“It is, and we want to keep it that way. The problem with the Council is that when my father… will be no more…” he chocked a bit on the words, “… and I become the main Inari of Clan Sylfur, I’ll also take my rightful place as the councilor of the fox faction.”
“Your rightful place?!” Amelia’s brown eyes grew wide and bright with curiosity. Of all the things Blake could have said about the Council, this was the last one she would have expected. “What are you talking about? I thought the fox councilor… what’s his name?”
“Jonathan Redfur.” Blake couldn’t help but smile at Amelia’s cute face. Yes, she could understand what Seth had seen in her.
“Redfur… isn’t he one of the youngest members?”
“He is.”
“You would have to replace him, but why?”
“Because he is just filling in for me, or rather… for my father’s heir.”
Amelia shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. She felt like it would soon be too difficult for her to keep up with Blake’s big reveals. There was truly more to this woman… to this future Alpha fox… than she had thought. “I’m listening,” she encouraged Blake to continue.
“When the war ended and the Council of the Six Factions was formed, my father was offered the position of councilor of the fox faction and he refused. He was badly injured, already too old to be able to take more stress, so he asked the other councilors to choose someone else, someone other than his brothers, of course. They, instead, offered him the honor to choose, as he was the most powerful and influential Inari. Wanting to keep the position in the family, so to speak, he delegated Jonathan, a very distant relative. Distant enough so he wouldn’t have any ties with his brothers, but close enough to be able to advise him from time to time. Jonathan accepted, but dad told him there was one condition: when his son would become the main Inari of Clan Sylfur, Jonathan was to step down and offer him his position in the Council.”
Amelia was dumbfounded. By this point, she didn’t know what to say, so she simply nodded to show she was still following Blake.
“As you know, I’m that heir. What my father hadn’t planned was for me to be female, not male. Now, if I am to become councilor, I really need you by my side. Even though it’s practically unheard of, I will make you my main adviser so you would accompany me to every meeting and cover my scent.”
“That…” Amelia gulped. “That sounds very risky.”
“Yeah… but it’s not like we have a choice.”
Amelia thought for a minute and eventually nodded in approval. It was true, they didn’t have a choice. Roman’s brothers had to be kept in a tight leash, and only Blake could do it when her father would be no more. Her power and influence would grow when she’d become councilor, and her uncles would never dare even think of challenging her or telling her about how they believed humans shouldn’t have rights. Chaos would be avoided and the balance would be kept. It all depended on Blake and Amelia convincing everyone Blake was a strong Alpha male. She opened her mouth to ask what kind of person Jonathan Redfur was, but an impatient knock on the door interrupted her. Her heart jumped when Seth entered the room without waiting for Blake’s invitation. He smiled and she smiled back.
“Seth, how impolite of you,” laughed Blake. “What if you walked in on something?”
Seth raised a thick, dark brow. “On what exactly? The two of you playing chess?”
Amelia laughed along with Blake, but Seth didn’t join in. He seemed rather tense.
“What’s up?” asked Blake. “You kept my bride busy all night and now you’re interrupting our lovely lunch.”
Seth ignored the comment and went straight for what he had come to tell them. “There was a battle at Alma Venus Boarding School.” His eyes were fixed on Amelia’s livid face. “The news just came in. It seems that yesterday there was a meeting in London and the Council talked to all the parties involved: Clan Blackmane, Viggo of Clan Drekinn, and the human who was turned into a werewolf by a rogue she-wolf who used to belong to Clan Blackmane.”
“Blackmane? Are you sure?” Amelia stood up, ready to launch herself at Seth, grab his shoulders, and shake him until he spilled out all the details. Avelyn, her colleague from Alma Venus, had been sold to Max Blackmane some months ago. Her heart started hammering in her chest.
Blake didn’t notice Amelia’s reaction. “A battle? What kind of battle, and what does it have to do with us?”
“Oh, it has everything to do with us, unfortunately. It was between the Blackmanes and a pack of rogue wolves that had more than enough support from two earths of fox-shifters.”
“Holy shit!” Blake stood up, knocking her chair back.
“Jason Woodtail was leading them, apparently. He and his foxes made a run for it when the dragon-shifter took the wolves’ side, and the Council hasn’t been able to track them down yet. No one knows where Woodtail is or why he went rogue, but there will be a trial when they catch him.”
Blake started pacing the room. “I d
on’t know who Jason Woodtail is…” There were countless fox-shifter clans and earths all over the world, and she didn’t know all of them. “It doesn’t matter, it’s still bad. So bad for our faction… What’s Redfur’s position on this?”
“Yeah, about that…” Seth turned around when he heard the door open. They all watched Roman Sylfur make his way over the threshold, his hands shaking on the doorknob and his old knees barely keeping him upright. He waived Seth away when the Yako wanted to help him reach the armchair.
“We have to talk,” said Roman. Even though his body was weak and exhausted, his voice was firm. “I might have been wrong about Jonathan Redfur all these years ago.”
Amelia was about to receive an answer to the question she never got to ask. As Blake and Seth were still standing, she didn’t dare sit down.
“From what I’ve heard, Jonathan was more concerned with the Blackmanes’ fault in the matter than with the fox-shifters’, which is fair enough, but doesn’t sit well with me. A good councilor, a councilor who truly cared about the reputation and well-being of his faction, would have done everything in his power to find the rogue who betrayed our trust and went against the peace treaty. If Jonathan were such a councilor, he would have first apologized for what Jason Woodtail had done and then vowed to catch him and turn him in with his own hands. Jonathan, instead, showed more interest in the wolves’ and dragons’ affairs. I don’t like that, if you ask me. I think there’s something rotten here.”