A Rare Gem

Chapter 9

Sam POV:

I wake with the sun. It was bright and gave me hope for a good day. I need today to be a good day; I meet with the king today about the Nightshade book and what the former elder confessed too. I hope to find justice for Rose’s pack and any other pack that was wronged. I get out of bed, stretch, and get ready for the day.

‘Our mate is the girl we heard in the garden…’ Apollo finally breaks out of the trance of finding our mate and puts the pieces together. I laugh at him.

‘I guess you should feel bad for us.’ I mock, ‘She will be a handful for sure.’ Apollo growls at me but stays silent because he knows I’m right to mock.

I don’t mean to be mean and rude, but he has a mentality that he is the only Alpha. I have to remind him sometimes that we are one. I do not bow to him, like he doesn’t bow to me. We stand side by side. He is a handful but he like to call out others without realizing he is one himself. Rose is unique. She commanded an entire room, then the orders she gave brent. How did she do it?

I’ve only seen royals command rooms like that. The King could’ve adopted her into his family but that wouldn’t give her the royal voice. She would’ve had to marry a royal. It wasn’t making sense. I need that Nightshade book. Could Nightshade wolves be a royal line? Could Rose be royal born?

“Ahh” I scream at my reflection. “Stop asking unanswerable questions!” I hear the adjoining door bust open.

“ALPHA!” John yells.

“I’m fine.” I tell him as I walk out of the bathroom. “I’m just asking myself too many questions that I can only pray to find the answers.” I explain as I step out of the bathroom.

“Don’t scare me!” John sighs and collapses into a chair. “I thought you slipped in the shower.”

“You think I would be taken down by a shower?” I joke.

“No, not at all. Just… uh…” he trails off. I laugh at him. “Anyways what are you questioning?”

“Simply, to combine all the questions, is Rose royalty?” I ask him, he gives me a confused look. “She commanded an entire room last night and they all listened to her orders. Even you and I.”

“Maybe it was shocked compliance…” he offers the weak explanation. I shake my head and just walk out. I have a meeting to get too.

Guards meet me at the end of the hall that had the King’s meeting chamber, they escort me down the hall. Stopping in front of the large oak door. The door was craved with the image of a women with the moon above her head and stars all around, a large carving of a wolf was at her feet. The craving of the wolf was stained black expect for the tip of its tail that was painted white. The scene was entrancing, the trance was broken when the door swings open. Walking into the room, it is mostly empty expect for a large 16 seat conference table in the middle. Floor to ceiling marble glistens with the light of the crystal chandelier.

“Ah! Sam!” The King jumps to his feet as I walk in. “Thank you gentlemen. You can leave.” He dismisses the guards; they bow and walk out.

“King Alfred.” I respond when the door shuts behind me.

“Al. I’ve told you several times” he hugs me, “just call me Al in private.”

“Al. this is a serious meeting.” I hug him back. He pulls away and his look screams business.

“Ah, yes.” He takes his seat and I sit next to him. “I’ve kind of jump the gun after reading the report of what the former elder confessed too. It made me sick to think a good friend of mine was murdered in a rigged challenge.” He sighs, “I have him in the dungeon being questioned.” I sigh. I was hoping he would wait, but I should’ve known better. The King wasn’t known for his patience.

“Did you get the book restored?” I ask instead.

“Somewhat. All the information on the pages up to the challenge are restored, but the mages can’t restore anything after that. They were trying everyday up till now.” He explains as he slide the book to me. “They gave it to me early this morning saying the Goddess forbids them from trying to restore it further. Some thing about taking their wolves from them if they disobey.” I sigh.

“Alright.” I put the book off to my side. The King’s mages have their own wolves but they can’t shift. If they shift they lose their access to magic. There are black mages in the world that traded their wolves for magic. “Please thank you mages for their efforts for me.” I tell him, he nods.

A servant brings us tea and snacks. We just sit and talk. Our fathers were close, so we were kind of raised as brothers, though we never show the public.

“So… Rose?” I say a thousand words in one word. Al laughs.

