It wasn't a very long walk from the family cemetery back to the castle, but it was one I spent in reflecting;
The victory of showing catherine to her place was only one battle won out of several others. There were many other battles to be fought, and I was aware that regardless of the knowledge I know had, I needed to be smart in order to win the battles ahead. I needed strategies, allies and resources. I couldn't do it all on my own, I couldn't go all out alone and even though I needed to be careful of whom to trust, going by what happened in my past life, I had a headstart on who to bring in on my ally team.
That was why when I got back to my room and exchanged the simple black dress or a more regal black gown with a turtle neckline, I summoned Beatrice into my room and kept the rest of the elders waiting in my father's study on the other side of the castle.
She walked into the room quicker than I expected.
"I hope you did not summon me all the way up here to apologise for that mess you caused to happen at the Royal rites, Erica." She sounded angry, but the look on her face told the tale of reverence. I schooled my expression into that of indifference before replying to her.
"I don't regret the pack seeing me almost breakdown at the sight of my dead family. They would have done the same–" she didn't let me finish.
"They would have done more for they aren't royals. You're the next leader of the Dunham pack and all you've shown your people so far is your weakness? Do you think they'll want to entrust governance to you after what they've seen?" I've heard this before, verbatim in fact, but it wasn't Beatrice that'd raised that argument in the council meeting before, it was another elder, Alina, who I'd later found out had a son with catherine's father and she wanted her son to be alpha.
"At least I didn't shed a tear, and I didn't accept help from anyone. It was a split second of weakness and I am at least entitled to that. I saw Drey–my brother's corpse mangled between his wolf and human form, he died in the middle of turning! That is a valid cause to be a little weak in the knees."
Beatrice's eyes were a tad widened by the time I was done talking, but she recovered quickly and looked around the room haughtily.
"Well, that was a very solid defence, but not for me, save it for the council."
"I figured I could rehearse with an ally first before facing those broods of vipers," I replied in a lighter tone and the look of Beatrice's usually expressionless face made me understand that she was trying hard not to smile.
I gave a small smile of my own and began to lead the way out of the room.
"It's good to see that you know what you're doing. Especially with your outfit. Gives off an air of authority."
I didn't need a shaman to tell me that I'd impressed Beatrice and scored myself an ally. My grin widened because I knew that I'd won her over with the same argument she'd made on my behalf, the first time I'd met with the council. It was good to see, by proof, that the knowledge of the past life I now had was going to be very effective in accomplishing my agenda.
*
Something about me shocked the servants as I made my way to the other wing of the castle. I know it wasnt Beatrice, for she wasn't even with me; we'd wordlessly agreed to arrive at differently to the study. It had to be the way I carried myself in dignity, or the fact that I had no makeup on, or how I'd greeted them as they went about their respective jobs.
I think it was the latter, the royals barely ever talked to the helpers. It was like an unsaid law; one which I'd initially broken even in my last life and had scored me a friend I'd kicked out to the curb when Ronald came by. It was an action I regretted up until my deathbed and even though my throwing Loki away had already happened in this life—going by the time frame—I wasn't going to make the past mistake of letting it stay that way. I was going to look for him after the meeting.
The meeting with the council of elders wasn't a walk in the pack, but it had been easier to sit through than the last because I wasn't silent this time, and I had Intel on what each and everyone was going to say, so I'd prepared a befitting answer beforehand. In the past, the meeting had ended on the note of me being on probational leadership under the influence of the council till I was ready to get married and hand over the pack to my mate, but this one had been adjourned on an inconclusive note as no one could find a basis to crucify me;
Not yet.
The hard part of it, however, was having to see the faces of every single liar and thief that lived off the hard earned taxes of the pack. It was hard to answer each question politely and even massaging their egos at certain points when all I wanted to do was uninstall them in the most disgraceful manner possible.
That was the plan, to uninstall their corrupt lot one after the other. However, I needed to tread carefully as the law was currently leaning more on their side than mine. I needed to first prove to them that I was capable of ruling the pack without their influence or as they liked to put it 'guidance' and win the hearts of the majority of the wolves in the pack first. I needed them to think I'm naive and gullible for now, in fact, so they wouldn't see me coming when I finally had all I needed to strike them into oblivion.
However, for now, there was something more pressing that I needed to do. I took a quick detour to my room to change back into my simple black dress, with the addition of a scarf, before I began making my way out of the castle.