ALPHA LOGAN

Chapter 3

Cassius refused to wake up after that day

For three days he laid in bed while different healers and medicine men moved in and out of his chambers in rotations.

Elena refused to leave his side and Logan was not allowed to even come close to it.

Garrick the head of the pack security and Ephraim's younger brother made sure of that.

He posted guards on every door “for the king's protection,” even if everyone understood who the protection was really up against.

On the fourth day, bells rang round the entire territory that Alpha Cassius Bloodmoon was dead.

******

Three days after the king death the throne hall was filled up to the brim before the sun fully rose.

Every lord and every warlord including all pack leader with land in the territory crowded into the hall hear what the Alpha's will would read out.

Logan was at the back again with no one really noticing him, he wasn't offered a seat and he never looked like he belonged to the room.

The royal adviser unrolled the scroll and cleared his throat.

“By the order of the Alpha King Cassius Bloodmoon, his daughter, Elena Bloodmoon will succeed him and inherit the throne, the land and the bloodline of this kingdom in full but……” He stopped immediately.

Panic rose higher In the hall and everyone becomes anxious.

“The throne cannot pass over to an unmarried heir by the law. So with this the king order and his dying wish, before Elena could claim all these she must marry Logan Westwood.”

The hall erupted.

Everyone thought it was because the king wasn't normal the day he collapsed, that's why he said what he had to say.

But now it was obvious it had been written in the royal seal.

Lord actually argued against this.

Garrick was on his feet immediately, he was thinking Elena becoming the successor would actually mean well for him, but with Logan in the picture, plans are not going as expected.

“This is madness, The king was poisoned and half out of his mind, how do you expect us to believe he meant all this?”.

“He wrote the seal even before the poison began to take its course and this was verified by three witnesses in the room before his death, the will stands.” The Royal adviser argued.

Elena sat very still on the throne that does not belong to her yet, she was staring straight ahead.

She didn't cry or scream, she just stood still like someone holding a door shut with both hands.

Afterwards in a private chamber, Elena Finally let it out, but it was in an unexpected way.

“Father never asked me for once, how could he make such decision behind my back, not a single day in five years did he care to sit me down and ask me what I wanted, he just made his decision.” She yelled speaking to no one in particular.

Logan stood at the hallway and he wasn't sure whether he was allowed inside or not.

“Elena….”

“Get away from here you slave” she barked. “I'm burying my father this week and instead of grieving him, I have to sit in a hall full of bastards to defend a marriage I never agreed to, to a slave I never even know”

“I didn't ask for this either,” Logan defended carefully.

“That actually didn't matter now does it, he made the decision without respecting my wish and expect me to live with it and he became free of all of this after dying.”

Logan could understand immediately that her anger wasn't really about him.

It was about a father who spent his last words handing away her future instead of telling her goodbye.

He stood there and let her be angry because for now that is the only thing he could give her.

*******

The weeks that followed the funeral were worse than Logan expected.

Logan was given a title but it was just in a mere paper, he became a prince consort and heir by marriage but it carried no real power.

Garrick's wife, Lady Mariam, made sure the personal guards assigned to him were men loyal to her husband.

He had no power or capacity over the kingdom and Elena oversaw all the pack's affairs with Garrick at her right hand.

His meals started arriving late, sometimes they were cold while sometimes no meal at all, and nobody in the pack's kitchen cared to explain why.

The worst of it all, a different rumor started to travel round the palace like smoke under a door.

*Logan poisoned the king himself to take the throne to himself and he arranged the snake in the forest to look like he was rescuing the Alpha, it was actually his plans since they say he saved Cassius' life.*

None of this was true but it spread anyway because Garrick made sure he added fuel to the fire.

It was a quiet conversation at a time and he was also careful not to directly say it, his wife also added to the problem.

Logan felt the walls of the palace caging him the same way Ephraim's estate had once done to him.

He felt like a slave once more but this time in a palace.

*****

One evening he saw Elena standing at the east balcony having a conversation with the royal adviser.

As he approached them the royal adviser turned to leave.

“My prince.” He said immediately and left making a bowing gesture.

“I need to say something,” she said before he could even utter a single word “and I need you to actually hear it.”

Logan waited.

“I want you to know this, I will never marry you, not in this life and not even in the after, to me you will forever remain a slave who has no pack.” She stared at him in disgust.

“I will never spend my life with you and I rather choose to burn this kingdom than hand it to a man that I never love, you reek of dirt, you pauper.” She spat.

Logan stared at her for long and something that was holding him back for weeks finally gave its way out.

“I want you to know this too, I never asked your father to be your replacement, I was only fulfilling my promise to him.”

He stepped closer and for the first time since she met him, his voice came with boldness.

“But if you choose to fight me for it, you should know exactly who you're fighting.”

He said with assurance In his voice and suddenly a flicker crossed his eyes as he stared at Elena.

It came as brown, then it changed to Gold.

Elena gasped immediately and held her mouth.

That wasn't a wolf's eyes, she had never seen such in her life before.

“What are you?” She questioned before he even realized what had happened.