Beyond A King

Queen B

(Lyla pov)

“ Remind me why we are here again?” I complained as I lazily scanned the hangers housing beautiful ball gowns.

“ don’t pout missy I checked your wardrobe, you don’t have a dress suitable for this event” Stella Theo’s new mate scolded from the other side of the store.

We were in a little shop called Belu’s, I know, I didn’t get it either but the she-wolves went crazy for the designer here. She was known as madam Belu and was once an exclusive high end wedding dress designer known throughout the entire human world. She did very well for herself some said she could rival Vera Wang but one day she just disappeared, from the spot light anyway.

She was actually an old school friend of mine from the pack who I heard moved back home a year ago.

Why move back to a small corner of the world when you had the whole world at your feet I’ll never know.

This day hadn’t been great, after fighting with penny and storming off my run in with Curt only brought back bad memories and heart ache. I was glad we cleared the air but I hated being reminded of the day I left. Then I’d gone to the hospital and the stupid cow behind reception made me wait an hour saying I had to wait till the doctor was ready. From her judging eyes she hated humans and it had been a power move because 53 minutes later the doctor came out asking why I hadn’t just come straight through as I was a doctor myself I didn’t have to wait. I caught a glance of the woman’s snicker before I followed the doctor to his office but not before I manipulated the water in the woman’s glass so it sprayed her in the face. Then it was my turn to snigger.

“ Maybe this one?” Stella held up a yellow gown that was covered in flowers and delicate lace. It was beautiful but definitely not my style.

“ hmmm not really into the whole flower power” I said, picking up something less bright just so Stella would calm down.

Spending the afternoon picking out dresses for a ball I didn’t want to go to was the icing on the cake of my crappy day. The only reason I hadn’t cancelled was because I didn’t want to offend Stella, she was Theo’s mate and I wanted to get to know her. She was sweet, but timid with a love for all things bright and girly it seemed from the way she looked at the dress she had picked up for me.

“ why don’t you try it on?” I said watching her. She smiled shyly before saying “ but we need to get you a dress” she says without any conviction, she liked the dress I could tell she just more than likely didn’t want to be seen to be looking for herself.

“ Come on, you might as well try it, I need help to get these on” I held up the options she had already picked out, they were all heavy and weighing me down. “ This one looks like a two man job anyway” I held up a burnt orange ball gown with a tutu style skirt Stella had gone crazy about. Apparently it was Madame Belu’s signature style from her first collection the woman loved a tutu skirt. There were about ten layers to this one in my hand.

We both chuckled and headed for the dressing rooms, as we rounded the corner we could hear raised voices, well one raised voice.

“……Outrage! the store should have been closed for me only” a beautiful redhead rages at a timid looking assistant.

They are standing right by the fitting rooms and it was obvious we weren't the only ones in the store feeling awkward. Several women stood around unsure of what to do and clearly wanted to use the dressing rooms but the two women were now blocking it.

Great, this was all I needed to finish off the day.

The redhead continued to shout mindless obscenities at the poor assistant who seemed to be trying to disappear into herself, definitely not oblivious to the audience unlike the redhead.

“ who’s that biatch?” I muttered to Stella who nudged me with the stink eye that said ‘ shut the hell up’ I held back an eye roll. I understood the higher arckie, this woman clearly was of rank I could feel her aura, although there was something not quite authentic about it, like when a woman tries to pass off a fake handbag for the real thing.

This woman was the Nada of Prada when it came to rank.

I respected the pecking order in the pack, I didn’t always feel lower ranks were treated well but it was what made packs work, everyone had their place and purpose to keep the pack running but some took it way too far and I didn’t buy into the right for higher ranks to treat the lower ranks like crap.

Apparently Stella had submitted to the stereo type. Unlike the others she hadn’t been awkwardly observing the scene, instead she was looking through a rack close to us as if to keep busy and pretend she wasn’t listening.

She now looked around horrified after I spoke up but relaxed when she saw that my comment hadn’t drawn attention.

She leaned in and whispered “ that’s Maddison Gardner, she’s the one Theo was telling us about last night” I gasped out loud realising that the woman in front of us was the alpha king's fated mate or to be precise his ex.

