The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 12

She blinked for a few moments. Linda was quiet, and I continued to stare at her and wait for her to answer. Bella passed exams because the young men she attended classes with gave her the answers to be closer to her. I knew from high school that she never did any homework. Lilian and Steven were preparing her to be a trophy wife, not someone to help run a pack, so they paid people or forced me to do her homework.

I doubted anything had changed in the last four years. Seeing the way Bella stared at me told me I was right.

“That’s such an easy question,” someone said from nearby. “If she needs help with that, it’s obvious that she doesn’t belong here.”

It was a high school algebra problem. I was taking Calculus this year.

“Do you need me to repeat the question?” I asked.

“Of course not,” Bella said though she glanced at Linda nervously. “Linda? Why don’t you give her the answer, and I’ll explain it.”

I looked at Linda, waiting for her to stumble and pull a bullshit answer out of nowhere. Linda was just as vain as Bella was. She was the daughter of another small pack, but she dedicated every day to make sure as many people complimented her on her looks as possible.

“Well, she didn’t even ask a real question,” Linda said haughtily. “She’s so dumb, she’s just making things up.”

Bella smiled thinly. “Well, there’s that. Aren’t you tired of embarrassing yourself?”

“What did she just say?” Someone nearby. “She can’t be serious.”

“Are we sure they’re really honor students?”

Bella and Linda froze. Their eyes were wide.

“My little brother could answer that, and he’s a freshman in high school.”

“Wait, three units which way?” Someone else asked.

Linda looked trapped, and I leaned back in my chair.

“They’re right,” I said, nodding towards the person who asked. “I didn’t specify along which axis.”

“That’s not a word,” Bella sneered.

The room went quiet, and the people nearby turned towards us. I almost laughed as I went back to my book.

“There’s a dictionary over there. Maybe you should start there before offering help.”

Bella flushed and glanced around at the people who were staring at them now.

“I don’t have time for this,” Bella said and stood. “I have other things to do.”

“Yeah,” I said with a shake of my head. “I guess tutoring does close soon for lunch.”

Bella sneered at me and shoved Linda ahead of her.

I lifted my head proudly. It was the first time in my life that Bella had been forced to walk away from me. If it kept up like this, I might have her actively avoiding me sooner rather than later.

“Hedy,” Claire called, hustling towards me. “I got out early!”

I lifted my hands into a mock cheer as she collapsed into the seat across from me. She grimaced at the textbook in front of me.

“Math. It burns,” Claire hissed. “Get it away from me.”

I laughed, “You’re not the only one.”

Claire slumped, “I don’t see why they force us to take at least three years of math! It’s not even relevant to my major.”

Claire was a humanities major. She always said that she was allergic to math, so I’d been helping her, subtly, get through the classes as she needed. I glanced over the textbook with a wry grin.

If anyone knew how easy classes at the Academy really were for me, they’d be suspicious. Candido had paid for the best tutors of the territory to get me up to speed to attend, but it hadn’t been enough for me.

Running Moon Shadow required more than just a college-level education. I could be an honor student at the Academy, but there was no point in it. It was better to keep as low of a profile as I could for the sake of Moon Shadow.

Having the opportunity to steal a bit of Candido’s free time for myself to answer questions was just a bonus. The tutors he’d hired while I was in high school were fantastic. Part of me wondered if Candido knew that I was only pretending not to understand.

My lips twitched. He probably didn’t even suspect it since he only saw me as a little girl. It was for the best for now, but it couldn’t last long if I was really going to be with him.

I shook my head free of that and smiled at Claire. “How was class?”

She shrugged, “Fine, I guess. Ended early, so I’m—Oh, crap!”

She shot to her feet and grabbed her things. “I totally forgot I needed to stop by the front office for Dad. Some paperwork, and I know the line is probably ridiculous!”

I laughed, “You’ll probably still be in line by the time I get out of my next class.”

She pouted. “It’s not nice to make fun of people.”

I laughed as she hurried out of the general area of the library. I closed my textbook and grabbed my things before heading deeper into the library. The member of Team Gamma-2 trailed me several feet away before settling several tables away with his head in a book as I searched the shelves.

I pulled a few books down on the Moon Goddess and the history of the packs. Then, a book that had to have been misplaced caught my eye. The History of Vampires wasn’t a book that belonged in the religious section…

Unless it did.

I pulled the book down and carried it to a table. I set the books up carefully, obscuring the Team Gamma-2 member’s view of what I was reading. I couldn’t afford to check the book out or take notes in case I was ever separated from my bag. I wasn’t taking any classes that I could use to obscure my interest in vampires. Candido would probably ask a bunch of questions if he found out.

I opened the book on the Moon Goddess first. A lot of it was information I already knew. Almost every werewolf knew something about the Moon Goddess and how she favored werewolves, which was why we originally were strongest under the full moon’s light, but we had changed over time so we weren’t controlled by the moon’s phases.

I scanned the pages, hoping to replace something that would help me understand why someone in Moon Goddess red would attack Moon Shadow. If anything, the werewolves who were super devout should have been doing everything they could to defend Moon Shadow for the sake of all werewolves.

It was possible that the attacker hadn’t been alone, but my instincts were telling me I wasn’t wrong.

Then, I read a passage that stopped me cold.

Before the Goddess made a pact with the night, she was the sun. Then, the night was filled with darkness, home to the creatures of the night.

I had heard the phrase creatures of the night refer to animals like wolves, owls, bats, and so on, but also to vampires. I frowned and opened the book on the history of vampires, but when I opened it, I couldn’t read it. The script wasn’t of any language I had ever seen. The pages were much older than the book on the Moon Goddess. I turned it over to look at the back cover. There was no bar code there.

There wasn’t one on the front cover, either.

This book didn’t belong to the library.

It had been left her by someone.

I licked my lips, narrowing my eyes at the book. Rather than returning it to where it was, I slipped the book into my backpack beneath one of the textbooks I had pulled out. It was risky, but if I could get the book home, I might be able to use my other laptop to try and decode it and figure out what was going on.

The presence of the book made me cast my gaze around and push my senses to see if I could sense anyone nearby.

When was the last time anyone had actually seen a vampire?

If we had evolved to be freed from the wax and wane of the moon, was it possible that vampires had evolved too?

More than that, where had this book come from? It had to have been brought her by someone who either worked on campus or attended the Academy.

I knew that smaller packs had been infiltrated by the vampires, but I had never imagined that a vampire, or a vampire affiliate, would be able to attend the Academy.

I looked back down at the book on the Moon Goddess and checked the time. I decided to check the book out before heading to my next class, turning over the passage in my mind. If the book held any truth, it meant that vampires pre-dated werewolves. I turned as someone in Moon Goddess red walked past.

The shade of red was so dark. Too dark to be likened to a rose, but more like b***d.

My eyes widened as I thought about it.

The cult of the Moon Goddess wore the color of b***d because werewolves hadn’t founded it.

Vampires had.