Begging for survival

Chapter 2 - The Summoning

Derek POV

We are on our way to the royal castle for the summoning, it’s usually held in the royal court with the elders and the high ranking members of the golden claw pack attending, it’s the king’s pack, also known as the royal pack.

Alexandria finally told me all of her secrets, why she and her family hate the alpha king personally and how it’s not a hunter’s thing,

So now what I’m worried about is not the summoning or the king, no, what I’m really worried about is Alexandria’s reaction if something triggered her and how that might get both of us killed or worse… yes, there are things worse than dying.

How to contain my beautiful, strong, kickass, emotional with anger problems, pure blood hunter mate, that’s what I’m worried about.

“I’m not going to attack him, Derek” Ria says looking out of the window.

“I know that’s what you intend to not do but we both know you have … a temper” I say carefully and she snaps her head towards me.

“I do not have a… okay, I might have a slight anger problem but that’s it” she says shrugging looking back out the window, yes, this summoning is going to be…intense.

-

We finally reach the golden claw pack’s borders, up to this point we were followed by six SUVs full with our warriors to secure us for the long drive but now they have to wait outside, they can’t come with us or it will be considered as some kind of threat, stupid, I know, plus only those who has been summoned by the king are allowed to show in-front of the king,

Meeting the king is a privilege that not everyone get to have… if you ask me; it’s just some monarchy bullshit.

We go through the borders and straight to the royal castle, it takes us a 15 minutes drive to reach it, this pack land is huge which is fitting, it is the royal pack after all, if we ever go to war with the king, we would definitely lose by their sheer wolfpower , we need to play this carefully and strategically.

we finally arrive and as soon as I pull up in-front of th-

“CASTLE? It’s an actual f*****g castle?” Alexandria almost screams shaking me out of my thoughts.

“Well, love, what did you expect, he is the alpha king, and they are usually some kind of actual nobles of the human monarchies” I explain helping her out of the car.

“You werewolves are some pretentious assholes, I mean my father is the equivalent of a king and we didn’t live in a castle” she says with a pointed look.

“Well, you didn’t seem to be bothered by the huge fireplace in our bedroom nor the hot chocolate machine we just added next to it, oh and let’s not forget the Jacuzzi on the terrace that you enjoy so much” I say with one eyebrow raised, she looks at me for a moment then shoves my shoulders as she goes past me saying

“f**k you Derek”

“Yeah, thought so” I say smirking as I follow her to the gates of the castle.

Alexandria POV

White, everything is white with a touch of gold, white marble floors, white walls, huge tall windows with golden curtains, huge statues of wolves, portraits of them, none of them have a red crescent patch on their chest like Rex, Derek’s wolf, I never saw it on any other wolf actually,

I’m lost in my thoughts that I almost bump into one of the so many vases… big ass vases everywhere,

This place makes me feel like I should have worn a long puffy dress, instead of this business formal navy blue dress that I’m wearing, and start doing curtsy to anything that moves.

I look at Derek and he looks hot as f**k in his dark blue suit that makes his gorgeous blue eyes pop… yes, we are matching, cheesy I know.

“You should wear suits more often” I say flirting a little.

“Nothing good ever happens when I wear one, love… remember the guardian’s ball” Derek says with a sexy smirk, okay buzz kill, that’s really reassuring just before we attend the f*****g summoning.

We stop in-front of yet another huge tall door, with some stuck-up werewolf in front of it; he opens the door and enters first.

“Alpha Derek stronghold, Miss Alexandria… no last name, mate of alpha stronghold are here for the summoning” he announce us,

Yes, not everyone know my last name, it wasn’t relevant not even to Mr. Jones, being known as the alpha’s mate is enough in the werewolf world I guess, only Derek knows and that’s only because he asked for it to properly reject me, something that I’ll always regret even if we are now chosen mates.

We are ushered to our chairs, which is in the middle of the room with a wooden table in-front of us and empty rows of chairs behind us, a some sort of a council chamber desk with 8 seats is opposite to us, 6 of those seats are already filed with whom I assume are the elders and the beta and the gamma of the king, with two chairs in the middle slightly bigger than the rest still empty, I feel like I’m in a f*****g senate hearing not a werewolf summoning.

There is this particular elder, with dark skin and salt and pepper short straight hair that stands out for me, maybe because she is staring at me? , no scratch that, it’s like she is trying to look inside my soul, if it wasn’t for her kind features and slight smile on her face that would totally be creepy… nop, it is creepy.

“Their Majesties, The alpha king and the Luna queen” the snobby wolf announces, should have announced them as asshole and his b***h but whatever.

Everybody stands and Derek pulls me up with him as they do, the asshole and the b***h sit then we do and finally we get to start.

“Alpha Derek, you and your mate are here regarding two matters, first, the death of Isadora Wilson” William, the asshole king says going straight to the point.

“Alpha king, I thought Mr. Jones ruled it as self-defense” Derek says calmly, we saw this coming.

“Yes, but we weren’t satisfied with this ruling, there are a lot of suspicious facts and unanswered questions” William says

“Such as what your majesty?” I say feigning innocence, I know exactly what happened, I burned Izzy alive then kicked her out of a window, the b***h deserved it.

“Like why was she even in your room, human? Who said that she was there to attack you?” he says in a condescending tone and I want to rip his throat out.

His queen keeps eyeing me like she is trying to remember where did she see me before and that’s just sad and a little heartbreaking.

“She was there in coherence with my father to rape and mark my mate” Derek says through gritted teeth, clutching the chair handle so hard till it cracks, just the mention of this attack affects me too and I start to feel my anger raising.

“Control yourself alpha, you are in the presence of the king” Charlotte, the freaking queen finally speaks

I reach my hand to Derek’s to try and calm him down, he tighten his grip on mine, pull it to his mouth and kiss it, we might not have the bond but we sure have all it’s effects because he starts to calm down a bit, so do I.

“There is no true evidence to your claims that my niece is involved, that was on your father alone” the king says.

“Your majesty, what about the videos showing them both meeting in secret? And the messages they exchanged on both their phones?” Derek says.

“They could have been meeting for any reason, the audio on the videos wasn’t clear enough and the messages were too vague to really know what they are about” William replys.

“Vague?…We have to get rid of the human b***h; she can’t be Derek’s Luna, that’s vague?... your majesty” I say losing my temper a little.

“She could be talking about any other human; you were not mentioned by name” William says dismissively.

“Alexandria is the only human in my pack and she is my Luna” Derek says firmly.

“Yes, that brings us to the second matter, Miss Alexandria can’t be your mate” the king says looking directly at me.

“Excuse me?” is all Derek could say tightening his grip on my hand even more like I’m going to disappear if he let go.

“We know she is a human hunter, a hunter can’t be a Luna, we showed leniency allowing you to keep her AND her friend on your land for that long but that won’t last” the king says decisively.

Derek let’s out a loud growl, eyes pitch black, and it should be considered as a challenge for the alpha king, but before anyone says anything else I do

“Well, that’s rich coming from you considering who your Luna is… Hello mother” and the room fall silent.