Theo had told us all about the scene she had caused at the summit and one of the elders tried to force the king to mate with this physco. Thankfully Theo said the king hadn’t taken the bait and put the elder and this she devil in their place. Good for him.

No one should be forced to mate with someone, it was like Alisha always said, you don’t have to accept the gift of the mate bond.

Now seeing the woman that was meant to be our rightful queen you had to wonder if this moon goddess was in her right mind when she picks mates out. Not to slander a goddess but if she sent me a gift like the screaming banshee in front of us I wouldn’t have just sent it back I’d have demeaned compensation.

As if to prove a point the female in question began ranting at the sales woman about not having her favoured designs set aside. I frowned watching the poor young girl squirm under the b***h intense scrutiny.

“ She's a bully is what she is, who does she think she is?” I whisper yelled not taking my gaze off them. My patience was pushing its limits watching them.

“ didn’t you hear, she is the future queen” a mocking voice to my left whispered. I turned to see a beautiful young woman watching the show with a giant smirk on her face.

I scoffed “ who told you that?” We only just had an announcement there was an heir to the throne and not many knew about the little show at the alpha summit yet. Which meant the girl could have been there or she was a leader's daughter or even mate.

“ it’s true she rolled up a few days ago and has been throwing her weight around since, though I’ll admit she has some balls since the king outed her to all the leaders at the summit” ahh so she was definitely a daughter or mate of a leader. I had to admit despite her friendly demeanour she did look like a daddy's girl type.

High heels, expensive summer dress, long blonde highlights held back by her Ray-bans and let’s not forget the Gucci handbag hanging from her delicate arm. All paid for by a male that no doubt ran her life in exchange for pretty things.I sighed.

“ I’m Vanessa, '' she smiled, offering me a manicured hand, I took it not wanting to be impolite. She seemed nice enough and I hated that I was becoming that girl that always thinks the worst of people.

Since I left I’ve been surrounded in a dark cloud that assumes everyone is up to no good, ok so I don’t have a great track record, cheated on by my boyfriend, blackmailed by alpha Harrison and hunted by a crazy aunt who wants to sell me to a perverted male as a s*x slave. Yep I definitely had no reason to trust people.

If I didn’t have my family I honestly didn’t want to imagine the kind of woman I’d be.

Despite my bad experiences I didn’t want to become closed off, not if I wanted to be one of the pack doctors. How could I help people if they didn’t feel they could approach me.

I shook Vanessa’s hand noting how supper soft her skin was, yep she had most likely hand never done a hard days work in her life.

“ lyla and this is my sister in law Stella” I nodded to Stella who smiled at me before waving to Vanessa. “ oh your Theo’s mate?” She queried and Stella smiled brightly nodding her head. I couldn’t help but smile back. It was obvious how much she loved my brother even the mention of his name brought a smile to her face.

“ Are you looking forward to the ball?” Stella asked while we continued to watch the redhead make a spectacle of herself, she was now just ranting to no one in particular.

Vanessa hestialted to answer Stella and then shook her head looking sad “ honestly, I wish I could just go back home but my father has made plans he wants to see through so for now I’m stuck here” she pouted then continued to watch the show.

“ Wow this b***h is ten shades of crazy, no wonder the king didn’t want to associate with her.” Venessa said scowling at the scene still going on.

Unable to stand by any more I stepped forward until I was blocking the so-called kings non queen’s view of the almost sobbing girl she was ranting at “ excuse me but don’t talk to her that way” I scolded. The women actually had the audacity to look at me like I’d grown two heads.

“ Who are you to talk to me? Do you know who I am?” She scowled, placing her hands on her hips.

“ thoughtless, rude, inconsiderate, ill mannered, disrespectful, take your pick honey, they are all true” the woman actually took a step back like I’d slapped her. She wasn’t used to being put in her place and yet it wasn’t even the first time it had happened this week.

The female recovered her shock and looked positively raging “ how dare you….” She began but I interrupted which only pissed her off more.

“ oh I dare” I laughed I wasn’t scared of her, “this woman” I pointed over my shoulder without looking at the poor girl behind me “ she works hard to sell beautiful dresses, she doesn’t deserve to be spoken to like that by you”

“ That's your future queen” one of the females chimed in. Looking at me like I was dirt, apparently the redhead had minions.

