Chương 138: GAMMA ENDO'S PUNISHMENT

Harvey suddenly sped up when we got to the pack house porch. I think he was being trained to understand that if he didn't get the door before I reached it, I would pull it open myself. And far be it for the good beta to let his alpha touch a door knob. I graciously allowed him to pull open the door. Yeah. Ok. Open all the doors, beta. I'm just going to be totally adult about this. I kept my hands in my pockets and stopped at the foyer. A couple of passing warriors bowed slightly as they went by. I averted my gaze.

Yeah, I was in a bad mood. My Wolfie was having one of its alpha meltdowns. What did they mean I was slow? I was not slow! I was 15! Why would I care about boys? I already had a mate, and he was far away anyway. Fine, if I ever see him again, I'll kiss him! That'll show them! Wait no, that was just childish. The grown-up thing to do was to just let it slide—or laugh it off even. I was going to be an adult about this. #adulting I was ready to bite off someone's head by now.

I'll bite off their heads and let them laugh it off. And for the record, that wouldn't be childish. It would be perfectly wolfish! Harvey helped me out of my jacket.

"Your dad said to go directly to the conference room." Yeah, and Dad would mindlink Harvey instead of me? Grrr… I didn't wait for Harvey to finish putting the jackets away. I simply made my way up the stairs. I knocked on the door twice and pushed it open. The conference room was already full. Harvey quickly caught up and held the heavy door open for me to walk in. Everyone in the room except for my dad stood up. Eh, what's this? Everyone included all the elders. Were they all waiting for me? Oops.

"Congratulations on your win, Alpha Sam," Beta Gerald said. I blinked and nodded. Harvey pulled out the chair closest to Dad for me. I sat down dumbly. Everyone else sat down too. What the hell was going on? Wolfie, on the other hand, was quick to understand this new change. {I'm the Alpha!}"Gamma Endo wanted to speak to you," Dad said.

"I would leave the rest of it to your discretion, Sam." I looked at Gamma Endo. He looked nervous. I hadn't known the elder warrior could be susceptible to nerves. Nix was standing behind him. Nix gave me an uncomfortable smile and a shrug. I looked back at Gamma Endo. He stood up, his chair rolling back. I remained seated.

"What did you want to speak to me about?" My voice came out cold and quiet. Mostly because I was trying my best not to show how scared I was. I won the match, but it's not like I could repeat that performance anytime soon without wrecking my body. And if the stubborn gamma still refused to submit, what should I do? I didn't want to be the one to kick him out of the pack. What about his mate? Or Nix? Why did Dad leave it to me? I'm just 15!

"Gamma Endo!" My Mum burst into the room right at this moment. Killion barely managed to catch the heavy door before it swung back on her. He held the door easily after that as my Mum, the vision of a very irate Luna, stood at the threshold glaring at Gamma Endo.

"Gamma Endo! How dare you!" Mum scolded.

"How dare you hurt my baby girl!" For some reason, even though I was mad about my Mum treating me like a kid or saying I was slow—actually, I was still pretty miffed about being called slow—I felt suddenly rather relieved at her intrusion. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Gamma Endo looked partly bemused and partly terrified.

"Luna, I believe I was the one who was the injured party, for which I deserved—" Then Gamma Endo looked at me, his proud face never flinching.

"You won, Alpha Sam. And you've put me in my place. I am humbled. I pledge you my loyalty. From today forth, my family and I swear our allegiance to you." Gamma Endo bowed deeply. Nix shadowed it. Woah… no need to drag your entire family down with you. I stared at Gamma Endo. The rest of the elders stared back at me. This was my cue. Unfortunately, no one had provided me with the script.

"Sam, what do you say?" Dad asked.

"Thank you," I answered automatically. Gah! I was such a kid! Dad blinked. I smiled to cover up my stupidity. And then I did what I always did when put on the spot—I winged it.

"Thank you, Gamma Endo."

"I look forward to working together with you." I decided to make my escape quickly.

"Now, if you'd excuse me…" Something's up, and I had no idea what. So I was hightailing out of here.

"Wait, Alpha Sam!" Beta Gerald stood up.

"Pardon, but regarding Gamma Endo's position…"

"What position?" I asked.

"Understood. Then Gamma Endo will be demoted from all his positions within the pack," Beta Gerald announced grimly. Gamma Endo bowed his head. He didn't even protest.

"Wait, what?" Oops. I had said that out loud. Everyone froze and looked back at me.

"I never said that!" I needed brains—more brains than I had. I mindlinked Harvey, "What the hell is happening?" Harvey's voice in mindlink answered in a very calm tone.

"The Gamma challenged you. The common and appropriate punishment for that betrayal ranges from demotion to expulsion from the pack." No way. (I was quite careful not to just blurt out whatever I thought now.) But that was just dumb. I just won his loyalty, and now he was going to be demoted? I looked around the room at the confused and concerned faces. No one spoke, though. Dad did say he would leave this to my discretion, right? Heh heh heh. To Beta Gerald, I smiled.

