One

The twigs didn't stand a chance against the pounding of the paws along the forest path.

Fast and steady, the grey wolf raced along the trail, the strap of the bag in his mouth fraying little by little as he ran.

Darting into the clearing, he stopped so quickly that he stumbled over himself, landing at the feet of a very pissed off blonde.

She taps her foot, her arms folded across her chest, and her brows drawn into a scowl.

"You had a meeting at eleven," she growls, spinning on her heel and walking towards a large house.

The wolf makes a fluid transition into a man, quickly jogging after her as he slips on a pair of shorts.

"Avery, no, stop, please don't ignore me," the man whines, finally catching up to her.

"I had to deal with that insipid bastard for twenty minutes, York. You've skipped two meetings with him this week. You're the alpha, not me," she snarls, shooting him a look that would kill any sane man.

"Ave," he whinges, "you could have been alpha!! If you want to, you still can!"

His attempt to soothe the situation does not go down well, with Avery spinning around and wrapping her hand around his throat.

York pries her fingers off with ease, rolling his eyes as he walks by her into his office.

"Did anybody else call, or was it just Zephyr?" He asks, glancing over his shoulder and he walked through the room to his attached office.

"Dad. Asking why we're both still single, then apologising to me for being inconsiderate. And Arabella from Blue Bramble called four times for you," Avery lists off, flinging herself into her chair behind her desk.

York stares at her for a second, and then the information seems to process, as he rolls his eyes at her.

"Arabella. I thought I told you to get rid of her?" He sighs, putting a shirt on and putting his glasses onto his nose.

"I did. Then you screwed her again. It's your issue now, little man," she shrugs, sifting through the mountainous pile of pages in front of her.

She ticks another thing off the long list to her right, glancing at York, who looks slightly stressed.

"Well, at least she's not pregnant," Avery shrugs, a sly smirk on her face.

"Avery, fuck off. Don't put thoughts like that into my head," York grumbles, running a hand through his sandy blond hair, opening his laptop reluctantly.

The Wilcott siblings work in relative silence for the rest of the afternoon, with their computers beeping every few minutes.

"Avery," the man at the head of the table starts, and the blonde girl straightens a bit, turning her head to look at him, "how does it feel to be an Unfortunate?"

She stills, feeling her heart clench a bit, as everyone around her turns to the man and starts growling at him.

Avery is containing her anger, but her eyes are flashing black.

Her wolf is trying to surface, and Avery is considering letting her unleash on this pathetic excuse for an Alpha.

The visiting alpha tenses a bit, and Avery stares him down, her icy blue eyes boring into his pathetic soul.

"Well, it was sad for a while. But then I remembered, I can screw anybody I want and don't have to listen to any man," she smirks, and the man's face takes on an angry red colour.

"Richard, are you going to let her speak like this and act like that?" The man gasps and Avery's father looks up from his electronic tablet, merely raising a brow.

"Well, I don't have to be worried about grand pups any time soon, which really suits me down to the ground. And she's very talented. A mate would stifle that. She deserves to have fun, the same fun your sons have, Kyle," Richard states, patting his daughter on the shoulder and returning to whatever he was reading.

York continues to stare at Kyle, and the man notices, looking contemptuous.

"Still unmated, York?" He sneers, and the blond sighs.

"Well, I am the youngest Alpha on the council. I guess I'll have to just keep my whores and my title," the young man shrugs, much to a red-headed lady's horror.

"Children! Language!" She chastises, before going back to her soup.

"Ruffians, all of them," Kyle mutters, to which all four present members of the alpha family of Rapid Rock say "hmm?"

Avery and York made the perfect team - the dumb blond, surfer good looks made other Alphas doubt them, but always to their detriment. They were cold and harsh, and dominated board rooms.

Their middle sister wasn't a team player, so she didn't count.

After the disastrous dinner, the two retire back to their office, both irritated.

"Who are you taking tonight, oh demon queen?" York teases, looking at his sister and practically being able to see steam coming off of her tense form.

"Maybe your beta. Maybe your gamma. I haven't decided yet," she grumbles, rolling her eyes at him, as he scowls.

"Would you leave the gamma alone, he's so tired," he hisses, to which Avery raises a brow.

"He's the gamma for a reason, he plans and executes very well," she smirks, licking her lips, much to York's disgust.

"Jesus Christ, if you leave him alone, I'll stop going to Arabella," he mutters, and Avery smirks with a shrug.

"Suits me either way, find out where your Beta is," she laughs, typing up some notes onto her laptop from her pages.

"He's mated now, you know that," York grumbles with a deep scowl marring his smooth forehead.

"I need his help with a file, dumbass," Avery retorts irritably.

York opens and closes his mouth is silence.

They continue to work in silence for ten minutes, until Avery gets a mindlink.

"For fuck sake," she hisses, standing up so quickly that her chair falls over.

"Borders. Alpha Zephyr is here," she growls, and York leaps up, looking extremely bothered.

"I haven't seen him in two years, and I don't want to talk to him. Anyone else would get the memo, I've skipped twelve meetings," York mutters, as the two siblings storm down the halls of the mansion to go to the border.

Avery has a permanent scowl on her face at the prospect of dealing with the 22 year old alpha, who's pack had the oddest rules she'd ever seen.

Avery had refused to deal with him in person since he became Alpha. She couldn't stand his father, and the son even was worse. Pious and religious, two things she couldn't stand.

The two were almost at the border when they saw their father, who was holding his tablet and had a scowl sitting firmly on his face.

"York, you better take responsibility for this, I'm not having the Death Mountain pack on my doorstep again," he mutters.

Avery and her father shared similar views on why they didn't like the Death Mountain pack - mainly because of their policies.

In fact, that pack was actually called Moonstone Mountain - but the father and daughter had nicknamed it Death Mountain, as the pack believed in human sacrifice to the Goddess.

Nobody was happy when dealing with them.

But Avery was probably the most unhappy.