Beyond A King

Oh sister

(Oliver pov)

I was walking towards the pack house after leaving lyla. The scene at the coffee shop has surprised me, I’d always believe what I heard about humans and assumed they were all weak timid creatures but lyla Atwood had me intrigued. I’d half expected her to have left in a flood of tears after what those guys had said to her but she hadn’t backed down it was amazing to see her in action when she showed those assholes who’s boss, she hadn’t even really needed my help but I’d felt a sense of protectiveness come over me. I couldn’t help being drawn to her, I knew she wasn’t my mate but even my wolf felt protective of her.

I heard a snap close to the path. I stopped walking and looked around sniffing the air. I smelt the sickening scent of cinnamon moments before she stepped out in front of me onto the path.

“ I said get close to the beta female not the human sister” she growled but I ignored her and kept walking. I couldn't stand the sight of her yet I by some cruel twist of fate I couldn’t get rid of her. I shoved her shoulder as I passed and she lost her balance in her stupid heels.

I smirked for a second before she spoke again “ Oh dear so clumsy, I do hope your mother isn’t as clumsy, she could have a terrible accident” she spoke with such sweetness on her voice, I stopped in my tracks knowing hurting my mother brought her great pleasure but I couldn’t let any of it happen because of me. I knew our father would do nothing to keep my mother safe that was for sure. I turned to face her, she had her arms folded and a huge smug grin on her face that I wanted to slap off.

“ come here mutt” she clicked her fingers expecting me to heal but I didn’t move.

“ What do you want vanessa?” I gritted out. Shoving my ands in my pockets so I wouldn’t hit her.

She huffed impatiently flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. I could see why she didn’t appreciate having to come find me, especially if it meant wandering around where the lower classes lived. Her white heels were already scuffed with dirt from the path. “ I told you I needed you to get close to the beta female so I have an in with her but instead you're getting pally with the human” she scoffed, picking up her phone and holding it up to me showing a video of the coffee shop fight. s**t that thing was already viral.

“ How is this going to help me become queen?” she stomped like a pup and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“ how does that reflect on you?” No one knew our connection so I don’t see how it would affect her all that video showed was that the Atwood girl was a total badass.

“ don’t play dumb with me mutt you know damn well your supposed to get friendly with the beta female and get me intel so I can make Lucas see I’m the perfect fit to become queen how can I do that if im associated with a thug that hangs out with uncivilised humans” she all but shouted, if this was a cartoon there would be steam coming out of her ears. I knew why she wanted me close to the beta’s so when she revealed we were close she would look like a woman of the people, the perfect Luna being friends with the regular wolves. Truth was the only time she saw us was when she looked down her nose to check what she was stepping on.

“ well it’s easy, don’t tell people we are related” technically Vanessa was only my half sibling. The worst half. I wanted nothing to do with her scheming. Or our fathers for that matter, I was never acknowledged as Montgomery’s son anyway because my mother was an omega it didn’t matter she was his fated mate he believed that his heir had to come from an alpha female. Imagine his disappointment when Vanessa came from his chosen Luna.

Vanessa stood tapping her feet like the immature little brat she was I rolled my eyes not wanting to deal with her bullshit today “ don’t walk away from me Oliver” she screeched, we were on a quiet path that was overgrown and hardly used so she was voicing herself more than usual.

I turned back frustrated “ I don’t understand, dad has given up with this since he lost the elder, do you really think becoming the betas bestie is going to help you become queen?” She couldn’t be this deluded.

Vanessa shrugged “ what am I supposed to do go home to the warrior the goddess gave me?” she scoffed I still couldn’t believe she had rejected her own mate back home, maverick was a good guy but vanessa refused to accept anything less than an alpha but when she got to the palace she became well acquainted with the luxuries palace life offers and she became obsessed now she only had king Lucas in her sights “ no I’m meant to be queen and I’m going to make sure that happens but if you keep screwing around my plans going to fail and you know what happens then don’t you mutt” of course I know she reminds me every day.

