Chapter 142

Lauren

They didn’t wat even an hour after Sophia’s funeral to call another meeting, one to talk about the battle after just living it.

Maybe Dalverious, the Alpha King, wanted to set the record straight before anyone could say otherwise.

I get it, there was a lot to discuss, and the fight clearly wasn’t over— but this didn’t feel lke a victory. At least not to me.

I’d thought returning to the packslands would bring relief, or maybe a sliver of peace. You know—birds chirping, magical sunlight filtering through the trees, someone handing me a warm cup of tea and a thank-you for saving everyone.

Yeah. No such luck.

Instead, we arrived to silence. That kind of quiet that hums with judgment, with fear, with too many eyes on your back and none on your face. The kind of silence that asks: Was it worth it?

And honestly?

I didn’t know the answer.

Sophia was dead. GrimMaw was locked up deep underground in chains that glowed faintly with protective runes. Gingi had vanished into the wild like a nightmare slipping off the edge of a dream.

And me? I was still standing. Barely.

We didn’t get a day to breathe. Not even an afternoon to sleep or eat something that wasn’t horderves at funeral planned far too wuick. Instead, we were called straight to the sacred grounds—to debrief, they said. What they really meant was reckoning.

Because when a she-wolf with no title, no bloodline, and no permission leads warriors into battle and actually wins… well.

People have opinions.

The circle had been drawn with stones and woven roots, like always. The elders stood in their usual places, robes clean, hair combed. Not a speck of blood on any of them, which made me want to scream and also sit down forever.

The Alpha King stood at the front, flanked by his young wife Killy, and his son Liam. He looked like someone who hadn’t lost a battle in twenty years—and couldn’t believe someone else just had the audacity to win one without him.

Funny enough, I didn’t. He’d brought the rest of the pack, saving us just in time. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t spark a problem by diving the pack with my little speech.

Truthfully. I just wanted to save my brother.

I stood near the back. Slightly behind Alexander, even though I knew it made me look like his second-in-command. Which I wasn’t. Not really. I just didn’t have it in me to shove to the front and demand recognition today.

My hands still smelled like smoke and blood. My heart still felt like it was sitting six feet under next to Sophia.

Someone brushed past me—a young beta wolf I vaguely recognized. She glanced back over her shoulder and gave me a shy nod.

“Alpha Lauren.”

I blinked. “What?”

She flushed, but smiled. “That’s what they’ve been calling you. The warriors from the battle you lead.”

I opened my mouth to correct her. To say, I’m not—

But she’d already moved on, disappearing into the crowd.

Great.

Now I was getting titles I hadn’t earned.

I mean, sure I gave a big speech, and yes women deserved as much recognition in the pack, but this opened up a whole new problem if people are calling me that without ceremony.

Maybe... I had earned the title?

I’d made the calls. Chosen the risks. Sent people into danger and dragged them back again. I’d been the last one standing. But was that just luck?

Why did it feel like I was still waiting for permission to belong here?

I glanced at Alexander, unsure what to feel.

He was watching me. Not the way he usually does, all warm and protective like he’s silently bracing for the next thing that might break me. No. This time, his expression was... proud. But there was something else beneath it. Something soft. Mournful.

I realized, with a pang, he was still grieving her too. Sophia. His heart, like mine, was still back at that funeral.

Before he was mine, he was hers. And no matter how messy it ended—no matter how much she shattered him—she had once been the person who knew the shape of his hands and the rhythm of his breath.

He’d never said it out loud. But I could see it.

And maybe that’s why I stepped forward before I was called, this whole thing feeling disrespectful to a lost pack member. Even one like Sophia.

My boots thudded into the dirt as I entered the center of the circle. Heads turned. Some elders frowned. The Alpha King narrowed his eyes.

I didn’t flinch.

The ceremonial recount began. Each pack stood, one by one, giving clipped, detailed accounts of the battle. Reports. Numbers. Names of the fallen. Names of the saved. A list of decisions that had been made—some under me.

And then came the surprise.

“She rallied us when we hesitated,” one warrior said. A young man, shoulders square, eyes bright. “We’d have lost more if she hadn’t taken charge, went straight for GrimMaw, her brother, one we doubted, took down most of the Rogue's I saw it with my wn eyes.”

Others nodded. A female scout added, “She held the front lines. Kept us from splintering.”

Had I?

A murmur passed through the circle. Another voice—gravelly, older—spoke next. “She fought like the moon was in her blood. We followed her—not out of tradition, but out of trust.”

That hit like a stone to the chest.

Someone—who, I couldn’t even tell—said, “Alpha Lauren.”

The words echoed in the clearing.

And for the first time, no one corrected them.

The Alpha King’s voice snapped across the circle like a whip.

“She is no Alpha,” he barked. “That title is not meant for her. She was not chosen by a council. She was saved—by me—when she would’ve died otherwise. That’s not leadership. That’s luck. Me taking pity on a foolish battle.”

Alexander took one step forward, rage in every line of his body. But I was faster.

I walked to the center of the ring. The air was thick. Waiting.

I spoke without raising my voice.

“I never asked for a title,” I said. “I didn’t wake up one day and decide I wanted to lead a pack. I didn’t ask to fight a war. I didn’t ask to lose people I loved, or carry decisions I’ll never forget.”

I let the silence hang before continuing.

“But I did stand when others fell. I led because someone had to. I didn’t lead because I had a birthright, or I was a man—I led because I had a backbone. Because I believed we were worth saving. I wanted to save my brother, and lead an attack I knew would work in our favor against the Rouge’s. We had an opening. I took it. And guess what, I was right because we won.”

“Because of me,” The Alpha King sighed strained.

I turned, locking eyes with him.

“I don’t care for the title, I’m not demanding it, but if your pack if telling you what they believe, want, you should listen to the changing of the times. If that makes me an Alpha, then so be it. But I didn’t earn it through being born how you deseire. I earned it through choice. And the pack chose me.”

The silence cracked.

Then, a howl. One voice, clear and strong. A second. A third. Soon, the entire clearing was filled with the sound of wolves howling—not just in respect, but in recognition.

Something bloomed in my chest.

An older woman stepped from the circle. Her cloak was lined with feathers, her hair silver and coiled with beads. She held a ceremonial blade—curved, etched with moon symbols—and offered it to me.

“The moon does not choose between us,” she said. “It chooses by worth.”

A Moon Goddess priestess.

I stared at the blade. At the shimmer of power humming from its hilt. At the mark it represented.

Alpha.

Not just by title—but truly.

I hesitated. Not because I doubted who I was—but because part of me still felt like the girl who once hid behind everyone else. The girl who wasn’t born into power, but grew claws out of necessity. A Lycan, huh? What a joke.

And then I reached out and placed my palm on the flat of the blade.

It was cool against my skin. Steady.

The elder nodded. “Let this mark the turning of the tide.”

My heart pounded in my chest. My spine straightened.

I didn’t feel like a different person.

But I felt like I could finally breathe.

Let them doubt me. Let them argue. Let them cling to bloodlines and old stories.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

I had chosen this.

And the pack had chosen me.

She took my hand and raised it, “Alpha Lauren, the wise and kind hearted! Our first women Alpha!”

I can’t tell you how loud the clearing was with cheers and howling, but I didn’t miss the eyes in the back, low and disapproving.