A blonde and brunette suddenly appeared flanking the redhead looking at the three of them standing side by side; I almost gasped, they looked like something out of every man's fantasy. Bodies of goddesses and faces of angels.

As if designed to be the ultimate temptation. It wasn’t just the fact they were beautiful beyond all logic, everything about them had been designed to draw a person in even their scent seemed intoxicating.

The moment was eclipsed when I caught the overpowering scent of the redheads perfume, it seemed to knock my senses back, I shook my head and hardened my stare once again “ I don’t care if she’s the moon goddess herself, you don’t speak to people that way” I said before turning my attention back to queen B. “ and if you are the future queen you should know better”

So called queen was in a state of shock clearly just used to people worshipping at her feet and doing whatever she wants when her one minion stepped in “ Stella, do you know this?” The blonde asked looking past me.

“ she’s Theo’s sister, the human” the dark haired minion spoke as Stella was at a loss for words, as soon as the word human left the girls mouth though queen Bs mouth turned up into a sinister smirk and I internally rolled my eyes.

“ ahhh the black sheep the gamma family

sent away because they were so ashamed to have a human in the family” she laughed in my face, making my blood boil and I had to reign in my magic so she didn’t sense it. “ can’t say I blame them I wouldn’t want to associate with a non wolf, how humiliating for your family” I’m not gonna lie her words hurt, I knew it wasn’t true and I knew it wasn’t why I’d been sent away but I couldn’t honestly say it didn’t allow insecurities seep through the cracks. How the hell did she know about my family?

“ Come on Maddison there are better stores to spend our money in anyway” , the dark haired minion said and the trio turned away.

“ don’t you mean daddy's money” I gave her a mocking smile as I folded my arms across my chest.

They turned back to me in utter shock, their mouths almost hitting the floor “ at least my daddy isn’t ashamed to have me as a daughter” the woman spat, she did this insult already, was this all she had? I thought, feeling bored now.

“ No just sold you off to the highest bidder, I’m sure daddy got a nice lump sum for your sale” I smirked when I saw my remark hit home, she had a great poker face I’ll admit, probably through years of practice but she had tells.

Her left eye twitched and her lips pursed just that little more and the rate her eyes kept blinking you could see she was holding back the tears.

My words had bothered her; she didn’t want to believe that she was merely part of a transaction for her father. I couldn’t feel bad though since she was more than happy to throw insults at others. She had looked at me like I was dirt under her designer shoe, just because I wasn’t a wolf, assuming I was weak yet I was the most powerful one in the room.

Queen wannabe recovered first and straightened her back. In the stilettos she was taller than me so it made it easier to look down on me but I wasn’t going to flinch away, she wasn’t intimidating me. She got in my face and the overpowering stench of her sweet perfume invaded my personal space“ her father made sure she would get the best mate possible and she did unlike you who will be left to the dogs, human” I tried to focus on her words but the smell was making me want to gag, man if this was what it was like for me the poor sales assistant was probably suffocating with her sensitive nose.

She finally stood back away from me and I could breathe “ when I am queen my first decree will be to send any retched humans like you far away so you can no longer pollute my kingdom “ she smiled smugly as did her friends.

“ so you really are the future queen?” I asked her, changing my voice to excited in the blink of an eye.

The girl stood tall excited to be getting respect at last. “yes I am I’m the kings fated mate ” she declared, I’m guessing she was trying to look regal but she just looked like she had trapped wind.

“ oh yea we heard about that, I have to say I admire you” her smile brightened.

“ I mean if the king himself had dumped me on my overused ass for cheating in front of the entire supernatural council and leaders I don’t think I could show my face in public ever again” I heard gasps around us and a few snickers disguised as coughs. Stella did a little snort. I glanced her way to see she was bright red.

“ that was a misunderstanding” red blushed trying to recover her composer but not doing very well this time.

“ Which part?” Vanessa stepped forward her face impassive. “ the part where he rejected you after finding you in bed with another alpha or where you tried to railroad him into making you queen by ambushing him at the summit?” More gasps rang out and I could see one or two pack members had pulled out their phones. We couldn’t be seen to be discussing the events of the summit in public. They were supposed to be confidential between the leaders and didn’t want to risk Theo getting In trouble.

