The Making of a Dark Gamma - Book 1
Decision time

Darius had been looking forward to this meeting, behind the scenes he’d been doing his own, ‘research’ and making plans, a week had given him plenty of time to think through his options, and today was a good day.

As he walks into the room, his face is an impassive wall, almost looking bored to be there, not wanting to give anything away.

“So where are we with her assessments?”

Prince Darius’ voice cuts through the room as he enters.

“Your Highness”

All three, the Alpha, Beta and Delta Alek, stand and bow their heads.

Dan gives Alek the nod so he starts his feedback.

“Well, untrained, her natural wolf fighting abilities are impressive, she learns a lot just from watching.

In simple dodging attacks, she beat all the class until she came across Max, Asher’s wolf, but he’s top of the class.

Max beat her easily, but then he’s about to move to warrior training and has over three years of wolf experience on her and six years of maturity, the rest she fought that day didn’t fare well.

Then we had her fight three wolves, no training given.

One of the weakest, Arti, has been in training for four months, Apollo, eighteen months of training and then Max again.

The first two she beat, but with each fight you could see her incorporating moves she’d seen used in earlier fights, we’d had Max fighting before her each time.

When she got to Max, it took him eight minutes before he won, she is a born fighter and would make an excellent warrior or possibly even a Delta, she watches and learns, using intelligence to aid her fights.

With weapons, she’s even stronger, Bows and also Daggers are where she excels and I don’t think she was trying in those, getting an excellent pass rate.

Swords she’s ok, but not great.

Javelin and Spear are good, probably would be better with practice.

And she brought down a buck solo, a good-sized one, I think some of the warriors would struggle to do it alone.

She also knows she’s being tracked, not much gets passed her.

Overall, she’s polite but has still not made a friend her age, but she and Mattie, my mate, have started to bond in the last week, she’s starting to open up to her, like a big sister.

Every now and then she shows a different part of her, one that is a normal teenager, a fun side, so she’s gradually relaxing with us.” Delta Alek offers

“And the investigation of her parents?”

Darius looks to his Alpha, Nate

“Well, we only have times when her father was officially off pack land, but we have uncorroborated reports of him being away when deaths occurred in other packs, none of the Alphas wanted to report issues, and all put down to animal or rogue attacks.”

Nate starts

“My cousin’s wife is from the Nightshade pack so I went to talk to her.

Toni was never allowed to be a child, she’s been in training from the moment she could walk, home schooled and after her parents died the Alpha and Beta took over exclusively, so not much chance to act her age, which explains her reluctance to mix with her own age group.

She was also punished for being friendly to others; it’s hardly surprising that she avoids people by default.

Yet as Alek saw, she had a strong bond to James from the Deadfalls pack, above anyone else, so she can and does make friends given time, maybe that’s what she needs, just time.

Given the same stability, she’d fit in here, I am sure, but…”

Alpha Nate blows out the air through his pursed lips

“...I’d say, with her training and the skills she’s shown here, without really trying hard, that the rumours of the Gamma’s job in that pack are true.

They were training an Assassin and with her natural wolf ability... well give it five or six years and she may end up unstoppable.”

Beta Dan coughs awkwardly

“Is it right to put a fourteen-year-old back into that situation, especially if there’s a forced mating ceremony awaiting her?”

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“At this point, we don’t think she’s done any wrong, but what will putting her back there do to her?

There’s enough talk about how the Nightshade pack runs, punishments are rife and leaving without the Alpha’s agreement means you may be blackballed by any new pack, at the insistence of Alpha Vincent and punished on your return.

She’s got a lot of potential that we could utilise, the issue would be the relative power that she gains as she grows.

But she’s respectful, doesn’t answer back, not once has she openly rebelled and Delta Alek has been calling her pup a lot to try and trigger her with no effect, so it shouldn’t be a problem here.

We’ve had other pups join us from ranked families, just because she could be stronger on her command, doesn’t mean she will be.”

Darius looks at Alek for his views

“Something else to be aware of, she’d probably run again if we take her back.”

