Lily and James (werewolf novel) novel Chapter 128

Chapter 0128

(James POV)

The meeting with my father was about as painful as you can imagine it being. I will not bore you with the details; I promise that you have already heard most of them. Luke and I tuned out half the meeting/ lecture ourselves. The only new information that I took from the meeting was that my father now believed that my irresponsibility”

was causing my mother unnecessary heartache. He reminded me that Margie had decided that I would marry Sheila and make her pup my heir, and he said that one way or another, I needed to make sure that I fulfilled her wish. No, he actually went further than that. I believe his actual quote was, “It is the least we can do for her after all we took from her years ago. Sadly, he said that during a part of the lecture that I was paying attention to, and I literally had to bite my tongue to prevent lashing out at him. Somehow, in his mind, sins committed by my mother before I was born had become sins that he and I also had to pay for. 1 Unfortunately, my father did not stop there. He also demanded that I “fix my sh&t”

as soon as possible. My father’s implicit request was clear but horrifying: he wanted me to make sure that Mary Beth’s pup was dealt with, one way or another. How, he did not really care. He just did not want there to be another pup out there that could challenge Sheila’s pup for the title of alpha and trigger the alpha challenge processes. (A legitimate first-born heir does not need to go through the alpha challenge process. An illegitimate first-born can, however, force a legitimate second-born into a challenge.)

I mostly listened to my father, having lost interest in actually speaking with him. However, at one point, I did ask my father why-if the alpha challenge process was to be avoided at all costs- he was comfortable submitting Nick to it. (Nick was not a legitimate first-born alpha heir, so he would have to submit to challenges as well.)

My father told me matter-of-factly that no one in this pack was willing to challenge Margie, and that meant no one would be willing to challenge Nick as well. I was incredibly bothered both by my father’s answer and by his bluntness. For years, Margie had run things behind the scenes. Now, ever since my mother confessed to what she did with Tyler, my parents had almost embraced the fact that Margie was the one in control. How were pack members supposed to respect an alpha who was letting his pack be run by the beta female?