41: Take My Chances
AIDAN
Since going back to sleep was out of the picture after Tara and Jace left the suite, I went into the bathroom to take a shower, hoping that it would take my mind off some of my troubles, or at least give me some clarity on things.
I couldn’t help but think that I had made such a terrible mistake by getting Collin out of the picture, seeing as Tara handled things earlier.
The truth is that I thought about how both of them would feel safe, but I didn’t really think through how Tara would take it. Or rather, I didn’t expect her to take it that way.
As I showered, I wondered what I could do to make it better. To make her hate me less for making her upset.
I came up with nothing.
So when Jace came back to the hotel suite after making sure that Tara got home safely, I brought up the conversation.
“Do you think we made a mistake?”
“I don’t think I understand what you are asking me, Alpha,” Jace said, confused.
“I mean with Collin. Do you think interfering with Vermont pack’s line of authorities was the right thing to do? Should we have looked for another means to sort this out instead of dethroning
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him?”
“Hell no,” Jace answered without thinking twice. “The guy.was a douchebag. At least three out of every five pack members here had some bad experience or the other with him. And do I need to remind you that it was Collin who uttered those words?”
I couldn’t help but think that Jace was right.
He went on. “He wasn’t compelled to issue the challenge, but he did, knowing fully well the consequences. And let’s not get started on Vermont pack being Collin’s birthright, because it wasn’t.”
That too was true.
From all we had gathered, Collin had succeeded in using his sly methods to dethrone and kill the true alpha of this pack a very long time ago.
That was all in the past now.
I still couldn’t help but think to Tara.
Jace spoke again, confirming my thoughts.
“That’s not the real thing bothering you, is it?”
I shook my head once. “No, but never mind. I’ll get that sorted. How were you able to handle things while I was out?”
Jace gave me a breakdown of how the challenge ended when Collin tapped out and how I pretty much passed out not long after that.
Everyone knew the rules though, so Collin was cuffed up
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immediately and taken away, giving him no room to slime his way out of this one.
“How did they take it?” I asked. “The pack and Collin’s men?”
“The pack acknowledged you as their alpha even in your fallen state. Some of his men remained loyal to him, but most of them. who had been questioning his ways but never stood up to him were for it,” Jace explained.
“And how is he coping with his new position?” I asked.
Jace smirked, thoroughly enjoying himself. “You could say that he now knows what it felt like for the countless people he locked up without just cause.”
“And the girl? Zora? Have you been able to find her parents?”
Jace nodded. “Along with a few others who Collin had left to rot in a prison somewhere no one would have thought to look. I made sure they had a nice roof over their head and something to sustain them till they got back on their feet. They wouldn’t stop saying their prayers,” he said.
I nodded, satisfied that some of the reasons why I did this in the first place paid off, instead of backfiring like with Tara.
I guessed she just needed some more time, and I was happy to give her that, now that I had an unlimited amount of time in Vermont pack.
“Come on,” I said to Jace as I finished dressing up. “Let’s get this over with. As long as he’s still here, they aren’t completely safe.”
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I may have spared his life, but I wasn’t going to spare his
presence.
In a few minutes, Jace and I were in the cell that currently locked Collin and at least twenty of his loyal men.
“I have to say that I admire the number of people who still stand by you in a time like this. You may be shit, but at least you’ve got yourself some good soldiers,” I said to Collin once we were inside.
Collin still had his sharp mouth on him. “Too bad you won’t know nothing about that,” he said.
I wasn’t here to trade words with him, so I didn’t bother refuting his claim or arguing differently.
“You lost,” I stated firmly.
“And you were too chicken to finish the job,” he bit back.
“If you were so eager to die, you wouldn’t have tapped out, Collin. You would have laid down and allowed me to strangle the life out of you.”
I must have gotten him there because all the fight left him.
“What do you want?” He asked, shifting on his feet as he changed the topic.
“You know how it works,” I said to Collin, my patience waning. “You will either…”
“You know that none of them will follow you, right? This pack is mine and whatever messed up notion you have can’t change that,” Collin said, cutting me off.
41: Take My Chances
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I replied. “Well, at around eight hours ago, that would have been true. But right now, I don’t give a care in the world what you think. You are in my pack now, so acknowledge it,” I snapped.
Knowing the outcome of this already, it was no surprise when Collin spat through the vertical bars that separated us from each other.
“I’ll take my chances out there alone.”
Just as I expected.
“And your men?”
“They’ll come with me.”
I didn’t need to lecture Collin on what this meant. Separating one’s self from their pack whether willingly or by banishment was a punishment worse than death.
If that was Collin’s fate, then so be it.
“Very well then. You and your group will be escorted out once the moon rises,” I stated, and with that, I turned my back to Collin, wiping him off my mind entirely.