Alek offers

“if she’s done it once successfully, then why not again?

It’s my opinion that she allowed herself to be caught by the Deadfalls pack, you don’t live for two years solo near a pack to make such an obvious mistake with pack lines.

I’d hazard a guess that she’d studied the pack well before she decided to be captured.

After all, she had a story that she knew that the Alpha was unlikely to check up on, for a young pup, that’s way too controlled and strategic.

There were even bodies of dead rogues she took them to eventually.

If she’s smart enough to have all her story covered, she’s probably already got another plan if she’s removed from this pack.

Honestly, I’d like to see her trained up here, to see what she could achieve in a nurturing environment, she needs pushing and this is a good environment to do that, controlled and caring.

She’s relaxing around my mate and opening up, not much, but her defences are coming down.

Mattie and I are both willing to take responsibility for her as her official guardians”

In his heart, Alek wants to give her a chance in the Royal pack, both he and Mattie had long conversations about her into the early hours of the morning, wanting nothing more than to allow her to be a pup.

“So I take it you don’t think we should send her back Delta?”

Darius asks

“I don’t Darius, I think she found a way out for a reason.

We can use the command to ask her straight out the questions we believe she skirted around before because I believe she’s been commanded to keep quiet.”

Darius nods at his words

“I can see why it would help with the accusations that came in about Alpha Vincent, but I think risking a pup in that way isn’t justified.”

Alek was truthful in his response, the Crown Prince made it clear at the start that he wanted honest feedback in this meeting.

“Dan?”

Beta Dan clears his throat

“As hard as it is, we are weighing up the life of a fourteen-year-old with potentially saving the lives of many and taking down a bad Alpha.

I think if we give her some protection, especially from the mating ceremony, that’s just wrong on any level, along with regular check-ups on her mental and physical well-being, then maybe we can balance that off with any benefits.

But it’s a hard call to make, Alek is right, she’d be a big asset in the right hands.

Maybe this is where we rehabilitate her after we’ve taken down Alpha Vincent, we have enough strong leaders here to keep her in check and let’s face it, few other packs would take on an ex-Nightshade ranked member.

The issue is if she’s killed by then, maybe it would be too late for rehabilitation, killing changes people.”

Dan sighs

“It’s a Devil you know Devil you don’t scenario, do we cut off Alpha Vincent from his budding assassin, or has he already started training another?

At least with Toni, we’ve been able to assess her skills, any replacement would mean we have to work out who it was before we could set something up to assess them.

Honestly, it’s a hard call, but I’m finding it hard to justify risking a pup, especially one that could excel here, so in my heart, I’m probably sixty per cent on her staying with us, forty per cent on sending her back.”

“Nate?”

“Send her back, let’s see what happens.

But I think the Beta makes a good point, no pup should be forced into a mating ceremony so young, so we put some restrictions in place.” Nate answers.

Crown Prince Darius sits pondering the information he’s been given, his eyes register no emotion as he starts to speak, although his decision was made some time ago, before he even entered this meeting.

“I appreciate all your feedback, and while it’s unpalatable, my decision is that she goes back.

Send her to me, I will command her to not reveal the pack she stayed with, and we will tell Alpha Vincent they are undergoing re-training.”

Darius’s words are firm.

“Also, I’ll make her ward of the pack, with the proviso that she cannot be marked or mated without our approval until she reaches twenty.

Make sure she sees me tomorrow at nine, then Dan, you need to travel with her to her old pack, stay for a few days to get a view on the pack and how they react to her.

Alek, go with them, she’s technically still in your custody, so let’s not change that until she’s back on her original pack grounds.

It’s time we did the formal pack reviews, so let it be known we are starting them again and will continue the review every five years, allowing us to keep tabs on this pup alongside the yearly hunter competition.

Getting up as he finishes talking, Prince Darius walks away closing the meeting.

But as he walks away, a small smile hits the corner of his mouth, today had been a good day, he thinks, always got to play the long game, that’s how you stay ahead of everyone else, and it was no longer good enough to be one step ahead, he intended to be at least twenty.

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