Lone Wolf (The Wulf Pack Book 1)

Rage watched the couple before him shake. He shot a look to Ethan, who came forward, taking his spot next to the Beta and Rage moved to lean against the wall.

What weak wolves, he thought as he watched them visibly relax with his receding presence. How was it they were even high ranked if they nearly wet themselves from just sitting across the table from him?

There was no way he would let them take over the pack when the Alpha died. They were like scared pups, they could not look after it, someone would come and take it from them.

That was exactly what seemed to be going on. The Rogues knew that the pack was weak with their Alpha sick, they knew there wasn’t anyone to take over.

They had a mole.

He caught the movement out of the corner of his eye as everyone turned to look at him. He internally cursed himself for letting the words slip past his lips.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Allison agreed from the chair in front of him, drawing attention to her. Her lips quirked as she sensed his tension ease. He didn’t mind attention, when it came to fighting and torture, but he didn’t like undivided attention like this. It made him hate boring meetings even more.

“What do you mean?” the blond female asked, her voice filled with anger as she glared at Allison. She had no problems meeting her gold eyes, she was less intimidating than him.

“The Rogues know your pack is struggling, that your Alpha is sick and you have no succession of power.

“No we aren’t!” the female stood, snarling with as much force as she could. Allison smirked, un-phased by the show of aggression, she had tangled with her cousins and held her own, this female was nothing.

“Sam!” the Beta gasped, but it fell on deaf ears as she attempted to stare down Allison.

Rage let out a growl. It wasn’t loud, but held a demanding note as it rang through the room, rumbling through chests like the bass of a speaker.

The female’s shoulders bowed as she felt it, unable to deny the power it emitted.

“And who do you think could do the job?” her eyes large as she watched him push himself off of the wall and tilt his head in question, arms still crossed over his chest.

The room was deathly silent, you could almost hear her body shaking in fear. Her wide eyes flicked to the male next to her, his eyes wide and glancing between her and Rage.

“Neither of you could do it,” He sated, drawing closer to the table. Ethan and Allison parted to let him place his hands onto the table and lean forward on the table so that he was looking her in the eye, “You can’t even handle being in my presence, you can not run this pack,” he stared her down, waiting for her to submit and look away. He wasn’t sure if she was stronger than her first thought or just stubborn, or maybe just that stupid.

Finally her blue eyes began to fill with tears and she looked down, shame filling her as she lowered herself into her seat.

Rage let out a sigh and tisked, he was definitely right about one thing. Even if she wasn’t a female, she could not take care of this pack. After a few moments, Ethan cleared his throat.

“Back to the task at hand,” he turned to the Beta, forcing a smile that everyone knew he didn’t feel, “Do you have an idea who would be giving information to the Rogues?”

The Beta cleared his throat a few times, uncomfortable with the question.

“We have a pack of nearly a hundred, and we have a few Lone Wolves and Rogues that have been allowed to stay on our land as long as they don’t cause trouble,” Rage nodded, already knowing this fact.

“I would like to speak with them, do you have a record of them?” the Beta nodded.

“We have records of every pack member, as per regulation as well as records of our Lone Wolves and Rogues, they are required to register with us and the pack is informed of where they live and work, kind of like what the humans do to their criminals,” Rage nodded, thinking that was a very good way to keep track of them, the only downfall would be the Turned, they would be harder to track do to the fluctuation of their population.

“I would also like to have a look at your warriors and the basic running of the pack,” the Beta nodded, staying silent as he stared at the wall, Rage almost felt sorry for him, this was a lot to take in.

“Where would you like to start?” the Beta’s son asked, realizing his father was lost in his thoughts.

“I will check out the registered wolves,” Ethan stated, standing from his chair, not bothering to look at Rage for acknowledgement.

“Sam will take you to the files and go with you to the wolves,” a sigh of relief whispered past her lips as she stood. Probably for the best, Rage thought as he watched her leave with the only one of them she had not challenged.

“Is there someone who can show me around?” Allison said, as the pair exited the room. The Beta’s son frowned, seemingly surprised that Rage hadn’t said a word, yet Ethan and Allison stepped in to take the tasks.

“Yes, Sara can take you, she knows the pack better than anyone,” the male smiled, as if he was proud of the fact. Allison nodded, but stayed sitting.

The male looked at his father, still lost within his own mind. His eyebrows drew together before turning to Rage.

“I will take you to the training field,”

They walked in silence, Rage didn’t mind, though he knew it made people uncomfortable sometimes. He was a silent person anyway.

When they reached the main floor the male asked him to hang on a moment and entered what appeared to be a kitchen, a large one at that.

After a few moments, the male reappeared with a female in tow. The same female from the last time he was here, she must be Sara.

Sara nodded as she passed him, not looking a bit bothered by him. He wondered if she was actually the oldest of the sisters. Once she was out of sight, the male turned back to him.

“The field is right out here,” he motioned to a solid wood door, the brass knobs warn in color from the years of use and the smoky glass was covered in metal, like a checker board.

The sight before Rage made him angry.

The ground was mostly mud, grass marking the boarder of the training field. The thirty or so, wolves there were sitting in the grass, chatting and Rage even thought one may be sleeping as he laid back onto the grass.

“How many warriors do you have?” he asked through clenched teeth, these mutts were not being trained, not trying at all, and clearly they were out of shape: some noticeably over weight while some were abnormally skinny.

“Fifty three,” his lip pulled into a snarl, there was no way this pack was going to be able to fight if even fifty percent of the Rogues and Turned were fighters.

“I need to call my brother,” he growled, turning away from the slacking warriors and heading to the room he was assigned. He was going to have to have reinforcements sent. He couldn’t do anything with them, he was good, but not that good.