The King's Love

Chapter 13~Charlee

After our drive, Greyson and I continued our training. He has been working with me on fighting like a werewolf. He's been going easy on me, today I showed him again what Darren taught me. I get a good punch to his gut and he ends our spar. “That was great, little alpha. What made your stepdad teach you to fight.” He asks, sitting down on the ground. “My mom taught me how to use and control my strength. Darren, my mom’s mate, taught me how to fight more like a human in case I ever need to defend myself and avoid wolfing out. ” I answer. “It helped a lot, there was a boy at my old high school that tried to take advantage of me during a party, and let’s just say he learned not to do that again,” I added.

“Just know you’ll never have to worry about that while being mated to me. No other male will be able to touch you while I’m around.” He says, wrapping his arms around me. “Greyson, I'd like to get to know you more,” I say.

“Alright ask me anything you wanna know, little alpha.”

“When did you have your first shift?” I ask.

“I had my first shift at 14, what about you?” I am hesitant to answer.

“I shifted at 6…”

“What! The only times I've heard that happen is when a child fears for their life!” I look down, trying to hold back tears. “I was fearing for my life.” I looked back at him, I took a deep breath, “I wasn’t allowed to see my dad as a kid. When I was six, he sent a request to our pack elder, wanting me to come to his pack because I was in line to be his heir and I had older brothers to meet. He was given no more than a week with me. Most of that week all he did was ignore me, my stepmom treated me like the child of omega, and my older brothers made it their life’s purpose to terrorize me.” I looked at Greyson, he seemed to get angry, “I’m appalled that your elder ever considered allowing him to see you after how he treated your mom.” He says,

“I just wait, that's not the worst part. About three days into this dreadful week, my older brothers found me watching Tv in the common room and decided I needed to know how to defend myself in case there was ever a rogue attack. My oldest brother took a knife out of his pocket and tried to stab me with it. I was able to dodge it, but before I could run my other brother grabbed me and held me down. Out of fear I…” All I could hear was the sound of bones breaking in my head. I held myself as if I could feel the pain again. “I shifted and attacked my brothers, if it wasn’t for my dad coming in when he did I would have killed them. After my fit I passed out in wolf form, their pack doctor had to sedate me to get me to shift back and keep it from killing me. Once I woke up, I saw my dad and screamed bloody murder. After this, the elders deemed my dad and his family too dangerous for me to be around and he lost his rights to me and I haven't seen them since.” I finally broke down. Greyson pulls me to his chest and holds me, letting me sob into his chest. After a few moments, I calmed down and looked up at him. “Don't ever worry little alpha, I will never let anyone hurt you ever again.” He says in a low voice, he ran his fingers down my spine and it made me purr. We leaned into each other, I could feel his breath on my lips. Just before we kiss, I hear Carissa yelling my name. “Damn,” Greyson says chuckling. I look at Carissa once I get to where we are, her face has pure terror on it. “Carissa, what happened? Are we getting attacked!” I ask her.

“No, it's worse for you Charlee. It’s your dad. He and his family are here and he wants to see you.” I look at Greyson. He grabs my hand and tells me he’ll be with me every second.

I step one foot into the packhouse and dread hits me like a bag of bricks. The pack members that were in the packhouse looked at me with pity. For the first time in ten years, I was about to come face to face with the one thing that tormented my mind and dreams, but this time I had my mate by my side. Greyson squeezed my hand, making me look up at him. He must have felt my dread. We walked into my papa’s office and there stood my father, Dominic Hughes, the alpha of the Black Stone Pack, one of the most ruthless packs in our region. He treats his pack members like garbage and refuses to go by werewolf traditions, especially when it comes to the mate bond. To his right were his w***e, my stepmother, Elana. To his left were my older brothers, Aiden and Xavier. I look at my dad and he just smirks. He looks at Greyson and is surprised.

"Your Majesty, what brings you to my daughter's pack?" He asks. Greyson looks at him in disgust. "Well, if you must know. I came here to give Alpha Hendrick and his next in line a proposition." Greyson answers.

"Usually that kind of work is done in the alpha's office and I noticed you walked in with Charlotte." Greyson looks at me and rolls his eyes. "Does he always ask so many damn questions?" He asks over our mind. "According to my mom, he's always been a suspicious man," I tell him, he looks back at my dad and chuckles. "I didn't only come to give Hendrick and Charlee an offer, I also came on an invite from Hendrick to participate in Black Forest's Mate Ball," he looks at me lovingly and smiles, "and I just so happened to find my mate."

