When Jeb came out of the mansion again, he had two more men with him. He climbed into the passenger seat of Rob's truck. The other two men climbed into the truck behind them. Rob shook his head as he started down the driveway.
Luca wasn't sure of the dynamics between these men, or even who some of them were, but they all seemed close, some more than others. Even being human, he could feel the connection between the alpha and his alpha mate as well as the connection between Jeb and Erik. Those bonds almost pulsed with life.
Luca wanted that. He wanted his bond with Randal to be a living, breathing thing. He wanted to make it so strong, it couldn't be broken even if one of them died.
"So, where's this shortcut?" Rob asked.
Luca glanced to the front of the car to see where they were before answering. "When you get through town, instead of turning right to head to Silver Lake, go left. About five miles down, there's an old dirt road on your right. It'll take you back through the woods. There's a narrow canyon that goes through the mountain between here and Silver Lake, instead of over it. It cuts off about thirty minutes of drive time."
"Handy."
Luca had always thought so.
"I'd be interested in you showing me a few more of these shortcuts," Rob said. "It's hard to be in two places at once. Albert is helping me run things at Silver Lake until we get the King Clan settled, but there are going to be times when I am needed there."
"I would be happy to show you whatever shortcuts I can," Luca replied.
"The most important one is the one from the mansion directly to the middle of the Silver Lake Clan where Albert's house is located. From there, it's easy to branch out to wherever I'm needed."
"Technically, if you were to follow the regular road, the two towns are about twenty-five miles apart," Luca explained. "As the crow flies, they are only about ten miles apart, but the crow needs to be a four wheel drive."
Rob chuckled. "I wouldn't own anything else."
Luca grinned. "I wouldn't either." It just didn't make sense, not living up here in the mountains. Cars without four wheel drive spent half the year in the garage because they couldn't get through the snow and ice. They didn't have a chance in hell of getting through these back road shortcuts, even in the summertime.
When they reached the turnoff, Luca directed him to turn and then warned the others to hold on. It was a bumpy ride, one of the reasons so few locals used it. He never expected the two small men in the backseat with him to start whooping and laughing as they bounced up and down in their seats. They seemed to be having the time of their lives.
Even the alpha was smiling.
They were weird.
Luca blew out a breath of relief and unclenched his butt cheeks when they finally reached pavement. They had cut off over fifteen miles of their drive, but he felt as if he'd been through a blender.
Rob stopped at the paved road and looked both ways before glancing at Luca in the rearview mirror. "Which way?"
"Right," Luca replied. "Randal's house is about a mile down. The Silver Lake Clan compound is a few miles in the other direction."
Rob frowned. "I was under the impression his house was on the other side of town from Albert's place."
"It is. From what Randal told me, his father built his house to be close to the action, but far enough away that the alpha wouldn't be sticking his nose into Ralph's business."
Rob shook his head as he turned the truck and started toward Randal's house. "I swear, I'm going to build one big commune between the two towns and make everyone who is part of either clan live there."
"That might not actually be a bad idea, alpha."
"Rob, call me Rob."
Luca squinted. "Isn't that against protocol?"
"Yes and no," Casey replied. "You can call us by our names unless we're in a formal situation or a visiting dignitary is here. Then you need to address us by our proper titles. Other than that, we're just Rob and Casey."
Okay, that made sense.
"Now, you were saying?" Rob prompted.
"Oh yeah, so, you have two clans to lead, spread out over two towns and over twenty-five miles. And like you said, you can't be everywhere at once. It just makes sense to me that you would create one clan between the two and set up base there so that you could be there all the time. And, if it was between the two towns, people who work in those places could still go to work and such without having to drive so far."
"Do you know any place where something like this would work?" Casey asked. "It seems to me there's not much around here except woods and more woods."
