One of the other Elders, a shifter named Algernon, shot to his feet, shooting a murderous stare at me. “That is a violation of our basic covenant! To propose it is death!” His haughty voice rang through the air.
My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew the risk that I was taking, but it had to be done.
I heard Max yelling from the stands. “Covenant rules can be changed!” he shouted. “There have been significant new rules added to the Covenant over the past century.”
“Only to reflect changing technology!” Ragnar glared at him. “And only Elders, or a majority of 90 percent of Alphas holding an emergency meeting, can propose a change to the Covenant.”
“You are condemning wolves whose packs have abusive Alphas to live with abuse, or die!” I protested. “An Alpha should protect his pack members, not rape and torture them! And don’t tell me that they can turn to the Elders for help, because Kray cheated in his last fights, and a corrupt Elder protected him, and so did a corrupt shaman! A shaman that you Elders chose! If a shifter wishes to leave their pack, they should be able to leave their pack. And if numerous shifters want to leave their pack, that says something about their Alpha, doesn’t it?”
I turned to the crowd, and was relieved to hear yells of agreement and encouragement. Right now, when they’d witnessed outrageous cheating and corruption, was the time to strike. I had the crowd right where I wanted them.
“This is outrageous. She must be punished! Death to the Traitor!” Kimball bellowed. Of course he was against it – most of his pack would leave. There was a very small but vocal chorus of agreement, coming only from the Renker family.
“I put this to a vote of all Alphas!” Max announced. “And I challenge your position as Elders! You have held the same position for too many decades. It’s time for new blood and new laws! Why should a female be compelled into marrying anyone that her Alpha decrees? That is barbaric! It’s slavery! Why should pack members be killed for wanting to leave their pack? For that matter, why should gay shifters have to hide their identity or risk death or exile? We’re in the 21st century! I call for an open election to the position of Elder!”
Every Elder there had held their position for at least fifty years. Most had been in their position for seventy years or more. Given that a shifter’s lifespan is about a hundred and fifty, they could be expected to continue to hold those positions, and their archaic laws, for many, many decades to come – unless they were voted out by the overwhelming majority of Alphas.
The Elders were panicking now, loudly exclaiming amongst themselves, shooting looks of hatred at Maxwell and me.
“Death to the Traitors! I order the immediate execution of Alpha Maxwell Battle and his bride Josephine Battle!” Ragnar bellowed.
Our entire pack began shouting, growling, howling, crowding around Max and I. The packs that Allied with them crowded around us as well.
My heart sank. I couldn’t let all these people die for us!
“No!” Warden Redthorne’s voice carried across the field. “We are a nation of laws! This is not a legal order. They have not committed treason. First, the vote will take place.”
“That process takes months,” Ragnar snarled. “Every Alpha in the nation will have to be given the chance to vote. You have no justification for this. This is a complaint from one traitor and his wife.”
“We want a vote!” one of the Alphas in the crowd, a shifter I had never seen before, bellowed.
The other shifters, including many Alphas, began yelling too. “We want a vote! We want a vote!” they chanted. They were obviously furious over what they had just seen. The word of an Elder was supposed to be sacred; if an Elder and their shaman were corrupt, that threatened the rules that we lived our lives by.
Ragnar went pale. With that many Alphas demanding a vote, he could no longer argue.
“It won’t take more than a week, at most,” Warden Redthorne said calmly. “These days, we can contact all of the Alphas by email and telephone. If you look in the Covenant, you will see that in a situation such as this, it is up to me to appoint an Elections Committee to supervise the results. The committee will be selected by random drawing, with one Alpha from each state.”
Ragnar and the Elders shouted and spluttered protests, but it was no use. We all were ruled by the Covenant.
It took a little more than a week – it took ten days, to be exact. Those ten days were the longest of my life. I knew that Max’s parents and his whole pack, and all the packs we were allied with, stood with us, which made it even worse. We risked an all out pack war if the Elders weren’t voted out.