Erondale

Chapter 18

Alrich

A few hours earlier:

I’m livid. I’m jealous. I’m hurt. All of these emotions are foreign to me. I’m not used to having such strong feelings about someone. Yet, here I am, pacing around the tent watching as she dances with someone else.

It brings me back to the night that I met her. The smug Prince must have really upset her because, as soon as he walked towards her, I saw the fire and determination in her eyes. She turned to me with the sweetest little voice and asked me to be her escort.

I couldn’t resist. She was breathtakingly adorable. We danced all night. That is how our friendship blossomed. Now, here she is doing the same thing with a guy four years older than her. I can’t lose our friendship. It’s no secret that Toby dislikes me.

He does have his reasons. I haven’t always been the best guy. She changed me. I glance over at her mother and scowl. She is stopping me from getting what I want. I usually always get what I want. I don’t know what hold she has over the King but he seems to be siding with her.

I just need to the King to see how I feel. As soon as she steps away from him, I make my way over to the King.

“Good evening, Your Highness.” I greet with a bow.

“Good evening, Alrich.” King

Clay greets. I frown at the sound of his weakness.

“May I sit and chat with you?”

He rolls his eyes, so unkingly, and smiles,“Of course. It’s not like I am going anywhere.”

I smile. I do love my King even though his son and I don’t get along. I give him a really good look. He does not look well at all. I’m not sure how long he can last. His face is pale and he’s sweating profusely despite the chilly atmosphere.

“How are you doing?” I ask him.

He attempts to smile. Giving up the pretense, he sighs. “I won’t be here long, Alrich. Everyone knows. I’m trying to stick around long enough for Chris to get back.”

My heart breaks a little. “You don’t think that you will?”

“No. I know that I won’t.” I glance at him and see the seriousness in his tone. Before I can respond, he asks me a question. “Why are you so sure about Rae?”

My heart stutters. “Why, you don’t think that she’s good enough for me?” I joke.

He narrows his eyes. “If you are so sure that the two of you will last, why are you attempting a wedding contract behind her back?” He explains.

I sigh. “She is but a peasant. I thought that having a contract would protect her.” I lie. It’s really because I am not a hundred percent sure that she will accept me and I’m selfish.

He squints his eyes to determine if I am lying. “Hmm. I think that maybe you should ask her out on dates. She may agree. It would be better than trapping her, no?”

I hear Rae laugh and my attention is momentarily interrupted. She’s smiling as Toby dips her. As he raises her up, I can see that she’s blushing.

Jealousy slams into me. I see her whispering to Toby and I stand. I’m not sure what I was about to do but the King’s chuckle interrupts me.

“She is something special.” The King says. “Just like her mother.”

I look at him. I know what he’s referring to but the loving look in his eyes confuse me. Did he have something special with her mother? He glances at me and sees my expression and laughs.

“Oh, no! I don’t harbor any feelings for her mother. Her father was my best friend and I consider her as my sister-in-law. Her children are almost as my own.”

He sighs. “Christopher really screwed up with what he did to her. I was hoping that one day, maybe she would be his queen.” He looks lost in thought for a minute. “Maybe we got it wrong.” He mutters.

Not sure what he meant by that, I excuse myself and turn to go to Rae. She isn’t there anymore. I scan the area and I see that she is chatting with Toby, off to the side, while taking a drink. Instead of going to Rae, I head outside for some fresh air.

It’s maybe only twenty minutes later when I hear the screams. I had found refuge underneath a tree. The second that the screams were heard, I ran into the tent. I locate the King, and he isn’t doing so well. The palace guards are attempting to get him onto his rolling chair.

I run to help. “Your majesty, what’s happened?” I ask, panicked.

“An attack. Lots of people at the same time. Same as during the hunt.” He explains during pants.

My eyes widen. “Let me help you. You need to get to safety.”

He looks at me, seriously. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is can still get to me.” He looks at his guards. “Take me home.”

I see Talon rush into the tent, furious. I look at him and he’s covered in blood. Before I know what I am doing, I am shouting at him about his sister. He just ignores me and moves to help bring in injured people.

