The Runt novel Chapter 2

"I don't expect we will have time for much – maybe the bonfire if the meetings end early enough," I grumble to AJ, my Beta. I've been coming to these meetings for nine years now, ever since I took over as Alpha from my father and they still bore me to tears. They're nothing more than a group of stodgy old men bitching and complaining to hear themselves talk and it is always the same ones, year after year. The only positive about these trips is that I get a break from my father's overbearing and constant presence. He hasn't been in charge for nearly a decade yet he still is in the office before me every single morning with a disappointed look on his face and the same lecture I've heard every day of my life. I've never been late and I don't answer to him yet I start every single day feeling like I've let my father and my pack down. Mom died of cancer years ago, I scarcely remember her so it has been just father and I for most of my life and his domineering way has been in place since the moment he took on single parenthood. The shift was immediate and my carefree childhood disappeared – yes, I was a future Alpha and have trained my entire life but I was also only a seven-year-old boy.

I grew up fast.

Losing Mom changed my father and made him into the angry, spiteful man he is today. I barely remember who he was before, 'this' version is so imprinted on me now that after twenty years of 'this' all of the good parts of my life with my father are long gone. We hardly speak anymore, except regarding pack business and even then, I keep it to a minimum – I don't need my father's input on how to run a pack.

We all lived long enough under his reign and it was barely tolerable.

My father is a tyrant to me but he wasn't much better to everyone else – he just kept the violence restricted to home. He is not liked or even respected but he is feared, which he thrives on.

I despise my father.

So do I like three days of big mouths and pointless small talk? No, I don't - I fucking hate every single minute of it. But it gets me away from home and that makes this place paradise on earth so I'll take it, every miserable minute of it. One of these times I might find my mate – I haven't in all of these years and I've given up but my wolf, Phoenix, remains optimistic. I, however, think he's delusional and accept all available pussy in the meantime – and as an Alpha, that's a lot. For a couple of years I had an amazingly high number of conquests, which turned into shockingly high which is now embarrassingly high. Turns out, the older you get the less charming it is and the more man-whore you become.

"I have no idea but he is freaking out," I link him, trying to get a read on my wolf's behaviour. There is only one reason he would get this excited and acting in ways I've never seen before – our mate. I inhale deeply but with the crowd of Alphas still mulling about, I can't discern one scent over another – I don't know how he can.

One of the Alphas! Our mate's scent is on one of the Alphas! Find him! Find him! Find him! Phoenix begins chanting and compels my legs forward. I'm moving woodenly so I'm sure I look like a marionette as I try to nonchalantly make my way through the crowd. Some Alphas are leaving, others are moving around making deals and telling bullshit stories but at no point do I find the right Alpha – he must have already left. I try to console Phoenix by telling him it is only day one – we have two more horrendous days of this nightmare to sit through, but it will also give us ample opportunity to investigate the Alphas out.

I can't help but wonder though, why my Our mate's scent is on another Alpha?