Disturbance At The Border
Adams’ POV
Today’s council meeting was one of the most boring among the others I have attended.
It wasn’t like what was being discussed was not important, but I found it hard to concentrate, especially since I couldn’t take my mind off Lilith.
The short kiss we shared before I left her made me want her more. She shocked me the most when she whispered softly into my ears just before I left the room, “If you get home early, who knows, I might wear something s*xy.”
My blood had rushed at that moment and I gulped hard with widened eyes.
All the way to the meeting, I had been imagining and cooking up fantasies of what the evening might hold for me.
My wolf kept groaning inside me, yearning for her. He had not been at rest ever since she said those words. If it were left to him, I would never have left for this meeting.
“My lord,” one of the elders of the regions under my pack command began to speak. “The only way to increase revenue and secure income for the general well-being of the members of this pack…” but I zoned off, diving into a world of my own.
At first, I thought it was my ears that were deceiving my imagination, but when Ronan tapped me, I jolted out of my fantasy and realized that every one of them were looking at me, waiting for an answer to a question that had been asked.
“Um… sorry, what did you say again?” I asked, trying to keep my composure even though I was crumbling inside due to shame.
But that didn’t stop me. I was off again to another realm and would have remained there had Ronan not tapped me again. This time, however, it came as a shock to realize that the meeting chamber was almost empty, which meant that the meeting had finished without me.
“Damn! How long was I gone?” I looked up to Ronan for a reply, but he simply shook his head and began to walk towards the door.
I stood up and ran after him, stopping him just as he put his hands on the door knob. “Ronan, wait.” I started to laugh, and he joined me for a moment before keeping a serious face.
“If you weren’t the Alpha king, I would have landed a deafening slap across your cheeks. What were you thinking of? You lost it in there.” His face had no emotions as he looked straight at me.
This amused me the more and I kept laughing and didn’t stop till my ribs began to hurt. By now, everyone had left the meeting room, leaving just the two of us.
I got hold of myself but still released muffled chuckles occasionally each time I remembered what had just happened.
“Let’s go,” I signaled to him, brushing his hands off the door knob.
We walked in silence for a while before I decided to tease him again.
“When you finally find your mate, I’m certain you’ll do worse than I do. By then, I’ll make your life a living hell.”
He tried to ignore me, but it wasn’t working, a smirk had found its way to his face before he yanked it off.
“Where do we go next?” I asked, getting serious eventually.
“We have to check out the construction project going on towards the border.
“Can’t we just skip that and send someone to go on my behalf? I really have to get back to my mate.” I winked after, and he sighed before nodding his head.
“It has to be you. They are getting tired of the job and their supervisors are not making it easy for them. The project is for the community and the men working on it are doing it for the good of everyone, but their morale is getting low daily.”
“What seems to be the issue with them?” I asked. I knew of the project because it was tabled before the council before and funds were released to do it.This material belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.
“There have been reports that the men work all day and sometimes at night without getting paid or compensated for their services.”
Angrily, I screamed, “What! Funds were released for the project. Why weren’t they paid?”
“I don’t know why, but they believe you are at the top of the chain, and you know all about it.”
I closed my eyes, putting my hands on my forehead. The anger bubbling through me could melt a rock. “Who is in charge of the border region? Why isn’t he taking responsibility for all this?”
“Uh… that is where the problem is. I’ve tried to reach out to him. But he is extremely adamant.”
“Who is he?” I demanded. My voice was more like a roar.
“Nathaniel Crane,” he replied. The name sounded like a bomb, exploding in my head.
I had totally forgotten Maya’s father was in charge of the border region. Was he doing this as an act of revenge or did he have other reasons for doing so?
“Let’s go.”
In less than an hour, we arrived at the border region and met some men in an argument. They might have sensed my presence and didn’t acknowledge it, or maybe they didn’t.
Some of them, about twenty, were poorly dressed, and I guessed they were the ones working on the project. The others, four, were dressed in more modest clothes, whom I guess were the supervisors, while two guards stood a few distances away from them.
There was so much rage flying about, it was only a matter of time before a full-blown fight broke out.
“We have been working all day with nothing to eat, don’t you know we have families to feed?” One of the rough-looking men asked.
The others howled behind him in agreement as they curled their fists towards the well-dressed men as if in a protest.
“You should shut up your mouth else I will shut it up for you,” one of the well-dressed men shouted, putting his hands behind him. I followed his hands with my eyes and was surprised by what I saw.
By his side was a small knife which could not kill at a stroke but would inflict a lot of injuries.
The agitated men didn’t seem to agree and everything was about to turn violent when Ronan screamed, and they all trembled at the sound of his voice. “Stop this nonsense, all of you!”
Although he was a beta, he came from a lineage of powerful werewolves who had served as beta’s to the previous Alpha’s.
They all looked in our direction and gasped in shock, realizing who we were.
“It’s the Alpha king!”
The rough-looking men bowed down immediately, murmuring among themselves.
Ronan’s gaze shifted to the supervisors, who seemed indifferent, despite my presence. I also looked at them and recognized them as Nathaniel Crane’s men. I have seen them before.
“Didn’t you see the Alpha, who are you to stand before his presence?” Ronan was beginning to get very angry now, and his aura began to dominate the area.
The men didn’t reply, but fear settled on their faces as Ronan refused to take his eyes off them. Reluctantly, they bowed and remained there.
I wanted to snap their heads off their necks, but I couldn’t. They were obviously obeying orders from their master, who was currently not on good terms with me. If I had a business with anyone, it was Nathaniel Crane.
“Rise,” I ordered them, and they all stood up. “What seems to be the problem?”
“My king,” one of the haggard looking men began. “We love you and serve you because you are a just ruler. We wish to believe you love your people just as we do, but the situation we work in is quite unfavorable.”
“Our wives and children are home, hungry. We work for the crown, but if the crown fails to come to our aid when we need help, we will move our allegiance to another who would care about us,” another man spoke from the crowd.
“These men over here are vipers and terrorists, making us work all day and, at times, night to satisfy their selfish interests. We don’t want them here again,” a third man spoke.
I walked up to the supervisors and looked into their faces, one after the other. I held one by the chin and looked into his eyes. Any normal person would quiver, but this man stood his ground.
“Who do you work for? I asked him, but he didn’t reply and even had the guts to hiss. He put his hands into his pockets and maintained eye contact with me, something no one dared, not even the Alpha’s of the other four packs.
“I work for the higher ups.” He snorted disrespectfully.
My eyes suddenly flashed a bright orange color, and he screamed, to the surprise of everyone there.
“Make it stop, please!” He pleaded, begging and shouting as he rolled all over the floor.
I smiled and looked at the next one who had begun to quiver even before I got to him.
I stretched my hands to hold his neck, but he screamed even before I did so.
“We work for…” he suddenly stopped and blood began to drop from his mouth.
Only when I looked down did I realize he had stabbed himself.