“I think they’re good for now,” the lady alpha said as she came and stood with them. She stuck her hand out towards him and confidently introduced herself. “I am Farica Volkov. I’m the baby girl. I believe you’ve met all of my brothers.”
“Except the wise one,” Adres muttered, accepting her firm handshake. He was pleased that she didn’t come off as cautious as her older siblings. It was as if they were night and she was day. She had an aura that made Adres feel as if he didn’t have to be so guarded.
“Ahh. So you haven’t met Taleb. I’m sure he’s in the main house, probably in the kitchen.”
“No, I have not. Is he a master of the culinary arts?”
She chuckled lightly, and it reminded Adres of the fireflies in the Shibuya gardens. Serene. “He doesn’t cook at all. But the kitchen is where you’ll find Henry.”
Ramon snorted while Belleron hid his grin behind his fist. Adres just refrained from turning his back on them and walking away. He didn’t play games. The young wolf was attacked and his own family was treating it as if it was nothing while Adres was still in combat mode. He wasn’t used to keeping company with these kinds of vampires. Young, smiling, snorting, kissing, happy… in-love vampires. It all made his stomach twist into irritated knots.
“Let’s go inside for a moment.” Belleron appeared to notice Adres’s lack of humor and began to move him towards the AZ’s residence. They climbed the few steps to the two-story cabin that had a wide wraparound porch overcrowded with deck chairs. The interior furnishing and décor seemed fitting for an alpha shifter. The foyer was warm and well-lit, with high vaulted ceilings and plenty of skylights to allow the sun to shine in. It would be a death chamber for a vampire between the hours of seven a.m. and six. He followed Belleron’s slender frame through the large home that was obviously used for not only the AZ but his family and pack as well.
Several men sat in a den on a long, curved leather sectional, engrossed in a conversation about a challenge between two alphas from a pack in West Virginia. They were dressed in jeans and roughened long john shirts—he assumed they were Justice’s betas or maybe his house guards. Adres hadn’t been there long enough to have met everyone, and so far, he’d prioritized learning the king’s soldiers and his legion instead of focusing on the shifters. The AZ’s pack was vast and appeared to operate like a well-oiled machine.
It was the vampire community that was in shambles.
“Those are Taleb’s betas,” Belleron said, as if he knew what Adres had been thinking. “The dining room is this way.”
“I think I should be getting the legion assembled in the war room,” Adres said, careful to keep the bite out of his tone. His skin was buzzing again, and it felt as if stag beetles were crawling over his back. “I would not want to keep the AZ waiting. It was his land that was attacked. I am sure he will want a debriefing within the hour.”
“It will take a little while to gather everyone, especially the pack officers. Remember… shifters don’t operate in the middle of the night. I’m sure a majority of them were in their beds. Some may have been out for a run since it’s almost a full moon.” Belleron turned the corner into a grand dining room that could probably have seated twenty people, but there were only two men sitting at the table. The alpha sat in the third seat from the head with a slim-figured, smiling vampire sitting on his lap.
Adres was appalled at what he was witnessing. The vampire king had just declared war, and these men were romancing as if it were any other wintery night in their log-cabin manor. A vampire swooning over this alpha and oblivious to what was happening to his people. His own brethren were struggling in a world ruled by humans, facing daily prejudices, covens ignored and practically starved because of new laws implemented by the government to protect shifters, yet this privileged vampire sat enjoying the literal lap of luxury.
Adres let his anger simmer inside him, keeping his shields in place and allowing only a part of him to be exposed. If the wolf was unable to scent him at all, he was sure it would present more problems that he did not need. If he managed to get past this last Volkov, he could proceed with why he had changed his mind at the last minute and swore an oath to stay here.
He needed to get back to Macauley.
Belleron held his cane-sword in one hand while he used the other to pull out two chairs on the other side of the table and motioned for Adres to come farther into the room. “Please.”