestess Daciana who wants Luame’s vision of a new, fairer society to become reality. Because every law should be subject to questioning and change, or we fall to dictatorship.
I almost whooped by the end of her text, wishing I could send Sunella a “Hey, take that, bitch!” on the heels of it. A very frustrating feeling considering I wanted to punch Ash at the start of her text.
“What’s going on?” Nia asked, watching my face.
I handed her my phone. “You want to know what to think of Ash? Read this.”
Nia read through the responses while I nodded along to every one of her expressions: rage, frustration, surprise, glee, confusion. “What the hell?” she sputtered. “Is she on our side or isn’t she?”
“If you figure that out, please let me know. I’m stuck in this constant tug-of-war between drop-kicking her and hugging her.”
Nia shook her head, handing it back. “She’s weird, but she’s not our biggest problem right now. The omegas are learning nothing in the revision classes because the alphas are so obnoxious, and everyone wants to know if the forum will be back on tonight.”
“The projector is still a hunk of burned, twisted metal, and I’ve tried ordering a new one online, but the company keeps mysteriously losing my order. We’re cooked.”
Nia gave me a pinched, tight-lipped look. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. Seeing me beaten by a busted projector and reclaimed popular table wasn’t giving the omegas much faith in me.
They wanted change, but they didn’t believe I could make it happen.
A sharp stab of pain went through my skull, making me cry out. The truth was it was a little hard to come up with a plan of attack against these assholes, when my brain was in the middle of liquefying and pouring out of a hole in my head. All week I’ve felt like I was fighting and clawing my way out of brain fog, or straining to keep my eyes open. The human me was beginning to feel as slow and sluggish as the wolf, and neither of those adjectives describes a leader of a revolution.
Even though I was pouring Nyx’s mom’s medicine down my throat like syrup on pancakes, it was getting less and less effective like Paxton feared, and with Nyx gone, I couldn’t contact her to find out if there was more I could do.