Kai's POVMy father, the great Alpha King decided to take a recess in our courtroom and pulled Alexander and me into his study. I rolled my eyes, expecting to be scolded for my careless comments but I didn’t regret them. It was his fault I didn’t know my mother so I took the opportunity to take the jab at him.I'd known that I was a bastard since I was old enough to understand the word. I'd never been held by the Luna Queen, even as a pup, only by her maidservant who did it out of duty more than anything. Then when Alexander was born and people spoiled him rotten, I finally understood where I stood in the hierarchy they called family.Alexander was pathetic. He hung his head low as soon as we were out of the audience’s view to offer respect to his father and try to show his submission, hoping father wouldn’t be too angry at him.By the Goddess, he was like a child.My father’s room was old and dusty like an antique store. It had been the study of who knows how many Alpha Kings over th
Alyssa's POVI didn’t know it was possible to feel more vulnerable and alone than I’d felt, even before the Alpha King and the princes exited the throne room for whatever discussion or scolding was needed to be done behind closed doors. Even with Carter and Caspian still with me, I felt the animosity grow from the others left in the room like any protection I previously had just vanished. The Luna Queen was still there, looking at me with disdain as if she wondered what was so special about me.But it wasn’t just her that frightened me. Now that there were no princes to act as my shields, Freya’s demeanour changed massively. It didn’t help that she was favoured by the Luna Queen and it was doubtful anyone would stop her if she decided to act.She charged towards me even as Carter and Caspian growled at her. With the princes and the Alpha King no longer there, she knew that she was not in any real danger.“What do you think you’re playing at?” She hissed, her eyes glowing with an ange
Alyssa's POVEveryone was silent as the Alpha King returned to the throne room, the princes following quickly behind him. Alexander and Kai stopped behind me once again. Kai gave me a quick once-over, to check if anything had been done to me. Once he was satisfied there was nothing wrong, he simply nodded and looked at his father who now sat on his throne again.Alexander as a quiet, “Are you okay?”I just nodded at him stiffly, also turning my attention back on the Alpha King.“It’s a shame I can’t leave some of my most trusted Alphas alone without it almost descending into a fight,” The Alpha King scolded and my father and Alpha Thomas looked ashamed of themselves.With a heavy sigh, as if this meeting had taken too much energy out of him. I didn’t know why, all he had to do was sit on a throne and make a decision. Though, I supposed he did just have to entertain Prince Kai for a few minutes and that was enough to take a lot out of anyone.I looked at Prince Kai, trying to gauge wha
Alyssa's POVI took a deep breath as I stopped just outside of Prince Kai’s room. As he promised yesterday, one of his attendants called on me and brought me to the prince’s palace. It wasn’t as grand as the Alpha King’s, which was to be expected, but it had a nice quaint feeling to it, the kind of place someone could run away to in order to get away from everything.The attendant brought me to the door before he excused himself. I was to go in alone. To anyone watching it was normal for a wife-to-be to see her husband and his home before they were married, but just standing outside his door felt too intimate.I’d never had a partner before. I was thirteen when I was sent to the Red Maple Camp and the people I was imprisoned with weren’t the type of people I wanted to form romantic relationships with. With Alexander, I’d barely spent a minute with him before he rejected me and shattered my heart and soul to pieces.Slowly, I lifted my hand to knock on the door, but just as I was abou
Kai's POVThere were multiple reasons why I never told anyone who gave me this scar and why. One of those reasons was that I didn’t want to show any kind of weakness to my enemies, and in the palaces there were too many enemies to count.Another reason was that it was simply embarrassing. If people knew I’d been distracted by love and pretty words I’d never hear the end of it and my reputation as the General of the Skeleton Army would become non-existent.But the real, honest-to-goddess reason was that I hated it whenever people looked at me with pity. Pity was the worst kind of emotion possible because people looked down on you as if it was someone else’s fault.So when I finally told Alyssa, a woman whose mate had broken her heart and spirit only minutes after meeting him, I expected her to look at me with nothing but pity and was prepared to throw her out of my palace without a second thought on whether I truly needed her or not.I was shocked to find her nodding, a hint of empathy
Alyssa's POVI was quickly taken to The Colosseum where I had been only the day before, but it was different knowing that I was going there to fight. It wasn’t going to be a fight to the death, the king had promised that.Well, it was more like he threatened us regarding it. If Taylor or I were to kill the other, we’d spend the rest of our lives locked up in the Red Maple Camp. This battle was to let us air our frustrations and anger out on one another, but the Alpha King wouldn't let us kill us, not when it would cause a rift between two of his most powerful packs.I had no intention of killing Taylor, even though the idea of it wasn’t terrible to me, but I saw the fear suddenly flash in his eyes as he looked at me as if that's exactly what he wanted to do now that he knew that I wasn't going to be 'returned' to him.I couldn’t help but feel smug. I’d been through the horrors of the Red Maple Camp, he’d only heard of them. I could handle going back. It would break me after this brief
Kai’s POVI thought this fight was going to bore me. Though I was beginning to stop assuming that Alyssa was weak, fragile and timid, I still expected her to cower. I’d seen enough battles and men, trained and untrained, cower at the mere thought of battle, let alone be in a real fight.So when Alyssa transformed, her giant silver wolf almost rivalling Carter inside and the feathery wings sprouting from her back, and made the first move to attack Taylor, I was pleasantly surprised. But when she took flight, diving towards her ex-fiance with a fiery anger that burned around her like a flame, my mouth was agape.This was what a warrior looked like, nothing but resolve in her eyes as she knew how this fight was going to end and was going to ensure that she was the one that was going to come out on top. Alyssa spiralled like an arrow towards Taylor, not giving him a chance to summon his fire as she knocked him off balance. He was brutally thrown to the floor, unable to steady himself wi
Alyssa's POVI didn’t get much of a chance to rest after my fight with Taylor. I was taken back to the room that the Alpha King had placed me in and immediately flopped on my bed, burying my face in the soft pillows and blankets.My heart was still racing from the fight even though all the energy in my body faded. I stared up at the canopy of my bed and took in a deep breath. The fight had barely lasted for ten minutes but with how I was feeling it felt like it had been going on forever as all the anger and fury in me took over. I wanted to close my eyes and sleep the rest of the day away, my bones and joints aching and I could feel Carys resting in the recesses of my mind, but only an hour after I returned to my room, there was a knock at the door.I was half tempted to ignore it and sleep, but the door knocked again, more incessantly. With a groan I stood and walked towards it, opening it slightly. Prince Kai was standing at my door with a servant carrying a box behind him, giving
Kai's POVThankfully, by the time I returned to my camp none of my men had noticed me missing and no one else had disappeared under Leon’s watch. It seemed I was correct in thinking that it was a diversion. The assassins hadn’t been able to find Alyssa and I hoped that she would be safe at home.We had to move further south and Mother Nature was on our side as the wet, muddy terrain was blessed by the sun and things became warmer. No more wringing socks out by the fire or having clumps of dirt caught in fur.But, even though conditions were better, I’d felt more uncomfortable than ever. I had a tarp instead of a cave floor, I had a tent over my head instead of spiders and a warm fire instead of shivering in blankets. But there was something I had then that I didn't have now.Alyssa.Her smile, her laughter, her voice, and her scent were all worth it.But at that moment instead of being with her, I was stuck with burly brutes who hardly knew how to bathe and clean up after themselves.
Alexander's POV I didn’t know what game my mother was playing but unfortunately, I had no choice but to go along with it if I wanted to ensure that Alyssa stayed safe. Regardless of whether my engagement with Freya was back on, she wouldn’t forgive Alyssa for supposedly coming between us.I was partly to blame for that, I hadn't exactly been subtle with my affection for Alyssa, no matter how much I tried to hide it and squash it into the ground.We sat together in the carriage. I was on one side with Freya holding me, her head on my shoulder as Alyssa sat on the opposite side, her gaze never moving away from the window.I’d give anything to know what thoughts were running around her head. I’d give anything to be able to fix the ones that made her frown.But I was part of the problem. All of this could’ve been avoided if I had just accepted her in the first place.“Aren’t you so excited for the wedding, Alex?” Freya asked, craning her face towards me so that her lips were only a few c
Alyssa's POVDespite the incident with Freya, the next few days passed peacefully, so much so that Vivian even smiled at me a couple of times. Genuine smiles.With Freya’s engagement to Alexander back on and being planned at the moment, and with Kai being stationed far away in the South for a who knows how long amount of time, Vivian didn’t see me as a threat anymore. She had everything she wanted.A powerful Alpha husband, an heir to inherit that title and her daughter to be a princess and possibly Luna Queen.With Vivian’s change in character, it was clear to me that Freya must’ve not mentioned any part of our conversation to her mother about Alpha Aaron. Either she thought it wasn’t worth the hassle or she was scared that if she told her mother and Vivian retaliated it would confirm whatever she thought I knew.So with the first bit of peace of mind I'd had for a long time, I relaxed.With the wedding preparations taking place, everyone had been neglectful of Caleb who was still on
Alyssa's POVAlexander was so convincing in his pleas that I almost believed it. If I hadn’t known any better I would’ve thought this display to be genuine and that he'd done this in front of me again just to spite me.I glanced up slightly, having looked away when Freya had launched herself at my mate. My heart stammered as I looked at the passionate kiss and saw Alexander looking right at me.I looked down again.Caleb tightened his grip on my hand. He was still so young that he didn’t understand what a mate bond was or felt like, he barely understood the concept. But even still, my younger brother must’ve sensed that there was a hollow space within my soul and the cause of that hollowness was the man kissing Freya. He squeezed again, letting me know that he was there.I squeezed his hand back and smiled at him.“We should give them some privacy, shouldn’t we?” I said, wanting to get Caleb away from whatever manipulation was happening there.Caleb smiled and pulled me towards the do
Alexander;s POVThe last time I was alone with Alyssa I’d made a right ass of myself. The last time we were alone I’d confessed to her and she rejected me so being alone with her now I couldn’t help but feel awkward and a sense of longing. I wanted to hold her and beg her to forgive me again, but it wasn't the time. What do you say to a girl you hurt and now are in love with?But I still wasn’t going to give up, not until she gave me a chance.Even if she didn’t I was going to protect her. And not because Kai told me to. I was going to make sure she was safe. We stood just outside of the Ice Heart Pack’s territory line and she gave me a small smile.I ran through the plan in my head again.The plan was that Alyssa would stealthily return to her room. Only two people in the Pack House knew that she had left the pack territory, those two people being a trusted maid and her brother. No one else should’ve expected that she would go anywhere else.She would make herself known and half an h
Kai's POVI didn’t like leaving things like this. There was an assassin still out there targeting Alyssa who for all I was aware of, may have been following us now, waiting for an opportunity to attack. Then there was this whole conspiracy that Vivian was a part of.How could I just leave her like that?But my duty was as the General of the Skeleton Army and if my father wasn’t already informed I hadn’t been seen at my post, he would about to be soon. I knew what the punishment would be, and it wouldn’t just be for me either. It would be for my squad and possibly even Alyssa too if my father found her to blame.Still, even with all of that in mind, it was hard to just walk away as if nothing had happened.We had only a few minutes before I needed to depart and Alyssa had to sneak home. Alex was to escort her, letting her be seen first before he announced himself and his engagement with Freya was back on. That was part of the plan, but it still didn’t feel right to leave.Even Carter w
Alyssa's POVI had to take a minute to sit down and think as I finished the last few pages of Alpha Aaron’s journal. It was like he knew that something was wrong. He hadn’t trusted Vivian for a while so why did he allow her to take care of him?Was it because he was too weak to protest? His handwriting showed how weak he was. Or had she threatened to keep Freya away from him permanently? I wouldn’t put it past the woman to do that. And if she had done something to Alpha Aaron, did she have something planned for my father?I thought learning more about Alpha Aaron would help me solve my problems, but instead, I only had more questions that needed answers and only two people alive could answer them. Vivian would never say anything to me about him, but Freya… She wasn’t as skilled in the art of manipulation as her mother.“Where do we go from here?” Alexander asked, his head in his hands like he was in just as much shock as me.“I don’t know,” I replied with honesty as my hope began to d
Alyssa's POVAlpha Evan left the three of us in his office with the journal. I think partially it was so he could deny things if something went wrong, but mainly I think it was his way of protecting and respecting his dead brother. I couldn’t fault him for that.I sat at Alpha Evan’s desk with the two princes beside me as I peered curiously at the book, stroking the leather and wondering what Alpha Aaron was thinking in his final days.I opened the journal up briefly and saw neat, perfectly cursive handwriting. But unfortunately, I didn’t need the beginning, but the end. So I skipped to the last few pages and could see the illness had left a heavy toll on the Alpha. The once beautiful handwriting was now an almost illegible scribble. Was it because he was so ill he couldn’t write, or something else?“Are you sure you want to read this, Alyssa?” Alexander asked gently.His concern made my heart flutter and Carys hum, but this was something I needed to do. I knew he was concerned about
Alyssa’s POV“That’s absurd!” Alpha Evan roared.Alexander and Kai requested an audience once they had gathered more information. It was just at the time that Alpha Evan was warning me to look out for my father. I was about to ask more when a servant announced that the princes were here. We had originally agreed to meet in an hour, but they must've found something out to have come straight to the Pack House.Alpha Evan allowed them in and looked at me curiously as the princes both stood by my side, asking if I was okay.When I nodded they started telling us what they knew, but when it came to the supposed abuse of Luna Vivian, Alpha Evan couldn’t contain his anger.“How dare you!” He stood to his fault height, no longer caring that he was in the presence of the princes of his kingdom, “Bring whoever is spreading these scandalous rumours and let them answer to me!”The princes stood firmly, not intimidated in the slightest by the anger of the Alpha. Kai pulled me behind him and Alexand