My Strength Chapter 15

Bella was ready and waiting right by the door to open it as soon as she heard what she knew to be Leah’s car drive up and the park in her driveway. Zafrina was right next to her while Athenodora was leaning against the doorframe leading into the kitchen, watching the car through the wall as if she could actually see the wolves getting out. Zafrina’s sisters and Heidi had left to likely lurk nearby in the woods while still keeping an eye out where the wolves couldn’t see them. They hadn’t even attempted to argue to stay closer as Bella suspected they would have preferred with three wolves in close proximity, but one look, a very pointed look, from Athenodora and they were gone faster than Bella could see.

When Bella heard the doors slam shut but no loud voices arguing with each other or even trying to beat the other to the door, Bella grew concerned. The wolves were always loud and rather rambunctious, to not be able to hear them from just the other side of the front door, Bella was concerned and worried that what they were clearly there to talk about wasn’t good.

Eventually, instead of just walking into the house like they normally did since they were over so often as long as they knew either Bella or Charlie was home they knew they were welcomed, they actually knocked. The knocking sound actually made Bella pause in confusion, wondering why her friends were suddenly trying to be polite when she knew they usually just treated her own home like their own.

After a gentle nudge from the Amazon, Bella finally moved to answer the door. “Hey guys, come on in.” She greeted, sounding much more hesitant than she would have liked but the situation was very confusing.

“Thanks Bells.” Jacob said with a weak smile, like he was trying to act like normal but just couldn’t manage it. Seth mimicked his greeting while Leah only nodded at her before going back to staring at the vampires in the room. They filled in and walked straight towards the living room. “We wanted to talk with all of you about what Sam wants to do.” He said, making Bella move with them into the living room.

Zafrina pulled Bella to sit on the couch with her, having Bella sit in the corner to make sure none of the wolves tried anything funny with her mate. Zafrina didn’t trust these wolves. Athenodora moved from the entryway to the kitchen to the entry way of the living room that was straight across the hallway. She was blocking the only doorway in and out of the room, just as she liked; they were trapped by her. It was just the way she liked it. The three wolves stood standing in the middle of the room. Seth looked like someone had kicked his puppy, Leah looked pissed and Jacob looked determined.

“Sam is trying to convince the elders that we need to go to war with you guys and with the Cullen’s.” Jacob started, ignoring the snort from Athenodora. Athenodora wished they would skip the part they had already figured out. “They are all so convinced that you guys,” He said, nodding towards Athenodora, “Are going to come here to kill our whole tribe and some of the elders are starting to believe him.”

“My parents definitely aren’t.” Leah said with a frown, “They’re smarter than the rest of the elders, no offense to your dad Jake, but even he is starting to believe what Sam is saying.”

“I’m sure if they actually knew the whole story, Billy wouldn’t believe him.” Seth said, quickly coming to defend Jacob’s dad to keep the peace and make sure the trio didn’t get mad at each other. What they had done earlier that morning had made it so they were all they had, they couldn’t afford to get mad at each other or hold grudges like the pack liked to do.

“Will Sam not let you talk?” Bella asked, concerned about what Sam may have done to the pack after the meeting. She knew the older boy, a man now, really liked the power he had over the other wolves and often liked to show it.

“He used his alpha command to make sure none of us could talk about what happened without getting his permission.” Leah said as she glared out the window on the side of the room. She was pissed about the situation and how they were practically forced to do what they did. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was what they could do it the short amount of time they had.

“The alpha command is something I’m assuming no wolf can combat?” Athenodora asked, even though she already knew the answer. She figured starting with small questions would be easier than starting with the real questions she wanted to ask.

“The only way out of a command is to leave the pack.” Leah said with a sneer.

“Sam was telling lie after lie and we couldn’t let that happen. He wants to bring a war between us and all vampires; I actually thinks our pack is strong enough to take on the vampire race.” Jacob said with a frown.

