3: Little Mission

EZRA

Hands that have been warm all my life feel cold against my face, my heart shutters as my mother’s hand slips off my face, falling to her side.

The whole world stands at a standstill, or just my world. I can’t hear anything but the entirely too loud sound of my heart breaking in my chest. 

I have lost the woman I love more than anything and everyone. I have lost my mother.

A shuddering breath makes it past my lips and I close my eyes, feeling the burn of tears trying to make it past. I don’t let them fall, the voice of my stewardess coming to my mind, even at a time like this, the words I’ve been hearing since the day I was born stop me from mourning my own mother.

“Wipe your tears, prince Ezra. You are to be a king and kings do not cry.” I hate Mrs. Penelope. I hate that even at this time I still hear her voice and more than that, I hate that it stops the tears.

I get off the side of the bed, looking down at my mother’s once lively face. She looks nothing short of beautiful, and peaceful. She is even glowing. I like that she looks rested and my heart hurts. It's a physical pain that steals my breath at the realization that her eyes will never open again. I won’t get to see them sparkle as she talks about things that she loves, how they glisten when she cries from joy. She has always said you’re not really happen until your eyes agree with you.

Her voice fills my head, the last I would probably ever hear.

“I want you to be a great king my Ezra,” I always did love how she called me hers. I knew she was my mother but it felt nice, the reminder that I am not prince Ezra to her. I’m not the future king, just her son.

“I want to be a great king just like my father,” the young excited me would always reply but her answer is always the same.

“No my love, you are going to be a king greater than your father.” I would smile widely because she believed in me.

“I’ll not let you down mummy,” I barely call her that, unless we’re alone. I haven’t called her that in a long time, and now I’ll never be able to. At least not when she would hear.

“I know you won’t my dear, and that is what makes you a great king already.”

Her voice almost sounds present, like she is here. As though she is saying them to me right now and it isn’t just a figment of my imagination. Like she didn’t just take her last breath and touched me for the last time.

I don’t get the time to gather myself and fully say goodbye to her because her lady in waiting rushes in, she seems to know what happened even before she is fully inside the room. She bows in respect then runs back out, to call my father. What I was supposed to do but I haven’t fully finished saying goodbye to her, and I didn’t want to be caught up in my title.

The crown weighs me down and she is the only person I feel comfortable keeping it down for.

I lean down and close my eyes then I place a gentle kiss on her forehead, staying longer than normal. As much as I fight it, a tear slips down my face and lands on her cheeks.

The doors bursting open and my father’s heavy footsteps makes me move back. The rest of the world doesn't notice, but I see it. I watch how the great lycan king’s shoulders shake as he hears the stillness in the room, the lack of a beat in his mate’s heart. I don’t wait to witness the depressing scene, choosing rather to leave the room.

An obnoxious shrill ringing pulls me from my painful memories of my mother. I sit up and blink multiple times to clear the haze from my eyes. I found the reason for the disruption, my alarm clock.

A gold ornate card meets my eyes when I go to switch off the alarm. My fingers trace the neat cursive and when I see the Wolf House seal, something violent swirls in my chest.

This piece of paper was the bane of my mother’s existence, and now mine. Not literally the paper itself but what it represents.

The Fated Banquet. My mother got to marry my father and become the lycan queen because of that, but her twin sister wasn’t so fortunate and because she didn’t get the needed score and ended up being a breeder. Even as the lycan luna, she never managed to get my father to abolish the tradition. The elders didn’t agree for just a young eighteen year old queen to come and tell them to get rid of the lifelong tradition.

She made it her life mission, and even on her deathbed, her last wish was for me to help her get rid of that tradition, and I promised to do it. I plan on keeping that promise, I just don’t know how to.

My attention gets drawn back to the paper in my hands and it seems like I literally has the answer written right in front of me. I get up from the seat and leave my office, waving at my guards that try to fall in step behind me to stay, I don’t need them. I’m only going to see my father.

My father has been detached from the entire world since my mother died. Now, he just focuses on ruling the kingdom.

“Ah, you’re here to see your old man,” I chuckle a little.

“I always come to see you, father.” I reply and settle into the seat on the side of him. He snorts, not believing a word I’m saying and with good reason, I only come to visit him when I need something. And he isn’t wrong this time either.

“I’m not a child, Ezra. What brings you here?” his tone goes serious and I clear my throat and then slide the paper over his desk to him.

“Father,” his face hardens and I sigh under my breath. “You know this is my mother’s last wish and I intend to go through with it.” I tell him what’s on my mind. We’ve spoken about this a few times, but never this seriously and I didn’t tell him the reason for my obsession.

“You cannot change a lifelong tradition, Ezra, we’ve spoken about this.” He drops the paper back and reclines in his chest.

“The world has changed, father, we should change along with it. For the betterment of our people.” Even as the future king, I don’t have the power to just abolish the tradition on my own.

There’s a lot of politics involved in it and the people that control that, let’s just say they benefit the most from this. Because where else can they get a lot of she-wolves at their disposal to do with as they please. It is disgusting how he isn’t actively working on getting rid of this.

“It is wrong. They treat women like they are nothing, like they are trash. Women are—“

“Ezra, the Fated Banquet will not be stopped simply because you don’t agree with it.” I grit my teeth hard but don’t say anything

The few times I’ve brought it up and he gave the same answer, I thought I could just help change his mind when we have a full conversation. I’m starting to see a side of him I’ve heard of before my mother and for the first time, I can say that I’ve fully given up on my father and his feudality

I angrily walk out of the room and mindlink my beta, Nathaniel on the way. I tell him to meet me down at the parking garage. He is already waiting when I get there and I snatch one of the car keys.

“Where are we going?” he asks, already getting into the car. We have been friends since we were kids and he is loyal to a fault.

“On a little mission at the Wolf House.”