Chapter 167: Cracks In The Pack
The air went dead.
The elders froze, and every head turned toward the young wolf. Even Hiro, who had been silent the entire time, took a small, involuntary step away from Girruk.
Calis turned slowly.
His crimson eyes found Girruk, and the look in them was something the young wolf had never been on the receiving end of before. It was not the controlled displeasure of a leader correcting a subordinate. It was the slow, coiling fury of an alpha who was deciding how much damage to inflict.
"What did you say?" Calis asked quietly.
Girruk’s bravado wavered. His jaw worked, but the words didn’t come out as easily the second time. His eyes darted to his father—
A heavy crack echoed through the clearing.
Greymaw’s open palm connected with the back of Girruk’s skull so hard that the young wolf stumbled forward, his ears ringing. His eyes went wide with shock as he caught himself, barely staying on his feet.
His father had never hit him that hard.
"You FOOL!" Greymaw snarled, and the raw fury in the old wolf’s voice confused Girruk.
His father had been badmouthing the Alpha ever since the shiftless female appeared, why was he so angry with him?
Before Girruk could recover, Greymaw seized his son by the back of the neck and forced him down. Girruk’s knees hit the dirt, and Greymaw shoved his head low until his forehead nearly touched the ground.
"Forgive him, Alpha!" Greymaw’s voice had shifted from fury to something urgent and desperate. He bowed his own head. "You know how reckless Girruk has always been. This idiot!"
The elders were glaring at Girruk with a mixture of anger and disbelief. Whatever private doubts some of them might have harboured about Calis’ decisions, not a single one of them would have dared to voice it like that.
It was plain disrespectful.
A young wolf challenging the alpha’s fitness to lead was not a disagreement. It was an insult to every wolf who had followed Calis through migration, starvation, and loss. It was an insult to the alpha who had sacrificed his own mating rights so his males could sire cubs. It was an insult to the memory of Calis’ father, who had built this pack from nothing.
An elder might have the standing to raise such a question carefully, through proper channels, with decades of service behind the words.
But not some young wolf like this.
This sort of statement was an invitation to a fight to the death.
Calis stared down at Girruk’s bowed form, his hands clenched into fists as a barely audible growl vibrated in his chest.
"I did not mean it," Girruk managed, his voice muffled against the dirt. "I am sorry, Alpha."
Calis frowned, disgusted.
His voice was ice. "You are lucky we have visitors. The next time you question my right to lead, I will take it as an open invitation for what it truly is. And we both know how that ends."
Girruk’s body went taut, but he didn’t move.
Calis straightened and turned to Greymaw. "Teach your son some manners."
Greymaw nodded vigorously, and Calis shook his head, turning away. "We will discuss this later."
The elders stood in the heavy silence Calis left behind, some seething at the situation and others glaring at Girruk and Greymaw with annoyance.
Greymaw slapped his son.
"Foolish boy!" Greymaw’s voice was shaking with barely contained rage. "Do you have any idea what you have done?!"
Girruk stared up at his father, holding his burning cheek.
"I was only saying what everyone was—"
"Go!" Greymaw pointed into the nearby bushes. "Go and think about what came out of your mouth. I will deal with you later. Or do you want him to deal with you instead?!"
Girruk’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t argue. He walked away with his head lowered while his body trembled with anger.
When he was gone, Greymaw turned back to the remaining elders.
"Sorry for my son’s behaviour," he said stiffly. "It will not happen again."
The elders murmured their displeasure.
But before Greymaw could defend himself, one of the two elders who had quietly supported Calis throughout the discussion spoke up.
"Your son can only say something like that if he hasn’t heard them from you. We should listen to what the leader said. I think there is reason in it."
The others looked at the elder, their irritation shifting from Girruk and Greymaw to the soft-spoken elder.
While Greymaw was slightly relieved by the intervention, someone speaking in support of Calis’ decisions this positively was vexing.
Disturbed by the looks coming his way, the old one continued, "The former alpha’s ways got many of our wolves killed. Being flexible is a sign of good—"
"What are you saying?"
"This is no surprise coming from you! You never fully supported the late alpha."
"That is not—"
"Do not lecture us about leadership when you spent half of the old alpha’s rule questioning his decisions from the shadows."
"Our population dwindled because of circumstances beyond anyone’s control, not because of the late alpha’s principles!" the elder snapped, his voice rising. "Those principles kept us pure."
The supportive elder’s mouth thinned, but he didn’t respond. The other one who supported him also held his tongue.
They were outnumbered in this circle, and they knew it.
Greymaw watched where Calis had left.
He had been friends with the late alpha and had helped him keep this pack in line, while also guiding Calis towards the leader his father would have wanted him to become.
And now a shiftless female from a mixed clan was undoing all of it.
He would not allow it.
The alpha needed to see reason. His only grace was that he was pleased the male was not too familiar with the female.
Greymaw excused himself from the elders and went after Calis.
He needed to make sure the alpha wasn’t going to act on Girruk’s foolishness. His son and Calis had butted heads before, but his foolish son had decided to say something so reckless in front of everyone.
Just because Greymaw could criticise Calis in private did not give Girruk the right to do that.
He soon found Calis standing some distance away and staring at how the other wolves surrounded the two male beasts and shiftless female.
Calis looked very displeased as he stared at Tera, and this made Greymaw happy. Good. It seems the complaints from the elders were working. Calis was already seeing the problem. This meant he might act on it soon.
The frown shifted and softened.
Greymaw’s blood ran cold.