The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 48

“Do you really think now is the time to talk about marriage?” Candido asked Norton.

His voice didn’t falter, but he sounded a bit resigned. I grit my teeth. If could storm in, I would and wrap my hands around Norton’s neck. He was such a slimy jerk.

“You may not understand the motivations of a father, but one day you will,” Norton said. “I want my Sibyl safe and taken care of. I think we’d all feel better if we knew that the alpha king had a queen and a real family.”

“What you mean is that you have no intention of rising to the threat if this doesn’t happen,” someone else said.

Norton didn’t comment, but it was clear what he meant. And what the hell did he mean by a real family? I bet Candido was glaring at the man now. He would deserve it.

Then, he spoke, “There many duties that the king must fulfill. War is just one of them. The Full Moon Pack has a place of prominence among us, it wouldn’t do to leave it without a proper heir for much longer if war is truly coming.”

“A proper heir,” Candido said.

“We all know of your fondness for the Wolf Fang Pack daughter. Hedy, right?” Norton chuckled. “It is commendable that you have sheltered her all this time, but she is an heir of her pack. You cannot call her your heir… nor your potential bride.”

My heart clenched. Was this why Candido rejected me? Was this what was standing in the way of us being together? People thought he had taken me in to adopt me? Maybe that had sort of been true when I was younger, but that was the truth now. I had earned my place in the pack a hundred times over just being Hedy, not to mention becoming Pandora.

“To be honest, I’m not sure if mobilizing now has happened too late.” The leader of the New Moon pack said. “Everything is so much… worse than you can imagine.”

“What does that mean?” Candido asked. I leaned towards the gate, straining to hear and understand what he meant.

I thought of Francium and how weak he was. If things were going on in his territory, he would know about it, I was sure of it, but I couldn’t be sure that he’d told Claire anything. He had been so hesitant to talk about his relationship with his brothers, so maybe, just maybe, he didn’t know what was going on.

His father seemed to be the type to try and keep him out of everything that was happening because he didn’t feel he was a worthy enough heir.

“Perhaps this doesn’t matter to other packs, but in the New Moon territory, there have been a lot more attacks. People going missing and turning up dead, either drained of b***d or simply dead. Some of them have bodies that are complete without b***d though there are no wounds.” He sighed. “This pattern of attack is not new to me.”

“How long has this been going on?” Candido asked.

“…months.” He said, “Maybe longer.”

I swallowed thickly. How had Moon Shadow not picked up on those attacks? Maybe it would have if the person that was behind the reveal of HQ was from New Moon. Was it possible that they were manipulating information inside the organization as well. I’d have to do a full check of the database to be sure. Maybe I could narrow it down by codename and origin. That sort of information was held in the system as a complex code, but I had the cipher for it.

Candido hissed. “And you thought to just now speak about it? How much time has been wasted?”

“You may not understand an alpha’s pride—”

“What I understand is an alpha’s idiocy! If we had known this had started months ago, we could have mobilized—”

“Don’t tell me how to run my territory!” The man hissed. “Your title—”

“Is that a challenge?” Candido roared, shaking the air. No one spoke for a moment. “Do any of you wish to challenge me?”

No one said anything. I couldn’t be prouder. Candido was younger than them all, and while youth did not always mean more power, it certainly did in Candido’s case unless any of them were golden wolves.

I doubted it. Awakened bloodline wolves were so rare, and I knew most of them weren’t members of one.

“What else haven’t you reported out of your foolish pride?”

I could almost hear the man gritting his teeth. “The temple has fallen. The campus has been damaged several times over. Strange claw marks have marred the halls in an increasing number and depth until we’ve had to section of sections of campus to keep the rumors down. A group of hikers were murdered and mutilated… several week ago. Drained dry…”

As he went on, I kept taking notes. Why hadn’t he said anything earlier? I thought back to Francium’s words about his brothers and his father all being of the same mindset. But how could a man decide that his pride was so much more important than the well-being of his territory? How could he call himself an alpha and think that covering it up from the other packs was a good idea.

It sounded like he had a bit of a complex about the New Moon pack in relation to the other two big packs. Everyone knew that the New Moon Pack was a territory of lesser power. Many thought that it was only the economy of the pack that allowed it to maintain its position as the third most influential pack, but I knew better. It was one of the moon-named packs, so no matter what happened to its industry, it would always be one of the big three packs.

Well, the main four, if I included the mysterious Blue Moon pack. I thought of Candido’s mother and was still sure that she had been a member of the Blue Moon Pack.

“You will turn over everything you have to the interpack police and give them access to all these sites. With any luck, there might still be evidence around the newer sites and some sort of clue that wasn’t in the newer ones. Criminals, terrorists, etc. tend to get better over time.” Candido blew out harshly. “Tell me about the most recent incident. You mentioned that your economy has been disrupted by all these attacks.”

“… I’ve had to close a lot of the theaters and public venues. Just last weekend, a man went on a rampage. Nearly killed most of the theater. The pack police had to kill him to stop his rampage. His b***d turned to dust as he died.”

I grit my teeth. It was the same substance. I had never imagined that it was potentially a stimulant or something. That was a thought. Maybe the werewolves that had attacked the city with the vampires had been hyped up on the drug and then left to die. How long could a werewolf take it before they died? Did they have to keep taking it?

“The man had no real history. He was a no one. Nothing of interest in his bloodline. His family said he’d been behaving strangely for a while before he’d cut ties with them and vanished a few months ago. They identified the body, but they had nothing useful to add to the investigation.”

That was unlikely. Given the man’s track record with investigations, I doubted that anything he said could be taken at face value.

“Friends? Co-Workers?”

“He hadn’t been working.”

“Then, what was he doing at the theater?”

I frowned. Candido had a good point. If he hadn’t been working for a while. He would have run out of money relatively quickly in any territory. How long had he been out of work and cut off from family? How would he have even gotten into the theater without a ticket?

“I… I don’t know.”

“It would seem to me that he was planted there to cause chaos,” Candido said. “Your need to keep it quiet for your pride has allowed the vampires to infiltrate our borders more than we thought.”

Candido sighed. “There is no easy answer for this, but mobilizing now and investigating is the first step. We need to be prepared for war.”

Moon Shadow would have to be mobilized. I opened my phone and started to log into Moon Shadow when Norton spoke again.

“Yes, after my daughter is married.”

Candido said nothing for a moment. I waited on breath.

“War will commence likely soon after,” Candido said.

“Then, I would suggest you move the date up,” Norton said. “Perhaps if you had fulfilled the promise years ago…”

“Do not dictate to me what I should or should not have done, Norton,” Candido said. I heard his seat pull back from the table. “Tell Sibyl to replace her dress within the next week.”