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)
“If you choose the former, stay,” I said, nodding to Tracy. “Corvin Academy will be a safe place for you—alpha, beta, epsilon, and omega alike. But if you choose the filth and fleas of inequality and oppression, you can get up right now, pack your shit, and go.” I pointed up. “Starting with the bastards on the ceiling. Everyone except Badr and Orion is expelled.”
“What?!”
“You can’t do that!”
“This is wrong!”
“Let that be a lesson to the rest of you,” I called, raising my voice over their noise. “Badr and Orion are strutting around here bold as shit, egging you all on, because they know they won’t be punished for it. But you will.” I winked up at a red-faced, fuming Orion. “Next time, choose your vendetta-driven, hate-filled leaders better.”
Reaching out, I took Edric’s hand, then Paxton’s. I warmed under the winks they sent me. I didn’t know if I believed in that whole “fate brought us together” nonsense, but I did know this was much more fun with them by my side.
“So?” I quirked a single brow. “What’s your decision?”
Nia rose to her feet. “Queen Daciana promised that she’d change Wolf Nation and the academy for the better, and she kept that promise. Thanks to her, the clan alphas of Wolf Nation are listening to omega issues for the first time since... ever.
“Just this morning, my cousin sent me a link to the new draft law proposal that will abolish the alpha-only custody laws in the water wolf clan.” Nia leveled a finger at me. “That’s because of Daciana... and all of us. Because we finally stopped swallowing our tongue, and stood up for ourselves. Because we finally quit all that mouse shit, and acted like wolves.”
She smiled at me. “We used to believe that Wolf Nation didn’t need kings or queens, and maybe it doesn’t, but what it does need is Daciana. She’s not only the only epsilon wolf to ever fight for us, she’s the first to encourage us to fight for ourselves. For that reason, I pledge to the pack of Daciana.”
I stilled, freezing to the spot. What? I didn’t know she was going to do this. I didn’t ask for this.
Nia looked around. “Will the forest omega wolves pledge with me?”
You could hear a mouse fart from the storeroom five doors down. Everyone fell silent in shock, even Badr and Orion.
This was a big deal. There were fewer deals bigger in Wolf Nation! The one thing we were founded on is that there is only one pack, and that pack is Wolf Nation. Didn’t matter that there were different clans. All of those clans fell under the power of the Wolf Nation pack.
The best way to describe it is that even though there were fifty states in the US, all of those states were beholden to the one and only US government. To withdraw from the authority of the government was to secede and declare yourself your own country.
And to name yourself your own pack was to do the same. But of course, if our pack wasn’t a part of Wolf Nation, its laws, or its protections that meant... we were fair game.
A chair pushed back. “I pledge,” said Devin—a friend of Nia’s.
“I pledge.”
“I pledge.”
“I pledge too.”
My jaw dropped further and further as one after the other, the forest omegas stood up and pledged their loyalty to a pack I didn’t even create.
“I, Tracy, pledge myself to Queen Daciana’s pack.” Tracy shot up, beaming away. “Will the sun omega wolves join me?”
“I will,” Brian announced, getting to his feet. “I pledge.”
And thus started the sun wolf omega dominoes falling. They weren’t even done calling out before the metal omegas, water omegas, wind omegas, and fire omegas all stood up—pledging to me.
I asked Nia to help me get the loyalty of the omegas so that together we could fight the slaughter and atrocities in our future, and she delivered.
It was a small army, yes, but Corvin Academy was the only place in Wolf Nation where wolves from every tribe gathered. When you had less than three months to win a war, you didn’t waste precious time trekking all across the country—talking to wolves from every different clan.
No. The fight had to happen here because this place was the epicenter. The revolution would ignite within these halls, and spread through the pack. And going by a certain new law change, it already had.
Bindi stood up. “I, Bindi, of the wind beta wolves—”
“Bindi, you have to be kidding me,” one of her friends shrieked.
“I’m not kidding. I haven’t seen my mom in years. I didn’t even know if she was alive. Until two days ago, when she saw the video of me speaking at the forum, called the school, and finally got in contact with me.” Bindi inclined her head at me. “None of that would’ve happened without Daciana, so yeah, I’m with her.” Bindi looked around. “Will any other wind beta wolves stand with me?”