I spoke up just as queen b***h turned on vanessa “ oh how humble a queen you must be to shop with a human like me, after all I would have thought your beloved king would have had couture brought to you at the palace”

“ of course he would have, I just….”

“ doesn’t the panther king have dresses from all over the country brought for his wife when there’s a ball on?” I asked the assistant who was still behind me, not letting queen b***h finish.

“ y..yes miss in fact king magnus always had some of our own pieces sent as a courtesy for the alliance, king Lucas extended that gesture also” she mumbled obviously not wanting to get involved.

I had to hold in a laugh. This was perfect not only had she been shown up for being a title chaser, being a liar but also she was going to pay for items another queen got for free to sweeten their alliance.

The look on the girls face was deadly. She may be able to hide her emotions but I had shown her up in front of her peers and that meant something to a woman of her standing, reputation was everything. After all it wasn’t like she had a career to fall back on she was arm candy. She relied on the power of men.

The two girls behind her began whispering, my desired effect had worked. Her minions were now questioning her power and I gave her a little smile. A look passed between us that said I would regret showing her up like this. Serves her right for throwing her weight around and disrespecting her future subjects. I hoped that the king did not forgive her infidelity something told me she would not be a good queen. Just because you have power doesn’t mean you have to lord it over people.

The moment was broken when Madame Belu appeared carrying a new dress design downstairs with her. As soon queen B saw her she stomped over to her asking why no designs had been sent to her. She replied by stating the obvious.

Where was she to send them, miss Gardner wasn’t staying in the palace the king had thrown her out after the summit.

I couldn’t hold in my laugh any longer when Madame Belu stated very calmly that we had no queen and no request was made from the palace. With that the girl stormed out unable to intimidate Madame Belu.

As soon as she left we all began laughing. “Who was that intolerable woman?” Madame Belu asked staring at the closed door. I went towards the counter she was now stood behind.. “ our future queen apparently” I chuckled hugging her.

“ how are you Annie ?” I whispered as she wrapped her arms around me.

“ shhhhhh less of the Annie in public please lyla” she scalded, tucking her black hair behind her ear that had fallen lose of her tight bun.

“ sorry…..MADAME!!” I dramatically bowed at her and she rolled her eyes. “ I should have known it was you causing trouble in my boutique, how long have you been back…” she looked down at her expensive watch “ oh five hours, you're behind” I laughed. I was well known for shooting my mouth off around the pack, I couldn’t help it. I wasn't a stand on the sidelines kind of girl.

Annie- as her real name was, had been in my class at school before she decided to leave for a while to travel. She had gotten an internship in Paris right out of high school working for some designer whose name I couldn’t pronounce and eventually had become one herself though she had specialised in wedding couture it seemed she had been branching out since then into ball gowns which made sense since werewolves didn’t really need wedding dresses. It was quite ironic now I thought about it, Annie was well sort after in the human world for her wedding couture yet here her skill was almost useless. No wonder she was making ball gowns instead now.

“ Well I thought I’d let everyone adjust to me being home before I stirred up trouble, besides I was just stopping a bully ” I answered with a smile, Annie nodded. “ same old lyla always sticking up for the little guy” I shrugged someone had to.

We chatted for a while and Annie told me that she had moved back home after she met her mate Chris on a visit with her parents. He’d joined the pack to become a royal guard a few years before he met Annie.

She gushed and smiled blissfully happy as she told me all about him. I was happy she was so happy even though a little sad she had given up her life in the human world for a man but at least he supported her business here.

While myself and Annie had a catch up Stella went to try on her dress but I subtly pushed mine to one side. I hadn’t really seen anything I liked and maybe if I didn’t have a dress I wouldn’t be forced to go. At some point that Vanessa girl disappeared without a word but I didn’t think much of it.

The door to the boutique chimed and in strolled Marcus, as soon as he spotted me his charming smile was thrown my way and it was even more swoon worthy than Tyler’s. Apparently my little brother had things still to learn from his big brother. Thank the goddess I was unaffected but I could see how Marcus probably had left puddles of swooned females at his feet over the years.

“ have you come to pick out a pretty dress for the ball too” I cooed trying to grab his cheeks like I had Tyler but Marcus dodged me laughing.

“ nah I already picked my pretty dress out weeks ago, you can have my cast offs” he waved his hands at me dramatically making both myself and Annie laugh.

