Chapter 3
1126 Words
Chapter 3: The Kings Arrive POV: King Kaelen (The Quiet Twin)
I had been in worse places than the Blackthorn Pack, but not many. The entire territory was a dump, the houses were falling apart, the wolves looked half-starved, and the smell of poverty and weakness hung in the air like a fog. I hated being here.
"We should have sent a messenger," my brother Valerius muttered beside me, his golden eyes scanning the pathetic pack lands with obvious disgust, "This place isn't worth our time."
He was right, but we had come here for a reason. The Blackthorn Pack sat on a border that we needed for expansion. Alpha Silas had been dodging our requests for a meeting for months, so we decided to show up unannounced and remind him exactly who ruled the Midnight Empire.
"We'll make this quick," I said, my voice flat and cold, "Get the land agreement signed and leave before dawn."
We had arrived just as some kind of ceremony was happening, there was a large bonfire burning in a clearing, and the entire pack was gathered in a circle. I could hear laughter and shouting, the kind of cruel sounds that came from wolves who enjoyed watching someone suffer.
"Looks like they're having fun," Valerius said with a dark smirk, "Should we ruin it?"
I didn't answer, I just started walking toward the clearing. My brother fell into step beside me, our boots making no sound on the forest floor. We were Lycan Kings; we moved like shadows when we wanted to.
As we got closer, I caught the tail end of what was happening. Some pathetic Alpha was standing over a girl in the mud, kicking her while the pack laughed. It was a display of dominance, the kind of thing weak Alphas did to make themselves feel powerful. It disgusted me.
Then the wind shifted.
The smell hit me like a physical blow. It was the most incredible scent I had ever experienced in my life: honey and wildflowers mixed with something ancient and powerful, something that made my wolf surge forward inside me, desperate and hungry.
Royal Queen.
My entire body went rigid, and I stopped walking so suddenly that Valerius almost ran into me.
"What is it?" he asked, but I could see from the look on his face that he smelled it too; his golden eyes had gone wide, his nostrils flaring as he tried to locate the source.
"No," I said, my voice coming out rough, "It can't be."
But it was, I followed the scent with my eyes, and my heart sank. The smell was coming from the girl in the mud, the one being kicked and humiliated in front of her entire pack. She was small and covered in filth, her white dress torn and dirty.
And she had purple eyes.
I had heard the stories about purple-eyed wolves; they were rare, ancient bloodlines that most people thought were extinct, but I had never seen one in person, and I had certainly never expected one to be my mate.
"That's her," Valerius said quietly, his voice filled with the same shock I was feeling, "That's our mate."
I wanted to deny it, I wanted to turn around and leave this pathetic pack and never come back, but my wolf wouldn't let me; the bond was already forming, pulling me toward her with a force I couldn't resist. I could feel Valerius fighting the same battle beside me.
"She's weak," I said, trying to convince myself, "Look at her, she just got rejected by a normal wolf, she doesn't even have the strength to stand up."
"I know," Valerius replied, but he was already moving forward, his body responding to the mate bond whether he wanted it to or not.
I followed him, my jaw clenched tight. We stepped into the clearing, and the entire pack went silent. They could feel our power, the weight of our Lycan blood pressing down on them like a physical thing. Some of them backed away, others dropped their heads in submission.
Alpha Silas turned to face us, his expression shifting from cruel satisfaction to fear in an instant.
"Kings Kaelen and Valerius," he said, trying to sound respectful but failing, "We weren't expecting you."
"Clearly," I said coldly, my eyes fixed on the girl in the mud, who was looking up at us now, her purple eyes wide and filled with tears; she looked broken and destroyed.
And she was ours.
The thought made rage surge through me. How dare this pathetic excuse for an Alpha treat our mate like this? How dare he let her be humiliated and beaten? I wanted to rip his throat out right there.
"What is the meaning of this?" Valerius demanded, gesturing to the girl, his voice was sharp and dangerous, "Why is she being treated this way?"
Alpha Silas looked confused, "She's just a servant, my King, a wolfless girl who tried to claim she was mated to one of my warriors; she was lying and needed to be put in her place."
"She wasn't lying," I said, stepping forward, my silver eyes locked on the girl. I could see the moment she recognized what I was saying, the moment she realized we were talking about her.
I walked up to her slowly, my boots squelching in the mud. She tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out. She was too weak, too broken. It made me angry at her, angry at myself for being tied to someone so pathetic.
But the bond didn't care about my anger; it pulled me down to one knee in the mud beside her. I reached out and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at me. Her purple eyes were even more striking up close; they seemed to glow in the firelight.
"You are our mate," I said, my voice hard and cold, "You belong to us now."
She stared at me in shock, her mouth opening and closing like she couldn't find words. Behind me, I could hear the pack gasping and whispering; they couldn't believe what they were hearing.
I stood up and pulled her to her feet. She stumbled against me, her body shaking. I could feel how weak she was, how completely unprepared she was to be a Queen; it made me hate this situation even more.
"She's coming with us to the Midnight Empire," I announced to the pack, my voice carrying across the clearing, "Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me."
No one moved, no one spoke, they all just stared in stunned silence as I held their rejected, worthless servant in my arms.
My fated mate.
- Writer
