“You gave me a tough fight,” Roslyn says. “But do you know why I won? It’s because I was thinking about winning while you were thinking about defeating me. You thought that you would easily defeat me and it’s because of this over-confidence of yours that you lost. The reason behind this fight was to prove that women are no less than men. And now, that I’ve proven my point and won this fight, I expect you to fulfill your responsibility that we agreed upon while we made the deal.”
“What if I don’t?” Says the Alpha in a challenging tone.
“Then it would be a shame for you to be known as the Alpha who couldn’t honour his words,” Roslyn says. “Do you think that people will respect you when you can’t keep your word?” She shakes her head. “They will mock you behind your back. And all the other leaders will look down on you when they come to know that you couldn’t keep your part of the deal. Just think about it.”1
Roslyn starts walking away from the Alpha. Before she can reach us, she stops and turns to face the Alpha for the last time, “I’m giving you a week’s time. If you don’t do what we initially agreed upon then I’ll show you what women are truly capable of.”10
Roslyn walks towards the car and we follow her. We get in the car and drive away.
This time, I’m the one in the driver’s seat while Roslyn is in the passenger seat.
“You were really good,” Audrey compliments Roslyn.
“Thanks,” Roslyn replies.
“So, which pack are we heading to now?” I ask.
“We won’t be heading to any pack now. We’ll be heading to the nearest motel,” Roslyn remarks.
“Why?”
“I’ll tell you when we get there.”3
With the help of the navigation system, we find the nearest motel. All three of us decide to stay in the same room. After reaching our room, Roslyn and Audrey walk inside. I’m about to enter the room but stop abruptly when I feel someone’s eyes on me. I turn around but I find no one.
“What happened?” Audrey questions when she finds me standing at the doorway.
I face her. “Nothing.” And I get inside.
Once I close the door behind me, I find Roslyn drawing the curtains close and she says, “I have a feeling that someone is following us.”
“I also feel the same way,” I say.
“Why would anyone follow us?” questions Audrey.
“Once we know who’s following us, we’ll get the answer to that question,” Roslyn replies.
“Who could be following us?” Audrey wonders.4
“It’s a werewolf,” Roslyn states.
“How can you be so sure?” I question.
“Because if a human was following us, then we would’ve discovered him or her by now. It’s definitely a werewolf. We’ve got to be alert,” Roslyn says. Audrey and I couldn’t agree less.4
Roslyn, Audrey and I continued with our plan the next day. We approached two more packs. We had to challenge them since they didn’t agree with our ideology. And we were successful in winning the fights.
By evening, we were back at Roslyn’s pack house.
“We covered all the packs in this region. So, which region should we cover next?” Roslyn starts the discussion with a question.
“Approaching each and every pack will take time. What if we call a meeting at my pack and put forth the idea of training women. We’ll come to know who are on our side and who are against us. That way, the leaders who support us can start training their female pack members and you guys can challenge those leaders who are against the idea. This will save us a lot of time and will get things done quicker,” Aidan suggests.
“That’s really a good idea,” I remark and everyone agrees with me.
“When should we keep the meeting?”
“What about the coming Saturday?” Roslyn suggests.
“That will work. I’ll contact all the leaders as soon as I return to my pack,” Aidan says.
“What if leaders don’t keep their word even when we defeat them?” I ask as I replay in my mind the fight that happened between Roslyn and the Alpha yesterday.
Everyone goes quiet. It’s a while before Aidan breaks the silence. “If leaders refuse to train their female pack members then I’ll take the responsibility of training them.”
“But how will you do that?” Roslyn asks.
“All the she-wolves that are interested in training can move in my pack.”
“This won’t work. You cannot expect women to just leave their packs and move into a new one,” Roslyn points out.
“All the she-wolves have been leaving their packs for their mates. So, why can’t they leave their packs for themselves? They just need to trust in us and believe in our vision. We just need to convince them that we can’t empower women without their support,” Aidan says.2
“I agree with Alpha Aidan,” I say. Aidan is the Alpha of the richest pack in the world. He has the resources to provide facilities and accommodate so many women. “It’s not like we’ll be forcing the she-wolves to leave their pack and move into Alpha Aidan’s pack to get trained. Ultimately, it will be their choice. And we are not saying that the she-wolves will be permanently joining Alpha Aidan’s pack. They’re just going to live in his pack so that they can get themselves trained. After they learn how to defend themselves, they can return to their pack.”
“It’s good that we are thinking ahead of time, but let’s now worry ourselves about what may happen in the future. Let’s focus on the present and think about the meeting for now,” Boris, Roslyn’s Beta says.
And then we all start discussing about what matters to put forth in the meeting.
*1
After we are done with discussing about the meeting and having dinner, we all call it a night and everyone start retiring to their rooms.
Before Roslyn can head to her room with Alpha Aidan, I stop her. “I need to talk to you.”
The tone of my voice gives a clear indication that I want to talk to her in private. So, she leads me to her office. I enter the room first and Roslyn closes the door behind her.
“What do you want to talk about?”