Page 20 of Her Cruel Alpha

I followed Henrik and tried to stand tall. I knew little about Henrik’s pack, and it was a little embarrassing. I should have tried to learn more about the other packs when I was first told about needing to find them mates. Maybe I would at least know who I was meeting and could have prepared myself better.

As we headed inside the building, I noticed it was decorated nicely. There was a large open space with high vaulted ceilings. There was a large blue rug that covered the light wood floor. There were pictures hung up and I guessed they were previous Alphas.

I walked closer, taking some of the pictures in. I scanned the wall, looking for Henrik, not finding him. “Who are all of these?”

Henrik paused next to me. “Alphas.”

I continued to scan the wall. “Where are you? Am I just not seeing you?”

“I haven’t earned to be on the wall.”

I looked at him, surprised. “What do you mean? You’re Alpha, so shouldn’t you be up on the wall?”

He shook his head. “No, the people of the pack make that choice. You get picked to be put up on the wall. Some never make it up there.”

My eyes widened at this. “Seriously?”

He nodded and pointed towards an open door. “Everyone’s in here.”

I took another glance at the wall before following after him. The room was filled with a handful of people already in chairs. There were two chairs on the far end that remained open, and Henrik walked over to them. “Thanks for waiting, everyone. I brought Katie along with me today.”

I scanned the group. There were three men and two women in the room.

“Katie, this is Kyle. He’s my Beta, and Kent is my second in command if Kyle is unavailable.”

I nodded as I looked at them. Kyle was the same height as Henrik. He had dark brown skin and deep blue eyes. His hair was a dark black that was braided. Kyle was a little short with a golden tan. He had brown hair and light blond hair that had blue tips.

“And that’s Davina, Elli, and Ronald. There are a few of the Honeycomb Valley Council members who could join us today.”

“Your others couldn’t join?”

“Scott’s wife is down with the flu, and he’s watching after his four kids,” Davina said with a soft smile. “And Quinn and Vivian are twins who are out for their birthday.”

I took that information in and nodded my head as Henrik pulled his chair out and offered it to me. I sat down and swallowed as Henrik sat down in his chair. “Well, since introductions were made, let’s get into this.”

All of them quickly dove into different events and problems the town members had brought up. I was shocked at how they all voiced their opinions without concern. Henrik was clearly the person who ran the meeting, but everyone was free to say what they wanted. They even argued back if they felt he was misguided.

Davina raised an eyebrow at me. “I am interested in how your algorithm works, pairing the Alphas. How is it that you two were paired together?” She pointed between Henrik and me. “I mean…no offense, but I don’t see how you guys would go together?”

“Why, because she’s out of his league?” Kent asked with a wicked grin.

“Yeah.” Davina nodded her head. “No offense Henrik but she’s a fricking scientist with several degrees, and you haven’t even made it on the wall outside.”

I blinked, staring at them, stunned. Were they honestly saying I was out of his league? How could that even be? Henrik was drop-dead handsome, and surely they saw that.

“I’m sorry,” I shook my head. “Aren’t you meaning to say I’m out of his league?”

Kyle snorted. “He may have the looks, but there isn’t a lot of thinking going on inside that head of his.”

“Hey now,” Henrik said, looking at Kyle. “Are you calling me stupid?”

“Well, we aren’t calling you smart.” Kent quickly added.

I swallowed, expecting a fight to break out, but Henrik laughed. He laughed hard, and it shocked me. I expected him to get angry, but he wasn’t. He was… laughing.

Henrik patted his hand on mine. “A few things you should know. Davina has a statistics degree, and Kyle has a degree in engineering. So, I wasn’t kidding when I said there were other odd people out there.”

“Who are you calling odd?” Davina asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Because you’re clearly the odd one out in this group.”

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