“Yes, the lone survivor of her pack.” Al starts. “She is very secretive and won’t listen to a direct royal order. Its either she won’t or that royal orders don’t work on her. Either way she can command a room like nobody else, including me.” I laugh and fill him in on the orders she gave Brent last night. “Damn… remind me to never piss her off.” We laugh for a moment then he gets a curious look.

“What is it, Al?” I ask, growing curious myself.

“How did she give a fellow Alpha orders and he listen like she was a royal?” he asks. My breakdown from this morning coming back to me.

“Were the Nightshade wolves Royalty?”

“I honestly don’t know. Stories were always shared around about wolves born to that pack having gifts. Controlling the elements and reading minds were a couple of the gifts but I never heard of them being able to command people like a royal. I know their Alpha didn’t listen well or like when he was ordered to do something.” The king gets lost in his thoughts for a long moment.

“Anyways, Rose didn’t really tell you anything about herself?” I ask.

“Nope. Just her name over and over again. It was her answer to everything. I ask a question and she would reply with “My name is Rose.” We only got her full name and confirmed who she was when we got a DNA sample and tested it.” He laughs, “She is feisty and stubborn. She is also a runner. For the first 2 months of her being here, she had to have a constant guard with eyes on her at all times, except the bathroom, to catch her when she would try to run. Now I just have a constant guard near her at all times.”

“Why was she trying to run?” I ask. I don’t want to mention just yet that she is my mate, not after the conversation I overheard her have in the gardens.

“The only real explanation we could get out of her was that she refused to be around selfish, greedy, arrogant pack wolves.” He sighs. “I’ve tried and tried, again and again, to tell her that pack wolves aren’t all bad but she won’t listen to what I say. Something about the first three pack wolves she met being cruel to her. Something about causing her to break her arm.” I flinch, remembering how she came into my pack hospital.

“Maybe it’s because you’re speaking the wrong language.” I suggest, he just looks at me confused. “From what I understand. Actions speak louder than words with her.”

“Then how can I tell her in a way that she’ll understand and listen?”

The royal pack isn’t really a pack. Its more of a town. The King and Queen rule over the were-species world. They live and operate out of the palace and royal grounds. The grounds are surrounded by a large town of lone, tame were-species, such as were-foxes, were-bears, were-yotes and more. Also, humans. We all live peacefully along side humans. The King about 4 generations ago made it a grade 5 capital crime to kill of harm a human.

The capital crime grade start with grade 10, the lowest, theft. Then in descending grade it is grand theft, k********g, s****l crimes of any nature, treason, death or harm of a human. Yes it is a worse crime to hurt a human than treason, the king wanted to make sure that humans knew that we would protect them. After that it is death or harm of an elder, death or harm of a mage, death or harm to the King, and finally death or harm of the Queen or any of the royal heirs. It was a huge ordeal when the first King made it a law that the Queen and Heirs were more valuable then the King. He explained that his kids and Queen mean more to him and our way of life than him alone.

The royal pack is more of a government than a pack, so its understandable that he is struggling to show Rose that packs can be a good thing. Though I would love to see Al try to live the way Rose was raised. Maybe something like that would help. I try living like she did if she tries living in a pack. A month of each way should be fair and help Rose adapt and me understand.

“I can’t tell you that while you live in these walls.” I simply tell him after a long pause to get lost in my thoughts. Al was born and raised behind these walls and rarely leaves them. He could never understand living off the land. He is a fair and just King, doesn’t expect to much from those under him or those that serve him, but he has never lived without his silver spoon nearby.

He huffs and gets lost in his own thoughts, so we continue to sit and snack for a little while longer. After a long moment we start catching up. The Queen is expecting their 7th pup. They have five girls and one boy, he hopes this pup is a boy so his first son has the option to refuse the crown. He doesn’t expect him too since he is already trying to wear a crown but he is only 4 and Al wants him to be able to refuse if he wants. It was almost lunch when Al gets a mind-link that Rose was on the 6th floor library roof and trying to run. We both took off running to the scene.