Another Alpha King

Damon

“Father, I really think you ought to—”

“Nonsense, son!” My father, Alpha King Rohan, bellows from his spot out on the castle balcony. He’s very good at bellowing, especially when he’s got an idea in his head.

That’s never a good thing.

“My spies are going to do a perfect job of infiltrating the Dark Forest realm,” he continues. “They’ll fit right in. No need to worry about anything, my son. Your daddy has got this.”

He smiles the way he always does when he thinks he has a good idea, which unfortunately is all too often. “Thinks” is the operative word. And I know that the idiots he’s chosen for the job are going to screw everything up. 

“Father, Hans and Brutus don’t know the first thing about spying,” I say. “Pick someone else from the kingdom—anyone, please.”

“Pshaw,” he says. He looks at me like he’s just seen me for the first time and changes the subject abruptly, as he always does. “My boy, have you found a mate yet?”

I shake my head. “Father, I’ll be twenty-one next month.”

“Ah, good.” He comes up to me and slaps me on the arm. “Well, there’s time for that then. Carry on.”

He storms by me and runs down the stairs. 

I have no idea where he’s going other than to get us even deeper into shit, so I just let him run off and stroll out onto the balcony myself. I see the team of idiots loading useless garbage onto the vehicles that will soon be bound for the docks. 

I shake my head, looking around. From the high perch, I can see the entire city and far off into the distance, where the billowing clouds meet the snow-covered mountains that border the inland pass. It’s not possible to see all of our Green Mountain realm, but I can admire all the progress we’ve made in modernization, mostly in spite of my father. 

Looking in the other direction, I can see the ocean, and across the wide blue expanse lies our enemies, the Alphas of the Dark Forest realm. It’s hard to imagine what’s over there on the other side of those unfriendly waves, and whether they’re readying ships to come attack us or minding their own business is anyone’s guess.

But wondering isn’t enough for my father. He’s been obsessed with the other realm since the day my mother passed away. She was his true mate, and most of his soul seems to have died with her. At first, he screamed for nights on end, shifting and running off into the woods. The guards would report to me what they’d found the next day, and the sight was never pleasant. 

But it was even worse when he stopped screaming and grew quiet, sinking into himself and developing a whole world within his mind that did not match the world around him. 

It was then that his obsession began with the Dark Forest realm. Somehow, it’s their fault that my mother was taken from us. His downward spiral has increased until he lost all the wisdom he’d ever had and became a shell of a man. Where once he was brilliant, now he’s a bumbling idiot just like Hans and Brutus. 

I guess it’s his way of bottoming out.

“Red wine! Why the hell don’t we have any red wine to go with the venison!” 

I close my eyes as if that will drown him out as he screams at the cook downstairs. It won’t.

“Incompetent fools! We’re celebrating our newest accomplishment!”

I gaze at the “accomplishment” as they give each other a swift high-five and pile into the backseat with stacks of baggage strapped onto a trailer behind them. 

“I’m pretty sure that spies travel light.” Having no one to hear me, I turn around and go back to my suite in the heart of the castle, imagining the end game in the war my father is instigating with his idiocy. 

***

I arrive at the campus early the next morning. I always hate leaving Father alone—Goddess knows what stupid decision he’ll make next—but I have a responsibility to fulfill in my training. 

The university is larger than most cities in my realm but for good reason. It houses not only the best programs in every subject imaginable, but it also has the Alpha training program for every pack in the realm. Though my future position as Alpha King is different from everyone else’s and requires special training at the castle, I still show up on campus as often as I can. Getting to know the other Alphas in the realm is an important part of my future, one that I take very seriously. 

“Future Alpha King Damon.” Alpha Axel approaches me and offers his hand, which I shake. He’s in his late thirties, a well-tested warrior with the respect of everyone in the program. 

“I do wish you’d call me Damon and not all those titles, Alpha Axel.”

His amber eyes twinkle as he laughs. “I doubt your father would approve.”

“My father approves of nothing but battling Dark Forest warriors on the other side of the ocean,” I say sadly.

He nods. “The kingdom sorely misses our Luna Queen. I take it the Alpha King hasn’t given up his quest to begin a war?”