Athenodora couldn’t help but snort in amusement again; these wolves just kept getting more and more amusing the more she was around them. “They wouldn’t stand a chance against mine coven, much less against all vampires that are out there. Do they know how many of us there are, especially compared to the size of your own pack?”

“We’re aware of that.” Leah said with a snarl, causing Athenodora to smirk at how daring the wolf was. They may smell bad but if they were brave enough to ignore their instincts and come to them without more of their pack mates and not in wolf form, then she was more than happy to at least entertain them. “Why the hell do you think we’re here?” She asked with a snarl as she glared at the queen.

Seth put a hand on his sister’s shoulder to help keep her anger down; well, not so much her anger as her attitude that she tended to use against everyone when she was in an uncomfortable situation. “They don’t know Le.” Seth whispered to his sister, aware that everyone but Bella would be able to hear him so he was careful with what he said so his sister wouldn’t get embarrassed.

“We know that what he’s doing is only going to get the pack hurt and killed; it’s not going to end well.” Jacob said, growing a serious look on his face. He looked a lot more grownup than Bella had ever seen him. “We left the pack.”

“What?” Bella said as she stood up in her shock; she had thought that was impossible. She knew they were all unhappy with Sam and his leadership views, but to leave the pack? Could just the three of them really be a pack? Would they be okay with just the three of them?

“What does that accomplish?” Athenodora asked as serious look on her face.

This was definitely a different development that she hadn’t been expecting. She knew Children of the Moon were independent creatures when they were in their wolf form and even kept themselves isolated from others in their human form in fear of their human bonds attracting an attack from their wolf form. But for shifters to leave their pack? She wasn’t sure how that would play out for the wolves, for the mental wellbeing and their home life. It would be interesting to watch what happens.

“It means we can now freely tell you what we know about what Sam’s plans are and how best to beat the wolves.” Jacob answered but cut off Athenodora when she was about to retort that they really didn’t’ need their information to beat the wolves, “We’re hoping that we can help protect Bella and our tribe, the wolves included, by coming up with a way for you guys to ‘beat them’ and not kill any of them.” Jacob said while trying his best to not sound like he was pleading when he really was. All three of them grew up with the other wolves. They didn’t want anything to happen to them; no matter how upset they were with each other.

“And if we want to kill them?” Athenodora challenged, mostly just to get a reaction out of the wolves than with any actual threat; but the reaction she got was not at all the one she wanted.

“Don’t you dare!” Bella yelled and even took a step towards the ancient queen as she pointed her finger at the blonde woman. Zafrina was quick to get to her feet and to put a hand on her mates shoulder as a way to both comfort and hold back her mate. “You can’t kill any of them.” Bella said with as much command as she could muster towards the shocked queen. It had been well over a millennium since someone had dared talked to her as such; figures it would be her own daughter to do so after so long. Karma, she believed they called it. “I won’t you.”

“And why shouldn’t we?” Athenodora challenged, keeping in mind she was teaching her daughter the fine art of war and this was part of it. Her daughter needed to think about more than just her friends lives and remember there was more at stake than what she deemed to be important.

The wolves, even as much as Leah really wanted to say something, knew to keep quiet. They were on their turf and were at their mercy. They were kicked out of the tribe because of how they left the pack, Sam had seen to that. They had nowhere else to go but they had to do everything they could to try and protect their home and families and the lives of the rest of their tribe that couldn’t fight against vampires.

“Because the wolves are doing what they are told by Sam; it isn’t their fault.” Bella said as she mentally thought through everything she could say beyond she just didn’t want her friends and the people she had grown up around to be hurt. Athenodora wouldn’t accept that answer; she may not know the woman very well, but she knew that much. “I know that breaking a pack bond is near impossible to do; having these three done it only means that Sam will pull on his reigns even more to control the pack. He’s manipulating everyone.”

“So what does that mean to us?” Athenodora asked with an absolutely lecherous smile that meant she was enjoying the conclusions her daughter was coming to; she was so very blessed to have such a smart daughter.

