The Alpha’s Weakness

Chapter 4 - Xander

The first thing I noticed tonight was how beautiful the full moon is. Every full moon, my closest friends and I would take a long run before going out to the bar. Full moons meant one thing only. Drunk shenanigans with no consequences. Sometimes being alpha has some benefits. This included.

Once we finish our run, we shift back into our human forms and change into our clothes we left inside our vehicles. This bar was a very popular spot among packs. Every wolf without a mate shows up in hopes to find them, or at least take someone home for the night. After 75 years of searching, I’ve almost given up on ever finding someone. I may just be someone who’s never going to find her.

Once we get there, I can’t help but notice that it’s extremely full. Thank the Goddess that I reserved a table for tonight. I brought along my Beta Kyle, Gamma Austin and a few of our pack warriors that haven’t found their mates yet. All of us were as single as single could be. My beta, Kyle, and I have been friends since we were little kids. And he’s been mateless as long as I have, since we were the same age.

“We have a reservation for Alpha Kyle”, Kyle tells the hostess. She takes us to a large booth in the corner. It had red leather seats and a black table. It was large enough that the extra room would most definitely be filled with she-wolves we would take back to the pack house. I don’t take very many home, but tonight I was definitely taking someone home. No matter how much my wolf Chief hated it.

He didn’t like it when we brought a she-wolf home. But for the past week, he’s been really touchy about it. I have no idea why, but he was really against it tonight, which is exactly why I was going to do it.

“I told you, we need to stop before we regret it. Thinking with your wrong head is going to get us in trouble one day!” He growls in my head.

“It’s only one night. I haven’t done anything in almost 4 months. Everything will be just fine.”

I put a block up before he can complain anymore. A waitress soon comes and takes our orders. I got two pitchers of beer for everyone. We were going to have a good night and I was going to make sure of it. After a while, everyone is sitting with a lady on their laps. All except me that is. It was one in the morning and I was starting to think about heading back to the pack house when I’m hit with a wave of pain. I clutch my chest and Kyle instantly looks at me with a look of confusion.

“Everything alright?” He asked me.

“Something is wrong. I don’t know what it is.” Being the good beta he is, he grabs my arm and tells everyone else it's time to go. Poor guys don’t even get to take their ladies home. We load up in the vehicles and head towards the packhouse. While Kyle is driving the pain is slowly going away. We are about five minutes away when it disappears completely.

“It’s gone. The pain disappeared.” I tell Kyle with a slight sigh. He looks over to me to see if I’m lying. When he’s satisfied I’m not, he slows down a little bit.

“What happened?”

“I have no idea. It was just all of the sudden and after a while it slowly went away. Do you think there could have been something wrong with the pack?” As I say that, we pull up to the packhouse. The guards were standing calmly by the doors. Nothing seemed amiss. I shake off the bad feeling. It was probably just nothing. After double and triple checking with the guards that everything was alright, I head to my bedroom. Kyle didn’t think it was a good idea until we knew just what happened, but I was tired.

When I finally laid down I decided to ask Chief if he knew what it was.

“No I don’t know. I have a few ideas but I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about.” He says confidently

Well whatever it was, it could wait till the morning. I’m sure I’ll eventually get answers. Plus we had a long drive in the morning to the palace. Every time a royal turned 18, they would throw a major party for them in hopes they would find their mate. It worked for the first daughter of the King and Queen so they are hoping it will work for the second daughter. I was going just for the food and not because I was expected to come. I thought it was a waste of time. While thinking about the party, I fall asleep.

I had a pleasant dream. I was running through the woods in my wolf form. My wolf was pitch black with a white diamond on my chest. She was beautiful. She was only a few inches shorter than me. Which is strange because I was huge and I’ve never met a she-wolf as large as me. All of the other wolf’s I’ve met were at least a head shorter than me. If not shorter. Her coat was as white as snow and she had a black diamond across her chest. In the exact same spot as mine, but what stood out the most was her eyes. They were startling. A bright blue that took my breath away each time I saw them.

I woke up with the image of her eyes engraved into the back of my head. I didn’t know who she was but I knew that I needed to meet her. I glance at the clock and realise it's eight in the morning. I instantly link Kyle.

“Dude, wake up! It’s already eight and we leave in an hour for the palace. I haven’t even packed yet and I know you haven’t either!”

“Relax. A messenger called around 4 this morning. He said the party was cancelled. Something happened to the princess, but he didn’t elaborate. I guess they were attacked by rogues last night around one and that was all I got. They are postponing it until further notice.” He linked back.

I didn't hear anything more, so I figured he went back to sleep. It being a Friday, we didn’t have training until after lunch. So he took the opportunity to sleep in. He said the attack happened around one last night and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was somehow connected to the pain I had. I soon put it out of my head thinking that it was just a coincidence. I go to my office to start my day.

Almost two weeks come and go with no hiccups and no new information from the King and Queen, which is strange. Once a week we get updates from the place about important decisions that were made during council, but we’ve had nothing. I think whatever happened with the rogues, must have been a bigger matter than all of us were told, since that was the last update we received.

