The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 111

Alexander

Fiona's windchime alarm woke me from an anxious half-sleep.

I'd been in and out of vivid dreams all night, startling awake every hour in the middle of clear and precise thoughts, all of which revolved around the two things that were troubling me in my waking life. The odd, unsettling business with Iris was one of these things. The problems brewing within my pack were the other.

I caught Fiona by the wrist before she could slip out of bed and pulled her back to me. Her phone clattered onto the bedside table.

"Stay just one minute." My voice was hoarse from disuse and a touch of dehydration.

"Okay." I heard a smile in her voice. She buried her face against my neck. "One minute only though."

I kissed the top of her head. Her sweet smell filled my senses and instantly started to calm my anxious mind.

Fiona slipped a hand up to my neck, cradling one side while lightly kissing the other. I felt her first two fingers replace a pulse point and pause there. She noticed that my heart was racing.

"Are you okay?" she asked gently, sitting up.

"I'm fine."

She stared down at me silently, not accepting this answer.

"Just didn't sleep well," I added. I took her hand and brought it to my mouth, kissed her palm and then pressed it against my cheek. "How about you?"

She frowned. "I didn't sleep great, either. Strange dreams."

I wondered silently if we'd shared any of the nightmares I'd fallen into last night. I certainly hoped not.

"I really need to get up." She patted my cheek.

I nodded. "One last request."

"Yes?"

"Can I tempt you to sit and have some coffee with me before you head out - after you get ready? Just five minutes. I'll get a pot brewing while you shower."

Fiona narrowed her eyes and said, cautiously, "Okay."

"Five minutes. I promise not to undress you."

She chuckled. "Alright. You put some clothes on, too, though."

"Yes, dear."

She rolled her eyes, trying to hold back an amused smile.

I turned the lights on, threw on some clothes, made the bed, and started the coffee.

My hands completed these tasks while my mind drifted quickly into a swarm of busy thoughts.

Kayden had given me some disturbing information last night.

And here I thought I would be the one with the good story to share when I told him I needed to go out for a drink. He listened patiently to my story about Iris and the bizarre stunt she pulled, first. But then, as soon as I was done with my tale, he told me he actually had more bad news.

Turns out, while he and I were traveling to replace Iris, a couple members of our pack got into some trouble while partying in the city.

They'd kept it from us for as long as possible, but finally Kayden happened to overhear a few of them talking about the incident.

I had known something was not right with the pack the day after we returned from the moors. But thus far the only information I had was that several of my men were under-performing at regular drills and lagging in their reaction times. Kayden and I had been trying to get to the root of the problem for the past week. We'd been testing and timing and tracking each man's performance. Attempting to pinpoint the team's weak spots and plan for an intervention. No action on the matter would be effective, though, unless I understood the source of the issue.

Now I did.

There were a couple troublemakers in the pack that were stirring up distraction and division.

I knew well that this kind of problem would always have a ripple effect. Distrust between even two members could quickly spread to disunity amongst the pack as a whole.

I finished fixing our coffees just as Fiona emerged from her dressing room.

"This is nice," she said. We sat at the table simultaneously. "Thank you." She took the mug I handed to her and closed her eyes while taking a big inhale of the fragrant steam.

"It is, isn't it?" It was very satisfying to see a smile on her face and know I'd put it there.

She made an mmm sound with her first sip. "This is delicious." She eyed me with a mildly impressed expression.

"I'm glad you like it."

"What's in it? Tastes like... cinnamon? Something else, too?"

I took a long, faux-thoughtful sip of my coffee, then reclined back in my chair. "If I told you that, what would you need to keep me around for?"

Her eyebrows went up. "Hm. I could name a fair few things."

"Could you?"

"I could..." She looked at me over her coffee cup, blowing lightly over the surface of the steaming liquid to cool it.

"Maybe you can name those things for me later," I said, shifting my weight forward and resting my forearms on the table. "When you've got more than five minutes to give me afterward."

She sipped her coffee composedly, keeping her eyes on mine, and nodded slightly.

Five minutes came and went quickly. I rose to stand when I saw her glancing at her watch, letting her know I was not going to fight her on leaving.

"Thanks for this, really," she said, standing and performing a small stretch.

I moved in and kissed her neck. She melted into me just a little. My lips trailed up to her cheek and hovered there.

She gripped the back of my neck and pressed her lips to my ear. "Maybe I'll go in a little later tomorrow," she said. "I like waking up like this..."

"Like what?" I asked, pulling back a little to look her in the eye. "With bedside coffee service? Or... with my mouth on you?" Like she needed a demonstration, I dipped back down into her neck, kissing it again, a little harder this time...

I heard a low purring noise come from her throat.

Then she gently pushed me away, smirking.

"Yes and yes," she answered. "Let's do more of both tomorrow. I'll, uh... work it into my schedule."

She made herself laugh with this last comment, snorting a little and covering her mouth.

I loved to hear her laugh. She didn't do it very often.

I mindlinked Kayden as I headed out to the training field and found he was awake.

We met up outside around a quarter after four. That gave us less than two hours before sunrise, when the pack would be coming out for morning training. We'd need to move pretty fast.

First stop was a tool shed located about a hundred yards behind one of the rose gardens. We looted it for pickaxes and shovels.

Then we headed to the far side of the open field that we used for drills and sparring practice. At the end of this field there was a hill. It sloped upward gently from the palace-facing side, but led to a sharp incline on the other side that dropped down steeply to the edge of the forest.

Kayden and I were going to identify our troublemakers today and bring an end to their negative impact on pack morale. Once the source of the pack's problems could be dealt with, the other men would fall in line.

We started digging immediately, careful with our balance while we worked on the incline-side of the hill, and dug until sunrise.

We dug a very deep trench into the slope. It was completely invisible from the other side of the hill.

Essentially, it was a trap.