“No.” I sigh. “So, we need to keep all our warriors in top shape for the mess he’s starting. I can’t stop him, Axel.”

He puts a hand on my shoulder. “There is no healing a lost mate.”

“And that’s why I’ll never go there,” I say. 

“Aye, but the realm will need a Luna Queen once you take the throne,” he says. “And you’ll need an heir. Don’t give up hope for that. Not all mate bonds are tragic. Look at my parents. Sixty years together and still in wedded bliss.”

I shake my head, and he snickers. “Well, Future Alpha King Damon, my students are waiting for me. I take it you’re here for the warrior training?”

“Yes. It’s as good a way as any to assess the leaders of the other packs.”

He nods. “Don’t be too rough on them.” He laughs as he walks away, and I give him the finger.

“Now, is that any way for a future Alpha King to behave?” A familiar voice has me spinning around.

“Braden. Are they still letting the likes of you on campus?” I give him my best scowl, and he approaches with a fake bow.

“Alpha King, I beg your forgiveness, my great Alpha King, but none can be as great as you,” he says.

“Jackass.” We both laugh, and I hit him on the arm. 

“Just keeping you on your toes,” he says. “Where’s Alessandro?”

“Gone for a few weeks. I sent him ahead of those other clowns to Dark Forest,” I explain. 

“Oh, a real spy.” He laughs again, but I feel a headache coming on thinking of my father’s ideas. 

“Well, Father forced my hand,” I say. “It’s either see what’s going on for myself or get stuck trusting Hans Fralig.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Yeah… no. That dude’ll do anything for a pile of gems.”

“Don’t remind me.”

He tries not to laugh as we head toward the training grounds. “The Starlight pack boys are here.”

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “Oh? They’re never on campus. Good. It’ll give me a chance to check them out. Father thinks they’re great, which means I can’t trust them to throw a stick.”

“I wouldn’t give them the stick to throw in the first place,” he says. “They’ll as soon poke your eye out with it.”

“I’d like to see them try.”

He laughs. “Oh, I’d pay money to see you shift and tear them apart.”

“But I won’t for now. Till we work on better relationships with those northern packs. I don’t want to see the ore up there go to waste. We can’t get trade treaties by tearing up all their Alphas.”

“You’re right,” he agrees. “But it would still be fun. So, have you been seeing that Alisa girl again?”

“Who?”

“Alisa, the redhead with the big… you know,” he says. 

“You really need to stop thinking with what’s in your pants,” I say as he shrugs. “And I’ve never seen her to begin with. What makes you think I have?”

“She’s bragging to all her friends that she’s bagged the future Alpha King,” he explains. 

“Bagged me? If I’ve ever touched her, it was because she bumped into me in a crowd.” I frown at him. I have to be a little more selective as a future Alpha King, so I don’t let just any woman close to me. If I have a choice, I’d rather forget the whole mating and heir thing altogether. But since I can’t for the sake of my kingdom, I need to at least stay away from the hussies. Braden, on the other hand, likes to play the field. I guess it’s easy when you only have your own pack to worry about.

“Well, you’d better set her straight,” he says. 

“Eh, it doesn’t matter,” I say. “If the whole kingdom thinks I’m taken, at least they’ll leave me alone.”

He laughs. “My man, you’re not going to get an heir that way. You know, that old Alpha King in Dark Forest held a contest with a breeder. Turns out that one woman ended up having heirs for all four of the winning contestants at once.”

“Yeah, I know,” I say. “They’re all four the Alpha Kings now I hear, and they made her Luna Queen. Can you believe it? A breeder as the Luna Queen.”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. I heard she’s nice.”

I look at him and shake my head. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, a nice lady as Luna Queen—we could use that here, don’t you think?” He wiggles his eyebrows, and I just glare at him. 

“I suppose a breeder could be my Luna Queen if she just leaves me alone except for when I need her.”

He laughs. “Well, that’ll win you points with her. You want to be kind to your mate.”

“I don’t need points, and I don’t need to be kind,” I say. “I need to run a kingdom. Now, let’s get to the training grounds.”

I turn, and he follows me. I feel a pounding sensation in my gut. But I ignore it. 

The last thing I need is a mate.