Lycan's unexpected mate

Back at the palace

Triton

I am sitting at the table in my office when the patrol of the south castle gate mindlinks me: "Alpha King, your daughter's team is returning."

"Good," I answer. "Let them in and tell Atalanta to come to my office immediately."

"Will do, Alpha King."

I look at the stack of files in front of me. Those are the main information on all families from the ranked werewolves who can accept another infant into their home and heart. I know I have given Atalanta a year to find a suitable family, however, it's better to be prepared and help her. She's still my baby girl and I would do anything to see her happy. I know there should be some boundaries and I try to implement them but when she pleads with me, there is little I can do to fight her. Unfortunately, Rhea knows this and exploits it against me whenever I try to negotiate with our oldest daughter.

Don't get me wrong. Despite all that, I am everlastingly glad that she has this kind of charm. All other Royal families like her a lot. She's funny and easy to talk to. Thankfully, there are no intra-species agreed marriages, otherwise maybe both the Vampires and Sorcerers would offer their oldest sons for marriage. The boys like Atalanta immensely and they respect her, for which I am grateful. It will be easier for her to ascend the throne of the Lycan's and Werewolves' because they won't have any objections.

If only she could find her mate soon. I mean, she will need a lot of training as the Luna Queen and I keep thinking that her mate will either be a human or a werewolf because a Lycan would have already sensed their bond. There aren't any boys around the mating age of 180 years. And this means that I won't be able to step down any time soon because he will have to learn all those things related to the ruling and the Lycan community. I keep wondering how the people will accept the fact of having a stranger and a turned Lycan as their Alpha. Some of them may fear the change but I hope the transition will be accepted.

At least, I know that some Lycans are going to support the decision. And in the foreground, there are going to be my twins, Oceanos and Helia. These two little mischiefs are 132 years old but they can still give me a headache as if they were only thirteen. Rhea doubts they will ever grow up, but hey, they won't have to bear the responsibility of the oldest child. At least, I hope so. I would never entrust the kingdom to their hands with a clear conscience. However, they have many friends who trust them and obey them. This could prove to be our greatest benefit when Atalanta announces who her mate is.

I smile suddenly when the thought of our family picnic that I have prepared for the weekend comes to my mind. It will be the first time going out of the palace since little Flora was born and we all desperately need it. But it is going to be a secret until we set off. I don't want to get their hopes up in case of another surprise rogue attack. It was only our luck that this time they attacked a pack really close to our territory. I can't imagine what would have happened if our team didn't get there when they did.

The door to my office opens suddenly and my enchanting mate comes in. She walks to my side of the table and attempts to hug me from the side. But I know better and I turn my chair so she ends up on my lap and I pepper her face with kisses. She giggles and tries to push me away before submitting and kissing me back. She looks in high spirits and I wish we were alone in the room and I could . . .

We stop for a moment and she looks at my desk. "Still working so hard, Triti Nini?"

I growl. She barely uses this nickname for me nowadays and it reminds me of our hot and passionate past long before Atalanta was born. I got permission from my father to travel the world and we spent almost the whole year abroad, staying with different packs and learning their traditions.

"Someone needs to do it and Atalanta is often away. And, most importantly, this won't be her job in the future. She will become the Luna Queen. She should be learning from you, not me," I admit with a tiny bitter edge to it. I would love to share my load with the future ruler so that I could spend more time with my youngest child. But I don't have such luck.

"Maybe she will surprise us," Rhea points out and I frown. Yeah, well, how could Atalanta surprise us? She already has a child and not even a mate!

"You know, dear Rhea, I would be more surprised if she found her mate than an abandoned child. She keeps bringing strays all the time."

Rhea laughs heartily at that. Oh, how I love this sound. Her laugh is carefree and contagious. It is really easy to forget how old she is because she can still behave like the young lady she once was. That being said, we're both more than 500 years old but no-one would have guessed. We had Tali pretty late, somehow Rhea couldn't conceive. Our parents weren't very happy to wait for their first grandchild for so long but they have got over it pretty soon after Atalanta was born. My mother Nyx kept pestering me that I wasn't trying hard enough to make an heir. In fact, I really was but it was something from nature that prevented us. And I don't care. Now I do even less thanks to Flora because we could easily be her grandparents and not her parents. The thing is, a Lycan can bear offspring till the age of seven hundred so we can still easily give Flora a younger sibling.

Speaking of Flora's siblings . . . The door opens and Atalanta walks in with Thaumas in tow. She is cradling a bundle which I assume is the baby boy. I can see so many emotions in her eyes and when she coos at him, I chuckle slightly. She seems to have created a strong bond with the child. Too bad he can't stay with us.

