With my heart thumping in my chest, I finally said, “I don’t know if I can answer your question accurately, Your Majesty. I’ve only ever been human, but I have witnessed the immense strength that werewolves do. It’s amazing what your kind is capable of.”@
The Alpha King hummed thoughtfully but he didn’t look displeased with my answer. “Yes, I suppose you’ve had plenty of time to see how incapable humans are. How long have you lived with your father?”
“About six years.’
??
“You know,” the Alpha King chuckled, looking at Beta Williams, “This story has always fascinated me. There were plenty of rumors floating around about Marcus Bellevue’s affair with a human woman and their human child. A powerful Alpha cheating on his destinated mate with a human of all things? It’s almost unbelievable.”
“It is quite unusual,” Beta Williams replied, “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of that happening. I’ve known werewolves that have had affairs with human women and gotten them pregnant – but never a powerful Alpha and never a mated one.”
I tried not to squirm in my seat at the direction the conversation had taken. If the Alpha King’s goal was to make me as uncomfortable as possible, he was definitely exceeding.
“Why did he cheat on his mate?” The Alpha King turned back at me. He was genuinely asking me as if I had some sort of secret insight into my father’s psyche.
“Uh, I’m not sure,” I stumbled out, trying to keep my composure, “I know it wasn’t a long-term thing, but he’s never told me much about it.”
“Ah, I see. A one-night-stand left him saddled with a child?” The King laughed,
“How unfortunate.” He took another long sip of his wine glass and I prayed that my part of the interrogation was done. I hated feeling everyone’s eyes on me, waiting to see if I’d keep my cool or sl*p up and say the wrong thing.
“There’s something else I’m curious about, Clark,” the King continued and my stomach dropped. “Humans do not have mates, do they?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’ve always wondered what that must be like,” he said, “To not have the pull of a soulmate like us wolves do. You don’t even understand what you’re missing, I suppose.”
I held my tongue – although a part of me wanted to tell him that I had seen how their supposed soulmates treated each other and the last thing I wanted was to have some flesh-and-blood anchor weighing me down.
“Then again,” the King mused, “I suppose you’ll never have to experience the crippling loss of a mate either. I lost my own over twenty-five years ago and the pain feels as fresh as yesterday. My own son has never met his mate and I see how it weighs on him – it’s like missing a limb you’ve never had.”
“You almost sound poetic, Alaric. Your love for the late Queen is inspiring to all mated couples,” Beta Williams said, “Where is Prince Griffin tonight?”
Yes, let’s direct this conversation to someone else’s family.
The Alpha King sighed deeply. “Who knows?” He said, “My sons less and less time around the castle these days. He prefers to go settle pack disputes in person, he likes to get his hands bloody. That’s at least one trait he’s picked up from his father.”
The King grinned.
“Will he be at the meeting tomorrow, Your Majesty?” Sebastian asked. It was the first time he’d spoken since the Alpha King walked into the room.
“Yes,” the Alpha King said, “He has a vested interest in the meeting. I have no doubt he’ll be there.”
Well, that just confirms that most of this meeting is just a rouse for the Prince to find his mate.2
Fine by me.
If the Prince is too busy hunting down his mate, I can do what I do best at these sorts of things and make friends with the wallpaper (and hopefully whoever is in charge of the food).
Suddenly, my mind flashed back to my conversation with the elder from the pack.
the old man who had told me that there was a miniscule chance I could be a wolf’s mate given my bloodline.
No, there’s no way.
If I was someone’s mate, I’m sure I would’ve felt it some sort of mate pull like the wolves do.
I’m only human, there’s no way I’m going to end up someone’s mate, let alone the prince of wolves.
It’s such a miniscule chance, and as unlucky as I may be sometimes, there’s no way I’m unlucky enough to be the mate of some possessive werewolf prince. That’s the kind of stuff you see in books and TV shows, not real life.
But no matter what I tried to tell myself, my stomach was in the knots the rest of the dinner party.
“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves.”
Mary Shelley
You’d think if there was any time that you’d be able to sleep like a baby, it’d be when you’re lying on a luxurious king-sized bed with sheets that probably cost. more than my college tuition would.
But I was wide awake that night.
Lily was snoring just feet away from me, in the other bed of the castle suite. Sebastian was probably asleep too, although I couldn’t tell since he was separated by the large sliding glass door. {1}
Since the dinner party, I’d been riddled with anxiety and I couldn’t articulate the source of it. Was I nervous that my biology meant I could end up saddled to a werewolf forever? A little bit. But really, I just felt out of my depth at this place. It was like I was walking on pins and needles everywhere. People like the Alpha King and Ezra saw my genetic makeup as a weakness, something they could poke and prod at like a science experiment.
There was nothing I could do about it, not really. All I could do was wait it out. Once I was back home and away from the castle forever, I was sure I’d feel better.
But what I am going to do about sleeping tonight?
I took another glance at Lily. She was out like a light and Sebastian was probably passed out even harder.
When I had trouble sleeping at home, I’d drink a cup of tea and walk around the pack grounds. It was safer than it sounded. My dad ensured that Blacktooth’s lands were patrolled by wolves around the clock, so there was no real danger for me to encounter.
It’s not like I could take a walk here. I didn’t doubt that the place was guarded, but I didn’t know my surroundings. The last thing I needed was to get lost or encounter someone like Ezra, who thought it would be fun to mess with the human.
I could step out on the balcony though.
On the way back from the dinner party, I had spotted a door that led out to a balcony. I doubted anyone would be out there in the middle of the night, and it was close enough to the suite that I was confident I could find my way there and back. without getting lost.
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