Chapter 3: Max Grosvenor

Max left the office from the Royal House's King with mixed emotions. It felt like ages since he had seen Mikki Auclair for the first time. The only time in fact, but since then, he never managed to get her out of his mind.

A few years before, he was in the palace for a meeting with the Alpha King, Ace’s father at the time. They wanted to discuss how Max’s pack could be helpful during a strategy to stop some riots that were taking place in Purnama City. Things were getting out of control, so the King asked for help from his allies.

As soon as Max got to the palace’s foyer, he saw this girl running freely and happily around the place, her long and blonde silver hair glowing and swinging on her back.

She was just playing around with her older brother, Fitz, as he tried to grab something from her hands. She looked carefree, gracious, not to mention stunningly beautiful. He couldn’t stop looking at her, as he felt his heart being wrapped with some warm and strange feeling.

He remembered cursing himself as he realized what it meant. How unfortunate could he be to have a mate from the Royal Family? Why did the Moon even allow something like that to happen?

But the truth was, he didn't really blame the Moon. That was a stupid rule that wolves created, or even their human sides; something that would never make sense to Max, no matter how much he tried.

Since that day, he tried to convince himself that he was destined to be alone, or at least marry some woman who was not his mate. Things like that happened, especially amongst commoners, but he never really thought he could live a life with someone that didn’t have a deep bond with him.

But destiny must have felt sorry for him, because when he least expected, he heard the news about the Royal House wanting an Alpha to marry the Princess.

At first, he thought it was a joke. But then some of his informants told him that the King seemed to be in a hurry, since he had received another proposition from someone that wouldn’t benefit the Royal House. In fact, someone that could be really dangerous.

Max didn’t want to hear that someone else could marry the princess other than himself, so he rushed to the palace to offer to take that position. He only hoped that Ace would take their friendship and alliance into consideration, which turned out to be just the case.

But what he wasn’t expecting was that the woman herself would show up at that exact moment. It caught him off guard, that’s for sure. She looked different from what he remembered, more mature, even prettier than before. How she managed to do it, he had no idea. It should be illegal for someone to be that stunning, but perhaps it was one more thing that the Royal Family had in their favor.

And when her eyes met his, he knew. He knew what she was feeling. He had been there before. He had felt the same thing the first time he saw her. But the thing was that she hadn’t noticed him by then. But now she did, and by the way she was looking at him, he couldn’t be wrong.

Hearing her say she didn’t want to marry hurt his pride though. Of course, he couldn’t expect anything less, in fact, he didn’t even know her at all. But he knew her brother, and he was the finest man there was, so she couldn’t be that different. At least, Max hoped so. He didn’t want to believe that she’d be some spoiled brat.

However, it was understandable. He didn’t know how he’d react if he was in her shoes, so he couldn’t be unfair. He just had to make sure to let her know what his true intentions were. He’d rather die than let her think he wanted to force her into marrying him, so that’s why he had to intervene before her brother continued.

As he left the palace, Max wondered if he should tell her about his feelings for her. Perhaps it would be better to just hide it and pretend he was marrying her out of service to the King and the Royal House, nothing more than that.

He didn’t think he’d be able to live with her knowing that she didn’t feel anything towards him at all. The mate bond didn’t mean that much without love. The connection was there and it helped a lot, but it wasn’t enough to keep two people together. Love and respect should be conquered, otherwise they were destined for failure.

For the time being, he’d just keep his feelings hidden deep down, but if it came to him to make her fall for him, he would be more than willing to do it. He also couldn’t wait to fall for her. More than he already had.

“Hey, Max!” He heard someone calling from afar. He halted, looking around, trying to find the source of the voice.

It was Fitz, Ace’s younger brother. They had seen each other more frequently at the field, since Fitz was the Beta from the Royal House and the head of the Royal Army. Fitz was the King’s envoy whenever the King himself couldn’t show up at any place, so Max bumped into him sometimes before.

“Fitz, good to see you!” He opened his arms for a brotherly hug. Fitz was very charming and the funny guy in every room, so it was impossible not to like him. And Fitz seemed to like Max just the same, so Max counted that as a leverage, since now he only had the youngest brother Don to win over, and Mikki herself, which he was certain to be the hardest one in the Auclair family.

“What brings you here? The King is planning some kind of expedition I’m not aware of?” Fitz asked, jokingly, following Max outside of the palace to the gardens.

Max shook his head as he protected his eyes from the sudden clarity.

“Not really, no. But I’m afraid I can't tell you what is the reason I’m here, but I assume you’ll know pretty soon,” he stated.

Fitz looked at him, inquisitively.

“Come on, man,” he complained, pushing Max slightly on the shoulder. “What’s up with all the mystery? Just tell me if I’m about to find out anyway.”

They had a very easy relationship, something that Max was very grateful for, since he didn’t need to be so polite and follow the etiquette normally used with the Royals when he talked to Fitz. To be honest, he didn’t really do it with Ace either, unless he was surrounded by other people.

Max sighed, looking ahead, beyond the rose garden. It smelled pretty nice and it seemed like a nice place to take Mikki for a walk, but he wouldn’t allow his mind to be romantic now. He was an Alpha, a man of achievements and logic; he shouldn’t be going all soft now.

“Well, it’s not that I’m being mysterious, I just think this is a family business before anything else. I think you should know it from your family,” he shrugged.

But Fitz wasn’t taking it, so he took a few quicker steps forward and stopped in front of Max, blocking his way.

The similarity between the Auclair siblings was impressive. They all had beautiful green eyes, and that shining hair that reminded him of the Moon; something they clearly took from the deceased Luna. She was just as beautiful as Mikki. Her death had been very sad, even to Max’s own pack, and it took years for everyone to recover from it.

Fitz was looking at him with frowned brows, waiting for the answer he wanted.

“What is going on? What family business are you talking about?” he sounded concerned. “Did something happen?”

“It's nothing bad, man. Relax. Since you insist, I’m going to tell you, but you need to wait to hear it from your brother, alright? I don’t want to be labeled as the gossiper from the Court,” Max smiled, making Fitz curse at him.

“Well?” he waited, expectantly.

“Your sister needs to get married by her birthday this year, so I just offered to be that man,” Max simply said, and the look on Fitz's face almost made him want to laugh, if the situation wasn't that delicate.

“She needs what? You did what?” Fitz squeaked, his voice cracking with surprise. “What the f*ck is that? Is this a prank?”

“I'm afraid it isn’t,” Max said, apologetically. “But don’t go all crazy on your brother, he’s actually taking this the hard way, so—”

But Fitz had already turned back to the palace, cursing at the wind, leaving Max alone. He just hoped Fitz wouldn’t make things harder for Ace. He had been suffering ever since he received the news from the council. The feeling of being powerless was very hard to swallow, especially for an Alpha, so Max only wished that Fitz could make things a little easier for his friend.