Alpha Lance

Chapter 8 - Alex, the Lycan King

Alex’s POV

I watched their car leave from the windows of my 5th floor bachelor pad, satisfied with how things stood at the moment. I wish my brother luck, naturally, but I was conflicted on whether I truly wanted him to succeed or not.

I’ve spent my whole life preparing to be Lycan King Alexander 2, of the Emerald Kingdom. My grandfather Alexander Worthing had chosen me as his successor the day I was born, the biggest and strongest and first born of a litter of three pups. And he hadn’t ever wavered in that decision even though mom had many other pups over the years that he could have chosen from.

One thing grandfather had drilled into me early, though, was the need for an heir. I knew it bothered him terribly that he had no legitimate male heirs, and that the issue of his issue had caused some instability within the kingdom. He said I should make it a priority as soon as I’m crowned to find a mate.

As much as I would love to follow that advice, there is an unfortunate problem. My Lycan Rain has the ability to see the future on occasion, and he claims we won’t find our fated mate for several years. So I’m stuck being mateless for goddess knows how long unless I’m willing to take a chosen mate.

In the meantime I’ve encountered plenty of temptations in the form of willing she wolves. All Queen Luna wannabes. But I don’t have any intention of choosing someone else’s fated mate, as they generally do have a fated mate waiting somewhere out there in the world if they are young and pretty, and of high blood status. So I’ve had to be extremely selective of my casual s****l partners, and very careful to prevent any illegitimate pups while I wait for ‘the one’.

But Princess Calliope could be the solution to my dilemma. If Lance is unable to meet the conditions of the mating alliance contract in time, then I’m obligated to make her my mate. I’d feel quite sorry for Lance, of course. But not so sorry for him that I’m willing to break off favorable trade relations with Rising Moon and piss off our biggest neighboring kingdom.

It doesn’t hurt that Calliope is stunningly beautiful, seems to have a sweet disposition, and comes with a perfect pedigree. I could certainly do far worse than her, and still consider myself lucky! So if I am obligated to fulfill the duties of her mate as stipulated in the mating alliance contract, I will not find it to be a major hardship. It might even be quite pleasurable.

But then there is the other problem that will probably arise if Lance actually manages to be successful in creating a new kingdom. I will lose 1/3 of my territory as a result. Something that could cause Rain to become very unhappy, since wolves tend to be extremely territorial. Rain growls menacingly in the back of my head at the very thought of it.

Suddenly I sense that dad is standing behind me.

“Are you helping them?” I ask without even turning around. “I’m curious to know.”

“You know as well as I do that I can’t,” he says with a sigh. “I only gave them the rundown of what they have to do, as their teacher. All inside of a classroom so that no one can misunderstand it to be anything but a part of my job. The only real piece of advice I gave them was to leave here immediately.”

“Good,” I say in relief. “I’d hate to have to execute you.”

“I’d challenge you before I’d ever let that happen,” dad claims, and I turn to him in surprise at those words. “And we both know you’d lose, Alex. Frankincense is a very powerful Lycan and helped your Great Grandfather to build this kingdom almost from scratch. The moon goddess gave him to me for a reason and she will be on my side in any just conflict. Because Selene will want your brother to have his fated mate.”

Your dad speaks the truth, Rain informs me. Not that I ever doubted him.

“Well, then, I suppose we should both be glad you’ve done nothing traitorous,” I say when I’m finally able to find my voice again. Dad nods, an enigmatic smile suddenly breaking out on his face.

“Meanwhile, now that we’ve retired your mother wants to go visit your sister Lucy and our grandbaby in the Netherlands,” he informs me, although I’m already aware of these plans. “So you won’t need to worry about either of us interfering in this matter.”

“Mmm, good to know,” I reply with minimal enthusiasm. I hadn’t actually expected either of my parents to be stupid enough to show overt favoritism to either me or my brother. “Want a drink? I have some really good whiskey from Scotland that Lycan King Dougy sent me as a gift.”

“Sounds very tempting,” dad says, then changes the subject slightly. “I sure wish that he and Izzy would patch things up. At this rate we’ll be signing up their pups for the Lycan academy before we know it.”

“Rain thinks they’ll come to an understanding fairly soon,” I reply somewhat vaguely. “It’s Jan we should be worried about. He doesn’t believe Theo will ever be a good mate to her.”

“Yeah, I’ve kind of gotten that feeling as well,” dad agrees with my assessment. Then he changes the topic back to what is really on his mind tonight. “Has Rain got any idea of what will happen between you and Lance?”

“Nope,” I laugh bitterly. “Just like healing powers, prophecy can’t really be used for my own personal gain. Or it would become easy to know exactly who had the gift, and everyone would be banging down their doors demanding answers. They would be the ones winning every lottery jackpot, and picking only the right stocks to invest in. It would be difficult to hide powers like that for very long.”

Meanwhile we’ve headed over to my mini bar and I pour dad a glass of the promised whiskey, which he readily accepts. Then we discuss a few other family matters, such as a proposed outing tomorrow to Pike Place market and the waterfront with my two aunts before they return to their adopted countries of Romania and Scotland. A near catastrophic event that happened between the Harvest moon pack and the Clear Lake pack, which thankfully resolved itself. And concerns about Grandma Dee Dee, who was currently playing the role of Luna for Lance’s pack but was starting to decline in health.

It was a good talk, but I was relieved when my father finally left. I wanted time to think over the matter of the divine Calliope and whether I needed to woo her by encouraging her affections towards myself. And if I could get the chance to bed her, I could truly make her mine!

One thing I know for sure, though, if Calliope were to discover that Lance is her fated mate before I can secure her, she would be very tempted to seek him out and run away with him. And then all hell could break out in a war with Rising Moon if her father still objected to a lowly alpha as his son-in-law. Everyone would be a loser in that scenario.

One thing is for certain. I’ll need to prevent my brother from returning to Seattle until after Calliope is my Queen Luna.