*Alonso*
“I need you to bring me Derrick and that wretched father of hers! They must know something.” I later left her room back to my study, to link with Lancelot. Something tells me those bastards would know something. I have to interrogate them personally.
“They have gone AWOL. I told you the last time,” his lethargic voice came through.
“Find them, Lancelot! I don’t care if you have to go to the depth of hell to find them. My guts are never wrong. They must have plotted with the Vampires to carry this out! How did they know about us? Someone very close must have told them!”
“What of Alfred? He should be in charge of-”
“Alfred has gone missing. Again. And you know I don’t trust him. This is too delicate to let him into it. Danika is slowly slipping away from me, Lancelot! I have to do something… I can’t lose her!”
He sighed, I know he is scratching the nape of his neck now. “Let me just come home, Alonso. We can solve this together. I will send out the trackers this evening, but you need me close.”
“I need you doing what I asked you to, Lancelot. Not coming to become another problem on my plate.”
“I have found my mate, how can I be your problem?”
“I don’t care, Lancelot. Just do what I asked you to do. I have to invite the priest from the Red Moon pack. I heard he is very prominent for this kind of thing.” I swung down another glass of Scotch and pinched my eyes close at the biting taste.
“If you are talking about Draken, then I think you are right. Last year he helped put this little girl power on a check, in Blue moon crested pack.”
“I heard that too. I approved of it, since she was too young to be saddled with such powers.” My eyes locked on a sculpture I had gotten three years ago from the Apex howlers, another pack of great manifestations. That is one of the packs under my rulership that I cherished. He has the best talents, including healers.
I will also send an invitation to him, seeking the best of them. Anything I have to do to bring back Danika, I will.
“I should have listened to you, Lancelot. I was so stupid and stubborn, not even making her transform at least to justify my denial of it,” I admitted slowly in regret.
Lancelot clicked his tongue. “It’s okay, man. It’s alright. That is in the past, we should focus on the future. I will try to nail those two down and then see what I can do.”
“Thanks… I will go now, Theresa will soon be back, I need to wear my armor of defense.” He chuckled as the link started going off.
“Okay, man. Be good!” he said and the link finally went off.
I swirled my glass, so many thoughts barraging my head. I was caught in the middle of everything right now. First, I have to make sure Danika is safe, and then what next? I have to accept her once and for will then where does that leave Paisley? What am I going to tell her father who I have promised an alliance with?
I don’t want any war with any pack right now. I don’t need my subordinates to develop resentment toward me, at the same time, I won’t let this charade continue. I have to tell everyone. My mother, Paisley, my brother, and my pack members. It would raise dust, considering what lofty deceit we have pulled off, but with time, everything would normalize. The only thing would be how to calm the raging storms.
My mother.
Paisley’s father is so intent on me wearing his daughter the crown.
Both are my greatest worries. I shook my head, realization dawning on me that I wasn’t getting any solutions, only piling up the problems. Thinking about them but have no way out.
I snapped my head up when my nose caught a familiar scent sauntering to my door. I braced myself, ready for whatever comes out of this. It’s been a while since she approached me for matters without waiting till meal time to have her fill in pointing out how much of a disappointment I was to her, in front of everyone.
The door swung open, smacking at the wall. That it survived falling out of the hinges was sheer luck.
“Every time I look at you, Alonso, I try to tell myself that as your mother I should still have a little faith in your abilities!” she sneered, shaking her head with a slightly devious smile. “But you won’t stop pushing me to the brink of finally accepting what I have always known!”
“And what is that, Mom? That I’m a failure? That my father made the wrong decision, by making me the King?” I snorted and took a long swig from my glass, calling her bluff. “I’m used to that, mom. Try something new.” I know it’s going to twist her guts how calm I was taking this situation. I am appalled at myself too.
“You disgust me so much, Alonso. And maybe for the first time in my life, I will boldly without any motherly inclinations say it to you! Your brother would have made a better King tenfold than you can ever be!”
“Then where the fuck is he?!” I stood abruptly, fastening down the urge to use my Alpha King’s aura on her. I knew she hated me right from when I was a child for reasons beyond me but that doesn’t mean I can get used to her shoving it in my face.
“You chased him away. If not for you he would be here… It’s all because of you!” She broke down in tears, pointing accusingly at me.
I scoffed, with a mild smirk, unfazed by her tantrum. “Do you even listen to the things that spew from your mouth sometimes, Mother? Do they in the least make any sense to you?!”
“You will not dare speak to me like that!”
“But you will dare speak to your King the way you do?! Just because you are my mother doesn’t give you the right to disrespect me! As the Alpha King of this Kingdom and every pack beneath my rulership, my word is law!”
“Then act like the King you are!”
“What would you have me do?” My voice fell. That is the question I don’t have an answer to. I don’t know what to do. I do not know who is attacking me and so don’t know who to blame. Normally, if a pack rebelled against me, I would kill their Alpha and put fear in the supporters. But this one is beyond me. Up to now, the only people I suspect are her father and Derrick who I figured must know something. Apart from that, I have nothing.
“You are no longer the Alonso I gave birth to. You became incapacitated after that weasel of girl y-”
“Mother! It’s enough! You can point accusing fingers at me or insult me all you like but do not ever talk about my dead mate like that!”
“She was your downfall…” She took baby steps forward and stopped, spreading her hands out. “She made you take matters calmly instead of attacking them forcefully like the King you are. Like your father would have done!”
“Where did that get him? He piled up enemies for himself among the very people he ruled over. Was that not why he died on time? His own people betrayed him to our enemies!”
“You will not speak about your father like that! The same man who thought there was no one better than you on earth.”
“I only speak the truth, mother. I may have inherited some of his attributes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have things that I didn’t like about him. Things I would never do!”
“You are an ingrate! I told him you would fail him but-”
“Get out of my office, Mother! If you don’t have any wise words to say to me at this critical point in my life but lay blames, get out!” I lost my marbles, my pheromones spreading to the room before I could stop myself. I watched her stagger back with wide eyes, almost falling before the door snapped open and Paisley stepped in one time and caught her.
“Alonso! What is wrong wi-” She paused, her wolf becoming subdued too. She whimpered and managed to drag my mother out while I worked to reign in my lost temper.
Things would have been easier on me if I had one of those Vampires. I would have made him tell me who spent them and confirmed if it was still our long-time enemy, Vladimir. He is the only one I know that has grudges against my father. Albeit, I thought that score was settled a long time after he claimed the life of my father. That was the primary reason I didn’t order his revenge. I let it go, in hopes that finally, my Kingdom can live in peace, devoid of any Vampire invasion in a thousand years. But, unfortunately, Danika’s demon killed them all.
Does this mean my assumptions were wrong? I have to be certain or by Gad, the next time I set my feet in the Vampire Kingdom, blood would reign. I will make sure no soul is left alive.
I might be calm now, but that is my first symptom before I go rogue!
…