The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 39

Allen looked uncomfortable with the line of questioning and he left soon after.

“Candido, are they…”

He took another bite of bread and lifted his own bowl of soup into his hands.

“Eat, little one. You need your strength.”

If that wasn’t a signal that he wasn’t going to talk about it, I didn’t know what was. So, I ate without complaining. I scooted closer to him and made him feed me bits of cake. Maybe I was pretending a little about being too tired, but Candido didn’t seem to mind. If anything, he seemed to love the idea of caring for me.

I smiled and basked in his attention, knowing that he was never like this with Sibyl or anyone else. This affectionate and soft side of him was just for me.

Candido hardly left my side while I was recovering. He’d cuddle me close and read to me until I fell asleep. He stayed up and helped me get through the homework I was missing and the lecture notes. His constant attention meant that I couldn’t sneak a check-in with Moon Shadow, but I found that I didn’t want him to leave me.

When I woke up fighting my bedsheets, he was there to hold me and soothe me back to sleep. He stroked my hair and cuddled me close. I could almost pretend that those moments meant more than they did.

To my surprise, he gave me milk several times, but it didn’t seem to speed up my recovery much. At least, it didn’t feel like it was helping me recover any faster. I figured it was just a precaution since they still didn’t have any clue about what I had been sprayed with. Allen looked more and more tired every time he came back without an answer.

I was out of school for a week before I felt strong enough to go back, but I was still a bit shaky. Would I be able to go to practice and change in that locker room without thinking about the attack? Would I ever be able to walk into the locker room and not panic? Would I even be able to get through class without feeling like someone was going to attack me?

As I headed downstairs, putting on a brave face, I realized that Candido was standing in the front foyer waiting for me. He turned and smiled at me.

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. I couldn’t keep hiding. What if they were just a small group of disgusting creeps at the school? What if it was a larger issue than just me? I couldn’t say that I could get to the bottom of it, but if I kept hiding, I would never know one way or another.

Candido took my hand. “I’ll be free all day, so call me if you want to leave early, and I’ll come get you.”

I nodded and let him lead me out of the house to his personal car. Team Gamma was loaded into the cars behind his car. I climbed into the passenger seat with his help and took deep, calming breaths.

I wouldn’t be caught off guard like that again. Now that I knew that kind of substance existed and that Bella really meant me harm, I wouldn’t be anywhere I would have to face her alone unless it was on my terms.

Candido drove me to school personally.

Before I had made it more than a few feet onto campus, Claire was running to me and throwing her arms around me, squeezing me close with a little sniffle.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you alone there. I should have—”

I squeezed her back. “There was no telling if they would have just… tried to hurt you too.”

I couldn’t put that past Bella. I pulled back. “I’m fine now. I didn’t want you to see me half delirious and all bruised up.”

Claire’s jaw trembled. “I’m not letting you out of my sight if I don’t have to.”

I chuckled and linked arms with her. “Sounds fine. What’s happened while I was gone?”

“Bella went missing a few days after you did.” Claire’s lips twitched. “Word has it she’s been expelled, but I don’t know what happened to her after that. Probably that academic investigation that was underway.”

Maybe, but I bet it had more to do with Candido. Bella’s cheating and misuse of power were enough to get her expelled on their own, but no one would have pushed it if it wasn’t for this incident. But had expulsion been the only thing? Was she still alive? Was she near dead? I didn’t know, but I bet someone did.

“Did you hear?” Someone whispered. “She was sent back to the Wolf Fang Pack, but no hospital will treat her.”

I stopped in the hallway, listening in to the conversation.

“She’s been banished?” Someone else asked. “I thought her pack was too small to have its own hospital…”

I frowned. What would the hospital have to do with Bella being expelled? They weren’t wrong. Wolf Fang and three other packs shared a hospital that was in a mid-level pack’s territory. They paid dues to that pack to be allowed access to their hospital. It was a pretty unfair system since the mid-level packs tended to extort smaller packs rather than just using the money to maintain or expand the hospital.

“I know. Good luck getting a doctor to treat her.”

“I heard she couldn’t even talk when she got home. You think she’ll be permanently injured?”

I winced. Any doctor that helped her was just asking for people to be suspicious about him and his motives. Treating Bella, if she had been banished, was practically disobeying the alpha king. Banishment didn’t mean she couldn’t live on werewolf lands, it just meant she couldn’t leave her pack’s territory. The Wolf Fang Pack’s territory was barely the size of a small city, and they didn’t have anything worth trading. No one in their right minds would think it was a good idea. I doubted another pack would even let a doctor of theirs come to the pack’s territory.

Candido drove me to school personally.

Before I had made it more than a few feet onto campus, Claire was running to me and throwing her arms around me, squeezing me close with a little sniffle.

With her banishment, I was sure that the pack was suffering the political backlash and cracking under the investigation I was sure Candido was launching against them. Who knew what would happen? I didn’t want anyone hurt, but they all deserved to be punished for what they’d done, especially if they had any hand in it.

“She deserved it for lying about her grades and taking money from the rugby team. I hope she’s hung out to dry.”

“Honestly, it’s those smaller packs you have to watch out for…”

“What about the embezzlement?” I asked Claire, tuning out of the conversations around us.

“That’s still being looked into, but we got a new vice president of administration,” she grinned. “Not sure who yet, but the president says they’re catching on quickly and helping with the audit process.”

I nodded. That was good. It would be best to slam Wolf Fang with all the charges at once for the sake of logistics, but I knew even without that, they wouldn’t get off easily. I could always count on Candido to do what had to be done and serve justice.

“Hedy,” Francium called, coming towards us. His eyes were full of worry as he scanned me. “I heard… most of what happened. Are you alright? How are you feeling?”

I smiled at him, charmed by his care and a little concerned that he would take my response to mean I was starting to warm up to him, but his eyes didn’t have any of that fanatical interest they’d had before. His gaze felt almost neutral beyond his concern.

“Good,” I said. “Thanks for worrying about me.”

Francium nodded. “Claire was beside herself.’

“Thank you even more for looking after Claire.”

Claire nudged me, and I grinned before something caught my eye. I leaned around Francium to look down the hallway, where there was a long line of cones and tape around an area where it looked like they had just applied plaster.

“What happened?”

“No one knows,” Francium said. “There’s been a lot of damage around the school lately. Most people just think it’s the vandalism from too many drunken parties.”

That was a good cover, but they were wrong. Even a drunk werewolf would have more control over their claws and strength than what the damage showed. It made me think of Francium after he’d taken his pills.

“I’ll show you the way to the temporary locker rooms,” Claire said. “They opened up the wall so we can still use the showers until the damage is repaired in the locker room.”

I nodded. Francium followed us and they chatted about a new play that was coming out.

“You think you’ll be ready for the competition?” Claire asked. “They pushed it back a few days due to the investigation.”

I nodded. “I’ll be just fine.”