"It's no major secret," Rob said. "We were banished from our old clan because two alphas cannot be in the same clan. We'd been on the road for a couple of weeks when we ended up in Silver Lake. Alpha Kersey knew he couldn't win in a challenge from Jason so he offered the position to me. I challenged him and he yielded and I became alpha of the Silver Lake Clan."
"Wait, you challenged Alpha Kersey of the Silver Lake Clan?" Luca knew that had been mentioned, but the words didn't really stick until now.
"Yes."
"Then how did you become alpha of the King Clan?"
"Jason showed up to challenge his father for the clan, but I was already alpha, so he challenged me instead. He lost."
Damn.
When they pulled into the driveway that led up to the former alpha's mansion, Luca's eyes widened. The place was huge. It being a mansion, he kind of expected that. He didn't expect the four very large pillars on the front of the place that went all the way up to the roof.
A massive staircase went from the circular driveway up to a porch that went the entire length of the front of the house. Tall, floor to ceiling windows with black shutters lined the front of the house, and there was a large set of black double doors centered in the middle of all of it.
"This place looks as if it belongs in New Orleans, not the mountains."
"When I heard that he'd built a mansion here," Rob said, "I thought it would be like a wood lodge or something. I never expected something flashy like this." He had a grin on his face when he glanced toward Luca. "And if you think the outside is insane, wait until you get inside. ‘Insane’ doesn't even begin to cover it."
"You do want to be careful if you wander outside," Jeb said. His jaw clenched for a moment so Luca knew the subject was hard for him to talk about. "We're still cleaning up the bear traps Jason and his men set to keep people from trying to run away."
Luca gasped. "He set up bear traps? Like real bear traps?"
Jeb nodded. "Erik got his leg caught in one of them when he tried to escape with Alpha Kersey's youngest son Jasper. Harvey and I had to help him get out of it."
"Is he okay?"
"He is now," Jeb said. "They'd shot him full of some stuff that kept him from being able to shift right away, so he was in a lot of pain there for awhile, but once it wore off, he shifted and healed."
"They who?" Luca wanted to avoid these people.
"Jason and his inner circle," Rob said. He brought the truck to a stop in front of the stairs, turned off the engine, and then turned in his seat to look at Luca. "You don't know anything about this?"
"I'm going to go with no, because I'm not sure what you're talking about."
"Jason and his men were kidnapping people and selling them."
Luca could feel the coldness of the blood draining from his face, but he couldn't think of a single thing to utter to that statement. Even being human, he knew kidnapping and selling people went against everything a clan stood for. It went against everything he stood for.
"How could he do that?" he whispered.
"We think he had a lot of help," Rob said. "Randal told me his father visited Jason on a couple of occasions and probably knew about what was going on. Granted, Ralph planned to use it to gain the Silver Lake Clan, but he still knew about it and did nothing. I haven't figured out if he helped or not, but we've come across a few people who did."
"Not Randal." There was no question for Luca. He knew his mate would never agree to sell someone. Randal didn't have an evil bone in his body.
"No." Rob shook his head. "Randal has actually helped us root out a few of the people involved with Jason."
That sounded more like his mate.
"If there is anything I can do to help..."
Rob smiled before reaching for his door. "I'll let you know."
Luca unbuckled his seatbelt, opened his door, and climbed out of the truck. He waited at the base of the steps for Jeb to climb out and Rob to join them.
"Are you hungry?" Rob glanced at his watch. "It's not quite lunchtime yet, but I'm sure we can scrounge up something to eat."
"I'm good, thanks." He didn't think he could eat right now anyway.