It was just another normal day. I cancelled training for the day since we had an important meeting with the Moonlight pack. There have been a lot of new changes with them the past couple of years. Their past alpha was mated to the eldest daughter of the King and Queen. While having to give up his position, his beta took over the alpha position. As a neighboring pack, and as a new alpha, Alpha Turner and Luna Sophia, come down every few months to get advice. I am happy to give it to him. As the largest pack in North America, we are happy to have as many allies as we can get.

I’m in my office getting ready for their arrival when Kyle and Austin rush in the door with worried faces.

“What’s going on?” I ask them when I notice how worried they are.

“The future King and Queen are coming with the Alpha and Luna of the Moonlight pack. They are coming with news from the palace.” Kyle as quickly as he could. With the future King and Queen personally coming to deliver news from the palace: I knew it couldn’t be anything good.

“Alrighty then…gather the elders, strongest pack warriors, and anyone else you deem important enough. Tell them to join us in the meeting room once they arrive. Do you know how far away they are from getting here?” I ask Austin.

“They passed the north border five minutes ago. They are running here in wolf form so they should be here within five minutes; if not sooner”

“Okay then just tell them to get to the room now and to wait for our arrival.”

As Austin starts to mind link everyone, Kyle and I head towards the front doors to meet our arriving guests. They come into the clearing and stop in front of us. The bigger wolves I recognize immediately as the royal family and I bow my head in respect when they stop in front of us.

“Your Majesties” I say to them. “We have the meeting room filled with all of the necessary people. The people in the room can be trusted with my life. I assume you would like to dress first. We will be waiting there for you when you are ready.”

They nod their heads in understanding before one of the omegas take them to spare rooms to get dressed. Kyle and I head towards the meeting room. Once inside we can see that everyone is standing and waiting for their arrival. Once they enter, we bow our heads and take a seat once they have sat down.

The Princess speaks first, since she is royal by blood. The Prince is only royal by the mate bond, which makes him lower than the Princess. They will be equals once they have been crowned, but until then, she still holds the upper hand.

“We will make this short and sweet. We have two more packs to visit before the day is out. The palace has waged war on the rogues. As you know we were attacked two weeks ago, it was on Princess Isabella’s birthday. Since then we have been attacked everyday. Luckily it has been with a small number and we have lost only one warrior. We will need an acting commander for now and we would like Xander, the Alpha of Silver moon, to do just that.”

There is an uneasy silence that falls in the room as heads turn towards me. I stare at them speechless. “Your Majesties, as honored as I am, what happened to the commander that was in charge? Also, why would you choose me?” I reply back with curiosity.

The princess looks down sadly; unable to form the right words it seems. So Prince Magnus fills in the rest for her. “As you all know, Princess Isabella turned 18, therefore she would then become the Royal Pack's new commander. While she was in the process of shifting, the rogues took advantage to attack. Most of them were dealt with, but one had a gun full of silver bullets. He shot a family friend who turned out to be her mate. He died that night. Due to the death of her mate, and of other matters that we are not at liberty to say at this time, the Princess has fallen into a coma. She is still not awake, and until she does, we need someone who has experience in battle.

“You have experience on your side, and are the largest pack. We ask for men, and your command, due to the fact that you have a great relationship with most packs. Each pack we have gone to already will send warriors under your command, but only yours. We are sure the one’s we will visit will say the same thing.” He finishes quietly.

So that is why the party was cancelled and has not been rescheduled yet. It’s starting to make sense now. Although whatever happened to her, that put her in a coma was curious. A wolf can heal quickly unless there is silver or wolfsbane involved. We will still heal fast, but not as fast as normal. For the Princess to be in a coma even after two weeks was unheard of. I was definitely curious. That much was for sure.

“Okay I accept your offer under one condition.” I say to them. I hear a few people gasp. I know they aren’t surprised I accepted, but they are surprised I would accept only if my condition was met. Most people wouldn’t have the balls. Taken aback a little, the princess nods for me to continue.

“Nothing will be hidden from me. If you want me to do this and for it to be successful I need to hear the entire story of what happened. I will need everything.” I say while looking them in the eye. I see them look at each other before looking back at me. I could tell they were mind linking each other, wondering if they should or not. It wasn’t long before I got an answer though.

“Are these rooms soundproof?” The princess asks.

“Yes and they are magically protected so no electronics work in here.”

She then proceeds to pull her phone out and check to see if I'm telling the truth. “We will tell you privately”, she continued after she was satisfied with my answer.

“My Beta Kyle stays. Everyone else out.” I say using my alpha tone. They have no choice to comply and soon it is just the four of us. I could tell they were not happy that Kyle was in the room, but I wasn’t going to let them have that option and they knew it.

“Do you know of the legend, when a powerful wolf shifts on the full moon, he or she will obtain powers?” The princess asks. I nod to them in understanding. It was extremely rare but I knew all too well what they meant.