But then, he could feel the anger and fear vibrating off of Ryel and the others, almost like a physical force. Something had them all on edge, and Ken was left out of the loop since he'd arrived late. He came expecting punishment, and instead he found ... he wasn't sure what to think of it yet.
Ryel didn't back down so easily. "I know you're skeptical, but we need to do our due diligence and make sure that our town is safe from any threats—goblin or otherwise."
"There must be some other rational explanation for this," Rick said. "Even if it's not goblins, there could be another threat to our pack out there. It's our responsibility to make sure that our people and our home stay safe. You all remember what happened last time."
A murmur of agreement went out; it seemed that the crowd was divided. Ken couldn't help but admire Ryel and Rick's determination to take a strong stand against the others in the room, even when faced with so much opposition. Ryel may have been young and brash, but he took protecting their home very seriously.
Ken watched in silence as several other wolves chimed in about how ridiculous it was to waste time on looking into such nonsense. After all, no one had seen a treasure goblin anywhere on the West Coast in almost five years now.
As much as it pained him, Ken was inclined to stand with the opposition. There were no treasure goblins left; there couldn't be. Ryel, Finn, and Axel, among others, had been responsible for that. They’d hunted the fuckers to the end of the continent until they were satisfied that there were none. Ken had even been a part of the hunt for a while, earlier on in their efforts.
It had given him a purpose for a while, since he’d long since stopped having one without Beth in the picture. But too soon, the hunt had ended, and Ken had been forced to find other ways to cope.
Though Ken didn’t believe there were any goblins, he still understood where Ryel and Rick were coming from. They could never be too careful when it came to potential enemies lurking in their midst. He had seen with his own eyes what goblins could do when they wanted something badly enough. And if they had come back now… well, things could get very dangerous very quickly for everyone around him.
Goblins, however, weren’t the only threats out there. What about trolls and fae? Humans? They all posed different challenges for the pack to deal with, and they were always developing plans to be better prepared for the next time they caused trouble.
“Now let’s stop wasting our time on this pointless debate and focus on the real threat: the goblins, or whatever is hiding out there," Ryel said.
The argument erupted around Ryel again, but soon Ken realized that they were all repeating the same answers and arguments without reaching any conclusions. Soon, Ken realized that if anyone was going to find answers here, it would be him. Ryel was hiding something, and if getting to the bottom of this potential threat was so important to him, then why was he lying? What was he hiding?
It pissed Ken off.
"Where is this coming from?" Ken said loudly and clear enough to make the whole room turn silent, even Ryel. "If you truly believe there is a threat waiting for us out there, we should surely check the validity of it."
The council members scoffed at him, dismissing his argument before he was even done. He ignored them.
"But why do you believe it to be goblins? Why now? Just yesterday, we were celebrating the second year since we'd broken from the chains of their curse. What triggered this fear?"
Silence stretched through the room in the biggest show of solidarity that Ken had witnessed since stepping into the room. His pack members shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other, or squirmed in their seats, refusing to look at him. What the hell was he missing?
Ryel cleared his throat. "We received word from a source I consider to be reliable—"
"The word of a child would be more reliable than someone who ran off a decade ago," someone in the room muttered.
A murmur of agreement rose up, and next to Ryel, his right-hand man, Finn, stood up to growl. "Silence while the alpha speaks, whether you agree with him or not. That's your last warning."
Ryel cleared his throat before continuing. "I have determined the source to be trustworthy, that is all that matters. Their concern for our safety is genuine. That is all you know."
"No wonder no one here wants to listen to you, if you won't even disclose the name of the source!" Ken bit out. "You want us to believe something impossible, but you won't trust us with that basic information. What are you hiding?"
Ryel's eyes flashed in anger, and he bared his teeth at Ken. "I said it's not your concern. My word as alpha is final.”
"You're our alpha, and yes, you're supposed to protect us," Ken continued on, regardless of the danger lingering in Ryel's eyes. "But how are we supposed to trust you to do so when you're hiding things from us?"
"You ass." Ryel snarled and made himself big and tall, the power of his wolf reverberating around him. Ken didn't back down but instead called to the heavy energy of his wolf, too, to stand up to Ryel's bullshit. "You really want to know? I'm trying to protect you, you fucking moron. But as usual, you're so full of your own shit you don't even know what's good for you anymore."
"What the hell are you talking about? All I want is the truth—"
"Bring her in!" Ryel commanded. "It seems that Ken's stubborn ass wants to get knocked down a peg."
Ken growled and snapped at Ryel, but ultimately, he backed off as Rick and Finn went off to collect the source of the 'news' and the argument that had followed. There was no sense in arguing anymore when the person who came to stir shit in Ken's town was about to be dragged into the limelight to face punishment for their lies.
The doors swung closed, and then a minute later, they opened again. Ken turned to them as he heard the extra pair of footfalls.
He stared into the impossible depths of the deep blue eyes he'd fallen for when he was just a boy. The same light blonde hair that was short and curled around her cheeks and ears, then came longer in the back, past the base of her neck.
The former love of his life.