I had to give her something “ the human has only just come home so Stella is making an effort with her, she’s my in with Stella” it wasn’t a lie the beta female was spending more time with lyla than the others not that it was the reason for my interest in lyla. I liked her. “ besides if an unmated male begins sniffing round the mated beta female how is that going to go down with her mate? Don’t you think it will look less suspicious, if I get to know them as the humans new friend and not a potential threat to their mate bond”

Venessa tapped her foot thinking for a moment “ you better hope so, otherwise mommy pays for your screw up” she said before turning and walking away.

( Lyla pov)

I looked in utter shock at the woman staring back at me. I turned to my side and she turned with me, I lifted my arm to be sure and sure enough the woman in the reflection lifted hers too. Yet still I couldn’t believe it.

Yep, that's definitely me in the mirror. Only I didn’t recognise myself. The woman in the mirror was stunning and elegant, someone who belonged at a royal ball and would indeed draw attention. Definitely not Lyla Atwood.

I kept studying myself, admiring the beautiful work Cora had done to transform me. She had worked hard on my hair curling the dark strands to perfection and pining it to the side so it tumbled down my one shoulder while the other was left exposed showcasing my bare shoulder thanks to Annie’s exquisite dress design. When she had offered me the drsss asking me to show case it for her I never expected her to have given me such a masterpiece.

It had to be the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. A stunning deep red combination of silk and lace. The straps were a Bardot style lying nicely over my arms leaving my neckline and shoulders exposed in a way that looked elegant. The combination of silk and lace clinging beautifully to my breasts and the sweetheart neckline giving me just the right amount of cleavage, as if that wasn’t enough to draw attention to my chest Annie had also the top with beautiful dimaties, I had to say my breast looked amazing even I couldn’t stop glancing at them but they were nothing compared to how tiny my waste looked.

There were layers of underskirts that brought the bottom out to flow beautifully around my legs adding volume to the gown. A small slip exposed my leg to the knee only added to its beauty while the rest of the skirt flowed freely to the ground.

“ It’s truly the most gorgeous dress” I heard Cora behind me admiring the dress from my bedroom doorway.

“ I definitely feel like royalty, probably a good thing we are going to a royal ball” I chuckled feeling self conscious.

“ you look like a queen, your so beautiful my darling” she came in and hugged me without ruing all her hard work. Cora herself was wearing a royal blue gown, it was fitted and had one shoulder, her black hair was up in an elaborate updo that I couldn’t understand how she had the time to do after working on me for so long. She had spent over an hour doing my makeup alone and yet She looked flawless. Like she hadn’t just run off 30 minutes ago to change.

I was about to tell her how beautiful she was when dad appeared in the doorway. Tonight he had worn a tux with a blue hancachive that matched Cora’s dress, his hair was tied back and he had trimmed his beard nicely. My dad was still an incredibly handsome man even now in his forties he looked like an older version of Thor, all muscles and rugged blonde hair. It was a rare occasion for the man to put on a suit but from the look on Cora’s face I could see she wasn’t complaining as she drank in the sight of him like he was a fine wine.

“ wow I’m a lucky man to be surrounded by such beauties” he said entering the room beaming at Cora.

“ ever the charmer” Cora rolled her eyes but smiled lovingly at him. Dad came in, wrapping her in his arms. I smiled at them. They were such a wonderful couple. I felt a twinge of sadness at the sight of them though. I was sad that I would probably never know a love like theirs. I wasn’t a wolf so the goddess would unlikely give me a mate.I had once held out hope someone would one day love me the way a mate did. I thought I’d had that once but I had just been a fool.

Dads voice brought me out of my thoughts “ when did my little girl turn into such a beautiful young woman” he asked and I realised both he and Cora were looking at me. I could feel the blush on my face and looked down embarrassed, I’d never been good at taking compliments.

“ don’t embarrass her” Cora slapped his arm but he didn’t even flinch.

“ I speak the truth love my baby girl is a beauty, every man in that room tonight will be looking at her” he grumbled like that would be the worst thing in the world. The truth was he wanted to keep me his little girl forever which was ironic since I wasn’t the baby in the family but unlike the other he knew I wouldn’t have a mate and therefore I was the baby he would get to keep. At least that’s how dad saw it.

“ something tells me I’ll have to set more than one young man straight tonight, let’s just hope none of them have a death wish and take the warning, I’d hate to have to get blood down my tux” he muttered, making me groan.

