"Oh." Luca pursed his lips. "So, it's just your enforcer then. Does he not like humans?"
"I like humans just fine!"
Luca sent Jeb a placating smile. "Of course you do." He turned toward Trent. "Cancel all of my appointments for the next..." He did a quick calculation in his head. "Three days. I've had something come up and I'll be out of the shop until then."
"You got it, boss," Trent replied.
"Okay, I'm ready to go serve my time, warden."
Rob chuckled as he rolled his eyes and turned to head out the door. Jeb growled and stormed out after him. Luca smirked as he followed. He might be human, but he had grown up around bear shifters. He'd stopped being intimidated by them in middle school.
Luca followed them to a truck that looked a lot like his own truck and climbed into the backseat since Rob was driving and Jeb had climbed into the front passenger seat. He shut the door, buckled up, and then leaned back in his seat.
"So, where exactly are we going?" he asked. "I mean, it would be kind of nice to know where I am going to be spending my prison time."
He heard a small snicker come from the man in the driver's seat and a grunt from the man in the passenger seat. He knew he was getting under Jeb's collar, which was exactly what he wanted to do. If he thought Luca was just going to accept his decision to separate mates, he had another thing coming.
Luca understood that Randal had done wrong and had to pay the price, but in his book, Jeb was no different than Ralph or Raymond Kersey. Through their bitterness and hatred, they had kept Luca and Randal apart for over two years. Jeb might not hate them, but he was doing the exact same thing.
He didn't see where the lesson was supposed to be in that. It wasn't going to teach Randal the error of his ways. All it was going to teach him was that those in charge were no different than his father or brother.
"We're headed to the King mansion," Rob said.
Luca frowned and sat forward. He hadn't liked the things he'd heard about that place. "Why?"
"After I beat Jason in a challenge, I took over both clans. Since I didn't want to kick Alpha Kersey and his wife out of their home, and me and my men needed a place to stay, we took over the King mansion. We actually prefer to call it the west clan base, since it’s west of Silver Lake. We hate the name King mansion."
Yeah, that made sense.
"How much do you know about what was going on over there?" Rob asked.
"Not much, rumors mostly," Luca admitted. "Clan members don't tend to discuss stuff like that with non-clan members."
Rob glanced back at him. "Your nana never discussed it with you?"
Luca shook his head. "She warned me to stay away from Alpha King, but she didn't talk about clan stuff more than that. It was forbidden."
"But you know about Jason, right?"
"Yeah, he was kind of an ass." Luca didn't feel bad about referring to the old alpha like that. Jason King had been an ass to everyone who wasn't part of his exclusive inner circle. "He tried to harass Nana a couple of times because she adopted me."
Due to the number of enforcers Jason always had around him, Luca hadn't been able to do much about it other than make sure he helped Nana whenever she had to leave her house. He wanted to pound the guy's face in.
"He's really dead?"
"Very," Rob replied. "I didn't want to kill him, but he wouldn't yield, and then he jerked away from me when I had his throat in my teeth, and ripped it out."
Luca grimaced as his stomach rolled. He'd never actually witnessed a challenge before, but he'd heard they were pretty gruesome. He supposed if it was going to happen, it couldn't have happened to a better guy than the former alpha. Still, he was really glad he didn't have that on his conscience. He wasn't sure he could live with the knowledge that he had killed someone, even in a challenge fight.
"Kind of sucks to be alpha, huh?"
Luckily, the alpha didn't seem to take offense at Luca's words. He chuckled instead. "I've been alpha for all of a week, if that. I'm kind of learning as I go."
Luca's jaw dropped to his chest. "You've only been the alpha for a week?"
"A few days, actually."
"But..." He seemed so self-assured, almost as if he'd been an alpha for years, which Luca knew couldn't be true. The guy couldn't be more than a few years older than Luca was. "How?"
