The Last King's Wolf

First Impressions

Riley

Landon is driving, and Beau is looking intently at a map.

Beau: “There are three packs near Blood River. If we don’t find our mates there, we can stop in at those on the way home. By then Riley will be old enough to sense his too.”

Brody: “Not a bad idea. We’ll research them once we get to Blood River and make sure we want to visit them.”

We arrive at Blood River, and a tall man, I presume to be Alpha Burton, is waiting at the front of the packhouse we were directed to. He is built more like a Beta, but I could be wrong. As we all climb out, he walks forward.

“Hello all, I am Beta Nichols. I hope you had a pleasant journey. The Alpha and his son will be down soon.” While waiting we introduce ourselves to him. His manners are impeccable.

Ten minutes later, a tall man with light brown hair comes down, followed by a younger version of him. I study them as they walk up.

Burton is in his mid-forties, and his hair is slightly graying on the sides. He has the typical Alpha build but seems a little soft in some spots. His smile is somewhat cold, and I notice he exudes arrogance. The son is taller by about an inch, maybe two. He has cold light green eyes and his arrogance level is off the charts. Not sure why as I can see he has the muscular Alpha build, but there is a lot of “fluff” too. Like the guy skips out on training, he walks like he’s not in charge too. I see his father make sure to be partially in front of him, showing who is clearly the current Alpha.

“Gentlemen! So glad you could make it. I’m Alpha Burton and this is my son Kincaid.” He flashes those white teeth and all I can think is the whole pack probably needs to be liberated from this guy. I shake it off for now as we all introduce ourselves. When Kincaid shakes our hands, his grip tries to be firm but it’s weak and fishlike.

Brody quickly links us, “Guess he doesn’t teach his son the important things.”

“Beta Nichols will get you set up in your rooms. Please join me in the private dining room for dinner tonight at six. Would you like any guests with us tonight? I have a few lovely young ladies in this pack who can provide pleasant dinner conversation, nothing more. It can get rather tedious with just working males at the table.” He smiles almost benevolently like he’s conferring a favor and I feel a strong shiver of revulsion I repress.

Even Ghost grumbles in my head. "This an Alpha or a slug. He's making me feel like I need a shower."

Landon answers first “Actually we are pretty exhausted after such a long drive. Conversation might not be the best idea. Would you mind if we just eat and get some sleep? Sorry Alpha, we had to make a few extra stops along the way.”

He inclines his head, “Very well, I understand. Also nothing as nagging as a tedious female voice when you are ready to be done for the day.” Kincaid is nodding his head along with that.

Landon links us, “Talk about a one eighty there…”

We all agree and are in a hurry to follow the Beta upstairs. Once settled in, we walked down to the private dining room he gave us directions to. I hear Brody muffle a sound with a sudden coughing fit and exchange glances with Theo and Beau. When we get in, I see why.

Kincaid is there with his father, and there are two girls fawning all over him like one in his lap and the other one making out with him. His father sits there impassively until we sit down.

“Kincaid our guests are here.” He says sharply. I see the girls move to a chair and Kincaid joins in the conversation as little as possible. His father tells us all about his pack and how wonderful of a training program he has.

“We will have you start observing on Thursday. I figured you would need the day off tomorrow to rest from your long travels. And my head trainer is out until then.”

We assent quickly and leave dinner as soon as we can without seeming rude. Although we all agreed once in our suite that Burton and Kincaid don’t have manners enough to know if we were being rude.

Beau starts, “I didn’t like...” Theo immediately clamps his hand over his mouth and links all of us.

“Link only. I don’t trust they don’t have their visitors rooms bugged considering the allegations.”

“The long drives and I think my body is about done.” Beau finishes easily.

“The Beta seems like a normal individual. I’ll do some digging into his background.” Landon muses.

Brody: “The fact he let his Beta greet us first is his way of putting us in our place. We aren’t that important.”

“Kincaid is a total sleazeball.” Theo adds.

“Yeah, having two girls all over you at the first dinner with an Alpha group is way off.” Brody says grimly.

“He’s old enough to have met his mate. Wonder if he hasn’t or he rejected her because she’s not what he wanted.” I tell them and see Walker press his lips together.

“I thought the same thing. He’s more than old enough so those two girls he took up to his room….his father was totally fine with that being on display tonight?” Walker asks.

“Both exude arrogance and total uncaring. Notice also there was no happy laughter in the groups entering the packhouse. No joking or shouting. All subdued.” Landon points out.

“Noticed that. This is going to be a game of observation.” Theo sighs.