The 5-Time Rejected Gamma And The Lycan King Chapter 14

"Yeah." She nodded amicably and smiled meekly.

After Alfred's speech, the Lycan officials clapped loudly but the werewolves clapped grudgingly.

Next, Gamma Tobias Tristan, as this year's Gamma representative took the stage, "Good morning, your Highness, ministers and families, Alphas, Lunas and fellow Gammas. My name is Tobias Tristan, and I am the Gamma of the White Blood Pack. It is my pleasure to stand before you as the first Gamma representative of this annual meeting. "

"Last year was undoubtedly one of the most difficult years to endure as we fought one rogue attack after another. We lost friends. Some of us lost families. In worst case scenarios, some lost their mates to the ruthless creatures."

He paused for a moment before he continued, "Needless to say, most of us wouldn't be here today had we not relied on our allied packs. Together we form trust; together we trained and improved; and together we won." There was a strong applause from the werewolves, and even Xandar let go of his grip on Lucianne's hand to clap.

Tobias waited for the applause to die down before he continued to speak, "It would be misleading to say that our alliances started out swimmingly. If anything, we just wanted to show the other pack our purported superiority," he smirked and laughter spread in the hall, mostly from werewolves who could relate to what he said.

"Many pack alliances started with nothing more than rivalry. I, myself, was not a saint. But it took me one experience working with a very commendable Gamma to make me question my motives when I was ordered to join an alliance. This Gamma couldn't care less about the strength of an individual wolf, and she didn't see the point in fighting to impress our superiors. "

"What was important, as she drilled into our heads, was the fact that we were strong as a pack. Even if we were made up of three alliance packs, the point was to train as one, to fight as one and to win as one." There was another round of applause.

When it died down, he continued, "Most of you have heard of her. Many of you have met her. Many of our packs owe her. She changed the way we collaborated, and she changed the motivation we had when we trained. "

"I once asked her, 'Who do you have at the back of your mind when you're on the battlefield?'. Without hesitation, she told me 'Those who cannot fight on the battlefield'."

Xandar shot Lucianne a look of admiration but her eyes were fixed on the ground as she blushed. 'It has to be her', he thought, as he recalled her words from the previous night.

Tobias's voice continued to ring through the speakers, "Her nobility is something many of us had never seen. I'm sure you would love to hear from her. "

"I'm ecstatically proud to call upon my mentor, my rival, my good friend, and my sister on the battleground, Gamma Lucianne Paw from the Blue Crescent Pack. Lucy, get up here!"

Lucianne stood up and glanced at Xandar, who was getting up from his seat as he clapped with the rest of the audience, obliging all the other Lycans to stand with their King.

He didn't know she was giving a speech and suddenly felt irresponsible as a mate. But he and his animal were prouder than anything at the moment that their mate was chosen among hundreds to speak. The werewolves behind the Lycans were already up on their feet before the King himself.

Lucianne walked in graceful steps to the stage, where Tobias grinned widely as he clapped with the audience. They embraced briefly before she stood before the microphone.

"Thank you for that flattering introduction, Gamma Tobias. It is my greatest pleasure to speak in this annual meeting. And it is my greatest honour to be selected by my fellow werewolves to speak this year."

A resounding applause from the werewolves before she continued,

"As Gamma Tobias has said, last year has not been easy. In fact, statistically speaking, last year was the worst we have ever fared as a species in werewolf history." The hall was silent as everyone waited for her to continue.

Her expression turned serious, "All packs combined, we lost a total of 2,316 lives. Amongst them were 52 children who had never lived past the age of ten. We lost 15 packs when their Alphas and Lunas were killed during an attack. Before last year, the worst we had seen was 203 years ago in the battle between vampires and werewolves. Even then, the death toll was only 1,857 and the packs lost were 12."

She covered the microphone with her hand and sighed in despair before her voice continued to ring through the speakers, "In our pack-to-pack post-mortem, we discovered that the deaths were due to a constraint in time and an insufficient number of trained warriors in a pack. "

"Help was sought, but many who needed our help were hours or days away from where we were, and when we got there, we saw bodies, blood and demolished homes."

Her fist was clenched on the podium as she held back her tears. "I will never forget the moment when I held a 6-year-old girl from the Black Night Pack in my arms as she whimpered, calling out for her mother. The medical team told me that the girl was crushed by the building we found her under for too many hours, and there was no way to revive her. "

"Gamma Tobias was there, and we both tried our best to comfort her until she closed her eyes to welcome death. Her mother, whom we identified a few hours later, had her corpse slumped on a tree with dried blood surrounding her neck, undoubtedly oozed from her throat a few hours earlier."