The Gamma's Birthright - Book 2
Standoff

As the first colours of dawn break through the dull morning light, Toni gets up stretching, she’d had a fitful sleep, not wanting to call on Tyra to keep watch for her.

With the wind howling across the plateau, there wouldn't have been much rest, so she’d taken shelter behind one of the rocky outcrops.

In retrospect, she should have gone back into the trees, but the view at sunset and sunrise had been too compelling for her to move away.

It felt like she had pitted herself against the elements last night and won, leaving her feeling calmer and happier than before, if she could take on the elements, she'd survive this pain.

Her muscles hadn’t appreciated the rock pillow, but sometimes, discomfort was a good indicator of life, being able to feel pain meant she was no longer as numb as she had been yesterday.

She grabbed her bag, the only things in it had been her cloak, which she’d used as a blanket last night, some ropes, she never went anywhere without her ropes, and a roll of bowstring

Grabbing some fallen branches and sticks, she sets about creating some arrow shafts, she will only be able to make a green bow as the wood is too damp, it would allow her to kill rabbits, but wouldn’t have the draw strength for larger or more distant prey.

When she went to set the traps, she’d look for feathers or bark she could use as fletching for the arrows and a branch suitable to make the bow.

The wind gradually dropped, now creating small eddies that swirled around the plateau, small pockets of movement that danced around her.

Toni’s muscles tensed; along with the eddies, she caught the scent of wolves, including that of her mate.

She closed her eyes to calm herself and searched her mind for Tyra, finding no evidence of her wolf in her consciousness she sighed quietly.

Tyra had buried herself deep to heal, something Toni was pleased about, even if it made her next moves more difficult.

Standing she loops the remaining rope over one of the rocky outcrops, but making it look like she’s doing it to measure out where to cut it, she drops the ends to the floor, walking away she picks up the arrows she’d cut and stripped and starts whittling the ends to a point.

Giving it five minutes, she raises her head as if she’d just caught their scent.

“Come on out Beta Andrew, say whatever it is you have to say”

She carried on sharpening the point of her last arrow.

“I see once again you have involved your pack, so I guess it’s not a social call”

She uses her cold tone to hide her pain.

“Gamma Antonia, we need to talk”

Andy breaks the treeline moving towards Toni, it’s not lost on her that he’s using her formal name, no longer Emma, which is fine, he didn’t deserve to address her informally as far as she’s concerned.

“Close enough, we can talk from this distance”

She hasn't raised her head yet, nor even glanced at him.

Pain is reflected across his face, his wolf still wanting the closeness of his mate, is howling in his head, unable to connect to Tyra through the mate bond, his mark giving him some access to her mind and feelings.

“What happened to your wolf?”

Tentatively asking he takes a step forward.

She stops her work, starting to pack her bag with the arrow shafts and snares she’d created so far.

“Not that it’s any business of yours, but your reaction to who we were, even after you’d had a chance to get to know me, didn’t go down well with her.”

“You’ve lost your wolf?”

The sadness and shame aren’t hidden from Andy’s words, worried that it's his actions that brought this fate to her.

She chooses to not explain the pain was not just from the incident between them, or that she hadn’t lost her wolf, she’s just hidden deeply, letting him have a little guilt she thinks as payback for not believing her, he chose to doubt her so let that seed of doubt form over the results of his actions.

“Shall we get to the point of why you are all here?

Why would the Iron Claw pack want me? We never did get that far into the reasons before.

And since our paths have never crossed, I have to admit I'm a little curious."

“This is so screwed up.”

Andy’s voice is quiet as he runs his hand through his hair, starting to pace sideways keeping his distance.

“First, there’s a good chance you are in pup, I know it won’t be known for another week or two, but that’s my fault, so I won’t back away from my responsibilities”

She scoffs

“That’s not a reason to do more than exchange numbers at most, the decisions on my body, and any life I may or may not carry, are my own to make.

Why would you involve your pack in that?”

Andy sighs

“Well, I’d like you close in case you are in pup, after all, that's our pup.”

“That won’t be possible, my Alpha expects me back shortly

I am under command to be back within a given timescale, not that you will believe that."

She lets the jibe hang in the air a little.

"That doesn't cover the six months it would take to birth a pup.

Nor would I feel safe, given your reactions, to be in your pack, and if I can’t rely on my mate, I certainly won’t rely on his pack.”

“Emma, look at me please, it would be best for all if you came with us quietly, no one wants to risk harming a breeding she-wolf.”