“ NO!” Cora warned him.

Shouting came from somewhere in the house and without warning Tyler came barrelling into the room breathless and half trying to shove his pants on, his shirt was miss buttoned and his jacket hung from one arm, it was obvious he’d dressed in a rush. “ see..” he wheezed “ I told you I’d be ready” he huffed at dad.

Dad just sighed, shaking his head “ yes, you look very ready son” he said sarcastically.

“ I told you not to go to Billy’s after training” Cora scolded him but Tyler just rolled his eyes to answer, dad smacked the back of his head. “ don’t roll your eyes at your mother boy” he scolded, Tyler kissed Cora on the cheek as an apology and ran back out as quickly as he’d come.

Marcus passed my doorway moments later with a disapproving look on his face and his jacket slung over his arm “ you know he was probably off with some girl right?” He said to Cora and dad.

“ Oh and you are the embodiment of virtue, son? How many young she wolf’s have succumbed to your charm this week? ” Dad gave him an equally disapproving look, making Marcus look at me for a moment and then down at the ground.

Cora smack dads chest “ I think your father forgets that he was a rake with a capital R back in the day” she wasn’t kidding how else would you end up with so many pups and none of them share a mother.

“ The key word is WAS love” he pulled Cora closer to his chest and kissed her deeply “ the only woman I see now is you” he admitted and we all knew it to be true, you only had to look at dad when he was gazing at his mate to see how deeply he loved her. He told us he never rejected his choices because that would mean he wouldn’t have had any of us and he loved us all too much to regret it all but I know he sometimes struggles when he sees how much it hurts Cora,

“ we should head out, I want to say good night to Elliot before we leave, lyla sweetie are you coming?” She asked at they headed out the room.

“ I’ll meet you guys down there” I needed a moment to steady my nerves. I could kill Annie for this, the last thing I wanted was to stand out in a crowd but this dress was not exactly made to stand in a corner and wait until it was time to go home. This dress was made to be the showstopper.

I wish I could say it was the thought of this ball making my nerves run wild but truth was I still couldn’t escape the haunting images I had seen when I looked into the pups memories at the hospital. The things he had witnessed, the blood shed, his family’s death, and the witch from my nightmares erasing his memories, she had needed him alive to play witness to what she wanted him to say, his purpose to feed the king false information about the attack. Then they had left him alone in the darkness with the remains of his pack. It was devastating I was almost relieved the memories had been erased. I had cried in Theo’s arms as I told him everything he had headed back to the palace to alert the king. I still couldn’t believe this ball was going ahead with the danger peeking at our door.

I took a deep breath clutching my mothers pendant that sat gently against my chest. My memory is still so clear of her giving it to me, just before she died. She had said “ lyla sweetie never take this off, it will keep you safe”. I don’t know if she meant it literally but I never broke my promise to her, I never removed the pendant, I wore it everywhere. It wasn’t exactly something that really went with my elegant dress, the pendant was made of obsidian attached to a chain. The women tonight we're sure to be wearing diamond necklaces on their necks, my pendant didn’t scream elegance but the dress more than made up for it, good job because I wasn’t about to take it off not even if king Lucas himself ordered me to do it.

As I leave my room the door across from mine opens and I smile but my face drops when I don’t see my little sister but instead I see a young male staring back at me. He is surprised for a moment not expecting to see anyone but then his eyes begin to study my body hungrily, I don’t feel threatened by the adolescent, more irritated it takes everything in me not to smack him up the side of the head and tell him to show women some respect but then I catch the dishevelled state of my sister just behind him and all my attention goes to her.

She’s in a pretty lilac dress from Annie’s prom collection. The top seems to be a embroidered body suit with wide straps that turns to feathers on the shoulders, I can see it’s a body suit because in addition to the plunging neckline that I know for a fact Cora and dad will go crazy about the floor length tutu skirt has a huge split all the way up to the wait line exposing the whole length of the body suit on one side. It’s completely inappropriate for a royal ball full of the world's supernatural leaders not to mention Sophia is fifteen and already has a reputation with the boys in the pack, if what was said at coffee bean was anything to go by. This dress will do nothing to deter that image.

