Alpha Blood Box Set(20)

“So why’d they make something this fancy for a meeting room?” I wondered.

“The werewolves then were learned men who greatly admired the Grecian culture,” he explained to me. “They wanted to mimic both their style of government and their buildings.”

“So that’s how they got all this voting stuff?” I guessed, and he nodded.

“Exactly.”

“There you are,” came a feminine voice We turned at the words and saw a beautiful woman walk down the steps toward us. She was a tall, stunning blond with long hair, a friendly smile, and an impeccable wardrobe. “I thought you’d been derailed again,” she teased.

Luke stood and I followed suit, though I slunk behind him. “A pleasure to see you again, Stacy.”

She brushed aside his formalities with a wave of her hand. “You know I don’t like those stuffy kind of greetings. Just say you missed me terribly and we’ll do with that.”

“It has been a while,” Luke admitted.

For the first time the woman noticed me peeking out from behind Luke. Her smile softened and she stepped to the side to garner a better view of me. “And who do we have here?” she wondered.

Luke, traitor that he was, pulled me in front of him. “Stacy Stevens, this is my mate, Rebecca,” he introduced us.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t forgotten how this Stacy had aspired to be Luke’s love interest, so I nervously smiled at her. She smiled, but I detected a hint of disappointment in her lips. “So the rumors are true, you’ve found someone.” She paused, tilted her head to one side, raised an eyebrow and cast a side glance at Luke. “A lovely face, but I don’t remember ever seeing her before. Where did you find her, Luke?”

Luke sheepishly grinned. “Truth be told I-”

“Kidnapped me,” I finished for him.

Stacy crossed her arms and gave Luke a severe look. “You stole away a human to be your mate? Luke Laughton, I thought you were made of better stuff than some of these barbarians.”

Luke cringed and shrugged. I had to laugh at him cowering before a woman. “It was unavoidable,” he defended himself.

I snorted. “Yeah, like you sticking me with that needle and dragging me off into the nineteenth century was unavoidable,” I quipped.

Stacy’s brows crashed down and she pulled me from Luke’s arms. “And no doubt she’s traumatized by the experience of being dropped into all this trouble.”

Luke stiffened and placed a finger to his lips. He shook his head and his eyes roamed the room. “Not here,” he whispered to her.

“Then where?” she asked him.

“Follow me.”

Stacy kept me beside her as Luke led us out of the meeting hall, through the front doors and turned off the station path onto one of the woodland paths. He didn’t venture to speak, but Stacy took on the silence and won. “When did Luke and you meet?” she asked me.

“An eternity ago, but I think it was less than a week ago for everyone else,” I replied.

“That’s hardly time to get your bearings around his home,” she wondered.

“He kept me locked up in a white room.”

Stacy frowned and shot a glare at Luke’s back. “Did he really?” she mused.

Luke glanced over his shoulder at us. “She kept escaping,” was his defensive reply.

Stacy snorted. “And good for her. Who would want to be stuck with a wild animal who kidnapped her?” I was really starting to like this woman.

Luke, however, wasn’t very happy and quickened his pace. When we were a good half mile from the villa he turned to us with a serious expression. “Has there been any more news?”

Stacy, too, dropped her humor and shook her head. “None at all since my father learned about the meeting date change, but I can tell you he was very confused to learn of it. I don’t believe it’s happened in times of peace.”

“No, but I think war is what Lance intends, or at the very least he’ll go that far to achieve his ambitions,” Luke replied. “Do you know if this will skew the vote?”

“His party was alerted well before any of the other lords and they’re sure to vote in favor of him,” she pointed out.

“Party?” I spoke up. I felt like the third wheel on a two-wheel bicycle.

“The opposing party to Burnbaum’s decentralized Lone Wolf Party. They fear the encroachment of humans into what has traditionally been our territories and want to band together to keep them out,” Luke reminded me.