Her voice turns even colder

“It's Gamma Antonia to you.

And you said 'first', so what’s the rest?

Because so far, there’s no legal reason why I should go with you and should you try and force me, that’s akin to declaring war, so tread carefully.”

Toni stands up, rucksack over her shoulder, finally looking at Andy

“You’ve been accused of being involved in the disappearance of some of our warriors, you need to come back and stand trial.

If you are innocent, you will be released”

“Of course, because you and your allies would happily give me a fair trial and then release me, right?

Until I met you, I’ve had no dealings with your pack if you give me dates and times I'm pretty sure I can save you the trouble and give you an alibi.

Oh, wait, I guess me telling the truth holds no sway, you didn’t believe me the last time, so why would you now.”

Toni looks directly at Andy holding his gaze.

“Odd that my loving mate, the one that promised to protect me, no matter what, who didn’t accept the rejection chooses to be the one to hunt me down

I’m not sure that’s what the Moon Goddess planned when she paired us.”

The sarcasm is clear in her voice and Andy just looks like he’d been slapped

“I was commanded to, Remus tried to fight it.”

“Ahh, so it’s okay for you to claim you were commanded to do something, but not me.

Maybe you should just leave your pack, wasn’t that your suggestion!”

Tauntingly her words cut him deeply

“I can’t just leave my pack, I have responsibilities, Emma”

“I've told you, you don’t get to call me Emma, trying to forge a link like that, is low, very low

But isn’t it strange when the shoe is on the other foot that your excuses are all acceptable, but mine are not!”

“He was commanded, I did it.”

Alpha Kieran stepped out into the edge of the clearing, unhappy that she was attacking, even if only verbally, his brother, through the pack link, he could feel Andy's pain.

“I had to force him to shift to follow your scent until it became strong enough for the trackers to follow it.”

Toni groans she’d forgotten to re-apply the scent masking spray.

“This doesn’t involve you, Alpha Kieran”

She almost spits out his title

“I’m afraid it does, you will be coming back with us as our prisoner, willingly or not, I don’t care.

Andy does though, he wanted to be given a chance to talk you into coming quietly, but my patience isn’t endless, so decide Gamma, the easy or hard way.

If it turns out you are in pup, we’ll delay the trial until the pup is born.”

He calls the wolves out via mind link and they step out from the treeline.

“As you can see, there’s no way you will overpower eight wolves, especially not if your wolf has forsaken you”

All the wolves had been moving up closer to her as she spoke to Alpha Kieran.

‘Do not hit her in the stomach, aiming for a quick takedown, minimal force, a clean knock out is preferred if she doesn't submit’

The Alpha’s words are silently acknowledged by them all

“And if by some miracle in this sham trial, I am found innocent?” Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ FindNøvᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Then I guarantee, you will be released.”

Alpha Kieran growls out, not liking her disrespectful, sarcastic tone

“With my pup?”

She raises an eyebrow at him

“The pup, if you are pregnant, will stay with Andy.

I don’t think there’s any wolf in our world outside the Nightshade pack, that would deem you a better parent than him.”

There’s a beast of an emotion that’s growing in strength inside her, something she’s never felt before, a protective desire and she still doesn’t even know if she is pregnant, but this beast removes her last shred of self-control.

"Right, because after being force-marked and mated without permission.

One of which was a decision you were complicit in Alpha"

The venom in her voice is clear

"Then falsely imprisoned for six months, without the basic right to a speedy trial, so that you could, if I am pregnant, remove my pup without my permission and withhold it from me is completely legal isn't it?

And you think that all of you are somehow superior to me?

That you think you can paint yourself as the fucking good guys when the brutal facts are laid out, and I will lay them all out in glorious detail.

Let's see how shiny your pack remains at that point, shall we?"

Shocked realisation hits their faces

"Fuck your offer, I chose to have a choice in my life, so I pick the hard way.

When will you guys learn that I don’t like being trapped...”

She steps closer to the outcrop of rock she’s slung the rope around

“Emma don’t”

Andy’s voice is panicked, yet as he calls her by the name, he’d known her by originally, it’s softer and full of emotion, trying to calm her, distract her.

“Cya on the flip side”

She sprints to the rope ends.

Andy runs towards her, Kieran and Cal who are closest, shift and pounce towards her as she grabs for the rope ends.

She only manages to grab one of the loose ends, Cal blocking her from the second rope end, but her momentum takes her over the edge of the cliff, and an agonising howl is released from Andy as he watches her tumble over.

