Alpha Lance

Chapter 2 - Lance

Lance’s POV

“Are you excited?” Johnathan, my younger brother and Beta to my pack asks me moments before the full moon makes its appearance. I snort in derision.

“Hardly,” I answer him. “It’s too hot out here to get really excited about anything.”

“Better him than either of us,” Johnathan comments sagely, always the wisest of my many siblings. “Alex is better suited to this role than we are. I personally wouldn’t last a month here if it were me.”

Before I can reply, it happens. And far quicker than is typical for a first shift. Then everyone standing on the hot courtyard terrace of the Emerald Kingdom’s royal palace was suddenly clapping and cheering as my older brother Alex shifted for the first time on this balmy June evening. I give Johnathan a look as we both clap along unenthusiastically. I was hot and uncomfortable, and less than thrilled to be celebrating my older triplet brother.

As if it was such a remarkable feat that Alex could finally shift just like all werewolves who had come of age. I had been shifting for 3 years now, but no one had ever felt the need to cheer me on whenever I did it.

In their defense, I suppose Alex and his Lycan Rain were a rather impressive sight. Rain is significantly larger than any normal werewolf and also quite a bit bigger than most Lycans. But they have to be. A Lycan king needs to be both larger and more clever than everyone else if they were to rule peacefully over their kingdom and to not be constantly challenged. And Alex had just been declared king by our parents earlier that evening, as the now former Lycan King Leonard and Queen Luna Amelia had decided to retire from politics now that their chosen replacement was finally ready to take over.

I can’t help but think that it could have easily been me in the spotlight, being celebrated as the new Lycan King by everyone. But the fact that I was born 22 minutes after Alex and 10 minutes after our sister Lucy, now Queen Luna Lucille of The Netherlands, had sealed my fate. I was just an afterthought. A backup plan just in case something went wrong. But of course Alex seemed to lead a charmed life, and everything came so easily to him. The undisputed golden child in the eyes of everyone in the kingdom.

I feel kind of like an underachiever in comparison to my older siblings, being just the Alpha of Bull Run. A remote werewolf pack off in the woods near Mt. Hood in Oregon. Far away from the political machine that was Emerald Pack, where my mother had lived for years with all the rest of my many siblings except for Johnathan and I.

I like Bull Run, my wolf Blade pipes up from the back of my head. Life in a forest is better than anything they’ve got here. We would never be happy living in the middle of a big city full of humans like Seattle. Let’s shift and go on the pack run. You’ll see for yourself just how tiny the grounds are!

You’re not wrong, I agree. Dad had once told me that the only thing better in Seattle compared to Bull Run was the seafood, and the fact that his mate lived there. Otherwise he had hated every minute he was forced to spend here.

Dad may have been placating me, since I had been complaining at the time about being stuck on Mt.Hood while dad swanned off regularly to the werewolf capitol. But I couldn’t help noticing on the rare vacations mom took from running the kingdom and brought the entire family to Bull Run, that dad looked more at peace during those few weeks than he had the whole rest of the year.

“Bro, are you coming or what?” Johnathan asks, already tossing his pile of clothes into the cubbies that were along the north wall of the palace, placed there to neatly store clothes while their owners frolicked in the moonlight.

I suddenly notice most of the other celebrants had already started disrobing as well in preparation of their shift. I eagerly remove my suit jacket and tie, grateful for any excuse to ditch the monkey suit trappings of an Alpha wolf on an official visit to the kingdom’s capital. I hadn’t seen my mother and father walk up to me, but I notice that Johnathan is no longer by my side. He was already heading onto the grounds fully shifted into his wolf Stormy.

“Darling, may we have a quick word before you shift?” Mom asks me as I fumble with the buttons of my dress shirt.

“Uh… sure?” I say, uncertain what this quick word could possibly be about. My hands drop uselessly to my side.

“I know you were planning to head back home first thing tomorrow morning,” dad begins in his trademark jovial manner. “But the thing is, Lycan King Henry and Queen Luna Allison of Rising Moon are here, and they want to discuss some contracts that he and your Grandfather had drawn up years ago. There will be a meeting at 2 o’clock tomorrow to go over the particulars of those contracts, and he has asked both you and Alex to attend.”

“Me?” I ask in surprise and confusion. “Why would I be involved in one of grandfather’s contracts with a foreign king? He barely even acknowledged my existence when he was alive. And he’s been dead for over 10 years now. Would anything that old still be valid, whatever it is?”

“Honestly, it’s been such a long time that I had forgotten all about it until old Henry cornered me before dinner this evening. I don’t even recall all the particulars of those contracts myself! So just show up for the meeting tomorrow and we’ll find out everything together. Should be interesting!” Dad concluded evasively. “Enjoy your run!”

And then my parents walked off together before I could get my jaw up off the ground, stripping their clothes off as they went to shift into their Lycans, Frank and Ambrosia.

I quickly shimmy out of the rest of my clothes as I was now one of the few wolves left on the terrace who hadn’t shifted yet. Blade is eager to shift and enjoy the full moon, and in the meantime I don’t mind handing over control of my body to him while I think about the bombshell my parents had unexpectedly dropped on me.

My grandfather, the king who seemed to not have noticed or cared for any of his grandchildren besides Alex had apparently involved me in something along with the king of Rising Moon. A large but sparsely populated kingdom up in the Yukon Territory of Canada if I recall correctly from my werewolf kingdom geography classes. What could a Canadian King possibly want with the alpha of a small wolf pack in Oregon? I don’t recall ever meeting the guy!

Well, he must know who you are, Blade quips snidely as he runs along well worn paths through the palace grounds and sniffing around for any new or exotic scents. There are none to be found, though, and we soon reach the far end. See? This is as far as we can go here. There’s nothing here to compare with the huge forests surrounding Bull Run pack. I want to go home!

Me too, I can’t help agreeing. But first we have to go to that meeting tomorrow. Then we can go back home and leave the politics of the wolf capital far behind.