[JEREMY]
"Then reject her," Elodie said, not even batting an eye as she spoke the words that could easily land her in a mental institution, if not in a grave. It was almost like she was unaware of how important and dangerous her words were.
Rejection in the werewolf lands was something so sensitive and needed to be handled with a lot of care. It was the one thing that could be standing between a war, and a peaceful nation. Though there were a lot of chaotic certainties.
It meant ripping apart the bonds that bound him and Awuor. It was literally impossible, or maybe Jeremy had been thinking one too many times about it but was just unsure of what he needed to do and how to detach himself.
"What?" Dom asked even though there wasn't much surprise in his voice. It was almost like he thought the idea was superb and was curious as to why Elodie hadn't started with all that.
There was so much at stake with Awuor still being the alpha but deep down, they also knew that she was probably the only person holding them together here.
"You can't really be serious about this, no?" Jer said as he looked at Elodie who wasn't about to bat her eyes at him. She knew how this shit worked and by the mating laws, if Jer rejected his mate while she was away, then he would cease to be the alpha by default.
That was because the power was Awuor's birthright. He couldn't just hop in and take over when he didn't have any right to it. This wasn't a power play where he could grab the opportunity and take over.
Everyone knew it. And maybe that could also explain why none of the elders had suggested the rejection even though eight months had passed since Awuor had been abolished from the Sicari packo.
The fact that her father still bound her to the pack, could explain why their enemies had been a little reluctant to come and attack Sicario.
No one wanted to mess with what belonged to alpha Awuor Hawi.
"Who can't be serious?" Alpha Sicario says as he walked in the trio still baffled by the situation. It was like they were stuck in some dystopian reality and didn't know what they were supposed to make of it.
The Sicario alpha had been busy since he banished his daughter. No one knew what he was doing, but anyone could tell that he had been busy with his affairs.
Dom and Jer hadn't dared to ask him, because they figured whatever he was doing was the best distraction for him considering he had lost Luna and his daughter all on the same day.
As much as they wanted to downplay the alpha's grief, everyone knew that Awuor had been her father's favorite, and maybe that coils also explain why Dom despised his sister so bad. Even when she was away, the girl would always have a place in their father's heart.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Jer asked alpha Sicario who just ignored him and walked to his seat.
Sicario was pissed about everything since the death of his Luna and all attempts to try, and make him see the light of the pack had all been futile. They had given up fighting him because he was the power in the palace.
Dom looked at his father, the grief on the old man's face once again, breaking his heart. A wolf with a dead mate was uncontrollable, and yet for some reason, the alpha had tried to be sane enough to keep up with the affairs of his pack.
He had been there for his people even though it hurt to sit up there alone. He wanted to forget what was happening, but it had happened and there was no way to reverse everything.
"Are you okay, alpha Scario?" Elodie asked when he saw that none of them was getting the answers from the alpha.
He had been cold and somewhat distant, and yet each time he walked into the alpha's office, he tried to be kind and smile a little. It was like this as the only place he could be in without feeling so empty. But was that true or was the alpha wolf just slowly withering away?
'I'm doing great all of you. Now what is it you guys are talking about that seems to spark arguments? I would love to hear what it is," Alpha Sicario said while the kids in the room with him looked at him skeptically.
They were worried for him, even though he had made it quite clear that he didn't need them to worry about him. He could handle himself and one too many times, he had proven that over the eight months that he lost the last of the important women in his life.
"Elodie is suggesting I reject Awuor," Jer stated carefully, like he didn't want to upset the alpha. He didn't want to get in trouble with the man, because she could easily be banished just like his mate.
The council could argue that since they were mates, it should have been easier for Her to know that the alpha Awuor had been planning to assassinate her own mother.
"That's absurd, right?" Jer added swiftly, worried that the alpha could blast him through the walls for suggesting such an unrealistic idea; not to mention his greatest fear which was the uncertainty of the thing that waited for him away from being the reigning alpha's mate.
He didn't want to go back to being a regular werewolf. It was too much work and sometimes made him feel like he was a hundred shades of fucked. Maybe because even in her banishment, Jer still loved the rejected alpha.
He still wanted to see her face when he woke up, and always slept with women who looked like her, in the hope that he would somehow find one who was exactly like the woman who loved him wholly and without any discrimination.
However, the result of his transgressions was just Awuor getting hurt a little more than she should have, and losing more than she needed to.
"I don't see what's absurd there," Dom declared, like he was trying to make a point to his silent father. Maybe the idea was noble, but was it when there are so many conspiracies? Was it when he and his brother-in-law had planned to uproot his sister and get the power for themselves?
Everyone had expected Dom to step up after Awuor was banished and instead, her mate had taken over. Only because Dom had allowed it. He was a walking red flag, but everyone around them seemed to think that they were the best version of Sicario.
"Me too," alpha Sicario breathed out after a long silence and for a moment, the kids in the room looked at him, wondering if he thought that the whole idea was absurd, or that he agreed with Elodie's suggestion to reject his own daughter.
No matter what happened, Awuor would always be his child, and even though that was a hard pill to swallow, Sicario had to come to terms with that, and soon enough, to avoid looking like a lost father anyway.
"I don't see what could be the issue there anyway. That woman killed my Luna, and she is banished for all I care about. If you wanna reject her, then you do it, it won't affect your mate bond's specifics like the rule. You will still be alpha.
"If anything, you will have the power to choose another mate. You're an alpha, mated to an alpha," Sicario added, his cold tone making chills run down their spines.
Either he really hated his daughter, or he just wanted to lock her out forever. Power had gotten him to the point where he lost his wife, the only good thing about the pack he had created from scratch years ago.