We talked for a few moments waiting for Stella to come out, Marcus had been sent to babysit since Theo couldn’t meet us. Marcus knew Annie’s mate Chris from warrior training so the conversation flowed easy as they hung out all the time. Although I did get the distinct impression maybe Chris and Marcus hung out a lot outside of training before Chris met Annie.

Stella finally reappeared with a bright smile and put the dress down for Annie to ring up. Thankfully she was so happy with her own dress she had forgotten about me.

“ What's this?” I asked picking up a flyer on the counter.

“ the new king is stirring up trouble,” Marcus said over my shoulder.

“ How so?” I questioned him holding up the paper seeing it was talking about equal rights and a vote to change outdated laws.

Something I was very interested in seeing.

It said If the vote was passed it would mean serious changes for people, namely women. I studied the paper seeing that one of the laws looking to be changed was the mating law. The king wanted to out rule the abuse of the mate bond.

I had no doubt that Alisha had been the reasoning behind that, I didn’t know what Alisha’s relationship was to the new king but I was sure he would know of the treatment she had suffered at the hands of her fated mate. Alisha had let slip she knew the new king though I didn’t know the whole story but she seemed to have some kind of relationship with him I’m not sure where they met since Alisha never left her pack.

I had been disgusted by Alisha’s story, her fated mate had used and abused her for years until Alpha Mitchell came along. I'll admit if I had known of the situation before her mate had accepted her rejection I would have tortured him until he did so. Just a thought.

I thought it was a wonderful tribute to Alisha that the king was fighting for this new law. Of course it wouldn’t stop others from betraying the mate bond but it would mean the guilty party would be held accountable for their actions by wolf law. Which in itself would mean less abuse and will give the alpha’s the power to be able to force guilty parties to accept rejections, less people would suffer like Alisha did.

“ He's creating mischief,” Marcus sighed sounding bored.

“ MISCHIEF!” Annie exclaimed angrily. She glared at my brother like he was the devil.

“ that’s a poor choice of words to describe our new king” Stella told him with the conviction of a butterfly.

“ he’s fighting for equal rights, how many have suffered because of such barbaric traditions and laws written by men who no longer walk this earth” Annie continued, her arms now folded piercing Marcus with her glare.

“ bloody politics uninteresting” Marcus shrugged, not really getting the trouble he was in.

“ spoken like a man who has had every advantage in life” Annie scolded angry, of course my brother wouldn’t be interested in politics when he’s enjoyed all the freedoms men of our world do. He trains hard and parties hard but if he were a female he would not be allowed to train as a warrior and if he slept around the way he did so openly as a female he would be considered a slut and looked down on. Yet as a male nothing.

“ You're sounding more like elder Stephan now” I said and he looked at me like I slapped him.

“ Since when do you like politics” he asked suddenly sensing the three piercing gazes from the females in front of him.

“ since it is to better the lives of the people” I said to him.

“ explain to me how the people suffer so now?” He challenged me, looking like I was mad.

Annie sighed, shaking her head apparently giving up “ well you would think that but how many women betas are there ?” I wasn’t going to get into the barbaric traditions of alphas that only consider themselves to have heirs if they have males.

“ or warriors?” I asked but Marcus said nothing.

“ Or our right to be regarded as people instead of property or bed warmers ?” I was on a role, it was common knowledge that females generally had no choice once they found their mate, male wolves were territorial and even if they found their mate lacking they still looked at them as property to be owned.

“ or the fair treatment of omegas?” Annie argued, that was one thing I hated about silver moon pack. How all the omegas were expected to be bed warmers for the unmated warriors - males warriors.

“ what about all your female friends you screw around with?” Marcus went to speak but I stopped him.

“ before you protest all I’ll say is this, their not your mate but they are someone’s how would you feel knowing your mate was out their fooling around with other men who weren’t you ” I scolded.

I was stunned thinking my own flesh and blood had never given any of this thought but then what did I expect when he’s never needed to he is a high ranking male why would he worry about it when it’s never affected him in anyway.

Marcus looked remorseful upon seeing our reaction I know I’d given him things to think about and that was the important thing after all he was just a kid still and what teenagers really did think beyond their own wants and needs.

He was about to say something when we heard that rude female’s voice in the store again. Goddamit she actually came back?