“Oh, right. That mess. So we’ve got the Lone Wolf Party and the what again?” I wondered.

“Lance calls his the Alpha Party,” Stacy spoke up with a roll of her eyes. “He always likes to give his projects a dramatic flare.”

I glanced at Luke. “And we’re stuck where?”

“In the middle,” he replied.

I groaned and slumped my shoulders. “Oh goody.”

Stacy smiled and set a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll get the hang of things. It may take a few centuries, but things will make sense,” she assured me.

“Thanks, makes me feel a lot better,” I grumbled. For the first time all I wished was to be back in that simple white room at Luke’s home with nothing more than being kidnapped to worry about.

Stacy glanced at her watch and sighed. “And speaking of things that take a few centuries, my watch is telling me it’s almost time for the first region meeting.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “So soon? Are all the lords here?” he asked her.

She nodded. “They were all alerted early enough to arrive accept you and Baker, and he had less distance to travel.”

“Why was Baker another exception?”

“There’s a feud between Baker and Simpling. You know their territories abut one another, and all the major rivers go through Simpling’s area before they reach the farmlands in Baker’s region. Baker’s accusing Simpling of reckless management of the mines and of dumping waste into the rivers.”

“I see. So they thought to get back at Baker by forgetting to tell him about the change?” he guessed.

“Precisely.”

“What is this meeting about?”

Stacy grinned. “The environmental impacts of each region on the others. They put that at the head hoping Baker wouldn’t arrive in time to voice his complaints.”

“I’m glad he made it, but can we consider him an ally?” Luke wondered.

She shrugged. “I haven’t asked him, but I’m sure Burnbaum will. We’d better hurry, too, if we want to get there in time for the start of it.” She looked to me. “Luke is practically required to attend, but would you care to come?” she asked me.

“Is it a boring meeting with a lot of political talking?”

“Yes.”

“Then no.”

“Then it would be best to get you back to the room,” Luke suggested.

I didn’t like the idea of being cooped up in a room with such neat woods and views to explore. “Isn’t this place supposed to be safe?” I reminded him.

“The safest place in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee safety when our enemies are trying to kill us,” he pointed out.

“And how long am I going to be stuck in the room?”

“The meeting should last no longer than four hours,” he assured me. He turned us around and took a few steps back toward the villa with Stacy close behind him, but I wasn’t going with that.

My mouth dropped open. I snapped my teeth shut, dug my heels into the ground and crossed my arms over my chest. The other two stopped a few yards ahead of me and glanced over their shoulders. “Hell no am I going to be stuck in a room for that long.” I’d been stuck in one room and train car after another, and now with a beautiful forest so close at hand they wanted to stuff me in another place with four walls.

“Then you’d rather come with us?” he asked me.

“I’d rather be roaming these woods.” I looked up at the canopy overhead and the shimmering sun shining through the branches. I felt a stirring inside of me that I couldn’t explain, but it didn’t want to be cooped up inside.

Luke slipped on a small smile and walked back to me. He set his hands on my shoulders and gave me a gentle shake. “I promise I’ll take you for a walk when I return from this meeting.” The innocent smile turned to a roguish grin. “We’ll make it a night walk beneath the moon,” he promised me.

I saw the hint of some sexual romping and rolled my eyes. “Fine, but don’t take too long at that meeting.”





17





Luke took too long, or at least longer than I wanted to wait. Stacy and he dropped me off at our room, and I was left with nothing to do but nap and watch the hands of an elegant grandfather clock tick around its face. I was thinking of breaking the boredom with another nap when I heard a knock on the door.

I crawled off the bed and looked through the peephole of the door. Nobody was there, but I saw a shadow lower down. I knelt in front of the keyhole and peeked through. An eye looked back and me, and I heard a familiar giggle. “Abby?” I guessed.

“Hi, Becky!” came Abby’s familiar voice from the other side of the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her.

“You promised to play with me, remember?”