I notice one of my men carrying his brother into the tent. He looks half dead. I run over to help. We carry him into the middle of the floor and lay him down. Looking over at Sean, his eyes are vacant and his face is closed off.

“How bad is it?” I ask him.

His pale face blanches even more. “There is blood everywhere.”

“All dead?” I whisper.

“No. There are some that are injured. Some women are helping them.” He explains.

I glance around the room. We need to facilitate the injured.

“Start bringing the injured in here. We need to set up medical ability.” I order.

“Yes, Sir.” Sean says as he takes off.

I look at his twin, Seamus. “Hang in there, man. We’ll get you fixed up.” I say.

I know that I’m lying. He’s not going to make it. His breathing is shallow and you can hear the liquid bubbling up his throat. What can cause this damage? That’s another reason I want to force her into marriage. Someone is threatening her. If I take that option away, maybe they’ll leave her alone. Maybe I’m just fooling myself.

Sean is carrying someone else inside and I leave his brother. “Go to your brother. You don’t have much time.” I tell him as I am grabbing the lady from his arms.

“This is my mother. My sister is out there.” He says, tears streaming down his face.

I look down and see that his mother is gone. “Is your sister..”

“Dead.” He interrupted.

My blood is boiling. Someone, or something, killed my people! People that I invited to celebrate Rae’s sixteenth birthday. This is my fault!

“How many of my people, Sean?” I ask, fearful of the answer.

“We brought forty of us here. We were all outside getting ready to leave.” He answers.

I nod my head and rush outside to get the next patient. I don’t know how many people I was able to bring into the tent but I’m barely standing. Half of my people are gone never to open their eyes again.

I see Toby come in. My eyes widen when I notice that he looks like he’s been injured. I make my way over to him. I may not like him much, because of Rae’s attachment, but Rae does.

“Hey. Have you seen Raleigh?” I ask him.

I can see his answer before he says it. “No. I thought she may have been with you.” He says panicking.

I rush outside to look for her. When I spot her, the first thing I do is to pull her into my arms. She doesn’t resist which made my heart lighter. When I see all the blood on her, my heart nearly stops. I didn’t even think about the possibility that she was hurt.

She assures me that she is not injured and that she is just helping people. I’m overjoyed when she allows me to take her home. I feel contentment in knowing that she is safe. I will give my life for her. It takes everything in me not to stay. I feel her fear.

I have a secret. A secret that she shares, she just doesn’t know it. Toby doesn’t even know about her secret. Being a Knight gives me a little more clearance to know things. We have been f*******n by the King to say anything to her. I want to tell her that I love her. I want to tell her exactly how I feel about her but I can’t. Looking at her scared face, in the doorway, I know that it’s not the right time.

My wolf is sad. She’s not our mate but we have a strong bond somehow. He doesn’t want to leave her. Instead of laying it all out to her, I remind her to lock the door and leave to my duties. I need to check on my sub pack members.

I am the Alpha of the Sublime pack, a sub pack of Erondale. Tobias is the Alpha’s of Alpha's son. He is next in line. It’s one of the reasons that I can’t do anything about him and Rae’s relationship and the other reason that I want a contract. As soon as I reach the tent, I notice that most of the mess is cleaned up. I approach my men and ask for their attention.

“Alright, now that everyone is here and listening, I need to know who we lost. However, first I need to address this.”

I look at each member of my men. I see the solemn looks in their eyes.

“Someone is murdering women on my property. As everyone knows Raleigh is a very dear friend of mine and I think that they are threatening her. It is time to stop these murders”.

I pull out a list and hang it on the wall. I hand the pen out to Sean.

“I want teams of three to form. Each team is to go to different parts of the territory and investigate anything suspicious. I will have the warriors at home stay back and build a stronger patrol. Once you find anything, anything at all, that you deem could be relevant to the murders I want you to link me. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sir.” The replied in unison.

“Good. Split up and come to me so I can tell you where to go.”

As soon as they split up into their teams, I made my way to a table. I used a rock to draw a map on one of the tables and assigned numbers. Each group of three came up and grabbed their number. Once they all left, I left to sleep outside of Rae’s house. No one is going to get to her while I am here.