Sophia looks at me startled and tries to adjust herself, by the looks of it she was ready to leave but her friend had other activities on his mind and now her blonde hair is falling loose as if it’s been tugged on viciously. When Sophia wipes her lips and blushes I cringe at the thought of what she had been doing that would have had the young boy fisting her hair like that. I shake the unwanted thoughts not wanting to think of my baby sister doing those things. When I left she was still playing with dolls.

The guy is still checking me out and it’s pissing me off now. He shakes his head regaining composure a few seconds later he turns and thanks my sister for the fun and leaves but not before sending a wink my way. I flick my finger sending a jolt towards the back of his knee as he hits the stairs that lead to the back door, huh as if he has used it before. Interesting.

The jolt isn’t enough to hurt him but it does cause him to stumble on the stairs. He has to grab the railing to stop himself from falling on his ass. I look back to see Sophia glaring at me. Busted.

After the boy disappears she grabs my arm pulling me to her “ what the hell” she growls.

“ what?” I just shrug nonchalantly.

Sophia just gets more angry “ don’t what. What was that?” She points in the direction her friend went.

“ He's clumsy,” I shrugged. “ Enough about that, what the hell are you doing?” Now Sophia shrugged again, messing with her hair. It wasn’t improving; she would need to redo it.

“You're whoring yourself through the pack now?” I accused her.

Sophia rolled her eyes at me “ we weren't having s*x lyla” like that makes it all better.

“ no just everything but right” she looked down not meeting my eye and I knew it was true.

“ don’t be such a prude lyla it’s not like your so innocent” if only she knew how hilarious that was, yea I was her big sister and up until a couple of years ago had been in a relationship for most of my teens. The truth was though, and not something I advertised was that I was still a virgin. With my dad having the reputation he did and the rest of my family having similar morals I’d always promised myself that I would save myself and wouldn’t have s*x until it was with someone special, which raises the question of why I’d never felt ready to give myself to Sebastian. Maybe on some level I knew he was wrong for me.

“ You're getting a reputation, what does dad think of you running around the pack with most of the guys at school? ” she shrugged unbothered that she’d been caught pretty much red handed giving a random pack male a blow job. Cora and dad had only just left my room. What if they had come to check on her it was as if she didn’t care.

“ It's not like that and dad doesn’t really have a leg to stand on he was no saint, none of us would be here if he was” she turned and stalked back into her room.

“ so what you want to go down the same road, dad had a terrible reputation before Cora, he treated women like kleenex, he used them and threw them away like they were nothing” it was true most of the females his age range couldn’t stand him now. He had even lost some of his closest friends because he slept with women that turned out to be their mates.

“ Sophia, what about your mate? ” I asked hoping she would think about how he would feel, she wasn’t eighteen, what if she was fooling around with his friends.

“ I’m not having s*x, my mate will appreciate that I saved myself” she stomped like it still made what she was doing ok. What if these boys decided to let her mate know all the intimate details of what she had done with them.

“ so you think it will be any easier knowing you’ve been with all these boys, that he won’t be reminded of the fact you’ve been with others before him”

“ it will be fine I make it clear I’m not having s*x” she huffed and began to close the door but I put my hand in the way. What happened to my little sister.

“ yea and how long before one of these boys pressures you too much to have s*x, what then? What if they won’t take no for an answer?” She looks down rubbing her head by the looks of her she was already being pressured by these boys to have s*x.

“ be careful, you remember what happen with beta benjamins mate, your actions now could cost you your future” everyone knew the story Benjamin and dad had grown up together along with king magnus they called them the three heartbreakers or something like that. When Benjamin later met his mate she couldn’t get over how he had been with most of the females in the pack, she was hounded by his ex-conquests until she decided the pain wasn’t worth it. She rejected beta Benjamin and the man was never the same after that. Breaking the mate bond can cost a shifter their wolf; it's not something you do lightly. I didn’t want my sister to lose her mate because of this. She couldn’t take back what she’d done but she could stop getting a reputation before it got out of hand.

I could see in Sophia’s eyes that she was thinking. The thought of losing her mate as a result of her actions being a real possibility was hitting home. Her eyes began to well with tears but she sniffed and her expression turned serious “ You don’t know anything, you don’t even have a mate so just stay out of my business” she shouted slamming the door.

