Guess he was driving then. Mark got in beside him and fastened his seat belt. “Are we the only ones in this car?”
“Yep.” He pulled out onto the road, and they set off in convoy. “Wes and two of his unit are in the first one with Newell. Paul and two of his unit are in the second. And we’re in this one.”
Mark sensed a pattern there. “Shouldn’t we have another member of our unit?”
Jason’s mouth set in a grim line. “Alpha Newell thinks otherwise. The rest of our unit, apart from Will, are patrolling the main pack buildings.”
“What’s Will doing?”
“Working at the club later, as usual.”
Mark had so many questions. They didn’t do building patrol, for one, and why not Will?
Jason glanced at him and shook his head. “Believe me, I know. But I don’t have any answers for you. I’m just doing what I’m told.”
Okay then.
Giving up on finding out anything more on that topic, Mark spent the next twenty minutes looking out the window as they passed familiar streets and landmarks. “Are we heading out of the city?”
“Yep. You didn’t expect the council to come to us, did you?”
Yes, I had, actually.
Jason snorted at Mark’s expression. “They only leave their place at Ashcombe if they have to. I reckon most of them hate the city with a passion and would rather never set foot in it, if at all possible.”
The council were like mythical beings, as far as Mark was concerned. He’d never seen them before, only heard stories. Jason was only nine years older than him, the youngest of Wes’s betas, but he must know more. “What are they like?”
“The council members?”
“Yeah. Have you seen them before?”
“Once.” Jason paused, concentrating as he joined the motorway. “When it was first formed, but that was a long time ago. Thankfully our pack’s had no need of them before.”
Settling back in his seat, Mark yawned. “Are we going to their headquarters?”
“Kind of. They don’t live there, but nearby, I think. No one outside the council knows for sure, for security reasons.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“Yep. Can’t have the peacekeepers being attacked.”
The rest of the journey passed relatively quickly, which was typical when Mark wanted it to never end. Being in a room with the alpha and betas of R-pack, along with his own alpha, wasn’t something he was looking forward to after last time. At least Jason was with him.
Wherever Mark expected the meeting to be held, it wasn’t this. Wes’s car indicated and turned off onto a road leading into the middle of a forest. At least that was how it appeared. Jason followed.
Mark sat forward in his seat, trying to see the end of the road. “Is this the right place?”
“I doubt they gave us the wrong directions.”
The road opened up into a wide driveway in front of what Mark would describe as a stately home. The type of thing they used on period dramas. He let out a low whistle, and Jason laughed.
“What did you expect?”
Mark peered back over his shoulder as Jason parked next to the two other cars. “Not this, that’s for sure.”
“They’re the alpha council. It was always going to be impressive.”
“Yeah, I guess, but still….” Truth be told, he’d imagined some posh meeting room somewhere. Even though the house looked huge, Mark found it hard to picture a room large enough to comfortably hold both the council and the members of the two visiting packs. Surely it was in everyone’s interest to keep a fair bit of space between any packs who ended up there? “What now?” Mark noticed no one had got out of the other cars.
