I’m so fucking over all of this. Marcellus replied back through the mind link, referring to both of his warriors.
You ready to leave? Mohammed asked at the same time Zion did, both of them chuckling as they momentarily turned to face each other.
Yeah. He sighed and ran an aggravated hand down the side of his face. But I think Dalton would tell me off for leaving without telling anyone. He said, referring to his best friend and Beta.
Both Zion and Mohammed nodded as they rose to their feet and flanked their Alpha from both sides, the trio avoiding the group of females as they headed out of the den and down the hallway where all the other Alpha’s were located in an office.
“You guys wait here. I’ll be out in a minute.” Marcellus instructed them as he nodded briefly on the door before reaching down to twist the handle and let himself in, not awaiting an invite.
“Alpha Trent?” He called as he stepped into the office, closing the door gently behind him. “Could I have a quick word?”
“Sure, but I’m not Alpha anymore.” Trent chuckled boisterously from behind his desk where he was already on his second glass of whiskey of the night. “Feel free to say whatever you want to me in front of everyone. There’s no secrets among old buddies.”
It was evident to Marcellus that the former Alpha was drunk on werewolf alcohol – as regular human alcohol just wasn’t strong enough to intoxicate werewolves – and the reduction of responsibility that came from passing down the Alpha title to his son.
Marcellus pursed his lips as he forced himself to glance around the room, sending a nod of respect to all of the other Alphas before finally returning his gaze to the former Alpha. As much as he respected all of these men, they simply didn’t have much in common, mostly due to the age gap as his father and mother had, had him nine months after realising that they were mates.
“Well, I just wanted to give you my congratulations and let you know that my warriors and I will be leaving now.”
“Oh, so soon?” Former Alpha Trent sounded in surprise. “What’s the rush? It’s not like you have a mate to go home to.”
The room filled with laughs at Trent’s drunken, underhanded comment which only made Marcellus and his wolf angrier.
“No, unfortunately, I do not have a mate waiting for me at home.” He ground his teeth as he spoke, forcing himself to keep a lid on his temper as losing his temper in a room full of Alpha’s was not the wisest thing to do, even though he was pretty confident that he could take them all if necessary.
“Don’t you want a mate?” One of the other Alpha’s piped up, an amused look on his face. “Or do you plan to spend the rest of your life alone?”
Before he could answer, some of the other Alpha’s injected themselves into the conversation.
“You know you can’t run a pack forever without a mate, right?”
“You won’t be able to run a pack forever without a Luna by your side.”
“It’s been ten years, so I can only assume that his mate has either rejected him, or she’s dead.”
It was the last comment that tipped Marcellus over the edge and instead of sticking around to hear some more bullshit poking at something which he had absolutely no control of, he turned around and slammed the door open before walking out of it, his lips curling up slightly at the round of curses that sounded from the room at his grand departure.
Frankly, he didn’t give a single fuck about what those old farts had to say and that was definitely the last time that Marcellus would put in any effort in attending these sorts of events.
Marcellus stormed out of the office with a simple roll of his eyes, not needing to breathe a word to his warriors for them to understand what was going on and follow him out of the pack house. They all piled into the car and Zion didn’t waste a second before he started up the car and peeled out of the parking lot, beginning the long journey back to the Lupum Griseo pack.
While the journey over had been excruciatingly long, the journey back didn’t seem as long but Marcellus found himself beyond frustration by the end of it.
“What took you so long?” Dalton greeted him and the two other warriors at the door, his son Devon just dozing off in his arms. “You were supposed to send me those documents earlier but you never did.”
Marcellus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, remembering the flashing battery icon of his laptop which he had conveniently forgotten in the car.
“My laptop died.”
Dalton nodded in understanding and shifted his son in his arms before continuing to list all the things that needed to get done today as they were now behind on some essential paperwork, having assumed that the Alpha would be able to do it all on the car ride over to the Blue Onyx pack.
As much as he loved and appreciated his friend and Beta, Marcellus couldn’t bring himself to concentrate and surprisingly enough, only a little bit of that was due to how tired he was. The more significant reason was that something else or rather, someone else, demanded his immediate attention.
His nose twitched and his wolf rose to the surface as he angled his head up, tuning out everything else as he focused on the sweet honey which clouded his very being, rendering him unable to think of anything.
Marcellus had never smelt something so pleasant before in his life and from all the stories that he had heard, he knew exactly what it meant.
Mate!