My mother isn’t an idiot and we don’t have a way to protect our people en masse while they’re on the move. The H.A.C. has already hit Clan Bear and Clan Wolf. If a plan for the other Clans isn’t in motion yet, it will be soon. Moving everyone will just speed up the H.A.C.’s timeline and they’ll strike at our people when we can’t be there to protect them.”
Yvonne shook her head. “Next option.”
I nodded. I knew it would never work but they needed to hear every possible choice before the Clan Alphas would agree on the one course of action that we were going to have to take. They might all thirst for blood but they needed to see that was our one and only option. There could be no reservations. Too many lives were on the lines.
“We can try and assassinate my mother.” The room grew uneasily quiet. “She’s my mother. I’m sure her death will hurt.” I shrugged my shoulders and swallowed. Here I was, talking about murdering my own mother. That was morbid. “But I’m aware there isn’t a scenario where she survives that leaves us safe. I’ve come to terms with it.”
A few heads nodded but they didn’t look convinced and I couldn’t blame them. They hated my mother as much if not more than I did, but they weren’t stupid. Whether she was the enemy or not, she was still the Alpha’s mother-in-law. A person whose murder couldn’t be plotted out in the open without severe repercussions under normal circumstances. Lucky for them, these weren’t normal circumstance.
“The problem with an assassination is that it only solves the immediate threat and it leaves the H.A.C. intact. The Human Alliance Corporation isn’t some small start-up. They’re a massive movement with outfits spread out nationwide. Killing my mother might give the local faction pause before engaging with the Pack. But it could just as likely be the spark that turns them all against us.”
Caynen slammed a meaty fist against the table. “What then?”
I took a deep breath. “We go to war, just as Declan suggested. We attack. We don’t have the pleasure of playing defense. Time isn’t on our side. We need to plan an offensive attack on our terms. The H.A.C. won’t confront us on our own land. The Compound is too well fortified. But the longer we wait, the more our people are at risk. We can’t remain on high alert forever. My mother knows that and she’s waiting on us to drop our guard. We need to take the fight to her front door before that happens.”
I paused letting my words sink in. “We need to hit them with everything we have. The Pack can’t appear weak. We have one chance to send a message and the message needs to be heard loud and clear. We will not bow. We will not let our people be harmed. We will repay our debts.”
Robert smiled. It was a feral display of teeth that had every hair on my arms standing on end.
“Option three it is,” he said.
“We need to wipe out the entire local faction. There needs to be no possibility of them regrouping. It’s our only real option but we have to think carefully. This is going to require us to pull every able-bodied man and woman in for the fight. There are going to be casualties. We’ll lose people. Some of you in this very room might not make it back.”
Derek and Teagan looked at one another. Silent communication passed between them before Derek spoke. “Do we know their numbers?”
I shook my head. “No. We know it is over three hundred but we don’t know much beyond that. They have fifty-two psykers. Jason is working to sway them away from the H.A.C. so at the very least, we don’t have to fight against them, but that requires time, and ours is running out. We should prepare to face them. We can’t go in blindly anticipating nothing more than human soldiers.”
Their faces were grim.
Declan stood. “Take the rest of the day to discuss amongst yourselves and your people. We’ll reconvene first thing tomorrow and make our decision.”
Everyone left the room, leaving Declan and me behind. I walked over to where he stood and took a seat on the table in front of him as he resumed his seat in the chair.
He reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
I knew what he was really asking. Was I sure I wanted to kill my mother? Because either she died, or I did. There wasn’t a world where the two of us could coexist anymore.
She would keep hurting the people I cared about. She would keep trying to get to me.
“Yes.” There was no
