Avenging The Triplet Alphas
Chapter 59

Loki's POV

I froze as soon as I heard my father anoint his Beta as his successor. I had been half expecting it from the start to to hear it in person was different and the pain felt real and raw.

Right before my eyes, I was watching everything I had ever worked for slipping away from my grasp. The pack cheered as Klaus was named as the successor, they had wanted someone without stain or blemish, someone who wouldn't bring shame or unnecessary drama to the pack and Klaus was the perfect person for that job.

I looked at my father as he passed his judgment. He didn't look particularly pleased but there was nothing he could do about it, the throne was going to pass away from our family after centuries of being the ruling house but I guessed that in some ways, he was pleased with his choice.

Naming me and my brothers as his successors would've brought a lot of side talks from different angles and it was never a good thing to start on the wrong foot. Ruling over a grumbling pack was a sign that it would crumble at the first instance of adversity and like I've always known, preserving the integrity and status of the Van Tyson pack has always been my father's goal.

I turned towards my brothers standing on either side of me, they hadn't said a word either as they both had their eyes fixed on my father. Their eyes held a mixture of pain and disgust like they couldn't believe what had just happened but there was nothing either of us could do about it now.

We were now reduced to nothing. Our class would be revoked and there was every chance that we would be forced to leave the mansion as well, things weren't looking good for us judging from the short-term future which we could see already, and in reality, there wasn't anything either of us could do about it.

The cheers and hollering from the crowd were growing louder with each passing second and I couldn't bring myself to stay here any longer before I lost every trace of my composure. It would be best for me to leave and think of what the future posed for me. I turned my back on the celebrations and my brothers followed suit, we pushed our way through the crowd until we were able to break free from the mass of bodies chanting Klaus' name. It was supposed to be us, we had dreamt of this moment severally. Ever since we came of age, we've always wanted to rule one day. To carry on our father's legacy and make a name for ourselves when the time came, but everything had come crumbling down in the space of 18 months when two irreversible events happened and our lives were altered forever.

It was a difficult pill to swallow but in truth, there was nothing I could do. I had no power anymore, I was merely a high-ranking wolf and that was all I had left to my name.

I pushed open the door to our private study and made my way inside, walking straight to the mini bar as I grabbed a bottle of whiskey. I wanted to numb my feelings and this was the perfect way to go about it for a start.

"I wish we had a Time Machine," I turned my attention toward Jonathan, who was staring out the window. A sad look in his eyes. "There are a lot of things I'd love to go back in time and correct for our sake. This should never have happened and while we can blame Arielle all we want, we should also look at ourselves and know we caused it as well. Only if we hadn't been cowards, only if we had stood up when it mattered the most, maybe we wouldn't be in this spot right now."

"Don't give me that bull crap right now, Jonathan." Elijah roared, slamming his fist into the wall. "You've always been far from unreasonable whenever it comes to Arielle, there's never been any time when you've made a cohesive statement involving Arielle." I massaged my temple, this was going to be a long day but I was willing to let them both go at it. We had to get a lot off our minds before we could think of a way forward from here and frankly, this was the only way to go about it.

Right now and for the foreseeable future, we were alone. There was no one coming to our aid nor neither did we have some witch that would change our fortunes, it was just us and all we had was ourselves.

"What the hell are you talking about, Elijah?" Jonathan retorted. "You've always had a problem with accountability and while I've overlooked it all these years, it's starting to get on my nerves. You want to absolve yourself of every blame, is that it? If you think you're righteous and everything you've done over the past 18 months has been the best course of action you could've possibly taken then you're crazy."

"You know as well as I do that there was nothing we could do during the first period of this whole mess. Our mother's life was hanging in the balance and father used it to threaten us and there wasn't anything we could do, we had no choice. We had to pick between our mate and our mother and we went for the one we couldn't replace, little did we know that we weren't going to be able to replace Arielle either." Elijah retorted, his eyes blazing with fury as he spoke. "It took us a long time to realize our mistake but when we did, we put every effort into righting our mistakes and you championed this course! You did! We left for a strange pack to bring Arielle back home. We put our lives on the line, not once or twice but we did it six times before we passed every mission in the Book of Impossible Task and we were able to procure her from Ethan. This was something she set herself, she promised that if we completed this, she would come back home with us. This was the plan, everything that had happened before then was now a thing of the past, no one cared about that anymore even if you didn't and I know Loki didn't either. The idea was to settle for an arranged marriage of benefits to both sides, we weren't asking her to forgive us for everything we did, we only wanted her to keep her word. How hard could that have been?"

I cleared my throat, drawing both their attention to myself.

"I've heard everything you're both trying to point out but the fact remains that it has happened and there's nothing we can do to change anything that has happened between the past thirty minutes what I'll like to point out is that you both are looking at this from different perspectives and I'll like to add that you're both right in your way." I began. I turned to address Jonathan first.

"You're correct about not fully blaming Arielle for what has happened. Even if she had lost out on her challenge, she wasn't under any obligation to keep her word and hell compares not to the fury of a scorned woman. She knew what we wanted from her but we didn't ask her to be honest and eventually, she had her pound of flesh and she did it in front of everyone the same way she banished her 18 months ago. Was it a silly move? Yes, without any doubt but all she wanted was her revenge and if either of us were in her shoes, we would've done the same thing without hesitation."

I turned towards Elijah. "Arielle made a promise and she didn't stick to it and no matter what had transpired between us in the past, she was still meant to keep to her words especially considering what we went through to bring her back and she failed us. She didn't just fail us, she failed our son as well. Now, we have no legacy to build, we have nothing to show our son except three deadbeat fathers that had left their birthright slip through their fingers and a mother who had deprived him of his inheritance because of her quest for revenge. All of this is Arielle's fault, everything happening now is because of her actions. So yes, you're also right to blame her as well."

"So what then happens, Loki?" Jonathan asked. "We hold ourselves accountable and then what? How do we go ahead in fixing this situation at hand?"

"Right now, there's nothing we can do. We can only wait for everything to settle down before we begin to hatch a plan and Klaus is no fool, he knows we won't let this slide and he would be making plans of his own to secure the throne for a long-term period." "So you're saying we let him rule?"

"Yes and no. I'm saying we let him settle down and when he shows his hand, we grab it and pull him down. We can't spark a fight against the Alpha, we would lose. We have to bide our time and wait. If I may suggest, we take a page out of Arielle's book. Patience is key, an opening will come and we would strike then."