Horizon Ridge say yes, say yes

"Only the gods are without flaws," was the only admission of weakness that Akhlut would make. Jinx's woes were numerous and while some seemed legitimate, other claims felt false. If there were any whose challenge Akhlut would accept and allow himself to submit to, it might be Pied, but the dappled female seemingly held no ambition to his position, even before her attack. But Jinx as Alpha would be utterly intolerable; she was insufferable and arrogant and though she claimed to know what this pack needed, Akhlut couldn't help but think over and over you don't you don't you don't. She had had her chance, from the sound of things, at Shearwater Bay and at Bon Dye. Yet she ruled over neither, now, and coveted his own Ridge. Whatever his own shortcomings, he was young and permitted to make mistakes in the course of learning to lead. As the rightful Alpha in Horizon Ridge, he could ask forgiveness from those whom he had not been supportive enough of, and he felt earnestly that they would give it. Surely none of them despised him for it as Jinx seemed to, for none had come to support her claim for leadership even now, when their angrily snarled words surely were loud enough to garner the pack's attention, even at this early morning hour.

"The burdens of leadership are different than I expected," he acknowledged, "but I am adapting, learning to fill the role that the pack needs from me. Strip it from me, and I will never see the way to lead properly. Overthrowing me is not the solution to your qualms, Jinx, and would only leave the pack in chaos. What the Ridge wolves need now is stability as we go into spring, as we perhaps bring a generation of pups into the world to call this shoreline home. Would you shear apart our future for your own greed, as a wind might dissipate a thunderstorm? If you have so much care for the fate of this pack, you would not do this." Not that Akhlut had any intention of allowing Jinx to remain among them; the moment she veered from her resolve to throw him out, he would turn the tables and send her away. Still, he was careful to keep his tone as reasonable as he could, working hard to contain his fear within himself and not to let it seep into his voice. Some of it was a fear of losing his position, but moreso it was a fear of what Horizon Ridge would become with Jinx at its helm. There was no telling.

"If you wish to bring this to bloodshed, there is nothing I can do to stop you," Akhlut said with steel in his voice, "but I would sooner have my blood flowing over these rocks and my life gone from me than to leave the Ridge of my own volition. This is my home."