Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“I am sorry, Aunt Riviana. It is my fault. I asked Ilana to come with me.”
“And why did you want to come here in the first place?” I used a stern tone as I asked them this.
“I..I was feeling upset and rebellious. I know that is no excuse, Aunt Riviana, and I am sorry.” Rowan was looking more apologetic than I had ever seen him before.
“Why, though?” I asked again, this time my tone was a little more soft than it had been a moment before.
“W..well, I am worried about my parents. I felt left out with everything that had been happening lately. Ilana and I haven’t had much of a role in what is going on. I know that is our own fault, but I just didn’t want to feel left out anymore. I..I wanted to be able to do something. And well, I..I thought that the attack was just something that you all thought was possible, not a guarantee. I am sorry. We were wrong.”
“You know Rowan, if you guys want to be given more responsibility in all that is happening, try being a little more mature. Pulling stunts like this are going to make people not trust you.”
“We understand.” They spoke in unison, their heads bowed and their eyes averted. They truly did understand what it was that I had meant.
“Do better from now on. That is all that I ask of you.” I sighed and let the scolding, that didn’t feel much like a scolding, end at that. There were other things that required my attention.
As much as I wanted to take an active role in all that was going on, I wasn’t allowed to. Not only because I was a Queen that shouldn’t 鈥榞et dirty’ but because I was pregnant, and I was due in a matter of weeks. In all honesty, I could have the baby at any minute, so Joaquin was following me around like a worrywart that expected me to explode at any moment. I truly did love that man with all of my heart. Worrywart and all.
Knowing that there was little that I could do at the moment, I decided that I should issue the first press release on the events that took place today. The reporters had started to arrive just moments after the FBI and police were on the scene, having heard the calls come over the scanners that they listened to when in search of a story.
I knew that there were going to be reporters that were pro super naturals, and those that were against us. There would also be those that were on the fence. When I stepped outside and toward the gathered press hounds, I saw a familiar face that was in the front and waiting for me. Lana was with her camera man and prepared to provide our statement to the public.
I was going to treat this statement as more of a press conference. I knew that the reporters would have questions and want to know about what had happened. They would want to know how and why we were here so quickly, and what it was that we had expected to happen. I had prepared for this in advance, so I wasn’t worried about it at all.
“Can I have your attention, please?” I called out to the reporters, even though they were already all focused on me. This was to show them that I didn’t presume to hold their interest so much. “I know that you are all curious about what happened here today, so I would like to be the first to issue a statement, on behalf of my people.”
“You are not a member of law enforcement, Mrs. Gray.” A man with an angry sneer called out to me. I had never seen him before, but I knew that he was anti super naturals.
“I am sorry, Sir, I do not know who you are.” I spoke calmly as I looked at him.
“My name is Nicholas Fuller, I run a true news podcast that airs daily, and I also have a website where people could go to learn the truth about the world. I work in association with Jeffrey Packard, and I will not hide anything that you say from my listeners.”
“I would never ask you to. I only wish to get as much truth out there as possible. And you are right about what you said, Mr. Fuller. I am not a member of law enforcement. However, I am the leader of my community, so I can issue a statement on their behalf.”
Some mumbling followed what I had to say, several people seemed to jot things down in their notepads, though I had said nothing of note just yet. They were all coming to their own conclusions already, and that was to be expected.
“Now, you all have heard some of the details already. Men were seen with bombs inside the stadium during a convention that was being held. This was a pro super naturals event that was being held for other humans that support my people. The event was peaceful and hurt no one.”
“If it was peaceful, then why did your people bomb them?” Fuller asked with another sneer, causing several people to start writing again.
“I assure you, Mr. Fuller, we did not attack this group.”
“Then why were you here?” Another man called from the back, but I could not see his face because he was hidden behind the others.
“We were aware of this event in advance. My people were here undercover to offer protection to the attendees of the event today.”
“Why did you feel the need to offer protection?” Lara asked in an eager and accepting voice. She was helping to advance the correct information.
“Several times the members of extremist groups, such as the DOE and their ilk, have talked about the people that support the nonhumans. They have said that people like them need to be killed just the same as my people. We feared that extremist groups such as those would target an event that was being held by those supporters. We didn’t wish for anyone to be hurt, so we decided to protect them in the shadows.”
“That is very honorable of you.” Lara offered, but Fuller spoke up almost immediately afterwards.
“If you were doing something good, then you would not have hidden it from them. You would have had no reason to do the 鈥榩rotecting’ from the shadows.”
“Respectfully, Mr. Fuller, I disagree. You see, this convention was for the humans to enjoy themselves. If they knew that we were there among them, it would have caused disorder and thrown off the schedule that so many people worked hard to prepare. We wanted to make sure that they all got to enjoy their event with no issue at all. That was our hope.”
“So, what changed your minds? Why did your monsters attack the humans that were here?” Fuller just wouldn’t stop blaming me, but this was expected.
“Again, Mr. Fuller, we did not attack them. In fact, one of my men was injured as he protected a group of humans who had been in danger. A member of the DOE had thrown a backpack bomb at them and intended to kill them. The man intercepted the bomb and was injured in the resulting explosion. And I am happy to report that he will make a full recovery, and the damage to the facility was minimal. I will be paying for all repairs as well.”
“Of course you will.” Fuller sneered. “You think that the world will accept you because of your money.”
“No, I do not expect that, Mr. Fuller. I just feel bad that the stadium was attacked and damaged yet again. They do not deserve to have that happen because others have hate in their hearts.”
“Hate? Don’t you mean fear? You are monsters that are out to murder the human population.” Fuller was still going on and on about this topic. I knew that I should stop him, put an end to his tirade and rantings, but I didn’t.
In all honesty, I thought that if Fuller kept talking about these things, spewing the hate that he had inside of him, he would lose his credibility with the other reporters and the world in general. Especially after the truth of what happened was released later. I knew that there had been humans that filmed a lot of the events, and there was the CCTV footage from the stadium itself. There was more than enough proof that people would leak and sell to the press to prove that the super naturals had done nothing wrong. And letting Fuller dig his own grave would only help us out in the long run. Still, his ranting and raving lasted way longer than I had anticipated it to. He was definitely long winded, and full of nothing but a lot of hot air..
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Riviana
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By the time that Fuller seemed to have run himself dry, or is it better to say run out of hot gas, nearly every other reporter in the gathering were looking at the man like he was a three headed toad that had just entered a beautiful swan contest. Yeah, I know, a convoluted analogy, but it was what made sense to me in the moment, so it was what I thought of.