The Warrior King's Mate

Chapter 2

“Your grandmother is ill,” she said, adjusting her shawl around her shoulders, sniffing in the stale basement morning air.

I stared at her. It was the first time she’d spoken to me in years, and probably the first time she had ever alluded to us being mother and daughter. I didn’t know how I should respond, but a feeling inside my chest told me to stay perfectly still, and silent. My mother had never hit me personally, but she had watched on heartlessly while I bled at her feet. She gave the order to have the children beat me like a grotesque pinata and had thrown me out to live like a slave as a pup. Standing before her now felt like standing in front of a snake, poised and ready to strike at any moment.

“So,” my mother said. “You are to leave at once.”

Leave? What?

I continued to stare at her, confused. Why did I need to leave? Leave for where? I had long ago learned to never question a ranked member unless I wanted to spend the day without meals, so I knew better than to ask her to clarify what she meant, however – my confusion must have been evident because my mother sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose with obvious irritation before saying, through gritted teeth “you are to leave Silver Shore, go to River Moon and take care of your grandmother. She and Luna Margot are expecting you to attend the packhouse by tomorrow morning. There you will be left to care for her until such time as she gets better, or she dies. You are to leave at once.”

I felt my face begin to redden. She wanted me to go away. The only reason she was speaking to me was to…was to send me away to another pack I’d never even heard of. In that moment of realisation, anger, real, unfiltered anger filled my body for the first ever time. This woman was no mother, no beta and no human. She had no love in her for her own daughter, her own flesh and blood. Even worse, she was unknowingly stealing from me the only semblance of control in my pathetic, lonely life and that was my escape. I wasn’t freeing myself; I wasn’t leaving my abusers behind – I was being thrown away like the sweater I cuddled up with at night for warmth. I was trash.

“Beta Grace,” I addressed her, standing up straight and forcing all the formality an omega should display when talking with a superior, surprised by how steady and cold my voice was. “I am obliged to run this errand for you, but I have no money or means to get to River Moon. Having never left this packhouse before, I have no way of navigating myself there. Unfortunately, I will be unable to complete this task without the necessary resources, but I can recommend another omega who has access to a vehicle and -”

SLAP

“You little s**t,” she whispered, a voice full of malice as I stumbled back, clutching my face, which burned so painfully, so unexpectedly. “YOU WILL PACK YOUR THINGS AND LEAVE THIS INSTANT!” she roared. I couldn’t even think about looking at her, tears pooled in the bottom of my eyelids, but I refused to blink, refused to dislodge them. My mother had caused many of my tears to fall since I could remember, but she would not have these. Her indifference and coldness were one thing, but a mother should never strike a child. As I grabbed each of my shallow, sharp gasps of air into my mouth, I felt a lifetime's worth of anger course through my body, felt it buzz through my limbs like electricity, felt it curl my hands to fist and fill my head with steam and for once, just once I needed to feel it, to use it, to force it to do something. This anger felt like a coiled spring, a drawn bow – something tight and ready to pounce. I forced myself to face my mother, my clenched fists and tense shoulders flexing as I drew my fists back, feeling a sick pleasure at the look of shock in my mother’s eyes. She never thought I would ever hit back. At the last second, I twisted my torso away from her panicked face and threw it at the smooth basement walls of the packhouse that had been my prison for so long. As my fists connected with the concrete, a huge electrical blast threw me backwards, cracking like a bolt of lightning in my head – deafeningly loud and threateningly close. I found myself lying on my back, surrounded by a cloud of dust. The sound of feet came tumbling down the stairs as Isaiah, the cook’s son, threw himself downstairs shouting “What the f**k was that?!”

Coughing, I sat up to face him, my head throbbing and my whole body working against me, desperate to run, sleep, vomit and cry all at the same time.

“I- I don- I didn’t, I, I-” I was incoherent as I scrambled to my feet, a ringing in my ears and my mouth thick with dust as I looked at the deep hole in front of me, its edges cracking all up the brick walls of the basement, the contents of the small room in disarray, some stray barrels rolling free.

My legs were shaky as they carried me to the door, robotically picking up my running shoes as I went. Grabbing hold of the banister, I hauled myself up the stone steps, brushing against other omegas and pack members as they ran down to see what the cause of the commotion was.

