Page 7 of Spirit Walker Pack (Kingdom of Wolves #5)

LYLE

As soon as Alpha Falan enters the room, Hunter is on his feet and pacing in my mind. As I greet Falan, Hunter's agitated state begins to affect me, too.

‘What has got into you?’

MATE! I SMELL MATE!

‘WHAT?’

I tell you I can smell mate. It is faint, but it is there.

‘If it’s faint, then she hasn’t traveled with Falan. She could be someone he has met on his journey or a female in his pack. Let’s get comfortable first, and then I’ll broach the subject with him. Okay?’

Don’t leave it too long. Mate is mate! We want to know who she is.

“I hear you had an eventful journey through our lands, Falan? It was wise to have taken the route through Blood Pearl, too. Who knows what force Arric may have used had you gone into no-man’s-land?

” Earl had already mind linked the details of the skirmish, so we could warn future border patrols to be extra vigilant.

“Your Beta handled the problem quickly and efficiently, Lyle. You could not have asked more of him.” Falan offers the compliment and I take it in the manner I believe it is intended.

“Perhaps it would have been better if it had not been one of your escort that had provided the warning. It should have been my warriors that were more aware of their surroundings.” I laugh at my own comment but am serious at the same time.

“They had been there some time waiting for us. There was evidence that they had gone to some length to hide their scent. I noticed several dead fragrant flower heads on the ground after the scuffle. If I had been more observant, I would have recognized the signs sooner. My warrior only stumbled across them as he went to relieve himself.” Falan grins as he says this.

Ask him.

“You traveled with a small escort. I thought that you would have had a larger force in the circumstances?” I try to steer the conversation towards the members of his team, but am not sure how to get there.

“I decided to travel light and fast, rather than have a larger force. As you know, you can only travel as fast as your slowest party member. With yourself and Gerry supplying an honor guard, as he so diplomatically put it, we had a force to be reckoned with. My warriors did well to maintain the pace, considering the two honor guards traveled only half the distance each at that speed.” Falan has a proud look when he finishes that statement.

“I have to agree with that. You certainly made good time. What was so important that you had to speak in person, though. I am at a loss as to what that may be.”

No! You were supposed to ask about females that may be our mate.

‘I will ask when the time is right and not before.’ I swear Hunter would bite me if it was at all possible. He is so frustrated.

“While we were looking into where Arric may have come from, someone threw us a name that we didn’t know.

When we dug a little deeper, we think we may have found Arric’s biological father.

He was born as an illegitimate. His father had no part in his upbringing, but we believe we’ve traced financial support that has been paid over the years.

At the moment it’s all gossip and hearsay, but it makes sense of a few things, too.

I have my people tracing the support theory, and they think that they will have hard evidence soon.

” Falan pauses and I find myself holding my breath.

“We believe his father may be a member of your shifter council.”

My head reels with his statement. How can this be?

Mentally, I begin ticking names off. My father?

Not a chance. Lykos Greyfoot? I seriously doubt that.

He is too old school to be dishonorable.

Chet Blueblood? He hasn’t been on the council long enough to even be considered.

Flint Sable? I refuse wholeheartedly to believe it could be Flint.

Porter Riverrun? He’s been a councilman for as long as anyone can remember. Surely not.

“What name do you have for his father?” I watch Falan’s face closely, and Hunter is giving this his full attention, too.

“We believe it is Porter Riverrun. I am sorry to bring this to your table, Lyle, but I don’t know anyone else that I could trust. I am taking a leap of faith that you are as trustworthy as I believe.”

Picking my phone up from the desk, I place a call. As soon as there is a voice on the other end, I speak.

“Are you at the council?”

“I’m traveling back there now. I’m having a break in a beautiful…”

“How fast can your motorcycle get you to the council safely?”

“What’s happened, Lyle?”

“There may be evidence that Porter is Arric’s father. Until we can prove or disprove it, it would be sensible to have eyes on him at all times.” I wait for a response and when I don’t get one, I ask, “Flint? Are you there?”

“I’m here. I find what you’re saying extremely difficult to believe, however, I assume that we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you had any serious doubt?” Flint’s voice is quiet but has a hard edge in its tone.

“The information has literally just been given to me. Alpha Falan has traveled to Spirit Walker Pack personally to inform me. I cannot see him doing that if he didn’t believe his source. Can you?”

“I’ll call you as soon as I’m back at the council. In the meantime, I don’t need to tell you that this goes no further at this time.” The line goes dead and I hope that his motorcycle is up to the task ahead. I imagine Flint will be pushing it to its limits where he can.

Falan watches as I sit back in my chair and rub my face.

“How does everything get to be so messed up? If, as you say, Porter Riverrun is Arric’s father, how did he get mixed up with this stupid ‘King’ idea?

He must know that if Arric was successful, there would be no Shifter Council anymore.

He would essentially make his own position redundant and ultimately be of no use to his son. ”

“I can only say that after knowing my own father, very little surprises me anymore.” Falan gives me a lopsided grin.

Surprise him! Ask about mate!

“Perhaps I can surprise you then. My wolf, Hunter, can smell our mate on you.” I watch as Falan sits up abruptly.