“If we get rid of Sam, there won’t be a problem.” Bella said, her tone no longer as sure as it had been. That wasn’t the conclusion she wanted to come to; she didn’t even want Sam hurt, regardless of how warped and twisted his thoughts were.

“Precisely.” Athenodora said with a proud smile, but was caught off before she could affirm what she had been planning to do the entire time. She had never wanted to kill the whole pack, she knew getting rid of the alpha would make all the wolves gain back their independence and more than likely cause them to run off and stop fighting. They would be lost without their alpha and they would have an easy win.

“But you can’t kill him.” Bella said, “No one needs to die.” Bella insisted and then looked towards her human friends as her hand gripped Zafrina’s hand, drawing strength from the stoic Amazon. “Guys?” She asked, hoping they could provide something to help. She didn’t want anyone to die if she could help it, if there was any sort of alternative. Athenodora didn’t like that; her daughter needed to have a stronger spine, death was sometimes necessary in war. She would be happy that they would only need to kill one wolf.

“Well, technically Jake is supposed to be Alpha, he just didn’t want to because he was new to being a wolf and didn’t want the responsibility.” Seth pitched in helpfully.

“If he could get Sam to submit, he could take over Sam’s pack.” Leah pitched in, seeing exactly where her brother was heading towards. “If Sam saw how overwhelmed his pack is against vampires, he might give up his leadership and Jake can banish him like we are.”

“You’re banished from your home?” Bella asked, completely aghast at her friends being kicked out of their homes. She knew the wolves played a heavy roll in the running of the tribe, but could they really get the three of them kicked off the land? “We have to do something.” She said, turning her attention back to Athenodora for the queen to do something, which had Athenodora back in good spirits with her daughter looking to her for help.

“It’s okay Bella. We figured we would just camp with Charlie for a few days until Monday and then we would do some actually camping in the forest near here and steal food from Charlie.” Seth said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Mom and dad were able to get us each a bag of stuff and will get us stuff as needed; they just can’t leave too much because then they will lose clout on the council. They’re still trying to buy us time to come up with a plan, so anything they can do is worth if, even if it means we’re camping for a few days.” Seth said with a carefree smile. “We used to camp all the time, so I figure it wouldn’t be much different.” If there was anyone that could see the bright side of a situation, it would be him.

“We have to do something… mom.” Bella hesitated for just a moment before calling the woman mom, knowing full well she was manipulating the woman but at the same time, it was nice to call her that.

Athenodora couldn’t fight the grin off her face if she wanted to; she loved hearing her daughter call her that. She would do anything to hear it again and if it meant keeping that idiot wolf alive, well, she could do that.

“Can you do that?” Athenodora said towards Jacob, going completely serious as a plan formulated in her mind. “Can you take control of the pack?”

Jacob understood the seriousness of the question and that the vampire was formulating a plan that relied on his answer. Truthfully, he wasn’t entirely sure. If Sam fought back, there was a decent chance he would lose; Sam was more experienced and had been a wolf much longer than he had.

“I can.” Jacob said with a nod of his head, he would make sure he would be able to. He would do whatever he could to avoid having to kill anyone.

“Good.” Athenodora said, “Then we’ll bring reinforcements and have them so overwhelmed that Sam will have no choice but to concede.” She pulled out her phone that was still on, “Dear, bring our guests.” She said before hanging up. “You three have some training to do if you want to make sure we win and to make sure you are all fit to lead the new pack.” She said, the last part more directed at Jacob and they all knew it.

“We won’t answer to you.” Leah said with a snarl, not wanting to go from under the thumb of one asshole to being under the thumb of a leech.

“No, but you will train under us.” Athenodora said, her smirk firmly in place. She was still going to have fun, even if slightly a different type of fun. She would make sure her daughter was happy, so she would make sure no one would die. “That includes making sure you have a decent place to sleep. I am more than sure the Cullen’s have plenty of room for you.” She said fighting a smile at the looks of disgust on the wolves face and the happy look on her daughters face. This was going to be very fun.