The Queen of Fire

Chapter 6

KYLE

"I can't believe Zeke found his mate" My beta, Oliver, chuckles next to me.

"Good luck to her" I laugh along with Oliver. We both love Zeke to pieces, he's like my brother, but he can be a little overbearing and comedic at times. Always making jokes at the wrong times, even when he was in the middle of a fight he would try to mess with the heads of his competition. When it's time to get down to business though, he is truly good at his job. Oliver and Zeke are polar opposites. Oliver is quiet, thoughtful and comes from a pretty crappy childhood. He's a pretty great fighter and can make rational decisions quickly. All together, we've made a pretty formidable team over the years. We grew up together, played as kids, had the same classes in school and then trained together as young men. We became inseparable pretty quickly. It only made sense that I'd asked them to be by my side as I became Alpha.

When Zeke found his mate, he came rushing up to me at that stupid Blackwood mating ceremony and asked if he could bring her back to the pack. Totally took me off guard, but of course, I wasn't going to say no to him. When he asked me if her best friend could come along too, I couldn't really argue. I'd do anything to make my best friend happy and if that meant that his mate needed her best friend by her side, then I knew I had to make it happen for him. Alpha Edward was such an a**h**e about it though. I don't know why he didn't want to release one of his omega staff to me. From what I'd heard over the years, he was a pretty s**t Alpha and didn't treat his staff right anyway. A lot of the rogues in the area used to be members of his pack. Apparently, he kicked them out for doing something 'wrong', like spilling coffee on his desk by accident, so he kicked them out and left them with nothing. We had taken a few of them in over the years, only if they were interested in joining our pack, of course. They told stories about how ruthless he was to his staff. I knew that that wouldn't do him any favors in the long run. To be a good leader, you need to be stern yet compassionate. I wanted my pack to feel supported but also to know that I was looking out for their best interests. They learned to trust my instincts and knew that whatever choices I was making, it was to protect them. We encouraged all of our pack members to train and let them choose what jobs they would like. Happy and safe pack, happy and safe life. In my eyes, Alpha Edward was totally screwing himself over and one day it would all come crumbling down around him.

I knew there were some interesting stories about me floating around too. We had fought other packs before, for good reason, of course. Treason, murder of one of my pack members, or any other reasons that may have broken the law. I followed protocol, always, and made sure we never lost. So those stories spread around pretty quickly. The bloodthirsty alpha that rarely emerged from his mansion. I didn't mind having that persona, if it kept my pack safe, it was fine with me. The people closest to me knew that I was far from bloodthirsty. They might call me dark and broody a lot, but definitely not bloodthirsty.

I was so glad we were heading home. Going to that event in Blackwood was a waste of my time. Normally, I wouldn't even bother. But Zeke and Oliver said maybe it would be good to show my face once in a while. To show others that I was still around and still honoring any alliances and treaties we had. Unfortunately, my dad made a treaty with Blackwood years ago, so I figured we might as well go show our faces. Zeke assured me the free food and booze would make up for the long drive. He said it might be 'fun'. Boy was he wrong. I agreed to go though, and luckily I did. Otherwise, Ellie and Zeke would never have met. Alpha Edwards daughter was whiny and annoying and way too flirty with me for someone who was supposed to be celebrating her own mating ceremony. Alpha Edward placed me next to himself at the dinner table and I had to listen to him talk s**t all night about treaties and land and how his chef was useless. If I knew any better, I would think he was trying to get me on his good side. Another reason I thought he wouldn't care if I took his chef out of his hands was, apparently she did everything wrong anyway. He complained about all the food. I personally thought it was delicious, some of the best food I'd ever tasted actually. When I told him she would be coming with me, he almost choked on his whiskey. "Why would you want her," he coughed and, I could tell he was fuming. I wouldn't take no for an answer though and he knew there was no way he could win that argument.

I reminded myself I would need to introduce myself to Ellie and her friend. I wanted them to feel welcome in our home. I mind linked Zeke to check up on them. They left a little while after us as the girls needed to grab their belongings.

"All good here chief, the girls are sleeping and we should be back by the morning". I rolled my eyes at Zeke's use of the word 'chief'.

"That's good, how's your mate? Are you guys getting it on in the back seat yet?" I smirked.

"No, her best friend is sleeping right next to us, I'm being respectful". He huffed back at me.

I laugh, "That's never stopped you before."

"Shut up man". I could feel Zeke roll his eyes at me.

"What's her friend like? Do you think she will fit in with the pack?"

"She's nice, seems really up with it, smart, you know? They both need to eat more food though. What was that bastard doing to them? They look like they haven't eaten a proper meal in months". I could feel his anger rolling through the mind link.

"Calm down man, they're in good hands now. Let me know when you guys get in, bring Ellie to my office. I'd like to meet her!"

"Sure thing"

I cut the link off.

I tell Oliver I'm going to try to sleep for a little while, but to wake me up when we got to the outskirts of the pack. I had lots of work to catch up on and I wanted to check in with the border guards when we got to the gates to make sure nothing suspicious happened while I was away.