As the rope slack is taken up by her fall, there’s a jolt as the rope catches slightly, before it starts to run around the rock, gaining speed as she falls further.

Andy sees it, grabbing the rope as it runs through his hands burning them until, with the help of Kieran and Cal, he manages to arrest her fall, locking the rope, and leaving her dangling.

“Ryan check if she’s ok and be ready with the rest of you to grab her when we pull her up.

Andy, you may need to talk some sense into your mate.

Cal, start to pull with me, slow and steady, so we don’t dislodge her”

Alpha Kieran’s orders are answered immediately by his team.

I guess it seems like I am reckless, but I had checked out a possible way down the cliff, just it relied on me having control of both ends of the rope.

See, there are a couple of ledges on the cliff, I’d planned to swing between them, and as I got to one, I’d let go of one end of the rope, let it come down to me, and then use it on the ledge I stood on to swing to the next, until I was on the lowest one when I should have been able to let myself down to the river safely.

Easy huh?

I just failed to factor in a loose end being hijacked by the people I was being chased by and if I am totally honest, I hadn't expected anyone to go to Giants Crag, it's a lonely unadopted area,

Time to wing it.

“Emma, don’t let go, we can work things out.”

Andy continues using her middle name, trying to keep that link to her going and all it does is rile her, she knows it's a tactic to try and force the rapport, but hanging on the end of a rope is not the time to argue these things.

“If your wolf comes back, maybe we can find a way to bind her, so you can live within our pack, albeit with restrictions, so you can still have access to our pup

We can work something out, but just keep holding on”

His words sound genuine to her, but his ideas aren’t going to work, no one will take away what little liberty she has, not that she has any, but the point is moot.

Control is control and she won't accept it from anyone.

She starts to swing back and forward as the rope inches its way upward, before letting go, landing on a ledge she hadn’t seen from the edge, it's about 20 meters up from the river.

Too high to jump safely from, but it will hopefully give her options, maybe the rock isn't so sheer, and she's hoping there will be a few hand or footholds from there.

As she lands, the ledge shudders slightly but holds firm.

“Emma!” Andy calls out

“What are you doing, we need to get you to safety”

Toni looks up

“Gamma Antonia to you, only my mate gets to call me by another name, and we already identified you didn’t want that role!

And I thought you’d learn from the first time I don’t do well when my liberty is challenged” Toni smirks

“Gamma”

Alpha Kieran looks over to see what she’d done, once he’d felt the weight on the rock go slack.

“You’re stuck there, with no food or water, how exactly is this going to help you?”

When he gets silence as an answer, he looks to the sky, invoking the Goddess to help him with this hard-headed she-wolf

“Either we’ll direct the rope to you to bring you up, so you can tie yourself on, or we’ll lower someone down to carry you up.

If they have to knock you out to do so, so be it, what’s your choice?”

Toni moved to look at the Alpha, she couldn't see a way off this ledge, the cliff didn't look to have any reasonable handholds that she could use, maybe if she was a skilled rock climber with equipment, she let out a frustrated huff.

As much as she hated to admit it, she’d probably need to take the help and find a way to escape later.

She feels deflated and gives him the answer he wants.

“I’ll come up peacefully”

As she speaks, the ledge she is on moves under her feet again, shifting from her added weight, and she can hear the clacking sound of stones bouncing down the cliff edge from the base of the ledge.

“Get the Rope over to there quickly” Alpha Kieran shouts

“Don’t move” Andy’s voice commands to Toni

“No shit Sherlock, why do people say the most obvious things” Toni sasses back.

She hears the scraping rope noise as the rope rubs along the cliff edge, as it's being swung, with force, towards her.

It wraps underneath the ledge she’s on, it’s not the heaviest rope, but the force of the rope smacking along an unseen fault line of the ledge is enough to finally break the tenuous hold it has with the cliff edge, sending the slowly crumbling ledge into freefall.

As the rope swung out of reach, Toni did the one thing she could to save herself and pushed herself away from the wall, trying to avoid bouncing against it on her way down.

'Tyra, I need you'

She managed to get a single coherent call out before she hit the water back first, but it felt like smacking concrete, before the water parted underneath her, swallowing her up.

From his vantage point, Andy sees her body disappear under the water, before she floats to the surface, being carried down the river, unmoving but even from that high up, it’s clear there’s a trail of blood in the water around her.

Andy falls to his knees as a howl of pain escapes him.

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