The Alpha’s Bald Luna

Peakwort

~ KELANI ~

He finally straightened up from the stool and looked at me. “That unfortunately is not how our arrangement would work. I ask the questions, you answer.”

“Now that’s not fair.” I protested with an exaggerated frown.

“What about life do you know to be fair?”

He was right. Nothing about life was fair or I wouldn’t be standing here right now. Orphaned. Wolfless. Bald.

“I don’t believe you want me here for any silly experiment. I’m sure there are other sick people in Shanakoi you can treat. What do you really want from me?”

“There you go again asking questions,” he stood, peeled off the pair of stained leather gloves he was wearing and washed his hands in a bowl, “But I would answer this one because we need to be on the same page for this to work.

Yes, there are other sick people in the kingdom but none of them have Alpha blood and can visit the laboratory at will because unlike you, they are not royal slaves. And your hair condition makes you an even more unique case. I like a good challenge.”

I wondered if he could hear my heart start beating faster. I hated being reminded of my ‘hair condition’. It reminded me of all the events leading up to it.

“I assure you this is just an experiment to see how well my formulations work. There are no hidden motives. If it goes well, you become healthy and I trust the efficacy of my potions. A win for both of us.” he concluded.

“And if it doesn’t? If you feed or inject me with something that has a side effect… like death?”

“Then you die,” he shrugged, “I would say you already owe me your life after last night.”

“No, I don’t! I would still have fought them off even if you hadn’t shown up.” I retorted, absolutely stunned that he would even say a thing like that.

“Looks like I would have to start with creating a potion for you that stops lying. Or delusion.” Mardeo replied.

Now that was funny and if I was being honest, true - I couldn’t possibly have saved myself from those hateful Shana males. I pressed my lips together to stop myself from smiling.

He pulled out a quill pen and a piece of paper from a stack and returned to his stool. “Sit down and let’s begin.”

I tried to pull a stool out from under the table.

“Not that one. It’s wobbly,” he stopped me, “I don’t want to have to make something for a broken spine too.”

“You talk like you could create a potion to solve every problem in the world.” I muttered under my breath as I picked another stool.

“I heard that.”

“Of course, you did. You’re a werewolf. An Alpha at that. The title gave it away.” I shot his own words back at him. He didn’t react, just kept watching me closely.

When I was seated, he wrote something at the top of the paper and the questioning began. “What’s your name?”

“I thought you have ‘heard’ everything about me,” I replied sarcastically, “You’ve heard I’m sickly. You’ve heard I’m an Alpha. You’ve probably heard how many times I s**t in a day.”

He frowned. “It’s alright. I would simply address you as the bald slave.”

My nose flared. “No, you wouldn’t!”

“So how old is the bald slave?”

I took a deep breath. It was not in my best interest to be on bad terms with the only werewolf I had met in this strange kingdom. I already had lots of enemies here. It wouldn’t hurt to have one friend.

Yes, I was frustrated and depressed but he wasn’t the cause of my problems. If anything, he had saved me from becoming a scapegoat if the princess had successfully eloped and again from being mobbed at the Onyx. Maybe I could be nicer and approach this ‘experiment’ with an open mind?

“Okay, let’s try again. My name is Kelani.” I said with an exaggerated smile.

He wrote my name down. “Age?”

“Eighteen.”

“Gotten your wolf yet?”

“No.”

His brows raised in surprise. “That’s… strange. I had my first shift at thirteen.”

“Well, hearty congratulations to you.” I hissed.

He laughed. “This makes me even more right about your lack of self preservation instincts. You haven’t gotten your wolf but you went to the Onyx on your second night in Shanakoi. If things had gotten more serious, you wouldn’t even have been able to shift and save yourself.”

“I’m sorry if you’ve spent so much time here that you’ve forgotten what the real world looks like. None of what happened at the Onyx is normal. There was no way for me to know that it was going to be a gathering of degenerates. And again, I went with the princess!”

“Ah, the princess. I keep forgetting.”

“Maybe you should make a potion for yourself to help with memory loss.” I replied. Obviously, I had so quickly let go of my resolve to be nicer.

He sounded more amused than offended. “Maybe I should.”

I decided to tick another question off my list. I was more curious about Shanakoi and its people than I wanted to admit. “Those men at the Onyx… why were they fighting after the executions?”

“They weren’t fighting. You wouldn’t have made it out alive if they were. Apparently, after witnessing something so stimulating, many Shanas experience a power surge. They get so excited, they struggle to control their powers. It gets pretty dangerous sometimes. People die at every Onyx event, besides the people who enter the execution cage.”

“Yet they keep coming.” I commented in disbelief.

“Yet they keep coming.” he confirmed.

He asked me some more questions about when the sickness started and if I had any inkling as to what had caused it - questions which were all answered half-heartedly or with lies. It didn’t matter because the experiment was useless. The Moon Goddess had already lifted the curse and healed me.

Finally, he dropped the quill and set the paper neatly to dry. He walked to the mixture he was titrating earlier and began to monitor it again.

“What’s that mixture? You’ve been on it for quite some time. Seems really… important.” I asked.

“Well, it is important,” he answered, “It’s my improved variation of peakwort, a potion that helps werewolves heighten their wolf scent temporarily.”

Peakwort. This was the same potion Bostin gave me at the lake before I said my chant. But Alpha Mardeo didn’t need to know that.

“Peakwort… how does it work?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“Well, every wolf has a scent but there are times when we need it heightened. Maybe during a search party, or any situation where a werewolf needs to be detected from miles away. Peakwort concentrates a wolf’s scent for a few hours. It’s quick and effective.

Werewolves have used it for centuries but it has a major side effect. When the heightened scent wears off, the wolf’s actual scent gets suppressed for a while.”

I definitely didn’t know the last part. “So I have… I mean, the wolf would have no scent?”

He gave me a suspicious eye. “Not no scent. A wolf would always have a scent. Only that the scent would be barely discernible,” he smiled proudly at the potion, “But this new formulation has no such side effect. I believe everything can be improved and that’s why I spend half my days in the lab.”

Surprisingly for a man who spoke so little, he continued to explain but I was stuck on my newest discovery. My scent was currently suppressed and when the side effect wore off, my scent would be stronger.

When I realized I would have to live as a male in Shanakoi, this was one of my biggest fears - someone detecting that my scent was feminine and calling me out on my deceit. Shanas would not be able to tell but a werewolf would.

So far, Alpha Mardeo was the only wolf I had met and he didn’t seem to notice anything amiss about my scent. But now I know why - he can barely perceive it.

“How long does the side effect last after taking peakwort?” I asked, hoping I didn’t sound as nervous as I felt.

“Varies from wolf to wolf. But about two weeks on average.” he replied, finally taking his eyes off the conical flask that held his latest invention.

What I heard was, “Kelani, you have two weeks to get scent suppressants or risk getting caught and tortured to death at the Onyx!”