"Oh, how wonderful! This makes my job even easier." My father says with excitement. "Now Hendrick, since Charlotte is your only eligible heir and she will be becoming queen whenever they decide to do their mating ceremony. Seems to me you are out of ideas to avoid being absorbed by my pack. So why don't we have that conversation now and I can be on with my day." He says, acting smug. I refuse to let this wretched man and his son lead my pack into despair. For once I finally dare to stand up. "Hell no!" I yell at my father. "Your son does not share the same blood as my papa, he nor you have the right to make this decision, I will die before you even get to the first step of absorbing my pack!" I protest. Greyson and papa look at me stunned by my courage and it eggs me on to continue. "I have no plans on leaving this pack! Now get the f**k out of my territory and never step foot in it again!" I added. Papa gave me a look of approval, my father became furious. He charged toward me, getting ready to slap me, but Greyson stepped in front of me, getting between us. Greyson towers over my father and stares at him, burning his eyes into his. "You so much as breathe in her direction I will not hesitate to rip you to shreds in front of your family." He growls. My father backs off knowing he would never win that battle. As they leave, my oldest brother Aiden scuffs: "Charlee is such a weakling, like she'd ever been able to handle being an alpha." He says with a chuckle at the end. In no time, Greyson grabs him by the throat and slams him onto the floor on his back. Aiden kept darting his eyes in different directions, trying to avoid making eye contact with Greyson. "I suggest you watch what you say about your queen since she has more alpha blood in her than you will in your entire lineage!" He roars using an alpha tone. Greyson let go of my brother and he scurried off to my father, if he was in his wolf form his tail would tuck. "Dominic, it's time for you and your family to leave, and it's in your best interest to be off my lands in the next ten minutes because I have not forgotten what you did to my daughter and what your b***h tried to do to Charlotte before her birth," Papa said, calmly. I think that's the first time I've ever heard Papa swear.

I put my hands in my jacket pockets and took a deep breath. "Now that that s**t show is over, I'm hungry and I'm going to go get some lunch," I say with a smile. "I'll meet you down there, I need to speak with Hendrick," Greyson says, kissing me on the cheek. The sparks felt so good.

A week has passed since I saw my father and papa hasn't heard anything from him since. Instead of spending the last few days of my winter break from school goofing off, I've been spending it with Greyson continuing my training and with my grandma learning how to be a Luna until Greyson's mom can come here to teach me the ropes of being a queen. My grandma gave me the assignment to learn our family history since our family has been the leaders of Black Forest since the 1600s. So here I am in the library, reading one of many books about our past alphas and lunas. As I read, I hear laughter grow louder coming from the door to the library. It's Addison and her friends. "Well, well, well, it's the almighty Queen Charlee." She says smirking. "I don't have time for your empty threats, I'm busy now, go away," I say, trying not to give her a second of my time. "Only the Goddess knows how much I hate you." She said through her teeth. I close the book in frustration and look at her. "Why? I haven't done anything to you." I say.

"You took everything from me. If you hadn't come back Jaren would have been Alpha and I would have gotten to be Luna. Then low and behold you're mated to the King and you don't reject him thinking you are good enough to be mated to him."

"Oh, and you think you are?" I ask.

"I should be queen, not a half pint like you." I roll my eyes, this b***h is more delusional than I thought. “Look Addison, just go back to Jaren, you can have him. Now leave me alone.” I say trying to get past her, but she pushes me back, Goddess I’m getting so sick of that. Her friends grab my arms, pull me to the ground, and hold me there. Addison stands over me and extends her claws. Fear came over me and Snow immediately took control, pushing me to the back of my head. Even my wolf is pushing me around. I start to shift and a scream comes from across the library. I look over and it’s an omega a little older than Addison and I, she runs out of the library and the sound continues up the stairs. I break free of the two girls’ hold and completely shift. Snow gets in a defensive stand and begins snarling at Addison and her friends. I hear footsteps coming into the library. Snow looks towards the door and Greyson, Felix, and my papa run in. “Alpha Hendrick, thank the Goddess you guys came, Charlee was about to attack my friends and me for no reason!” She says, putting on a damsel act. Greyson and papa look at me in disappointment.

The moment Snow feels the anger come over the mate bond, she tucks her tail and barrels past Addison. She runs us out of the packhouse and to the northern border of the territory. She didn’t stop, she ran and ran. Snow comes upon a river and doesn’t hesitate to jump in, masking our scent. After she swims across, she didn’t even take the time to shake off the water. 30 minutes of more running and snow finally stops to take a breather. She looks around, sees a cave, and heads toward it. She goes inside sniffing around to make sure nothing has been in it recently. She finds a spot and lays down. “Snow, give me back control right now!” I yell.

“Charlee, it would be better if I stayed in control for a little while, for your safety.” She says yawning, laying her head down to sleep... Great, I’m stuck in my head and I’m alone in a cave, no idea where I’m at.