Alpha's Remorse After Her Death (Amber and Julian) novel Chapter 318

Julian’s POV

We stood on the stage, accepting our applause. After a moment, when the debate was about to begin, Amber turned to me and hugged me tightly.

“Stay strong,” she quickly whispered in my ear. “You are going to do great.”

She pressed a quick, exhilarating kiss to my ear, and then she was gone, moving back toward the sides of the stage that would take her backstage and off–camera.

She could watch from back there, so I knew in my heart she hadn’t just walked out. She was watching and I wanted to make her proud.

“Welcome to you both,” The moderator said. “Alpha Julian.” There were a few claps at my name, but mostly silence. “Tony.” At Tony’s name, the crowd came to life again, everyone clapping and cheering.

This disparity was somewhat disheartening, but I’d already known that I was working with odds that were against me. In my absences, Tony had plagued not just the council but the people against me.

I also wouldn’t have been surprised if the tickets for this event hadn’t been purposefully given to Tony’s supporters, not just in an attempt to crush my spirit, but also as a way to influence the viewers at home into thinking there were even more Tony supporters than we had thought.

Those that had chosen to remain loyal to me might start to feel outnumbered, and this could cause friction between them and their neighbors and might even cause them to change their minds to Tony’s side of things.

I had to stay vigilant. If I couldn’t win my supporters back with optics, then I had to use my words. As that had been the plan since arranging the debate, out of sheer willpower alone, I did not allow the crowd to intimidate

1. me.

I was Alpha, and I was going to stay Alpha. I just needed the people to agree.

While I was still spending time in my thoughts, waiting for the questions to begin, Tony grinned widely and said, “Thank you so much for moderating this, friend. I’m just so relieved that Alpha Julian stopped his many cross–pack vacations to actually concern himself with his pack.”

Though his words were a pointed insult to me, the moderator responded like he had just been given a compliment. “Thank you, Tony.”

I felt compelled to defend myself. “My trips were not vacations,” I said. “They were necessary travels.”

“These past six months, you’ve been gone from this pack more than you’ve been here,” Tony countered. “And the pack has suffered from it.”

“I have not allowed that to happen,” I said. “I continued to work remotely, directing my beta and others to act on my behalf. I constantly stayed connected –”

“You could order whoever you want around,” Tony rudely interrupted. “But you were still gone. You weren’t here, directly seeing the faces of the people who needed you. How could you even be certain there were problems if you weren’t here to see them? You had to depend on others.”

1/3

“I always depend on others…” I started, but the crowd made a sound of dislike so I stopped.

Had I said something wrong? Was there some problemn on having a group of people around me to help me determine the problems of the pack? I couldn’t be everywhere at once. It was normal for an Alpha to depend on others for information.

Yet, here that was being treated like it was something wrong, like I should have been telepathically knowing every problem of every pack member straight from the start.

Tony grinned, likely able to tell as I was that I was on the defensive here. That left him on the attack, which he took extreme advantage of as he asked, “So you admit that you have been neglecting your people?”

Amber’s POV

Along the outside of the auditorium was a narrow stairwell. This was for employees mostly, who needed to move from the stage discreetly to the back of the auditorium without interrupting the performance or being seen by those in the seats.

I rushed up this gently sloping stairwell all the way to the top where I exited through a doorway to the back of the auditorium.

Looking around, I searched for Olivia.

There.

I saw her just as she disappeared behind another door on the other side of the lobby. A marker on the door labeled it, Employees Only.

Running now, I dashed across the lobby and through the door. On the other side were more stairs, this time metal with small holes in them, making them seem like grates. Listening, I could hear the echo of footsteps pinging the metal from a story above me.

That had to be Olivia.

At once, I gave chase, following the stairs up and around.

Eventually, the metal flooring evened out into narrow pathways. Ahead of me was Olivia, stopped by the railing, looking down over the auditorium and the stage below, where Julian and Tony were conducting their debate.

We were in the rafters above the seats. I swallowed thickly. We were very high up here, and I didn’t do well with heights since the plane crash.

Even so, I stayed where I was, ready to confront Olivia.

Julian was down on the stage doing his part. I had to stay here and do mine.

Olivia was a vile person. She had been responsible for so much of my heartache, and had even tried to kill me. She had to know that she wouldn’t get away with this, this time.

“You could have just left me alone,” Olivia said. “But then, you always had to meddle in everything. If you had stayed away from Julian in the beginning, all of this could have been avoided.”

2/3

“Is that an admission of guilt?” I asked, moving forward. It was slow going as I held onto the railing with both hands. “Do we have you to thank for the mistrust in the pack?”

“I don’t know why you stuck with him, or why you continue to stick with him,” Olivia continued, ignoring my questions. “Don’t you remember how he treated you in the past? Have you forgotten when all you wanted to do was tell him you were pregnant, but instead of listening to you, he had chosen me?”

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify