Chapter 4

My eyes widened when I realized what I was thinking and shook my head. I wasn’t gay. At least, my only real sexual escapades was with Jess or another vampire named Emma. She was Jess’s friend and the two of them liked to gang up on me sometimes. Outside of that, there was nothing else, no one else. I didn’t even know if there could be gay mates. How would the moon goddess set up two men when neither of them could have kids? It didn’t make any sense.

“Alpha King Vale, please step forward.”

My heart fell. I didn’t want to step up. Naresh forced us to stand up. We stepped forward and I grabbed the railing until my knuckles where white. I looked down at the group, keeping my face blank, my lips in a thin line. I watched as the Alpha’s eyes raise to mine. We looked at each other and the room melted away. My heart hammered in my chest and I watched as his eyes grew to the size of saucers. For the first time, his scent filtered into my nose. It was pine. Pine and the scent of cracking opening the pages of an old book. That scent was partly the reason why I spent so much time in the library. It calmed me, soothed me.

Mate! Naresh yelled, nearly making me jump.

“Alpha King Vale, I don’t think this would fall under the jurisdiction of the High Council but rather your decision.” Peter, one of the other vampire High Council members, looked at up at me. He was the one I liked least. While he was fair, his attitude was horrific. If he could get out of doing work, he would try to weasel his way out of it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and tore my eyes away from my mate. “It depends on the original decision of the High Council. If the original council did, indeed, make a decision incorrectly when taking disciplinary actions against a pack, it would fall under the jurisdiction of the council. If not, then yes, I would take responsibility for the next steps in regards to this rogue pack.”

I watched as Peter’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t say anything. Jess flashed me a smile.

“Since none of us were here seventy years ago, allow us to take a day to decide whose jurisdiction that this falls under. We shall reconvene tomorrow. Is that amiable, Alpha Ezekiel?”

There was silence. My eyes flickered back towards him and he was still staring at me. His Beta elbowed him in the side and he broke his gaze.

“Yes, that is fine.”

She nodded. “Then this meeting is adjourned. Alpha Ezekiel, Beta Leo, we will have someone come by and take you to the guest quarters.”

Everyone started to get up and walk away. Alpha Ezekiel’s eyes turned back up to me but I backed away from the edge and fell back into my chair. My hand came up to my forehead as I leaned around the chair.

'It’s our mate, Vale! We need our mate!'

'Oh yeah? You want to go claim a male alpha?'

Suddenly, I felt him shrink back. 'The moon goddess…'

I cut him off. '…is a joke, apparently. Look what my mom had to go through. Am I doomed to be just as fucked? He looks like he could be in his early thirties. I bet you he has a Luna. Probably has a couple pups by now.'

Naresh whined at the thought. We stayed quiet for a while as the room filtered out.

'Vale, I think we need to talk to Mom.'

I smiled. 'You’re probably right. We need to at least do our due diligence for our mate. Figure out what happened and how we can help.'

'To the library!'

I chuckled and stood up. Taking my book with me, I looked back down for a moment but no one was left in the room. Heading out of the room, I stuck to the back hallways. One that weren’t open to the public. Was I avoiding him? Absolutely.

Opening up the doors to the library, this one was not open to the public. We did have a public library but this one had a lot of confidential information. Ones that would restart wars or would break races apart.

“Alpha King.” Keeper Thomas bowed his head to me.

I probably spent more time in here than anywhere else. He and I had scoured through tomes abc times of information before finding what we needed.

“I have a question. I need the books for the High Council from about seventy years ago.”

He nodded. “I think I know the two books.”

“I’m gonna grab the Alpha King’s information for those years as well, maybe he mentioned something about it.”

We broke our little huddle and I went to one side of the room, he went to the other. To say this place was huge, was an understatement. This was the smaller of the two libraries but there were two levels, the floor to ceiling books that were jammed in that not a playbook could be squeezed between. It was my home away from home. I grabbed the journal as well as the official history for that time. My eyes fell over the genealogy of the kings and I grabbed it as well.

There was a bench in the far corner that I had claimed and now was left for me at all times. I placed the books down on the table and started to flip through them. Once I found any mention of it, I left it open and went to the next book, making sure all were open to the correct time. I always found it better to have all information to be able to follow along at the same time.

History was written by the victors. Biased to the people writing it. Details omitted that might say someone against a decision. So getting multiple views was important to get the whole picture.

“I found them, my king.”

I smiled and nodded as he placed the books in front of me. I had given up years ago trying to get to correct him. He was an older werewolf but somehow he decided that even at sixteen, I was worthy of the title. I never thought I was but now, I think he was the one who helped me the most transfer into my role.

“I don’t think you will find anything in the king’s genealogy book though.”

I nodded. “That’s a separate research. I wanted to look into the mates of the kings. For some reason, my mom was the only one who received the prophecy as the Luna Queen. So I was interested in the mates of the kings.”

I tried to sound nonchalant about it. He raised his eyebrow. “There are a few journals on file for the pervious kings mates, if you would like me to grab them.”

I shook my head. “I will wait. I just wanted to start. This comes first.” Motioning to the current books that were open.

His eyes narrowed. “You aren’t the oldest king to find his mate. You shouldn’t worry too much. It might help getting out of the library though.”

Chuckling, I shook my head. “Thanks, Thomas.”

I pulled the books he brought to me and filed through the pages. My eyes roamed through the books, flipping through each of them as I followed the timeline.

'Christian Darkry was a a terrible Alpha.'

I chuckled. 'Yes, he was. He sold children to the BloodHunter Coven. Every time one of his pack mates, he raped them first. Honestly, we saw this kind of shit in the dark ages of our kind.'

'He even attacked witches and the fey, for sport.'

I pulled up the journal of the Alpha King. 'According to this journal, it wasn’t sport. He was trying to create an alpha-witch hybrid or an alpha-fey hybrid. The witches and fey went to war with them after so many of their kind died at his hands.'

Naresh huffed. 'Did he succeed?'

Shrugging, I continued to read. He had been put before the council after finally getting caught. Some vampires who were against the BloodHunters caught him by accident when he was selling more of his packs children. Submitted before the High Council, they brought in witness after witness of his terrible deeds.

The Alpha King had shown up to the proceedings as well. He had been approached multiple times in regards to this Alpha but was worried that if he took action, it would bring the BloodHunter coven to his doorstep. It was a hard decision, but at the time the BloodHunter coven had been a force to be reckoned with. Alpha King Killian, was still fresh in his mind and how many lives were lost during that war.

'They sentenced him to death. Obviously. But one of the High Councilors backed the coven.'

Naresh growled. 'So what happened?'

'It looks like High Councilor Oran wanted the Beta to take over the pack. His Beta was just as bad, if not worse, than then the Alpha himself. The others decided it would be better to disband the pack.'

'But he had a son. Wouldn’t they want to end the line of the Alpha as well as the Beta and Gamma?'

I nodded my head. 'Looks like High Councilor Oran pardoned then after he saw their ‘remorse’. The Beta took his son according to the Alpha King. The Alpha King wanted to take the child but because the Beta was his official godfather, the Alpha King let it go. His land was split and the pack all but disappeared.'

I leaned back in my chair. This fell under the High Council jurisdiction. High Councilor Oran made the decision that was incorrect. While yes, his pack should have been disbanded after his poor people suffered so much, the entire leadership should have been put to death.

The High Council fucked up. They had an agenda. Backing the BloodHunter coven meant that the Beta was able to continue. I flipped through the Alpha King’s information and found that the Beta had been put to death fifteen years later. Found guilty of nearly all the same things his Alpha had originally done but as a rogue. Darkry’s son though was never mentioned.

'Did you want to have to make a decision?' Naresh asked.

I rubbed my eyes. 'I don’t know. Yes? Maybe? Maybe indirectly be able to help our mate. Be able to help him with his pack.'

'We are fucked, aren’t we?' Naresh asked and I nodded.

'Yeah. Yeah, we are.'