verb.
admit that something is true or valid after first denying or resisting it.

By the time we had reached the pack house the Alpha was completely unconscious.  Each of us felt the teether that bound us to him fade, and while some let out their grief in a howl,  a fire raged inside of me.  This was personal, the witch and the rouges involved would pay.

"This was a direct assault on our Alpha and our pack. Blood Wolf Pack has never seen an assault of this magnitude before, and it shall not be tolerated." I yelled.

I could feel my wolf trying to push through to the front and she was winning. The members that sat around the long oval shaped table in the Alphas Office could sense that I was barely hanging on.  Most of them kept their eyes and heads lowered, except for Kye.

"We need to retaliate quickly and harshly" Kye said as he hit the table with his fist, splintering the wood.  Kye was Alpha Knox's Gamma.  He was a good guy and he was just as loyal to Knox as I was, and I knew I could count on him to have my back.

I agreed with him.  I was fuming and ready to send out all of our trackers and warriors through No Man's Land to find the witch that had done this.

"Send word to the pack that I want every tracker and warrior to be ready to leave in 30 minutes. Ill be waiting for them in the front. " I ordered. 

"Wait a minute Ebony. You can't go with us." Kye said.

"The hell you say, I am the Beta of this pack, and it's my duty to lead this mission."  I fumed.  The thought of hurling the coffee mug in my hand crossed my mind, but lucky for him I wasn't done with it yet. 

"I know, but you have to stay here and fulfill your obligation as Alpha Knox's second in command.  You are the Alpha now." 

For some reason those words hit my chest like an arrow.  For a split second my soul left my body. 

I was the Alpha now....

I wasn't born to be an Alpha.  I was a Beta, a fantastic Beta, but a Beta nonetheless.   I didn't want to run the pack.  Besides, we had an Alpha,  he may be unconscious, but he was still alive for crying out loud.

I stood there for several minutes fighting an internal battle.  I knew Kye was right.  I had an obligation to the pack and to the Alpha to stand in as the acting Alpha.  But the Beta in me wanted nothing more than to shift and take off through No Man's Land with my best trackers and hunt these disgusting rouges and that monster of a witch down and rip their hearts out with my own hands.

"Fine." I finally conceded.  "I'll stay behind,  but you have to promise me something Kye.  When you find her, the witch,  you bring her back to me. "

"Yes mam." he nodded and walked out the door.

The remaining Blood Wolf Council members eventually made their way out  too, and I was left there standing alone in the Alphas Office.  I walked around the large room, trying to gather myself.  I was battling my wolf and my sanity. 

As I slipped into the huge leather chair behind the Alphas desk my eyes landed on the picture that sat on the far corner.  It was of Knox and I when we were eight.  The picture had been taken on the day we had joined our first pack run.  Knox had his arm slung across my shoulder with his signature wolf like grin across his face.  I was pouting in the picture with my arms crossed over my chest.  We had raced home that day, and Knox had beaten me.  I didn't speak to him for a week afterwards.   I'd always been a terrible losser. 

The hot tears threatened to spill from eyes as I smiled at our younger selves in the picture.  Knox wasn't just my Alpha,  he was my oldest and dearest friend.  If the roles were reversed and I was the one laying in the bed unconscious, he wouldn't hesitate to burn the world down to find a cure for me. 

So that's what I'm going to do.  Come hell or high-water I would find the cure to bring my best friend back to his pack, and I'd kill anything or anyone that tried to stand in my way. 

The pack doctors were the best in the country and I had complete confidence that they would do everything they could to help Knox, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be enough.   Modern wolf medicine was no match for a witches magic, especially old magic like this particular witch had used. 

No, the pack doctors wouldn't be enough.   I needed a witch. 

WC: 827