As I reached the chaos of the kitchen, I turned back to see my mother standing facing the stone steps, her face pale white and furious…no, not furious…frightened? Her nostrils flared, her long blonde hair escaping its usual neat bun slightly, her grey eyes wide and her lips so thin as they pressed together, I could swear I could see them bruising. She didn’t speak to me, didn’t look away. She just climbed the stairs towards me, shakily handing me an envelope as if it were the collar of a rabid dog.

“Take it. Just take it,” she said, dropping the envelope and all but running from the room.

I picked up the envelope and peered inside. It had a small letter folded inside and was filled to the brim with cash.

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Fallon P.O.V

“Your Majesty, I have an update for you from White Fang and from Moon River”, my lead warrior and third in command Dax announced, walking into my office without knocking, as usual. One of these days, I’m going to have to explain the lack of respect he shows, but today I am too interested in the update to care. Without saying anything, I close the laptop in front of me and point to the chair opposite my desk, so he knows I’m listening.

“White Fang had a run of rogue attacks and a pack dispute two years ago and, as such, they enlisted a lot of younger wolves for patrols and gave them basic training in both human and wolf form. They started making tracking and self-defence compulsory in school-year-aged kids, but it’ll be a good few years before they have the numbers to spare more than one hundred wolves for us now. Alpha Jackson is a bit of a princess when it comes to his pack and likes things just so, apparently. He doesn’t want us – ahem – ‘telling him how to run his pack’ -”

I raise an eyebrow at this, and Dax rolls his eyes before continuing, “better news from River Moon, as suspected. They are happy for us to have whatever we need. I think, given their size, if we take too many, we leave them vulnerable as they won’t have enough reserves to maintain their own borders. However, Marcus is more than happy for us to come and see his recruits soon to be of age. I think once we’re there we will have a better idea of numbers. It’s the last pack on the itinerary."

Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. The f*****g itinerary. After taking over as King of Lunar Kingdom six months ago, we suffered a profound loss on our eastern border with Crimson Kingdom. The two kingdoms have been at war for decades, grumbling away and breaking into small battles in isolated border lands, but once King Rowan took the throne ten years ago, tensions have been escalating. Six months ago, he attacked a boarding school of ranked members' pups and slaughtered the lot, leaving several of our largest central packs without heirs. The outrage of the atrocity led a group of alphas to forge an alliance and send their under-prepared, under-trained and uncoordinated soldiers across no man’s land into enemy territory. The losses were catastrophic. My second in command, Milo, Dax and I were now visiting every pack in the kingdom to assess, collect and personally train soldiers in preparation for an all-out war. Over the last few weeks, Milo created an itinerary so that we could successfully visit every pack in less than three months – coordinating with the alphas to send those chosen to train under Milo, Dax and myself here at Selinis Castle while ensuring that they didn’t leave themselves unprotected. It was proving more troublesome than anticipated, leading to some in-fighting and bitching between the alphas themselves, especially where divas like Alpha Jackson were concerned.

“Why is River Moon last? It’s the largest on the East Coast by far, it will take an age to assess their training. Marcus has entire acres dedicated to training soldiers; can’t we streamline this?” I asked Dax wearily. I’m bored of this itinerary already and we haven’t visited a single pack yet.

“No can do, El Capitano – Boss’s orders. He wants to hit all the small packs in the east specifically because they hide behind River Moon’s frankly excellent system. Hell, even White Fang have implemented training at high school level – these smaller packs are a completely unknown factor, we need to see them for ourselves and put the right infrastructure in place there. We need them to produce more warriors over the next five years or that mad Crimson bastard will bleed us dry.”

“Dax, you realise I am the Boss, yes?” I smirked at him. Dax is my youngest cousin and never once took my title seriously. The man doesn’t even knock on the king’s door.

“Yes, your Royalness, but you and I both know Milo would skin us alive slowly if we buggered about with his precious itinerary. It’s his baby, Fal,” he says, lips bubbling and eyes blown wide in mock emotion.

“Fine, small fish first, big fish last. Now either take over these meetings for me or get the f**k out of my office.”