Chapter 56

Three weeks and three days earlier.…

"What you're suggesting is absurd and outdated," Philip argued, defending his stepson.

Luca sat at the head of the table, his elbow propped against the chair's armrest as he twirled a pen between his fingers. Though he appeared calm and collected, he raged inside.

The thirteen men sitting around the table-not including Bates, Blaine, and Lincoln-were elders he had chosen himself. Accountability and distribution of responsibility had been his reasons for their appointment, but he suddenly remembered why his grandfather hated the idea of a council that held an

Alpha responsible: they held the Alpha responsible.

While tradition clearly dictated that an Alpha was to only mate with a woman within his pack, there were no formal consequences for not following it. It was done only because it had been done for generations, many modern packs having abandoned the practice entirely.

Of course they did. Their packs were run by Alphas who made their pack's rules