Alpha Lance

Chapter 7 - The Plan

Lance’s POV

Soon I found myself in one of the third floor Lycan academy classrooms with my brother Johnathan, dad, and a few of dad’s former royal officers. Alex claimed he couldn’t be there, as what we would be discussing was a conflict of interests to the kingdom. And possibly treasonous!

“I’m just going to pretend I know nothing about any of this, for now,” he claimed, then shook my hand and wished me luck before walking away.

“So this marriage alliance contract states that you need to be king of all the packs south of the Columbia River in Oregon, right?” Dad summarized, bringing up a map showing the location of all 14 of the kingdom’s wolf packs in Oregon on the classrooms white board from a presentation he pulled from his computer. “And you’ve got only a couple weeks to do this, and then get back here to claim your mate.”

“Right, I already know this much!” I grumble impatiently. “What I’m not entirely clear about is how to make that happen!”

“It’s seems pretty straightforward to me,” Johnathan speaks up, irritating me further. I had nearly forgotten he was even here, I was so focused on what dad was saying. “You’ll have to go to each of the packs and make their Alphas submit to your rule, or fight the Alpha and replace him with someone who will. You’d know this if you’d paid any attention in our Lycan academy classes.”

“And the gold star goes to the teacher’s pet, Johnathan, as usual,” I moan. Johnathan was always showing off how smart he was in class, although I usually don’t mind it this much. But the idea of losing Calliope has got me spiraling into a bottomless pit of emotions I’m not used to dealing with, and I can’t seem to help lashing out at everyone.

“Oh, goodie!” Johnathan exclaims sarcastically. “I live for all those shiny gold stars!”

“He’s not wrong, you know,” dad’s former delta Malcom speaks up seconds before I’m about to pound my brilliant but annoying Beta brother into oblivion. “You should be listening to him.”

“And stop growling at everyone,” dad suggests more kindly than I probably deserved, although I hadn’t even realized I was behaving so aggressively. “I know you’re angry about this situation, but we are trying to help.”

“Sorry,” I apologize, and make a more conscious effort at controlling myself. “Is there more I should know?”

“Yes,” dad replies, and I barely managed to keep myself from groaning out loud. “At some point you’ll have to declare your conquests as a new kingdom, and make some sort of diplomatic treaty with Emerald Kingdom. I’d suggest waiting until after you have the support of all the packs, though, so that you have backing in case of a civil war.”

“Civil war?” I croak out in surprise. “Do you really expect that Alex might attack me? His own brother?”

“He might,” dad replies sadly. “It’s not natural for a Lycan King to give up territory without a fight. Which is why I’m surprised your grandfather was apparently willing to give up some of his land. I guess his intention was to make peace with your mother and I, and that we’d rule the Sapphire kingdom while he ruled the Emerald kingdom until you and Alex came of age.”

“But then King Alexander and Queen Luna Juliette had to go and fall from the 6th floor balcony before any of that could come to be,” former delta Malcom sadly sums up the rest of the story for us.

“Yeah, yeah, I was there. It was a sad time for everyone,” I reply impatiently. “Going back to the civil war thing… I thought Alex was supportive of me doing all this!”

“He is, but only as your brother,” dad explains. “As your Lycan King, he can’t be. Imagine how you’d feel if you found out that Johnathan was planning to take over Bull Run?”

Instantly I am trying to shift and pounce on my own brother, who looks at me in horrified fascination while dad and his officers are throwing everything they have at me to prevent me from killing him.

“I said IMAGINE it!” Dad shouts in my ear, while my brother is also proclaiming his innocence. “Johnathan has no plans to take over that pack without your blessing!”

“My blessing?” I sputter angrily, not ready to back down from my murderous intentions. “Over my dead body!”

“You may have to, though,” dad informs me, and all the fight leaves my body while I listen to this new and unexpected piece of information. “To better rule a kingdom, you’ll need to be in a more central location than such a remote pack would allow. And since Johnathan is your Beta he would probably be the best option for your replacement in Bull Run.”

“Excuse me, what?” Johnathan suddenly pipes up upon hearing that. “I’m perfectly happy being Lance’s Beta. I’m the brains of Bull Run, not the brawn!”

“Your father is right,” Malcom interjects. “Johnathan knows as much as anyone alive about how to manage a werewolf pack, despite his youth. Leo’s been training both of you equally in how to be an alpha for the past decade.”

“We’ve gotten off topic, and we’re running out of time,” dad claims in a hurried tone. “You need to be aware that Alex, or more accurately his Lycan Rain, cannot just give up territory to you without either concessions or a fight. And while he might not exactly be thrilled to take a chosen mate, he is most definitely aware of the strategic advantage in taking Calliope as his mate. So he’s not going to just hand her over to you either. And I can’t be showing favoritism to either you or Alex regarding this situation beyond the offering of advice and moral support. But I do suggest that you leave here immediately and get started garnering support from the Oregon Alphas.”

“So good luck to you,” dad finished, holding his hand out to shake my hand in farewell.

“That’s it?” I ask, dismayed by the abrupt end to his fatherly benevolence. “No actual plan? No offer of money, an army, or any other kind of support?”

“I’ve sent you a link to the map of the Oregon packs,” dad informs me quite bluntly. “That’s about as much as I can do for you without it seeming treasonous, after all I am a loyal subject of the new Lycan King. I would hate to give Alex reason to execute his own father. Oh, but I do hope that when you deal with the Willamette Pack that you get a chance to punch my cousin in the face for me. I’ve never been very fond of the Hearst side of my family!”

And on that note, dad and his former royal officers leave the classroom. Johnathan and I look at each other.

“That was rather unhelpful,” I can’t help complaining.

“Nevermind that! We probably better get out of here, too,” Johnathan suggests wisely. “We also pledged our loyalty to Alex yesterday. So it’s probably not a good idea to stick around here any longer and give him the opportunity to execute us!”

Sounded like a very sensible plan to me. We quickly retrieved our luggage from our guest suite, and then headed south as quick as we could. It took nearly four hours to get home, mostly driven in silence. I had a lot to think about.

Every time I begin to wonder if Calliope is worth all this fuss, though, Blade gets angry.

Of course our mate is worth it! And by fighting all these alphas we will be proving to the whole world just how worthy we are of her!

So I guess we’re going to low key be doing a thing.