Chapter 5: I’m the Alpha!

MARA

Kael had not said a word to me in three days since I had played him the recording of him begging me to mate with him. It was something I was absolutely grateful since he never passed up on an opportunity to taunt me or throw a snarky remark my way before.

But I didn’t know what that meant—had he finally given up, or was he waiting for the perfect moment to strike?

He had been stepping out of my way, refusing to interact with me. He never showed up for breakfast or dinner with me and Alpha Kalen, who didn’t seem worried about it as the only thing he talked to me about was my coronation.

And now, it was here. The night before my coronation, and I was with Alpha Kalen in the training room for the last time before I would be Alpha Mara.

“I got in touch with the chancellor of Voltex university,” he said after we finished training.

My body went rigid, and I turned to give him my full and undivided attention. I had refused to pressure him over something that I wasn’t sure about, especially since I could enroll myself after becoming the Alpha. And now…

“You…you did? What did you say to her? What did she say?” I asked.

“I told her about you and your undying passion for studying in the pack university. I made sure to put in a good word for you and tell her just how diligent you are and what values you’ll bring to the university if you’re accepted.”

The smile on his face started to make me tear up now. I shook my head, refusing to believe what he was going to say if he had good news.

“She took my words into consideration, and now, you have the chance to have a one-on-one interview with the chancellor of Voltex university. She said you can come in next week Monday.”

All the air was sucked out of my lungs. Nervous, elated, determined. Everything I felt swirled inside of me to create a huge explosion as I bent over and started to cry.

“You have no idea…” I sucked in deep breaths as he helped me stand upright. “You have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you so much, Alpha Kalen. This is one thing I’ll never forget in my life. Thank you so much!”

“Of course I know how much it means to you,” he laughed. “That’s why I went there and put in a good word for you, Mara. Now all you have to do is prepare for your interview. The chancellor never interviews people, and she’s probably doing this because I’m the one who recommended you.”

I nodded as we walked out of the training room and into the house to have dinner.

“And Mara?” he called as I kept eating, making me look up at him with raised brows. “It’s been years. You were only a little girl when you got here. Stop calling me Alpha Kalen—call me Dad.”

His words only reminded me of his son and what he was asking me to do with him because we weren’t related by blood and we shared a bond that I was too adamant to believe was a mate bond.

I only smiled at him and nodded. I really wanted to call him what he wanted me to call him, but it had been embedded in the back of my mind since I was a child that I didn’t belong here completely, something even Kael never made me forget.

When we were done with dinner, a messenger walked in as if he had been waiting for us to finish before he could walk in.

“Alpha Kalen, it’s time to practice tomorrow’s ceremony,” he said.

It was tradition for the Alpha and the succeeding Alpha to have a small practice the night before the coronation to make sure there would be a smooth running of the ceremony the next day. My speech was prepared, and so was Alpha Kalen’s. But I was not.

“Are you ready?” Alpha Kalen asked me.

I nodded, not willing to hold things back and delay them because I didn’t feel prepared. In fact, getting everything out of the way now was only the best decision. We both stood up and walked to the door of the dining room.

“I can see the tension written on your face,” Alpha Kalen laughed, placing a hand on my shoulder and giving it a little squeeze to assure me.

“Thank you so much,” I said as he led me through to the living room. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Save whatever you’ll say for your speech when you become the Alpha. The people we’ll be practicing in front of right now are waiting,” he said.

When I was finally ready, I placed my hands into Alpha Kalen’s for support and because it was tradition for the current Alpha to lead the succeeding Alpha to the venue as a sign that we were both on good terms.

He led me out of the living room and onto the porch, making sure he gave me words of encouragement to prevent whatever strength I could muster from being lost in fear.

We got down to the field where the elders of pack and only a select few of the pack members would be the only witnesses for now. They all stood up as soon as they saw us, all eyes seeming to be on me. Some of them had smiles on their faces, and the rest were neutral, leaving me to guess how they felt about it.

Standing at the front pew was Kael, who held a goblet of what I believed to be crushed grape wine from the scent of it. He looked like he barely made the effort to be there, ever one to not hide how he felt about anything.

“Goddess,” I whispered to myself as he raised the goblet at me with a small smirk on his face in a mocking toast. I felt my stomach scrunch and twist at the possibilities of what he would probably do tomorrow to prevent the actual coronation from happening.

I stood in silence as Alpha Kalen started to give his stepping down speech, refusing to make any eye contact with Kael when I realized that his main goal was to taunt me from the front seat.

If I lost my temper the night before the coronation, it would be nothing but bad omen for the day to come.

“…and now, I’ll be handing all of this to the next Alpha of the pack—my daughter, Mara,” Alpha Kalen announced as he was handed a crown. It was only a model of the original crown as the original was only reserved for the real ceremony.

I stepped toward him, my heartbeat rising rapidly as he raised the crown he was now holding over my head.

“You have been raised by me since you were a child. You deserve all of this, and I don’t want anyone—yourself included—to make you feel like none of this is yours. Everything that belonged to me when I was the Alpha will now belong to you,” he told me.

There was a very loud scoff from his son, but it seemed everyone chose to ignore it and pretend it never happened. I was willing to play along with it. We were close to getting it over with. Once he crowned me, I would give my speech, and it would all be over.

“By the power vested in me by the Moon Goddess and the old Alphas of Ravencrest Pack, I now pronounce you—”

The rest of his words stopped in his throat as an arrow from nowhere lodged itself in his arm, causing the crown to fall to the ground.

Everyone got up from their seats, looking around for any sign of where it had come from as Kael rushed to his father’s side to examine his bleeding arm.

The next arrow flew right past my nose, almost hitting me straight in the head but missing by a few centimeters of pure luck. Kael pulled me away from where I was frozen in shock before making sure to announce it in case anyone had not gotten the memo.

“We’re being attacked!”