When Atalanta sees her mother on my lap, she covers her eyes theatrically with her right hand. Thaumas, on the other hand, just lowers his eyes and focuses on Atalanta's shoes. Rhea coughs and stands up from the compromising position. "You'll understand when you find your own mate, my dear child," she says while walking to Atalanta.

Tali shakes her head and hugs her mother. "It's good to be home again."

I get up from the chair and greet her with a hug as well. Thaumas smiles at all of us and I motion for him to come inside and close the door. "So," I begin, "how does it almost always happen that you bring someone home from a mission?"

Atalanta looks at me sheepishly and mutters: "It's not like we are keeping this one."

"Heard that," I say in her direction with a smile and she sticks her tongue out at me. How childish of her. But it is also so expected from her. Everyone but Thaumas sit down on chairs. He leans over the doorframe and crosses his arms over his chest. Then my expression turns serious. "Look, I need to know more than what we have discussed over the phone."

Atalanta nods curtly, her expression solemn, and Thaumas sighs. This feels strange. They have never been this down after a mission before.

"The fight was intense," Thaumas says in the end. "We fought with roughly seventy rogues, some more of them were already dead by the time we got there. But the pack wouldn't have survived without us."

"That much I have gathered," I admit, rubbing my chin.

"Some of the rogues must have sneaked into the territory unnoticed because the ranked wolves were murdered in sleep or only mildly alert," Atalanta supplies and I blink in shock.

"Excuse me?"

"Yes, Dad, you heard right." I can see Atalanta bite her lower lip and her eyes cloud over partly which means that she's speaking to Diana. I wonder what her Lycan has to say but I won't force her to tell us unless she's willing to. I share a look with Rhea who shrugs. In a moment, Atalanta is back with us and takes a deep breath. "You know," she says uncertainly, "there is something fishy about this attack."

"Fishy?" Rhea asks and gives me a frown. I press my lips in a thin line and wait for an explanation.

"Um . . . The rogues, some of them looked too good to be just rogues. Either they were recently expelled from their pack or packs, or they pretended to be rogues. And the attack could have been an unfortunate combination of a real rogue attack and a . . . an assassination of some ranked wolves." Atalanta lowers her face and hides it in the blanket with the baby.

"That would be too far-fetched," Rhea claims. Meanwhile, I ponder about it some more but it feels too surreal for me, too.

Thaumas looks at Atalanta and supplies: "It could be true. I mean, the Beta family was killed in their bedrooms. The Gama family must have heard it or they were informed by the guards because the father fought. His mate and the twins were killed before we arrived and he was the first one I saw die. The Luna died in front of the packhouse and the Alpha fought in the woods." He says it stoically but we all feel the emotions behind it, and moreover, Atalanta pales significantly. "It makes sense," Thaumas finishes. "A usual rogue wouldn't have gone unnoticed through the borders."

I feel bile in my mouth. I swallow thickly and ask: "And the baby?"

"I've found him in the packhouse. He was abandoned. And he has a name. He's Johann." Atalanta looks at the bundle and rocks him. I can see that once she will be a great mother, but not to this child.

"So we don't know whose baby it is, right?" I ask for confirmation and she nods several times.

"And nobody from the pack recognised him. I asked," she adds.

"Okay, well, I need to digest all this. You are dismissed for now but we'll talk some more in the evening. Get freshened up and I'm sure Telette can whip something up for you all in the kitchen or you can wait for lunch which will be in two hours."

Thaumas peels himself off the wall and nods, while Atalanta says: "Alright, thanks, Dad."

They set off to the door but Rhea stops them. "I've prepared a crib to your room, Tali. You can put Johann in there."

"Thanks, Mum," she replies gratefully and leaves with Thaumas.

They close the door and I share a look of fear with Rhea. "Do you think . . ." we both start at the same time.

I close my mouth and let her finish. "Do you think that she was right?" Rhea demands.

"I can't say. But if that is really true, we have a bigger problem than we can imagine because for any wolf to come across borders of such a populated pack, they would need a sorcerer and a potion to hide their scent." I put my head in my hands. "I will need to contact Maurice if he knows anything. He's the Master King after all."

"I hope it is just a one-time occurrence," Rhea prays with a sad smile.

"I hope so, too, love," I say, keeping a stony face.

What I don't tell her is that I have heard stories of a rogue pack that is moving along the whole area of America. They are gathering all the rogues they find and they train them and give them a sense of security like a real pack. They raid, they steal but according to the stories, they have never murdered anyone. Somehow it looks like they have finally crossed the one boundary that didn't let me declare war on them. But before any harsh decisions, I need to find out if it was really them. I can't act on impulse.