WHEN THE ALPHA BEGS

THE SIGN OF A DREAM

The Alpha King tried hard not to dream of anything, but unexpectedly a wild dream came to visit him. This time he fails to avoid such a fantastic dream.

THE ALPHA KING'S DREAM:

The hall was silent.

Not because the crowd wasn’t excited, every single person in the room was holding their breath, watching the Alpha King who rarely showed emotion… suddenly stared at his bride like she was the only star left in his sky.

Margery’s veil fluttered gently when the warm breeze from the open garden windows touched it. She looked almost unreal, soft, glowing, but with that quiet strength in her eyes that Aldrich had always feared and admired.

Aldrich lifted her veil with steady hands… but his eyes weren’t steady at all. They burned.

Slow… hungry… reverent.

As the white lace rose, revealing her full face, her lashes lowered shyly, but Aldrich caught her chin with his fingers, urging her gently to look at him.

“Margery…” he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

Her lips parted slightly at the sound of her name, and something inside Aldrich snapped, like he had been holding himself back for too long.

He leaned in.

Margery felt his breath first, warm and brushing her cheeks as if he was memorizing the outline of her face without touching it yet. The world faded. Even the priest paused, watching, as if the ceremony itself bowed to the moment.

Aldrich’s thumb brushed her lower lip, as the sign of claiming her.

Then he kissed her. Slow at first, soft, testing, as if he was afraid she might break. But then Margery’s hands raised to grasp the fabric of his coat, pulling him closer, and Aldrich deepened the kiss with a low, involuntary growl that vibrated against her mouth.

Applause erupted.

Cheers, laughter, flashes of cameras.

But Aldrich didn’t care.

He kissed her again, firmer this time, his forehead pressing gently to hers afterward, his breath catching.

“You’re mine,” he murmured against her lips, voice thick.

“And I swear… I’ll spend the rest of my life proving I’m worthy of this moment.”

Margery’s eyes glistened, her cheeks warm, her smile trembling with emotion.

“And I’m yours,” she whispered back.

Aldrich held her waist tighter, as if anchoring himself to the one person who made the world feel less cold. The crowd watched, but the Alpha King didn’t hide his heart anymore. Not today. Not with her.

Their wedding kiss was gentle but consuming sealed them completed.

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Aldrich open his eyes, he was being sleep for an hour.

Only he understands that all of it was just a dream

That night settled over Vargos Institute like a soft cloak of silvered fog. The campus lights glowed dim against the towering pines, and the moonlight circle in the fullest energy, hung above the school as if watching her children.

Aldrich Vargos stood alone on the balcony of the guest wing, coat still on his shoulders, the wind pressing against him like a memory he didn’t invite. City skyscrapers never made him feel this way. But, this strange peace mixed with danger, was some kind of different.

His mind was supposed to be on Brian, on the future of the Institute, on the growing threat circling their kind.

Instead…

A girl with quiet eyes and with a truth she hides.

It's Margery.

That name tasted like risk.

Aldrich held a tumbler of untouched whiskey, the amber liquid reflecting moonlight. His wolf, the beast that lived beneath his skin, paced like a storm and trapped behind his ribs.

"You chose". It whispered. "She is ours"

Aldrich closed his eyes. His voice was low, dangerously talking even to himself. "Not ours. Not yet.”

But the wolf only growled.

On the other side of the campus, Margery lay in her small dorm, in her room with bare walls, a single lamp, and books stacked like shields around her bed. For the first time in a long time, she wasn’t reading.

Because she was thinking.

Aldrich’s gaze haunted her, not because of the way it burned, but because of what hid beneath it. A king didn’t look at strangers like that.

Moonborn blood in her veins pulsed like a second heartbeat. She curled her hand over her chest as if she could silence it.

“You shouldn’t choose me,” she whispered into the quiet room.

She said it for him, and to remind herself. She said it for the ancient line she swore to protect. But, suddenly her phone vibrated, and there is a message notification. Her breath caught when she saw the sender:

Brian Vargos "Come to the rooftop. We need to talk."

Margery wrapped a coat over her nightdress, tied her hair, and slipped into the dark hallways. The school was silent, only the hum of security wards resonating like faint magic under the walls.

The rooftop door was already open.

Brian stood there, hands in his pockets, moonlight touching him as if to keep him calm. But his looks are sharper, older than her, smarter, but with that family name, Vargos, his calmness made him unreadable.

“You met my cousin, Aldrich today,” he said without turning around.

Margery’s voice softened. "Yes.” she lowered her head.

“And you told him nothing?”

She stared at his back. "Nothing,” she said truthfully.

Brian finally faced her, and for the first time, she saw worry in his eyes, not for himself, but for her.

“Aldrich may be king, Margery… but your blood is older than his crown.”

Margery’s pulse hammered.

“You know what will happen if he finds out,” Brian continued. “The Moonborn were hunted for centuries. If he realizes you’re the last..."

“He believes I am dangerous.” Margery cut him off, voice steady even as her fingers curled tight around her coat.

Brian’s reply was a breath of dark truth.“You are.”

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Down on the balcony, Aldrich crushed the silence with a single inhale..

He didn’t have to see her to feel her, some pull in the world itself told him where she was. The wolf inside him turned its head toward the rooftop.

"She is the danger" He murmured.

He set the whiskey down untouched. His eyes lifted to the moon. A king should not fantasize, and he should not dream.

But when he closed his eyes, he saw her beneath the pine tree.. reading a book in her lap, moonlight dusting her lashes, and that single trembling breath when he stepped close.

"Choose..." Her voice in his memory.

“I already did,” he whispered.

And for the first time that night, the Alpha King allowed himself to imagine a future he wasn’t supposed to want. It was Margery standing beside him beneath a throne made of moonlight and claws..

He wanted her to become his wife.. his queen, the Luna of the pack.