"I'm afraid you misunderstood. There will be no demotion nor change to the Gamma's position."

"What?" Now it was Gamma Endo's turn to verbalize his shock by accident.

"Did you think I'd let you retire so early? You have a reputation of working tirelessly to protect your pack. Plus, you are one of our top warriors. As if I would let you slack off so easily!" I laughed at his bewildered face.

"You swore your loyalty to me, so now you work as Gamma until Nix is ready to take over."

"But this isn't a punishment at all!" Gamma Harry exclaimed. He cast a quick glance toward his fellow gamma.

"No offense, Endo." And then back to me, Gamma Harry continued, "If we let him off, wouldn't others also try to challenge you? Even though you are very strong, you cannot spend every day entertaining challengers." That's true too. I shrugged… why must decisions always come attached with so many long-term consequences?

"It's fine," I decided with a sigh.

"No, it's not!" Mum interrupted again. Maybe this was one of those mysterious Luna powers. I seriously wondered how it worked: Dad, the Alpha, said he would leave it to me. Me, the future Alpha, made my decision. And Mum, the Luna, had just said "no" right in front of everyone, and I wasn't even a little offended. Or maybe it was because she happened to be my Mum, who had been interrupting my whole life with "no's" anyway. And usually, it would turn out to be in my favor to stop and listen.

"You're a 15-year-old girl! You can't be spending your days in fights!" Mum said.

"A 15-year-old girl should be going to school, not fighting oversized old wolves. A 15-year-old girl should be hanging out with friends, not out hunting rogues with who-knows-who!" I froze.

"Wait, who told you?" I looked at my betas. Harvey pressed his lips together and looked at Killion. Killion shook his head just very slightly… not them? And I knew Ben wouldn't. So… Mum was just guessing? Mum's eyes widened.

"Oh my goddess, Sam!" Gamma Endo nodded.

"No wonder, Alpha Sam did fight with a very advanced level of control. I see now that she was only feigning inexperience." Now was not the time to analyze the fight, Gamma Endo!

"Gamma Endo! Sam is only 15!" My Mum cut Gamma Endo off.

"She shouldn't be out there fighting."

"I was out there fighting when I was 15," Gamma Endo said.

"She's a girl!" Mum said.

"Wait, ah, so… no one told you about… ah, the rogue hunt?" I asked tentatively.

"What rogue hunt?" Mum sounded truly panicked now.

"Nothing. It's nothing," I said, which, in hindsight, made things worse. Mum crossed her arms and looked at Dad. I put my hands in my pockets and waited. I guess I'm the one who was going to be punished in the end. Dad got up and wrapped Mum in his arms.

"Shhh… it's okay. Her wolf is a fighter type; she would naturally hunt and fight."

"That's why we set her up with strong Betas to run with her," Beta Lucas added. Dad turned to me.

"Sam, please try not to upset your mother." Oh, so rogue hunts are okay? I was more than a little confused about the new rules now that I'm officially going to be the future Alpha. It seemed a lot of things that used to be prohibited were now okay as long as Mum didn't find out.

"No wonder our borders have been quieter lately," Beta Gerald said thoughtfully.

"Looks like our young Alpha is marking her territory," Gamma Endo added approvingly. Wait, don't go making things up. It was a joke, a prank I put in my schedule! But that sounded like what a kid would do. OMG, how did I get myself into this mess?

"So if anyone challenges, Sam will just put them down," Gamma Harry decided.

"No problem." Yes, problem! For one, my Mum would be upset!

"It would still be disruptive," Beta Lucas said. How did things become like this?

"Ki has a suggestion," Harvey said suddenly. Everyone looked at Killion, who simply smiled.

"Since our alpha princess has defeated Gamma Endo, perhaps whoever wants to challenge her must first go through the good Gamma?"

"True. If they can't beat Endo, there's no way they can beat our Sam!" Gamma Harry sure had a lot of confidence in me. Completely unfounded confidence, if you asked me.

"Please make sure you guard our alpha princess well," Killion told Gamma Endo. In that moment, it was quite obvious that this was far more than just a simple assistant wolf speaking.

"Don't insult me, assistant," Gamma Endo growled.

"Of course, no one would pass through me. I would guard her with my life."

"Then we would announce Gamma Endo's reinstatement by Alpha Sam, as well as his bloodline's allegiance to her from today. We will also announce that any future challenges would have to pass through Gamma Endo to prevent unnecessary disruption to daily pack life," Harvey concluded. The elders leaned back in their chairs.

"Very good. This is very good," Gamma Harry decided.

"Looks like us old men can retire peacefully soon," Beta Lucas looked pleased. Even Dad joined in, "Our children—they grow up so quickly."