“I love you…”
There was a time he’d believed those words from a certain someone, and his naiveness was taken advantage of by the person he trusted the most. He’d lost everything; his parents, his home, everything during the last war because of that, it was painful, it was hard, but life didn’t stop for him there. He rose again, escaped from imprisonment, formed a coup, and conquered the bastards who’d taken his life from him, he regained leadership of his pack and became the powerful alpha king he was born to be. Since then, he had never let “love” or any such nonsense blind him so foolishly again, and he never will…
He heard a knock on his door then, distracting him from his thoughts. Katrina just left, and he didn’t summon anyone. So, who could it be? He wasn’t in the mood to speak with anyone, but later changed his mind. At the very least, any person who decides to be bold enough to disobey the rules deserves a chance to be heard out before he decides what to do with them.
He came out of the inner chambers, and sat on the couch in the sitting area.
“Come in,” he answered.
The door opened slowly and a trembling Miranda walked in.
The lotus princess, of course, her time was up and her supposed lover never came. His mind had been so occupied to think of anything else, he’s supposed to kill her now, but he doesn’t want to. Why doesn’t he want to? He’s never been like this towards anyone before. “Mercy” was not a word that existed in his dictionary, never existed, but what was it about this girl he couldn’t comprehend?
After she closed the door behind her, she dropped straight to her knees, bending her head down. What was she doing? He wondered. She didn’t say anything, only remained on her knees, and the worst was that he couldn’t interpret her actions, whether she was asking to be killed or pleading for mercy, he couldn’t tell. Finally, he decided to speak.
“Miranda… that is your name, correct?”
She rose her head, nodding, “Yes.”
“You were supposed to be executed this evening.”
She closed her eyes, she’d tried, but couldn’t hold back the tears choking her throat, she burst out then, crying as she spoke, “I… I came here t-to tell you that you could go ahead to k-k-kill me since my lover didn’t come, but I know now…. I don’t want to die. I want to live…. not for me… but for my people, they’ve suffered so much… and I’m the only one that can restore the honor of the lotus pack. If I die now, there’ll be no chance of that happening….”
“Miranda…”
Sniffs, “y-y-yes?”
“What do you want me to do now?”
“Perhaps… perhaps there is another way… another way I can prove myself to be… to be the lotus princess. There has to… t-to be another way.”
Silence, he pondered on her words first, and then… “Fine. I will spare your life if you give me your soldiers.”
Even with the tears, she raised a confused brow, “m-my soldiers?”
“Yes… if you claim to be the lotus princess, it means you’re a high-ranking member of the lotus pack, which means you must have some troops trained under you. you can prove your authority by swearing in a batch of soldiers to the silver pack. I will visit your territory to come to take the men myself. I will also meet with your father, there, he can confirm if you are truly his daughter with his own mouth; even on the sick bed. If he says otherwise, I’ll kill you in front of alpha Luther. Of course, he wouldn’t mind that since you ain’t his cub anyway. But if you are truly princess Miranda as you claim, I’ll hand you back over to him in exchange for your men.”
“But…”
“But what? Have I not been fair enough? Or what is the matter this time princess?”
Sniffs, “it’s not that alpha Damian, you’ve been more than fair to me by not killing me… but the lotus pack has only one elite batch of soldiers, I don’t have any troops I’ve trained under me as there aren’t even enough men even to fight our wars.”
The answer shocked alpha Damian, he’s always heard of the lotus pack and how badly they’ve suffered in status, he’d never imagined that things were that terrible for them.
“You ARE aware that the rogues are growing their forces daily and they can attack any of the packs at any time, they might have failed in the last war but they’ll keep trying till they succeed, how do you intend to defend your pack when that time comes?”
“A marriage was supposed to happen between me and the Night shadow pack’s alpha, alpha Walden would have borrowed us defenses whenever the rogues attack due to the agreement from our union.”
“But you mentioned earlier that the engagement got called off?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’m sorry… but I can’t tell you that, the only thing I can tell you is that the Lotus pack needs help, and I’m the only one who can help us since I was the one who called off the engagement with the night shadow pack’s alpha. I need to be out of here so I can help my pack, and I can’t do that if I’m dead.”
“I want your elite group Miranda, the best of the best, and they’re the only force that still keeps the lotus pack strong. I heard that they are very good.”
“Yes, my father trained them himself, but since his sickness, the pack hasn’t been the same, I took over, many of the soldiers quit to go and join other packs because they refused to be led by a female. I’m sorry but my father won’t be able to give you want you want, not because he doesn’t want to, but he can’t, given the situation of our pack now, I won’t let him. I’d rather die because if we lose our last troops, we are done for. Please Alpha Damian… I know I’m asking for a lot, but there has to be some other way to resolve this.”
Silence. He pondered on her words again, before finally coming to his decision.
“Ok princess, I don’t know whatever the reason was for your called off engagement, but I want those men anyway. We can agree to do what you planned on doing before, marriage. We will work together to lend our support, the silver pack will lend the lotus pack as much needed support during the next war, and in exchange, your elite forces will be handed over to me. I will marry you, princess Miranda, and our engagement will represent an alliance between the silver and Lotus pack.”