17- taking a stand part 1

The Alpha took Saoirse by the hand and politely led her into the banquet hall where he pulled out a chair for her, invited her to sit, and then scooted her in. 

"Thank you." She said politely, and he smiled as he took a seat across from her. 

Aksel took a seat across from her next to the Alpha and the servants brought in lobster tails. 

 The lobster was just opened enough to show the fillet and it was smothered in a buttery garlic sauce, with herbs and sprinkled with parsley and paprika. 

Next to it, were some vegetables and some linguine in a white champagne and tarragon sauce. 

The Alpha took a bite first and then Saoirse and Aksel began eating. It was a sign of respect to the Alpha's authority for them to do this. 

"So to the point, the Alpha said, taking a drink of some mead he had in front of him. "Saoirse, you have traveled very far to get here and Aksel here said that you seem to be sensing the person you're looking for in my pack, is that right?" 

Saoirse thought back to the bond magic the driver of the car had mentioned to him about. She nodded, "Yes I do believe I have felt him close." 

He smiled, "Good, then I would love to meet him! It's not every day that spouses come back together after reincarnation, so you and your actual husband must be really close! That is very romantic." 

Aksel side eyed the Alpha, not happy about him talking about Sirius. 

He ignored it and continued, "So how about we help you find him, and you let us keep our positions here in the pack. I will let you join the pack and there will be no need for fighting." 

Aksel spoke up, "I thought you said you would surrender to Saoirse." 

The Alpha's smile twitched a little but he waited for Saoirse's answer. 

"If it is alright with you sir, I would like to find him myself. As far as I can tell, I sensed him in the human town, so if he is there, we might have no need to stay here any longer." 

"So you don't have any intention of taking my territory from me?" He asked surprised. 

Aksel gave her a nudge under the table with his foot and then she noticed his dagger eyes. This caught her off guard because she wasn't expecting the Alpha to know about her plan already. How had he known that she was looking for someone? Let alone her husband? If she had a husband before, wouldn't she remember such a thing? She thought of the smell on her sweater for a minute. It smelled good like a husband would. "I'm not sure if he is my husband. Aksel says he is the father of my children, so I have to meet whoever it is and find out what I've forgotten." She said. "Then we can decide about this territory."

She had just spoken out of nerves of being put on the spot and now her cheeks got red and she looked down at her hands, which were clenching the napkin on her lap tightly, wringing it, she hadn't noticed she was doing that. 

She let go of it and looked up proudly, barely skipping a beat. She knew the drill by now. 

She sighed before speaking again because Aksel wanted to finish the job they had started and this meant killing this Alpha too. 

But wait a minute? Why had he said an alliance would be a good idea? Or was he meaning the surrender? Something didn't make sense. She looked over at Aksel and noticed that she was positioned in a way that everyone was putting her on the spot, against her. It wasn't fair, why had Aksel done that? What did he expect her to say?

Then she took a sip of her lemonade in front of her and set it down. 

"If we stay I do intend to take this pack as well. I am not satisfied with being at the mere bottom or anything like that, even in a high position, it would not reflect my true potential as a Luna, I already own 5 packs." She said finally, then the added, "also, my companion here would want to be Alpha alongside me, so if we are to make an alliance work, then I would need you to surrender, or I will have to fight you for the position." 

She took another drink to calm her nerves and Aksel smiled. 

Surprisingly, the Alpha smiled too. "Well now, I would say that sounds like a reasonable idea, but for today, why don't we all just sleep on it? Why do things too hastily? I'd hate for your young to be exposed to such violence."

He walked over to her and offered her a toast, inviting her to cling her glass to his and then he downed his whole glass before beginning to leave the room. "Have a good night princess." He said as he went out the door. 

The servants and gangsters that were in the room followed him and now she was alone with Aksel. 

Aksel broke the silence after a moment. "Well, that was a good save, I thought you were going to surrender to him, which would have been really dumb." He said. 

She sighed, "let's just go, I think I lost my appetite. She hated the way the alpha had threatened her young."

He began eating his lobster and said after swallowing, "It would be a waste of lobster to leave now, besides, we've done this a million times, this Alpha will be easy to beat just like the next one. Don't sweat it." 

"Didn't you want to work with him? You confused me on that." She insisted, "It tripped me up just putting me on the spot like that." 

"That Alpha is a gangster, he won't honestly submit to anyone, I just wanted to see if you would say the right things. And you did! You said everything I wanted you too!" Aksel said happily. 

This boy was so confusing sometimes. She took a bite of her lobster and ate it quietly, defeated. 

After a bit, she got a little bit drowsy. That wasn't normal for her, she usually had a lot of energy. "I think that lemonade was spiked with something it made me a little drunk." She said, "that's weird, I never get drunk." She looked at the liquid inside of the glass, in reality, it was a midevil style drinking horn. A lot of werewolves liked old fashioned things, and this Alpha had decorated the room to look a bit like a midevil castle, with tapestries on the wall and they were eating off of a thick, polished wooden table with black designs stained into it. 

She had only barely drank two sips of it.