I sighed hoping that Sophia hadn’t done much with these boys and hopefully she could still come back from the reputation she was getting. It wasn’t for me to fix things for her but I couldn’t help it. It seemed to be in my nature to stick my nose in other people's business. I realised now I no longer knew my little sister and that made me sad. I left her doorway heading for the stairs, admiring how my dress flowed beautifully behind me as I walked, I didn’t even need to lift the skirt as I descended thanks to the tiny slip.

As I reached the living room everyone was waiting, Penny was fussing over the pups' outfits wearing them to stay clean. She looked better rested now it seemed my potion did the trick. Her dress was a beautiful black strapless ball gown with gold embellishments, although it highlighted how skinny she had become she looked stunning with her hair in a neat bun.

“ where’s Sophia?” Marcus asked and I just shrugged not meeting his eye. I looked over at penny to see her eyes glaze over. “She said she’d meet us there she wants to walk up with some of her classmates ”

“ our little Sophia’s so popular” Cora’s beamed. I rolled my eyes.

“ popular with the pack boys maybe” I muttered. Thankfully no one heard since it was far too loud.

We began to leave and I noticed Tyler come strolling towards me offering his arm dramatically “ milady” he pouted making me chuckle. I noticed Marcus was escorting penny while dad had Cora’s arm. It wasn’t really needed for a female to be escorted but I guess since we were now representing Theo as the new beta we couldn’t exactly go to a royal ball like a mass of hooligans.

“ such an gentleman” I said taking his hand.

“ nah dad threatened me not to let you walk in looking like that unescorted, we want to avoid all the unmated males getting murdered tonight” I rolled my eyes but didn’t say any more we both slipped on our masks and followed dad and Cora out.

The palace was only a short walk from our home. As we climbed the hill towards the palace I can see the pathway has been lined with lights twinkling like stars in the darkness, a red carpet has been rolled out leading to the entrance where guests are arriving in all their finery.

There was a buzz in the air that promised for an enticing evening. Alphas, Luna’s and high ranking officials from all over the supernatural realm had been invited to attend the event. From the turn out it seemed everyone who had been invited was in attendance, probably all eager to get a glimpse of the new king for themselves.

Of course everyone was curious with the heir only being made public recently. Especially since he seemed to have already irritated the kingdom elders by boycotting the traditional ceremony. There was no coronation or grand ceremony that would cost the kingdom millions. The new king took the throne with only a few witnesses present, this would be the first time he will appear in public and everyone was buzzing with excitement and apprehension. Of course there were whispers from everyone as to if he would be a good fit as king but as far as I was concerned choosing to save money for the kingdom over flashing it in order to show off was the making of a great ruler.

The crowd became bigger as we climbed the stairs entering the huge palace, I couldn’t remember the last time I had been here but the nostalgia hit me instantly as I was reminded of being a young teen and running through the large corridors with Tyler while dad would visit with king Magnus, we would hide behind the gold pillars playing hide and seek, my heels clicked against the marble flooring as we followed the crowd into the main ballroom.

“ oh damn I need to pee” Tyler announced.

“ I’ll wait for you” I didn’t want to go in alone as the others had already gotten swept in the crowd.

“ Nah go ahead I’ll meet you in there” he pushed me towards the doors and before I could protest he was gone.

I adjusted the mask on my face and moved forward, the crowd had moved on without me so now I moved into the ball room alone. when I entered I couldn’t help but noticed a hush seemed to fall over the crowd, I looked around to see several pairs of eyes looking at us. I heard a few growls here and there as male eyes all around leered at me, drinking me in. A few females looked at me with admiration while other glared but the thing that unnerved me the most was the whispering so many whispering voices around me. It took everything in me to move further into the room and not turn tale and run. At least my face was covered and no one could see the blush on my cheeks.

Any other female would have soaked in the attention instead I was planning Annie and Tyler’s slow deaths. As if by magic my sneaky little brother appeared beside me with a satisfied smirk on his face. The little Jerk had planned for me to enter alone. Now I was fair game to all the unmated males.

Tonight was going to be an interesting night.