Read Online Choices by Viola Rivard - Free Book Online Page A

mountain valley, this one claimed by two wolf packs, both only slightly smaller than Halcyon. They had never been a threat to Halcyon, mainly because they’d been at war with one another for decades. Their alphas were aging, though. In a few years, their sons would rise to power. Hale knew very little about the two future alphas, but he did know that neither approved of their father’s warmongering.
    All it would take would be for the two to ally. Together, they would vastly outnumber Halcyon and could very well set their eyes on Hale’s valley and it would be no difficult task for them to get Silas on their side. If all three packs converged on Halcyon, there would be no hope.
    When Whiteriver failed to rejoin Halcyon, Hale had two options. He could either figure out a way to turn the two sons of the two rival packs against one another, or he could subvert and overthrow Silas. Without an alpha, Whiteriver would have no choice but to rejoin Halcyon.
    Hale had gone with the second option, mainly because he still felt slighted by Silas’s departure. Everything had been going as planned, and even having Tulip here wouldn’t have been a major upset had he still given a shit about his plan.
    “So tell me,” Alder said, still leaning in the doorway. “What exactly was this plan of yours?”
    Tulip was all too happy to answer him. “We were going to turn Whiteriver against Silas, encourage them to abandon him and rejoin Halcyon.”
    Alder lifted a brow. “How?”
    “It wasn’t by going to war,” Hale told him. Finally detaching Tulip, he took a seat at one of the tables. “Though believe me, I was ready for it, if it came to that.”
    Looking genuinely intrigued, Alder joined Hale at the table, sitting across from him. “I’m listening.”
    “Hale’s been giving me food for months now,” Tulip said, taking a seat as well. “I’ve been sharing it with some of my pack mates, letting them know it was from Halcyon.”
    “And Silas was okay with that?” Alder asked.
    “I was doing it in secret,” she said. “Most of the people I was sharing with were loyal to Silas, but loyalty only stretches so far when you’re hungry.”
    Alder frowned at that. “I didn’t realize things were so bad.”
    “The first year wasn’t so bad,” she said. “There were still farms to the east and we would raid their livestock. But after the humans left, there was nothing to eat. We had a few pigs and chickens we were going to raise, but they didn’t make it through the winter.
    “Some of us wanted to go back to Halcyon but we never followed through with it. After a couple years, everyone got used to the way we were living.” She looked at Hale. “But then your brother came, bringing food and telling us we were welcome to rejoin Halcyon. Since then, there’s been a great deal of…unrest.”
    “I don’t understand why you didn’t tell me about any of this,” said Alder.
    “Why? You wouldn’t have wanted to overthrow Silas,” Hale said. “All you would have done was allowed Whiteriver to hunt in our territory.”
    “The division of territories was never fair to begin with,” Alder countered. “It could be argued that it’s your fault Whiteriver is starving.”
    Hale narrowed his eyes on his brother. “That boy had no business leading a pack. I was trying to teach him a lesson.”
    Alder matched him with a steely gaze of his own. “You were punishing him for defying you and in the process you made innocent wolves suffer.”
    “Hale’s right,” Tulip nervously interjected, turning to Alder again. “Silas isn’t a bad wolf, but he’s not a leader. He can’t provide for us and he’s too proud to admit he was wrong.
    “The wolves that brought me to you, Olivia and her friends, are real close to him. But most of the pack is on the fence. Now that I’m gone and the food’s stopped coming in, they’re probably gonna be thinking real hard about which side they want to fall on.”
    Alder was quiet as he