Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“Do we know how bad things are yet?” I turned toward Gabriel as the meeting got started and asked him for information. He was my personal assistant, my close confidant, and one of my most trusted advisors. I knew that he had the information that I needed, and that he wouldn’t hesitate to tell me.
“There have been several small riots across the country. We are getting fewer reports of them from across the globe, but I am sure that there will be some of them coming soon enough. They are just on different time schedules than us, and there are different response rates.” He was reciting all of this from memory as he told me about it. He had obviously done his research while we were eating. I don’t even know if he actually ate his food or if he just focused on this information.
“Has anyone been hurt yet?” I asked as I turned to look at Rawlynne, Jackson and Devon. I knew that Devon, who wasn’t here for the recent meal, had come to join us after he finished up at the stadium. He was the first officer on the scene of the riot.
…..
“A few of the rioters were injured when their bullets ricocheted off of the barrier that you had put around the stadium, but no one is in critical condition. They will all survive and see their days in court.”
“From our reports, there have been no injuries at all with any of the small riots that have broken out. There are only small groups of people that are protesting the reveal. They don’t believe that the reveal was for an innocent cause. So far though, there have been over three hundred arrested in connection with the various riots. They are being charged with destruction of property, but they hadn’t seen anyone that wasn’t human, or so they think, so they hadn’t gotten around to hurting anyone yet.”
“That is good.” I nodded and felt a rush of relief at Rawlynne’s words. “The last thing that I want is to let people get hurt because of what we did.”
“Well, those PAWs assholes deserved it.” Devon spoke snidely as he thought about what happened.
“Paws?” Joaquin asked him in confusion. It was in complete alignment with what was going through my head at the moment.
“Proud American Warriors. That was the name of the radical group that attacked the stadium. They call themselves PAWs for short. Fitting, isn’t it?” He grinned. “I bet he didn’t think that the name was so aligned with us when he thought it up.”
“He?” Reagan asked him as he leaned forward.
“Franklin Edwards, he is their leader and founder. He owns several gun shops across the state, most of them here in the city. He and his group of 鈥榬ebels’ are the type to think that the country is too crowded and that certain types of people shouldn’t be here. He isn’t picky about the people that he hates either. He and his men tend to hate almost everyone.”
“Is this the updated version of something like a clan?” Rika asked him in abject horror.
“In a way, yes. They hate for reasons that only they know, and they don’t usually care about who it is, as long as they are different from them.” Devon explained it all to us.
I shivered a little at Devon’s words. I couldn’t help it. How could something like this still be happening in our world? I mean, for crying out loud, it was the year two thousand and forty. The KKK, white supremacy, why was that still a thing? It has been almost two hundred years since the initial start to the KKK and things like that. How is it that we haven’t managed to rise above that and see the truth of the world for what it is? There is no master race. There is no one right way to live and to be. Why? Why does there have to be so much hate in the world?
“Are these men going to be a problem for us?” Reagan was the one to ask this as I was still wondering why all of this was still happening in our world. I guess that he was a little more resilient and quicker to move on. That or I was just really tired already today. I didn’t mind though. I knew that my son was doing a good job, and that he seemed to know what he was doing.
“To be honest, Reagan, I don’t know. These men are unpredictable. And the bad thing is, we don’t know how many of them there are. Is this just a local chapter? Are they going to work with other groups like them? Are they just a tentacle from a larger beast? These are things that we are still trying to figure out.”
“Don’t worry, Devon, Rawlynne and I are on your team as well. We will be working with you to find out all those answers. And not only that, but we also have all the others that are like us in law enforcement that won’t just sit around and let hate crimes happen. Jackson was speaking with a conviction that was only in his voice when things got serious.
“Yeah, I know.” Devon leaned across the gap between him and Jackson and shook the other man’s hand. “Almost twenty years has assured me that we are on the same side, man. We will get these assholes. And we will make sure that we are all safe once again. We know that Riviana won’t let us down.” There was racing in my heart at that. The confidence that they had in me was amazing. And I did intend on seeing to it that all of my people were as safe as possible. However, it was a little nerve wracking at the moment, looking at some of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in front of me.
“We will do this together. I will work to protect everyone, but I know that I need all of you to help me do it.” I looked around the room, letting my eyes settle onto Reagan and Rika. Not only them though, Alyssa, Alexandria, Levi, Luka, Ashle, Beech, Cyprus, and all the others. There were more here than usual, but they were all our legacies.
“All of us?” Reagan looked at me with bright eyes as he processed what I had said.
“Yes, Reagan, all of you. I need you, your sister, and all of the others to help us with this. You are younger than us, you are more relatable to the kids in universities that are going to be confused about this. The younger people that don’t know what to think and feel about this are going to need to hear from you guys. And I think that this is the time for you all to start truly getting out into our community.”
“You mean it?” Rika’s eyes lit up. She had been working on, toward being more pivotal and important in our community. She wanted to make up for her past mistakes and carve a place for herself in the future.
“Yes, Rika, I do mean it. I am counting on all of you. If you are willing to help that is. I won’t force this on any of you.” I looked at the kids that had all grown up to be young adults sitting in front of me. They looked at each other, determination and understanding prevalent in their eyes. And then, as if coordinating it amongst themselves, they all nodded their head at me at the same time.
“Yeah, we’re in.” Reagan rose to his feet. “We will do what we need to so that there is less fallout from this afternoon.”
“That is good to hear.” I was proud of them all at that moment.
We talked a little about what it was the kids were going to do. They were supposed to promote and support our community. They were supposed to involve more humans in activities that they were involved in and show that we aren’t here to hurt anyone. And, specially, they were meant to help anyone that they could. If someone was being bullied or if they were stranded, I wanted them to help as many people as they possibly could. I knew that most of the kids would do that without me having to ask, but I still made it a point. The more positivity that surrounded us as a people, the better things would be for us in the end.
“Riviana?” Vincent called out to me after we settled things with the kids and what they were going to do.
“Yes?” I turned to face him, encouraging him to continue.
“I think that we need to be a little more proactive with you and Joaquin as well. I know that this doesn’t sound ideal for you, but I think that we need to have the two of you out there, telling the world our story and why we told them about us.”
“In what way?” I asked him, curious about what he had to say.
“Well,” he looked a little nervous for a moment as he tried to get the words to flow, “since the reveal earlier, there have been a lot of calls coming in. They were being fielded in the same manner as the ones from the Alphas and coven leaders.”
“What types of calls, Vincent?” I asked him, not sure if I was ready for the answer that I was going to get from him.
“People wanting to talk to you. People that want to interview you.”
“Reporters?” I heard Joaquin’s incredulous voice. “We have reporters galore.”
“No. Not reporters. Am I right, Vincent?” I looked at him with narrowed eyes. “This is something else entirely, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. These are people from talk shows, late night shows, news talk stations, radio and internet shows. There is a long list of people that want to talk to you all and find out the truth.”
“I am not sure I would trust this.” I heard the skeptical tone in Shawn’s vice as he watched us discussing this.