Chapter 3 : A Royal Pain
*Lucas*
The guards stopped me at King Xander’s gate.
“Lucas Black,” I said. “I’m here for an audience with the Alpha King.” I raised my very businesslike briefcase for emphasis.
The guards looked at each other and nodded, one waving to a third inside the guard station behind the gate.
The third guard cued the gate to open, and I swept past the guards without a word.
Tall wooden double doors that could be barricaded from the inside led into a wide, granite foyer, still festooned with pillars. It still gave me both a tickle and a twinge of sadness that the columns were mostly repurposed from ancient architecture, sort of a finger at the old ways. Back in the day, when the palace was constructed, the Lycaon Church had loudly protested the practice of tearing down the old to make something new.