“Truly? He can smell your mate? That’s absolutely wonderful. Congratulations, Lyle. I’m honored that your mate will be from my pack. What can you tell me? Anything?”

“I don’t think she traveled with you, as he says her scent is very faint. Or perhaps someone you met briefly on your journey.”

“I don’t have a female in my escort, but I do have female warriors. I spoke with several before I left, so that doesn’t help. Wait! I traveled with Beta Raina of the Blood Pearl Pack. Could she be the one?” Falan appears almost as excited as Hunter about my mate.

Although I am excited, it will probably hit me more when we meet. Not having Hunter’s sense of smell, I don’t feel the same depth of emotion that he does right now.

“I’ve been in company with both Gerry and Aurora before, so I don’t see that as being the answer.”

Falan looks a little crestfallen, but soon bounces back. “I’m calling at Blood Pearl Pack to meet with Gerry and Aurora on my way home. You should come that far at least and be sure. Don’t you think?”

We should go to Wolfsong Pack and bring our mate home!

‘We can’t just go off and leave the pack.’

Oh, please! You have been bored because everything is so well organized here. Now is the perfect time to go!

“I will consider traveling with you as far as the Blood Pearl Pack border. From that point, we’ll see where the search for my Luna leads us.”

Falan has a huge grin on his face. “Lyle, I could not have wished for anything as satisfying as this. To be honored by the Goddess to show you the way to your mate is simply amazing.”

Yes, yes, yes! We’re going to find our mate!

Taking the evening meal with Falan, I am introduced to his team. They all look the part of warriors and are extremely fit. Kynan, the leader of the escort, looks more than capable of protecting his Alpha.

As we take a walk through the grounds, we approach the forest edge and a thought springs to mind. “Kynan, how about a friendly challenge?”

“A challenge, Alpha Lyle? What sort of challenge?” Kynan looks worried.

“Perhaps challenge is the wrong word. More of a friendly competition let's say.”

“Against who and doing what?” Kynan seems keen but cautious, and Falan is definitely intrigued.

“Against any one of my warriors and to complete a task that we use in our training regime. I’ll have my Chief Warrior send me a random warrior to take part.” Mind linking with Glen, I ask him to name the first warrior he sees to his right, and to accompany them to my position near the forest edge.

It takes only a couple of minutes to see him approach and I’m pleased with the female warrior that walks beside him.

“Alpha Falan, Kynan, this is my Chief Warrior Glen and one of our border guards, Sloane.” I can see Kynan appraising Sloane and he doesn’t look as confident as he first did.

“During our training, we have adopted something from the Wolfsfoot Pack. When Luna Tati first began her training there, she was put through an extremely rigorous training program. Part of that training was to climb trees. Although done in human form, you are allowed to utilize some wolf's traits, such as using claws rather than mere fingers.” I see the frowns on both Falan’s and Kynan’s faces.

“It may sound strange, but it requires speed, skill and stamina to do it well. The standard exercise is to climb and descend as quickly as possible, five times. I will let Glen show Kynan how it's best achieved and let him have some time to practice. It’s far from as simple as most think.”

Glen takes Kynan into the trees and for the next few minutes we hear tree branches cracking, loud thumps and a few loud curses.

Sloane takes the time to do some warm-up exercises, but I don’t allow her to climb any trees.

When Glen and Kynan return, I see Glen’s hand on Kynan’s shoulder and he is still giving him advice. That simple act has me filled with pride.

“Alpha Lyle, this should be interesting. Kynan here is a natural. Sloane, you are going to have to bring your A-game to this competition.”

“Very well, Chief. You may pick the trees and start them climbing when ready,” I say, and feel excited at the coming competition.

There are a number of pack members that have been witnesses to the preparations and they, in turn, have passed this on to others. We have quite an audience gathering now. When the Chief is satisfied that Kynan and Sloane are ready, he counts them down and the contest begins.

Sloan is away the fastest, but Kynan is no slouch. I suspect his upper body strength is making up for his lack of expertise. They are neck and neck when they descend the first time. Kynan, I’m surprised, has a slight lead on the second descent. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, I think to myself.

By the third and fourth descent, they are tied again, but by the time Kynan is halfway up his tree, Sloane has begun her descent.

When she touches the ground, the audience shout and clap for her victory.

When Kynan touches down, Sloane takes his arm and raises it high.

The pack watching goes positively crazy in their appreciation of his valiant attempt.

Walking over to them, I see how hard Kynan is breathing and the sweat that is running off him. Sloane, I notice is barely out of breath.

“Alpha Falan, Kynan did exceptionally well at that challenge. It is difficult for any warrior, but for his first attempt he did very well. I didn’t think to embarrass him by the display, but to demonstrate that we can learn a lot from each other.

Using both our wolf and human physical traits in tandem, pays dividends in many ways. ”

“Kynan, well done. When we return, I suggest you take Fenya into the forest and show her this. I think she will have us all like monkeys in a matter of weeks. Fenya, Alpha Lyle, is my Head Warrior. Had she been here, she would not have left until she had beaten Sloane. She is the most fearsome warrior I have ever come across. Her training is impeccable and her standards are exacting. I thought I was going to have a serious problem when she was not chosen as part of my escort.” I see the look in his eye and recognize the pride I see there. I have had that look myself many times.